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 33
A temporary leader is
appointed to take charge of the affairs of the Muslims, and to prepare for the
election of the new Khalifah after the vacation of the position of the Khilafah
according to the following process:
a.
When
the previous Khalifah feels that his life is coming to an end, or is
committed to resigning, he has the right to appoint the temporary leader.
b.
If
the Khalifah dies or resigns before appointing the temporary leader, or
the position of the Khilafah becomes vacant due to another reason, then the
eldest of the assistants becomes the temporary leader unless he intended to be
a candidate for the Khilafah in which case the next senior assistant is
to be given the position and so on.
c.
If
all of the assistants intend to be candidates, then the eldest of the executive
ministers will become the temporary leader or the one after him in seniority if
he intends to be a candidate, and so on.
d.
If
all of the executive ministers intend to be candidates for the Khilafah,
then the position of the temporary leader is given to the youngest executive
minister.
e.
The
temporary leader does not have the right to adopt rules.
f.
The
temporary leader makes all effort to complete the appointment of a new Khalifah
within three days, and it is not permitted for this to be extended except due
to overwhelming circumstances approved by the Madhalim court.
When the Khalifah feels
that his death is close, close to the time that the Khilafah would
become vacant, he may appoint a temporary leader to be responsible for the
Muslims’ affairs during the period of steps being taken to appoint the new Khalifah.
He would undertake his work after the death of the Khalifah and his main
work would be to complete the appointment of the new Khalifah within
three days.
It is not permitted
for the temporary leader to adopt rules, since this is the right of the Khalifah
who has been given a pledge by the Ummah. In the same manner, it is not permitted for
him to be nominated for the Khilafah or to support the nominees, since
Umar (ra) appointed someone other than those who were nominated for the Khilafah.
The responsibility of
this leader ends with the appointment of the new Khalifah since his task
was time-constrained to this goal.
The evidence for this
is what Umar (ra) did when he was stabbed and this was done without any
opposition from the companions and so is considered to be an Ijma’.
Umar (ra) said to the
six candidates “Suhayb will lead you in prayers during the three days
that you are consulting on the issue” and then he said to Suhaib, as
mentioned in Ta’rikh al-Tabari, “lead the people in prayer for
three days….if five of them agreed upon a man while one disagreed, then strike
his head with a sword..”. This means that Suhaib was appointed as a
leader over them – he was appointed as a leader for the prayer and leadership
of the prayer meant leadership over the people. Also, he was given the right to
apply the punishment (strike his head) and the only one who can establish
punishment by death is the leader.
This issue took place
in front of the companions without any dissenters and so it is an Ijma’
that the Khalifah can appoint a temporary leader who undertakes the
steps to appoint the new Khalifah. In the same manner based upon this it
is permitted for the Khalifah during his lifetime to adopt an article
which would state that if he died without appointing a temporary leader to
oversee the appointment of a new Khalifah, someone is to be the
temporary leader.
Based upon this, it
is adopted that if the Khalifah did not appoint a temporary leader
during his terminal illness, then the temporary leader would be the eldest of
his assistants as long as they are not a candidate, in which case it would be
the next senior in age from his assistants, and so on, and then the executive
ministers in the same manner.
This is applied in
the event of the removal of the Khalifah, so the temporary leader would
be the eldest assistant as long as he is not a candidate, and if he is a
candidate then the next one in seniority and so on until all the assistants are
considered, in which case it would then fall to the eldest executive minister
and so on. If all of them want to be candidates then the youngest of the
executive ministers is compelled to become the temporary leader.
This leader is
different from the one the Khalifah appoints in his place when he goes
out for jihad or a journey, as the Prophet
used to do when he went out for jihad
or the final hajj, or similar. In this situation the one who is
delegated in his stead has the powers that the Khalifah defines for him
to take care of the affairs necessitated by the delegation.
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