Imamat al-kubra (the great imamate, the caliphate)

Imama in the lexical sense means going before a people. The great imamate is the general leadership in religion and state, as successor of the Prophet. It is called great to distinguish it from the lesser imamate, which is leading prayer. ¹⁶¹ The word imam covers anyone followed by a people, and it came to mean anyone who is the model in a branch of learning; alone and unqualified it refers to the great imamate. ¹ In the sense of the Law, caliphate is the same as imamate. Ibn Khaldun defined it as the bringing of the community to what the Law requires for their hereafter and their worldly affairs, a deputyship of the Lawgiver in guarding religion and the world. ¹²

The community agrees that appointing an imam is obligatory, and that the community must obey a just imam who enforces God's rulings. ² The obligation is a communal one: once someone qualified takes it up the rest are relieved; if none does, the people who choose the imam and the qualified are at fault. ³

One may call the imam imam, caliph or commander of the faithful. Calling him caliph of God is disallowed by most, since Abu Bakr said that he was caliph of the Messenger of God, not of God. ³ The community need not know the imam's name and person; it must know that the caliphate has passed to one who qualifies, and this knowledge is required of those who choose. ³⁴

• Agreed: Islam, sanity and adulthood, maleness, freedom, capacity (courage, boldness and firmness in war and law) and sound senses and limbs. ⁴
• Disputed: justice and ijtihad, which the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold as conditions of validity and the Hanafis as conditions of preference; sound hearing, sight and limbs, which most jurists hold as conditions of forming the office; and Qurayshi descent, which most jurists require. ⁴⁵

The imamate lasts while its conditions last. The Hanafis hold that sinful conduct does not remove the imam and that revolt is not required; the Malikis forbid revolt against an unjust imam. ⁵⁶ The office may end by loss of reason, by blindness, by loss of limbs, by capture, or by a loss of speech, following al-Mawardi's distinctions. ^12131415

• Allegiance (bay'a) from those who loosen and bind: most jurists hold that it needs most of them; the Shafi'is accept a few. ⁶⁷
• Designation (ahd): Abu Bakr designated Umar, and Umar left the choice to a council of six. A designation to a son or father may be made by a single imam according to some jurists, and is forbidden according to others. ⁷⁸
• Seizure by force: most jurists hold a usurper valid for the sake of order and to save lives and property; others hold that the office needs choice and consent. ⁹¹⁰

• If the electors choose the best and later a better man appears, the first allegiance stands; most jurists allow appointing a less excellent man while a better one exists. ¹⁰¹¹
• Most jurists hold that two imams may not be in office at one time, following the hadith to kill the second of two who receive allegiance. The Malikis allow more than one where lands are far apart. ¹¹¹²
• Obedience to a just imam is obligatory and rebellion is forbidden, following the hadith about the one who gives his hand and his heart in allegiance. ¹²

Officers appointed in general posts, such as judges, provincial governors, endowment managers and treasurers, are not removed by the imam's death. Viziers are, since they are the imam's deputies. ¹²¹³

He guards the religion on its settled bases and serves the public interest: enforcing rulings, enforcing penalties, guarding the frontiers, equipping the armies, collecting alms, accepting testimony, marrying those without guardians, and dividing spoils. ¹⁵ He appoints the officers: viziers, governors, judges, leaders of the pilgrimage, army commanders and prayer leaders. ¹⁵ He answers for what he destroys by his own hand without error in judgement, and is subject to retaliation for deliberate killing. ¹⁵¹⁷

Gifts from the treasury are either pay for work, a general allowance or a grant. Ahmad disliked a ruler's grant out of scruple. ¹⁷ Accepting gifts is disliked for a ruler; the Prophet accepted them as the prophet, and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz held that for rulers they are a bribe. ¹⁷¹⁸ A gift from unbelievers whose forts are about to fall to the Muslims may not be accepted. ¹⁸