"The Caliphate and Imamate in Islamic Thought" Series
By writer and thinker Thaer Salama - Abu Malek
Episode Twenty-One: The Third Section
The third section:
It showed us the method and mechanisms that guarantee the proper implementation and conduct of this application.
Systems of government are based on legislations and laws that define the form and nature of the state, its rules and pillars, the basis on which it is founded, regulate the relationships between the ruler and the ruled and between people, and clarify the ideas, concepts, and standards according to which affairs are governed, and define the concepts of power, sovereignty, obedience, and the like, and determine the constitution and laws that it applies, and detail the provisions for deviating from those provisions and from the state, and detail the method of choosing the ruler, his powers, and the organs of government and administration that make up the government and organize its work. Looking at Islam, we find that it has defined precise and detailed concepts in all of this.
Detailed verses have been revealed in military, criminal, political, social, economic, transactional, judicial and other legislation, all of which were revealed to be judged by, applied and implemented. It was actually applied in practice during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, during the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and by those who came after them from the Muslim rulers. This clearly indicates that Islam is a specific system for government and the state, for society and life, and for the nation and individuals. It also indicates that the state does not have the right to rule unless it is proceeding according to the system of Islam. And Islam does not exist unless it is alive in a state that implements its provisions. Islam is a religion and a principle, and government and the state are part of it. The state is the only legitimate way that Islam has established to apply its provisions and implement them in public life. Islam does not have a living existence unless it has a state that applies it in all circumstances. It also indicates decisively that Islam has defined in detail the form of the system of government and its details, and applied it practically in the first prophetic state in Medina and then in the Caliphate state after it, which refutes every doubt based on the fact that Islam only left the determination of those details to every age and time and to people's minds and desires.
The Lawgiver has clarified and detailed the state's apparatuses, its responsibilities, the method of appointing the Caliph (allegiance), the provisions for times when there is no one eligible for allegiance, the provisions for obedience, and rebelling against the ruler when another system other than the system of Islam (clear disbelief) is displayed, the provisions for advising rulers and enjoining good and forbidding evil, the provisions for those who rebel against the state, the provisions for the multiplicity of caliphs, the killing of the second caliph, and the provisions for dividing the ranks of Muslims by creating a second entity for them, and a tight link between the concepts of power, the community, and obedience, so breaking away from the community and from the authority is removing the bond of Islam from the necks, and a gap in Islam that cannot be repaired, and a death of ignorance.
Verses have been revealed ordering the appointment of a guardian who deserves obedience in exchange for applying Sharia to the nation, so the command to obey the guardian is an order to appoint a guardian, and the verses and hadiths have arranged obedience to the guardian's commitment to applying Sharia, so it is obedience to a specific guardian, not obedience to any ruler who rules by Taghut as today's rulers are the watchdogs of colonialism, the enemies of the nation: ﴿O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day﴾. Until He, the Most Glorified, said: ﴿Have you not seen those who claim to have believed in what was revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you? They wish to refer legislation to Taghut, while they were commanded to disbelieve in it; and Satan wishes to lead them far astray﴾. These texts show that Islamic political thought is based on the fact that sovereignty belongs to Sharia and not to the governing apparatus, and based on that, the obedience of the guardian and the Caliph of the Muslims is linked to his obedience to God's Sharia, and Muslim narrated in the Book of Emirate from Yahya bin Husayn, he said: I heard my grandmother narrating that she heard the Prophet ﷺ preaching in the Farewell Pilgrimage, and he was saying "Even if a slave is appointed over you who leads you with the Book of God, then listen to him and obey him." So he stipulated for obedience that he should lead with the Book of God Almighty.
The Messenger ﷺ established the Islamic state in Medina and explained its apparatuses and system, so he appointed governors, judges, and assistants, and established a system of Shura, and directly ruled in it, and the Companions pledged allegiance to him as president of the state, and when he moved to the highest companion, the system that he established remained as it was, and as he ﷺ called it the caliphate in a number of hadiths that we have previously mentioned some of them.
This clearly indicates that the form of the Islamic state and its system is a divine legislation, and that the rulings were revealed and the method of applying them was revealed with them, and the matter was not left to the desires of the people and what they were accustomed to!
Thus, we find from the totality of the verses and hadiths that are related to the three sections a strong and rich material that almost reaches most of the Qur’an, and a large section of the practical Sunnah, all of which are related to the state, its system, its apparatuses, its practices, its responsibilities, and the details of its rulings. These evidences, in their totality, indicate the moral frequency on the imposition of the caliphate, so it is a definitive obligation that only the ignorant are unaware of!
