Khutba on Importance of Amirate

الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي حفِظ دينَه بالخلفاء والأمراء والسلاطين، وجعل مبايعتَهم وطاعتَهم الطريق إلى وحدة الأمة والنصر المبين، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير،  ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدٌى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع
الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر. قال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم، إِنَّ الْمُؤْمِنَ لِلْمُؤْمِنِ كَالْبُنْيَانِ يَشُدُّ بَعْضُهُ بَعْضاً

            The Prophet said, “Believers are, to one another, like bricks in a well-built wall, each one strengthening the other.” This matter never has been about people acting individually, in isolation from one another, people going it alone. All human endeavour is best done in company, whether that be in the preparatory stage or the implementational one – that is a necessity of the human condition. It is in the group that the strength lies and it is with the group that success is to be found. The Prophet said,
يَدُ اللَّهِ مع الْجَمَاعَةِ

            “The hand of Allah is with the group.” Not even the Prophets, the greatest and most capable of all human beings, tried to go it alone. But, on the contrary, they gathered around themselves those most fitting for the task of spreading and establishing the deen of Allah. Sayyiduna Musa had his brother, Sayyiduna Haaroon, Sayyiduna Isa had his hawaariyyun, and our own Prophet had his Companions. And, indeed, every aspect of the deen he brought requires company: the shahadatayn – the witnessing requires the presence of witnesses; the salat/ the prayer requires mosque and congregation in order to be established; zakat requires the acquisition of wealth which is based on mu’aamalat/transactions between people, and the presence of collectors; Ramadan has always been a time of gathering to break the fast; and hajj is the greatest gathering of humanity into one place the world has ever known. And that is just the ibaadaat. The mu’aamalaat are by their definition, transactions and interactions between people. So, for the deen of Allah to be established, we must be a community, not isolated individuals. That is the example of the al-Madina al-Munawwara. we must worship together, work together, eat together, travel together. The Prophet said,

عَلَيْكُمْ بِالْجَمَاعَةِ وَإِيَّاكُمْ وَالْفُرْقَةَ، فَإِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ مَعَ الْوَاحِدِ، وَهُوَ مِنَ الاثْنَيْنِ أَبْعَدُ، وَمَنْ أَرَادَ بُحْبُحَةَ الْجَنَّةِ فَعَلَيْهِ بِالْجَمَاعَةِ

            “You must remain in company and beware of going apart, for Shaytan is with the one and is further from the two. Whoever desires the comfort of the Garden should hold to the jama’a.” And he went still further and said,

‏الراكب ‏‏شيطان والراكبان شيطانان والثلاثة ‏ركب

            “One rider is Shaytan, two riders are Shaytans, but three make a company.” In other words, by travelling alone or with only one companion, you travel with Shaytan. And by keeping company with Shaytan, you become like him.
            So, company is essential for the well-being of the human race. But company can only really work if it is ordered and structured, if there is a head to guide the body. For all human beings have their own individual whims and desires, and if free reign is given to all of them, then chaos and anarchy inevitably ensues, for those whims will inevitably clash. Every successful human grouping, no matter how large or how small, has always had a leader. Ibn Khaldun said,

الاجتماع للبشر ضروري وهو معنى العمران الذي نتكلم فيه ولا بد لهم في الاجتماع من وازع حاكم يرجعون إليه

            “Grouping together is a necessary part of human existence, for it is precisely that to which the term civilisation that we have been talking about refers. And every group must have someone who exercises a restraining influence and rules them and to whom recourse may be had.”
            The Companions recognised this necessity, they recognised the importance of not letting even one moment go by without that leadership being in place. The very first thing the Muslims did after the death of the Messenger of Allah, even before burying him, was to appoint someone to lead the community in his stead, that someone being Abu Bakr.
            For they understood that there could be no deen in any real sense without leadership. Umar ibn al-Khattab said, as is transmitted by Ibn Abd al-Barr,

لا إسلام بلا جماعة، ولا جماعة بلا أمير، ولا أمير بلا طاعة

            “There can be no Islam without jama’a, no jama’a without an amir, and no amir without obedience to him.” And Ibn Taymiyya said,

يجب أن يعرف أن ولاية أمر الناس من أعظم واجبات الدين، بل لا قيام للدين إلا بها. فإن بني آدم لا تتم مصلحتهم إلا بالاجتماع لحاجة بعضهم إلى بعض، ولا بد لهم عند الاجتماع من رأس

