Question:
Asalamulaikum,
I wanted to know what is the correct belief of appointing a khalifah?
Is there a hierarchy system meaning that not any one can be appointed, only those of the bloodline of the Prophet (saw)? Are royal families acceptable in Islam (since all I see is that this causes a big gap between the wealthy and poor). In Islam, are we all classed equal as brothers and sister and not divided by tribes, caste systems and certain family lineages? Since Abu Bakr (ra) was elected by people and Umar (ra) was appointed by Abu bakr (ra), does that been both ways of becoming khalifah were the best ways? I don’t understand why we had khalifahs in the past only because there fathers were khalifahs (sultanate) such as in the Ottoman Empire?
Could you please clarify.
Jazakallah khair
Answer:
Alaykum Salam,
The khilafa rashida (first four plus al-Hasan, ‘Umar b. Abd al-Aziz
and Mu’awiya b. Yazid) were truly well-guided caliphates after the
Prophetic model, and a few rare other ones. As for the rest they were
only relatively good because they were degraded models but better than
what came later, and the latter was still better than nothing.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
