In Lum‘at Al-I‘tiqad, it is stated that Malik, may Allah have mercy upon him, said, "It is conditioned in the pledge of allegiance that the Muslim ruler succeeds his father, kills the ruler, and assumes the office after him or conquers a land by the sword…" How sound is this statement?

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

Lum‘at Al-I‘tiqad is a book authored by Ibn Qudamah Al-Maqdisi . Having reviewed the book, we did not find this quotation by Malik . Rather, the author stated, "Whoever assumes the Caliphate and the people gather around him and accept him, or [he takes control] by the sword, until he becomes the Caliph and is called the 'Commander of the Believers', obedience to him is obligatory, and disobedience, rebellion against him, and dividing the Muslims are forbidden."

In his explanation of Lum‘at Al-I‘tiqad, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih ibn ‘Uthaymeen said:

The Caliphate is a high office and great responsibility, which is managing the Muslims' affairs. The Imam is the first one who is responsible for this. It is a communal obligation, as it is essential for maintaining people's life affairs. The Imam (ruler) or caliph is appointed to lead the Islamic state by one of three ways:

Firstly: Appointment to the position by the previous Caliph; as when a Caliph passes on the position to a particular person who is to succeed him after he dies. For example, ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab became Caliph after Abu Bakr appointed him by name to this post.

Secondly: He is chosen by Ahlul Hall wal ‘Aqd (the decision makers and the influential members of the Muslim society), regardless of whether such people were appointed by the ex-Caliph, as it was in case of appointing ‘Uthman when he was chosen by Ahlul Hall wal ‘Aqd, who were appointed by the ex-Caliph, ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab or whether they were not appointed by the ex-Caliph, as it was in the case of appointing Abu Bakr, according to one of the two relevant opinions, and ‘Ali .

Thirdly: By means of force and prevailing over others. An example for this was the takeover of ‘Abdulmalik ibn Marwan after ‘Abdullah ibn Az-Zubayr was killed and he assumed the position after him.

This indicates that the three cases are based on the consensus of the Companions . Therefore, the scholars unanimously agreed on this and many scholars transmitted their consensus on the fact that the Caliphate is established by any of these three ways.

As for the third way, Ibn Hajar transmitted the following from Ibn Battal : "The scholars unanimously agree that obedience is due to a ruler who takes control by force and that it is obligatory to perform jihad along with him. Obedience to him is better than rebellion against him as this blocks the way to blood shedding and neutralizes common people. The only exception is when the ruler shows manifest disbelief. In this case, it is obligatory to disobey him and rebel against him, if one is able to do."

Allah knows best.