01155nas a2200181   4500000000100000008004100001260001600042653001300058653001300071653001400084653001300098653001800111100002900129245009500158300001000253490000700263520070300270       2017                            d  cWinter 201710aAbu Bakr10aAl-Qaeda10acaliphate10aideology10aIslamic State1 aJakob Skovgaard-Petersen00aHeirs of Abu Bakr: On the Ideology and Conception of History in al-Qaeda and Islamic State  a25-360 v163 a<p>This article investigates references to early Muslim history by al-Qaeda and Islamic State, and notes a remarkable difference. While al-Qaeda has traditionally referred to the battles of the early Muslims during the time of the prophet Muhammad, the Islamic State centers its references on the successor to the prophet, the caliph Abu Bakr. Hence, Al-Qaeda, in line with Sayyed Qutb’s notion of a “Qur’anic program,” evokes a mythical past as if it is relived today. The Islamic State, in turn, takes a somewhat more pragmatic line, arguing that events today, like those of the earliest caliphs, are merely the outcomes of human decisions in a post-prophetic and post-Qur’anic age.</p>