The following is the translation of an article from the book by Hizb ut-Tahrir entitled 'Introduction to the Constitution and the necessary evidences for it' which is the explanation of its draft constitution for the Khilafah state. This draft translation is from the second edition published in 2009 which was updated from the original published in 1963.
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Article 32
If the position of
the Khilafah becomes vacant due to the death of its leader, his
resignation or his removal, it is obligatory to appoint a Khalifah
within three days from the date that the position of the Khilafah became
vacant.
Appointing the Khalifah
becomes obligatory from the moment that the previous Khalifah dies or is
removed. However, it is permitted for the appointment to occur within three
days with their nights as long as it is due to working to achieve it. If it
takes longer than three nights and the Khalifah has still not been
appointed, then the issue is considered – if the Muslims are working to
establish it but are unable to achieve that during the three night time limit
due to overwhelming circumstances that they are unable to overcome, then the
sin is lifted from them since they are busy working to establish the obligation
and are compelled to delay its establishment due to whatever forced them. It is
reported from Ibn Hibban and Ibn Maja from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah
said: “Allah has excused for my Ummah
mistakes, forgetfulness and what they are forced to do”. If they were not made busy with such
overwhelming issues, then the most time allowed for the appointment is three
days with their nights.
The evidence for the obligation
of immediately working to establish the pledge of allegiance (Bay’a) to
the Khalifah due only to the vacation of the position of the Khilafah
is the Ijma’ of the companions. They immediately hurried to gather at Saqifa
Bani Sa‘idah after the death of the Messenger
on the same day and before his
burial, and the pledge of contracting (bay‘at al-in‘iqad) was completed
on the same day with Abu Bakr (ra), and the next day the people gathered in the
mosque to give the pledge of obedience (bay‘at al-ta‘ah).
Limiting the time to
establish the appointment of the Khalifah to three days is due to that when it became apparent that Umar (ra) was going
to die from his stab wound, he delegated the issue of appointment of his
successor to the people of Shura, and limited them to three days, and
then commissioned that if the Khalifah was not agreed upon within the
three days, those who differed after the three days should be killed. He
appointed fifty men from the Muslims in order to execute this - in other words
to kill the dissenter, even though they were from the senior companions, and
all of this was seen and heard by the companions and none of them rebuked it
even though normally anything similar to it would have been reproachable, so it
is considered an Ijma’ of the companions that it is not permitted for
the position of Khalifah to be left vacant for more than three days, and
the Ijma’ of the companions is an Islamic evidence in the same manner as
the Quran and the Sunnah.
Al-Bukhari reported
through al-Miswar Bin Makhramah who said: “Abdur-Rahman called on me
after a portion of the night had passed and knocked on my door till I got up,
and he said to me, "I see you have been sleeping! By Allah, during the
last three nights I have not slept enough”. And Ibn Kathir mentioned in
the book al-Bidayah wa ’l-Nihayah “When the night whose morning would
have been the fourth day after the death of Umar, ‘Abd al-Rahman Bin ‘Auf came
to the house of his nephew al-Miswar Bin Makhramah and said “You are sleeping O
Miswar? By Allah I did not get much sleep for the last three” - in
other words the last three nights and when the people prayed the Morning Prayer
the pledge with ‘Uthman (ra) was completed.
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