The "Caliphate and Imamate in Islamic Thought" Series
By the Writer and Thinker Thaer Salama – Abu Malik
Part One: Introduction
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
O God, praise be to You, You are the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth and everyone in them, and praise be to You, to You belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and everyone in them, and praise be to You, You are the Light of the heavens and the earth and everyone in them, and praise be to You, You are the King of the heavens and the earth, and praise be to You, You are the Truth, and Your promise is the Truth, and meeting You is the Truth, and Your word is the Truth, and Paradise is the Truth, and Hell is the Truth, and the prophets are the Truth, and Muhammad ﷺ is the Truth, and the Hour is the Truth. O God, to You I have submitted, and in You I have believed, and upon You I have relied, and to You I have turned, and by You I have argued, and to You I have appealed for judgment, so forgive me what I have put forward and what I have delayed, and what I have concealed and what I have declared. You are the Expediter and You are the Delayer, there is no god but You, and after that...
Praise be to God ﷻ, who has expanded the chests of the people of Islam with guidance, and inscribed upon the hearts of the people of tyranny, so they never comprehend wisdom, and I bear witness that there is no god but God, alone, without partner, the One God, the Unique, the Absolute, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, how honored he is as a servant and master, and how great he is in origin and lineage, and how pure he is in resting place and birth, and how radiant he is in heart and source. May God bless him and his family and companions, the clouds of generosity, and the lions against enemies, a continuous blessing and peace from today until the day people are resurrected tomorrow, and after that...
Introduction
The purpose of the research title is not to conduct a comparison between obligations, but rather to highlight the position and rank of the Caliphate in religion, and to emphasize that it is an obligation from the Lord of the Worlds, established with certainty. So, consider the dependence of the majority of obligations, in existence or non-existence, on the existence or non-existence of the Caliphate!
The fundamental principle is that what is indispensable for fulfilling an obligation is itself obligatory. So, what about an obligation that no obligation from the economic, social, judicial, penal, foreign policy, or domestic system in managing the affairs of the nation and protecting it, or the obligations related to financial or military policy, or most of the obligations of Islam, can be fulfilled without it? There is no doubt that the obligation of its necessity is established, and its rank in importance is significant!
When we say that establishing the Caliphate is one of the most important, serious, and deserving obligations, we do not mean to differentiate between obligations in degree. Rather, we found the Caliphate in Islam to be like the operating system of a computer. No matter how precise the programs designed to work are, they do not work efficiently unless the computer has an operating system. We have found that most of the rulings of Islam are linked to and dependent on a state to be established on earth, as will become clear to you from the research shortly, God willing. There is no doubt that the rank of establishing the Caliphate, upon whose establishment all other obligations are fulfilled, is primary1.
However, saying that it is the most important of obligations is not a novel statement. We have quoted in this book the words of a number of the well-established scholars of the Islamic nation who described the Caliphate as the most important of obligations, as they compared it with obligations of utmost importance!
Yes, establishing the Caliphate, that is, implementing Islamic law, is the obligation that protects the other obligations! Is that not self-evident? Moreover, is it not something that has been transmitted2 and decided with certainty? Let us consider:
1- Prayer is an obligation with extended time, allowing the obligated person to perform it at the beginning or end of its time. If it is at the beginning of its time and he does not think he will die, then he may prioritize Zakat over it, for example. However, when only a little time remains before the end of the Asr prayer, then the obligation to pray it takes precedence over any obligation that conflicts with it, in order to clear the responsibility and not miss the obligation and deserve punishment. Thus, the importance is related to clearing the responsibility for performing the obligation. Clearing the responsibility may be related to the individual, like all individual obligations, so he must clear his responsibility by performing the obligation, and it may be related to the community, like collective obligations. When an individual obligation conflicts with a collective obligation, such that only one of them can be performed in that span of time, then the scholars have differed as to which one takes precedence. Some have seen that performing the collective obligation clears the responsibility of the community and removes sin from the community, so it takes precedence over clearing the responsibility of the individual. Similarly, the overlapping consequences of the absence of Islamic authority, and the accumulation of obligations that cannot be established on earth due to the absence of the Caliphate, which has led to the suspension of all those rulings, and the increasing consequences of the absence of the Caliphate on the nation, such as killing, rape, the rule of the foolish, and submission to the authority of disbelief, make the importance of establishing the Caliphate primary.
2- Refer to the chapter: The Connotative Consensus on the Obligation of the Caliphate
