Is the caliphate Islamic, as it is often assumed? Neither the Holy Qur’an nor Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) has endorsed the political caliphate. The concept of the political caliphate started after the death of the prophet, with Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA) as the first caliph.
In the West, there is a misconception that a person needs to fulfill certain conditions for being a caliph, one of which is proof of descent from the Prophet’s tribe, the Quraysh. In the past, a caliph didn’t need to be a descent from the Prophet’s tribe. None of the 37 Ottoman caliphs were descents from the Quraysh. They were not even Arab, but Turks, and they belonged to the Turk Ottoman tribe.
Nowhere in the Holy Qur’an is it mentioned how a ruler of a country is to be elected – whether he will be directly elected by the people or by the oligarchy, or whether he will ascend to the power by dint of heredity, or it is the prerogative of the ruler in power to say who will be the ruler after his death.
It is not said whether a country will be democratic or absolute monarchy or constitutional monarchy. It is not said how the law of a country will be enacted, or who will enact that. The answers to all these questions have been left to the prudence of the people.
The Prophet himself did not mention once who would be the ruler/leader of the Muslims after his death. He left the decision to the prudence and will of his followers.
Those who are in favour of the political caliphate use some ayahs (verses) from the Holy Qur’an to argue for its Qur’anic basis, such as the Surah An-Nisaa, ayah 59, which reads: “O ye who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Apostle and those charged with authority among you. If ye differ in anything among yourselves refer it to Allah and His Apostle, if ye do believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is best and most suitable for final determination” (Yusuf Ali). They also refer to Surah Al-Nur, ayah (verse) 55, Surah Al- Mā’idah, ayah 49. These verses do not categorically refer to a political leader, but to a religious leader.
The supporters of political caliphate also cite from the Prophet’s sayings (hadiths). Muslims reported on the authority of Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin, who said: “I accompanied Abu Hurairah for five years and heard him talking of Muhammad (PBUH)’s saying: The prophets ruled over the children of Israel, whenever a prophet died another Prophet succeeded him, but there will be no prophet after me. There will be Khalifahs and they will number many …”
Only two prophets, Hazrat Daud and Hazrat Suleiman, ruled over a country (Judah/Israel) as kings. The rests of the prophets were religious leaders. Some of the prophets were even belittled by the Israelites. So obviously, in this saying the Prophet (pbuh) did not refer to political caliphs or rulers, but only to religious caliphs.
So, we can see that it is up to the people how they will choose their political leaders. After the death of the Prophet (pbuh), the Muslims (at that time they were a small community) gave bay’ah (oath of allegiance) to Abu Bakr (RA) to elect him as their caliph. Nowadays, due to the huge population of a country, it is not possible to elect a ruler by giving bay’ah to him. So the best alternative to bay’ah is to cast votes in the general elections. People may call their elected rulers caliph/Amir/president/prime minister or whatever they like.
Only the first four caliphs – Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA), Hazrat Umar (RA), Hazrat Utman (RA), and Hazrat Ali (RA) – were elected by the people through the bay’ah system. They were the religious leaders as well as the political rulers. Hazrat Ali (RA), in a letter written by him, mentioned himself as an Amir (ruler), not as a caliph.
He wrote: “I did not approach the people to get their oath of allegiance, but they came to me with their desire to make me their Amir …” (Nahj ul Balagha, Letter 54). Except the first four caliphs, the Umayyad, Abbasside, Ottoman, and Fatimid rulers were not the elected caliphs by any means. They were, in fact, kings and emperors in disguise of a caliph, and were not religious leaders/caliphs.
The first four caliphs did not inherit the caliphate from their fathers. The rest of the caliphs inherited the throne of caliphate from their deceased fathers who were caliphs. The prophet of Islam did not have a son when he died, but a daughter and two grandsons from his daughter. After his death, neither of his grandsons became the caliph, but one of his companions, Abu Bakr (RA), was elected the caliph by the people.