What is your opinion of those who say that the texts regarding obedience and loyalty apply to the general commander who leads all the Muslims?
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The questioner : May Allah preserve you, O honorable Shaykh. The question is: What is your opinion of those who say that the hadiths regarding obedience to the rulers apply to the general commander who leads all the Muslims?
The Shaykh : Our view is that this is not correct. Every ruler must be obeyed, even a man in his own household; his family must obey him as long as he does not order them to disobey Allah. Even if three men travel together and appoint one of them as their leader, they must obey him, due to the generality of the evidence indicating the obligation of obeying the prince.
Furthermore, the era of a single caliph over the entire Ummah ended long ago. Since the era of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs ended, the Ummah was fragmented: the Umayyads were in Sham and its surroundings, 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr was in the Hijaz and its surroundings, others were in the East and its surroundings, and others were in Yemen. The Ummah was fragmented, and yet all the scholars who speak about the obligation of obedience and loyalty speak about the obligation of obedience and loyalty in their own times, despite the fragmentation of the Ummah, where each region or similar area had a prince specific to it. This defective and invalid opinion implies that there is currently no imam for the Ummah, and that the Ummah is currently living in a state of pre-Islamic ignorance, with no imam and no follower, no ruler and no one ruled. Then we say to these people: If you are truthful, then provide us with a general imam for the entire Ummah. They cannot do so, unless the Mahdi comes, in which case his matter is up to Allah (Mighty and Majestic).
The Shaykh : Our view is that this is not correct. Every ruler must be obeyed, even a man in his own household; his family must obey him as long as he does not order them to disobey Allah. Even if three men travel together and appoint one of them as their leader, they must obey him, due to the generality of the evidence indicating the obligation of obeying the prince.
Furthermore, the era of a single caliph over the entire Ummah ended long ago. Since the era of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs ended, the Ummah was fragmented: the Umayyads were in Sham and its surroundings, 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr was in the Hijaz and its surroundings, others were in the East and its surroundings, and others were in Yemen. The Ummah was fragmented, and yet all the scholars who speak about the obligation of obedience and loyalty speak about the obligation of obedience and loyalty in their own times, despite the fragmentation of the Ummah, where each region or similar area had a prince specific to it. This defective and invalid opinion implies that there is currently no imam for the Ummah, and that the Ummah is currently living in a state of pre-Islamic ignorance, with no imam and no follower, no ruler and no one ruled. Then we say to these people: If you are truthful, then provide us with a general imam for the entire Ummah. They cannot do so, unless the Mahdi comes, in which case his matter is up to Allah (Mighty and Majestic).