Text copied Link copied

Al-Fatawa – home

﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

Scholar
Search mode

The ruling on pledging allegiance to the ruler in the absence of a Caliph

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Your Eminence! There are those who try to cast doubt on the pledge of allegiance to our rulers by claiming, among other things: - That the pledge of allegiance is only for the Supreme Imam.
-Or by saying: I have not pledged allegiance.
-Or by saying: That the pledge of allegiance is only for the King, not for his brothers.
What is your opinion?
There is no doubt that this is of the same kind as what we referred to in the first question we were asked, and that this is wrong. If its proponent dies, he will die the death of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance; because he will die without having pledged allegiance to anyone.

The general principles in the Islamic Shari'ah are that Allah says:
So fear Allah as much as you are ableفَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ
[Surat al-Taghabun: 16] So if there is no Caliph for the Muslims in general, then whoever is the ruler in a region is the ruler of that region. Otherwise, if we were to follow this misguided opinion, people would now have no Caliph, and all people would die the death of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Who says this? The Muslim community has been divided since the time of the Companions. You know that 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr was in Makkah, and the Umayyads were in Sham, and there were people in Yemen, and people in Egypt, yet the Muslims continued to believe that the pledge of allegiance belongs to the one who has authority in the place where they are, and they pledge allegiance to him and call him the Commander of the Faithful, and no one denies that.
So this is a severing of the bond of the Muslims, on the one hand because of his failure to adhere to the pledge of allegiance, and on the other hand because he contradicted the scholarly consensus of the Muslims from an early period.And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: (Listen and obey, even if a black slave from Habashah is appointed over you), this is one point.

Second: He says: He has not pledged allegiance.
And this is, in fact, the call of an ignorant person, one of the most ignorant of Allah's servants. When the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr, did every old woman, every old man, and every young person come and pledge allegiance, or did the people of authority and decision pledge allegiance to him? If the people of authority and decision pledge allegiance to an Amir for the land, then the pledge of allegiance is complete, and he becomes an Amir whose obedience is obligatory.

And the third: They say they did not pledge allegiance to the King. What makes them think they did not pledge allegiance to the King? The people pledged allegiance to the King. I attended the pledge of allegiance to Khalid (may Allah have mercy on him), and to King Fahd, and we pledged allegiance. It is true that not every small child and adult came to pledge allegiance to him; rather, only the people of authority and decision pledged allegiance.
Then, if a person is pledged allegiance to as the ruler of a country, and then a Crown Prince is appointed for him, he is the Crown Prince after him. When the first one's term ends, this second one becomes the ruler without a new pledge of allegiance. Nothing but this will set the people right.If we said: If the Crown Prince does not have a status as Crown Prince until he is pledged allegiance to anew, there will be chaos. But opinions like these are cast by Satan into the hearts of some people in order to divide the community of Muslims, and to cause the sowing of discord that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) explained when he said: (Indeed, Satan has despaired of being worshipped in the Arabian Peninsula, but he will do so by sowing discord among you).
So convey to this brother my advice to him: that he should fear Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and that he should believe that he is currently under the authority of an Amir who has jurisdiction over him, so that he does not die thereafter the death of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance.
Source shamela.ws

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

Similar fatwas