Is the caliphate an institution envisaged by Islam?

- Should a caliph be elected in the Islamic State now?

Dear Brother / Sister,

“Allah has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance (of power), as He granted it to those before them; that He will establish in authority their religion - the one which He has chosen for them; and that He will change (their state), after the fear in which they (lived), to one of security and peace: 'They will worship Me (alone) and not associate aught with Me. 'If any do reject Faith after this, they are rebellious and wicked.” (an-Nur, 24/55)

As it is seen in the verse above, the concept of caliphate is a Quranic term.

- Our Prophet (pbuh) stated the following in a hadith: “After me, the caliphate - or the caliphate of prophethood - will last thirty years.” (see Abu Dawud, Sunnah, 8; Tirmidhi, Fitan, 48; Ahmad b. Hanbal, 4/272; 5/220, 221). The concept of caliphate / caliph is used in many hadiths like the one above.

Therefore, Muslim adopted this concept after the Prophet (pbuh).

- In addition to the concept of caliphate, the concept of “ulul-amr” is used in the Quran (an-Nisa, 4/59) and “amir” is used in the hadiths; this concept was also used by Muslims. It is known that the title “Amirul-muminin” was also used for the rightly-guided caliphs.

- However, the concept of the caliphate as an institutional mechanism is a phenomenon that undertakes both worldly and religious services. In the last years of the Ottoman state in particular, since there were developments that made these two institutions different in a way, the caliphate began to be an institution that dealt with religious services. After the abolition of the individual caliphate, this task was transferred to the Assembly. Afterwards, the secular structure began to come to the fore.

- In the light of this information, we can say that it seems very difficult to have an individual caliphate in a certain country in our age since the “caliphate” represents the whole ummah because in that case, it will be just a meaningless, unauthorized, powerless name and image. Since committees are already at the forefront in this century, it is important for Muslims to institutionalize. Perhaps, a caliph - respected by the entire ummah - may reside in “holy places” symbolically.

- In Islam, it is more important to reflect the essence of something rather than the name and the image.

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