The Series "Caliphate and Imamate in Islamic Thought"
By the Writer and Thinker Thaer Salama – Abu Malik
Thirteenth Episode: Installing the Caliph is one of the Greatest Obligations of Religion, as Religion Cannot Exist Without It
Thus, we have learned that the Lawgiver has assigned the application of some Sharia rulings to individuals, some to parties, and most to the state. What is related to individuals in their individual capacity, such as acts of worship, the individual is addressed to perform it, such as prayer and paying Zakat. However, at the same time, the Lawgiver addressed the state to regulate the rulings related to society and the community, in addition to rulings related to these individual rulings, to ensure that these rulings are performed in the manner required by Sharia. For example: prayer, the individual performs prayer, but the state punishes those who abandon prayer. God Almighty said: ﴿Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory. [They are] those who have been evicted from their homes without right - only because they say, "Our Lord is Allah." And were it not that Allah checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned. And Allah will surely support those who support Him. Indeed, Allah is powerful and Exalted in Might. [They are] those who, if We give them authority in the land, establish prayer and give zakah and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. And to Allah belongs the outcome of [all] matters.﴾ [Al-Hajj: 39-41]. It is known that prayer was obligatory for them before empowerment, and they were praying, and the verses speak about the immigrants. Al-Razi said in his interpretation, Mafatih al-Ghaib: "What is meant by this empowerment is authority and the enforcement of speech over creation because what is understood from his saying: ﴿We empower them in the land﴾ is only this, and because if we carry it on the origin of ability, then all the servants would be like that, and then the arrangement of the four matters mentioned on it in the context of reward would be invalidated, because not everyone who is capable of doing the act has come up with these things. If this is proven, then we say: What is meant by that is the immigrants because his saying: ﴿Those who, if We empower them﴾ is an adjective for what preceded, which is his saying: ﴿Those who were evicted from their homes﴾ and the supporters were not evicted from their homes, so the meaning of the verse becomes that God Almighty described the immigrants that if He empowered them in the land and gave them authority, then they came up with the four things, which are establishing prayer, giving zakat, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong," end quote.
And there is no meaning to their establishing prayer being dependent on empowerment except that the meaning is: the right to establish it. Prayer without empowerment is performed partially. For example, if society lives an Islamic life, it will block many pretexts that spoil our good performance of prayer today, from thinking about livelihood, and from media that dominates our minds and souls and spoils our peace of mind in prayer, and from sanctities that appear in the streets and spoil reverence and contemplation, and so on. The connection is strong between the good performance of prayer and empowerment. On the other hand, individuals can build mosques, appoint preachers, and hold Eid and Friday prayers, but the correct establishment of all of this is from the work and responsibilities of the state. It is stated in the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia under the section on the duties of those in authority: 10) Appointing judges and leaders of Hajj, and heads of the army, and their authority is specific to public works,... as well as appointing imams for the five daily prayers and Friday prayers, and each of these has conditions under which his authority is established1. He said: "Private emirate is one of the public interests of Muslims and is entrusted to the view of the Imam (i.e., the Caliph)... the emirate of self-sufficiency: which is that the Imam (i.e., the Caliph) delegates by his choice to a person the emirate of a country or region or state... and the emir's view in this emirate includes matters: 6) leading the prayer in congregations and groups, 7) facilitating the pilgrims (emirate of Hajj)2. These are examples of the dependence of some matters of prayer on the state and its existence, even though prayer is an obligation assigned to individuals!
For example, Zakat is taken from the rich and returned to Zakat recipients. The individual can perform it himself for his poor neighbor, for example, but the Lawgiver has made the more deserving mechanism for its performance to be given to the Sultan, and he disposes of it in its sources. The effects and evidence for this are many3, but we have given it as an example of the fact that organizing the affairs of an act of worship required a state.
Accordingly, our master Abu Bakr fought those who refused to pay Zakat. When the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, died, and Abu Bakr was appointed as his successor, some of the Arabs disbelieved. Omar said to Abu Bakr: (How can you fight people when the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: «I have been commanded to fight people until they say: There is no god but God, and whoever says: There is no god but God, he has protected his wealth and himself from me, except by his right, and their reckoning is with God»? He said: By God, I will fight those who distinguish between prayer and Zakat, for Zakat is the right of wealth. By God, if they withheld from me a halter that they used to pay to the Messenger of God, I would fight them for withholding it. Omar said: By God, I only saw that God had expanded Abu Bakr's heart for fighting, and I knew that it was the truth). God Almighty said: ﴿Take, [O, Muhammad], from their wealth a charity by which you purify them and cause them increase﴾ [Al-Tawbah: 103], which is an address to the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, as the head of state. Therefore, Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with him, fought those who withheld a halter from the head of state!
The scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, may God have mercy on him, said4: "It must be known that the authority over people's affairs is one of the greatest obligations of religion, and indeed, religion and the world cannot exist without it, for the interests of the children of Adam cannot be fulfilled except by coming together because of their need for one another, and they must have a leader when they come together, to the extent that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: «If three people go out on a journey, let them appoint one of them as their leader,» narrated by Abu Dawood from the hadith of Abu Saeed and Abu Hurairah. Imam Ahmad narrated in the Musnad from Abdullah bin Omar that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: «It is not permissible for three people to be in a wilderness on earth without appointing one of them as their leader.» The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, made it obligatory to appoint a leader in the small and temporary gathering on the journey, as a warning of that to all other types of gatherings, and because God Almighty made it obligatory to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, and that cannot be done except with strength and authority, as well as all that He made obligatory, such as jihad, justice, performing Hajj, the Friday prayer, the Eid prayers, supporting the oppressed, and establishing the limits, cannot be done except with strength and authority. Therefore, it was narrated: "The Sultan is the shadow of God on earth"... Therefore, the predecessors - such as al-Fudayl bin Iyad and Ahmad bin Hanbal and others - used to say, "If we had a answered prayer, we would pray with it for the Sultan," end quote.
Regarding the rulings assigned to the state, we find that some of them can be performed by individuals, such as giving Zakat directly to the poor, and some of them cannot be performed by individuals except through a state, such as the limits. No one has the right to punish by establishing the limit except the Sultan, the judge, the governor, or those whom they have appointed to implement that. With a detailed look at the rulings of Sharia, we find that the following rulings are assigned to the state:
1- Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia, Volume Six, p. 192
2- Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia, Volume Six, p. 197
3- Abu Bakr told us that Bishr bin al-Mufaddal told us from Suhail from his father who said: I asked Saeed, Ibn Omar, Abu Hurairah, and Abu Saeed, and I said: I have money and I want to give its Zakat and I cannot find a place for it, and these people are doing in it what you see. He said: They all ordered me to pay it to them. Muadh bin Muadh told us from Ibn Aoun from Nafi who said: Ibn Omar said: Pay the Zakat of your money to whoever God has given authority over you, so whoever is righteous is for himself and whoever sins is upon himself. Abu Osama told us from Hisham from Muhammad who said: The charity was paid to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and whoever he ordered, and to Abu Bakr and whoever he ordered, and to Omar and whoever he ordered, and to Othman and whoever he ordered. When Othman was killed, they differed, so some of them thought that they should pay it to them and some of them thought that they should divide it themselves. Muhammad said: Let whoever chooses to divide it himself fear God and not find fault with them for something that comes like what they find fault with them. Based on this right of the Sultan, Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with him, fought those who refused to pay Zakat.
4- Majmoo' al-Fatawa: 28 p. 390