            “It must be understood that leadership of the people is one of the greatest obligations of the deen – indeed the deen could not stand without it, for the best interests of the human race can only be served by them coming together to fulfil each other’s needs, and every gathering must have a head.” And that is clear when you look at the deen and see all those matters that can only be implemented by a leader: the taking and distribution of zakat, the beginning and end of Ramadan and so on. Ibn Taymiyya says,

ولأن الله تعالى أوجب الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر ولا يتم ذلك إلا بقوة وامارة، وكذلك سائر ما أوجبه من الجهاد والعدل وإقامة الحج…واقامة الحدود لا تتم إلا بالقوة والامارة

            “Because Allah making commanding the right and forbidding the wrong obligatory, and that is not possible without strength and authority. And the same is true for other things He made obligatory, such as jihad, justice, the establishment of the hajj and the carrying out of the hudud punishments – none of that is possible without strength and authority.”
            So the need of a leader, an amir, is clear, but how do we get one, how is he appointed and on what basis? The modern solution is democracy, a solution advocated by many of the modernist scholars, such as Muhammad Abdu, Rashid Rida and their ilk, claiming democracy to simply be an extension of the principle of shura instigated by Sayyiduna Umar when he placed his succession in the hands of a group of six of the major Companions. But that was not the true reason they advocated it, the true reason they advocated it was that they saw the enemies of Islam who had defeated them using that system, and assumed that it was the system that gave them the advantage. They and many of the scholars who have followed them have fallen for the propaganda and lies.
            For even in its purest form, democracy – the rule of a country by its people – is based upon the doctrine that human opinion is the ultimate criterion upon which to base a society, not divine justice. The will of the people and choice of the people in such a society supersedes that of Allah. It inevitably leads to secularism and the separation of religion and state, and to injustice and inequality at a previously unforeseen and unimagined level, as is clear when we look around the world and see the intense poverty many live in while more and more wealth gets siphoned off into the pockets of fewer and fewer people. For the reality is that justice is an attribute of our Lord and the only way it can be accessed by us is through obeying Him in all aspects of our lives.
            In a democracy, we would have to accept the will of the majority, regardless of their deen. If the people voted for a non-Muslim ruler, we would have to accept him and obey him. And indeed some of the misguided modernists have even advocated that. It would mean accepting Muslims as being equal to mushriks, belief in Allah being the same as unbelief, and no Muslim can do that without joining the ranks of the unbelievers, for Allah says,

أَفَمَنْ كَانَ مُؤْمِنًا كَمَنْ كَانَ فَاسِقًا لَا يَسْتَوُونَ

            the translation of which is, “Is someone who is a believer like someone who is a deviator? They are not the same!” And to view them as the same is to accept shirk as a viable lifestyle choice. And we as Muslims cannot do that as we are commanded to combat shirk, until Allah alone is worshipped upon the earth, and until the deen of Allah is uppermost in the land. Allah says,

هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ

            the translation of which is, “It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the Deen of Truth to exalt it over every other deen, even though the mushrikun detest it.” We reject totally the notion that a kafir has as much right over how the nation is run as a Muslim, and if the early Muslims were to have accepted that then the deen would never have taken hold in the land since, for the first few generations, they were in a minority, with the number of non-Muslim subjects in the Caliphate far outweighing the number of Muslim ones. The majority is never, and can never, be right. Allah says,

وَإِنْ تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ إِنْ يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَخْرُصُونَ

            the translation of which is, “If you obeyed most of those on earth, they would misguide you from Allah’s Way. They follow nothing but conjecture. They are only guessing.” Government is not there to bring about the will of the people but rather to implement the Commands of Allah. He knows what is best for us for He is the Aleem, the Khabeer. As for us, if we rely on ourselves and not Him, we are relying on the dhalum, the jahul, the one who knows nothing except how to make things wrong. We ask Allah to protect us from ourselves and guide us to the way that guarantees our success and brings justice and equity back to our societies.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم
الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته. قال الله تعالى في كتلبه الكريم: لَّقَدْ رَضِيَ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ فَعَلِمَ مَا فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ فَأنزَلَ ٱلسَّكِينَةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَثَابَهُمْ فَتْحاً قَرِيباً

            Allah says in His Noble Quran, the translation of which is, “Allah was pleased with the muminun when they pledged allegiance to you under the Tree. He knew what was in their hearts, and sent down the Sakeena to them and has rewarded them with an imminent victory,”
            If democracy is not the way to appoint a leader, then how do we do so? By following the sunna of the Messenger of Allah and his Companions, by looking at the history of his khulafa ar-rashidun, ‘rightly-guided khalifs’, and seeing how they came to power: by agreement of the people of knowledge and influence in a community, by being named and appointed by the previous incumbent or simply by ‘asabiyya and force of arms. But as soon as he has been appointed, it is incumbent on the Muslim umma to obey him and make bay’a to him. Allah says,
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ وَأُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْكُمْ

            the translation of which is, “O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in command among you.” And Abu Hurayra narrated that the Messenger said,

من أطاعني فقد أطاع اللَّه، ومن عصاني فقد عصى اللَّه، ومن يطع الأمير فقد أطاعني، ومن يعص الأمير فقد عصاني

            “Whoever obeys me has obeyed Allah and whoever disobeys me has disobeyed Allah. Whoever obeys the amir has obeyed me and whoever disobeys the amir has disobeyed me.” You must obey the amir even when he himself is corrupt, so long as he is not commanding you to disobey Allah. Ibn ‘Umar narrated that the Prophet said,

عَلَى الْمَرْءِ الْمُسْلِمِ السَّمْعُ وَالطَّاعَةُ فِيمَا أَحَبَّ وَكَرِهَ إِلَّا أَنْ يُؤْمَرَ بِمَعْصِيَةٍ فَإِنْ أُمِرَ بِمَعْصِيَةٍ فَلَا سَمْعَ وَلَا طَاعَةَ

            “It is obligatory upon a Muslim that he should listen (to the ruler appointed over him) and obey him in the matters that he likes and in the matters he does not like, except when he is ordered to disobey Allah. If he is ordered to disobey Allah, then he should neither listen nor obey.” And Ibn ‘Abbas narrated that he said,

من كره من أميره شيئاً فليصبر، فإنه من خرج من السلطان شبراً مات مِيتة جاهلية

            “If you see anything in your amir which you dislike, then endure it with patience. For whoever splits away from the Sultan by even so much as an inch will die a death of Jahiliyyah.” Once the amir is appointed, no matter how he came to power, it is our duty as Muslims to give him our obedience – by doing that, we fulfil our side of the bargain. If he falls short in meeting his responsibilities, then that is between him and Allah. As the Prophet said when Wa’il ibn Hijr asked him what they should do if their leaders became unjust tyrants,
إنما عليهم ما حملوا وعليكم ما حملتم

            “They are only responsible for what they are charged with and you are only responsible for what you are charged with.”
            This obedience is solemnised by the act of bay’a. This act of bay’a is a pledge of allegiance to the amir, a promise to obey him and not challenge or oppose him, and is a fard kifaya. In other words, it must be undertaken by some of the umma – namely the men of importance and influence within the community –  and by that the obligation of the rest of the umma is met. The sunna of the bay’a was first established at ‘Aqaba when a number of the people of Madina came to the Prophet and pledged to serve and obey him and continued after his lifetime with the Muslims giving bay’a to Abu Bakr in the mosque of Madina while the body of the Prophet was still above ground. Such is the importance of this contract between the Muslims and their leaders, for it affirms their commitment to him and his to them. The Prophet said,
من مات وليس في عنقه بيعة مات ميتةً جاهلية

            “He who dies without having a pact of bay’a around his neck, dies a death of the Jahiliyyah.” So significant is this pledge, that if someone takes it and then breaks it, rebelling against his ruler, he is subject to the harshest punishment in the deen, having alternate hands and feet cut off and being crucified. If we have not given our amirs bay’a. then we have not taken their leadership seriously nor taken it upon ourselves to obey them. ‘Amir’ is simply a meaningless title without us accepting their authority and undertaking to obey them. And as ‘Umar said, “There can be no Islam without amirs.” So we must allow our amir to lead us – we must unite behind him. And every Muslim community, wherever it is and no matter how small, must also take amirs. For it is only by re-establishing true leadership at a local level that we will develop the strength and unity to revive the khilafa. And it is only through the khilafa that we will see Islam regain its rightful place at the head of world affairs. So we ask Allah, in the words of the great Shaykh an-Nasir, that many of us know and recite,

يا رب وافتح فتحك المبين لمن تولى وأعز الدين، وانصره يا ذا الطول و انصر حزبه واملأ بما يرضيك عنه قلبه، يا رب وانصر ديننا المحمدي واجعل ختام عزه كما بدي

            O Lord, grant Your clear victory to the one who takes charge and empowers the deen. And help him, O You who are forbearing, and help his party and fill his heart with what will make him pleasing to You. O Lord, help our Muhammadan deen, and make its end mighty just as its beginning was.

إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً. اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ  أَجْمَعِينَ. وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعن خديجة وعائشة وسائر أزواج النبي، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.
اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ. 
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ (3) وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ، وَانْصُرِ المُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى.
رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ.
إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.