The Caliphate or the Supreme Imamate (book)

Part of a series on Islamism
Fundamentals Islam History Culture Economics Politics Secularism
Ideologies Islamism Salafi movement Salafi jihadism International propagation Salafism by country/region Deobandi movement Deobandi jihadism Qutbism Khomeinism Shia Islamism Islamic fundamentalism
Concepts Apostasy in Islam Takfir Islamic governance Caliphate Islamic democracy Islamic feminism Islamic liberalism Islamic socialism Islamic state Islamic monarchy Islamic republic Islamization (of knowledge) Jihad Islamic terrorism Jihadism Pan-Islamism Political Islam aspects Post-Islamism Sharia Shura Two-nation theory Ummah
Influences Anti-communism Anti-imperialism Anti-Zionism Islamic Golden Age Islamic revival
Movements Scholastic Barelvi Dawat-e-Islami Ahl-i Hadith Deobandi Madkhalism Nurcu Sahwa movement Wahhabism International propagation by country/region Political Hizb ut-Tahrir Iranian Revolution Jamaat-e-Islami Salafist Call Salafist Front Millî Görüş Muslim Brotherhood Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan List of Islamic political parties Militant Militant Islamism based in MENA region South Asia Southeast Asia Sub-Saharan Africa
Key texts The Caliphate or the Grand Imamate (Rashīd Rīďha 1922) Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Iqbal 1930s) Principles of State and Government (Asad 1961) Ma'alim fi al-Tariq ("Milestones") (Qutb 1965) Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist ("Velayat-e faqih") (Khomeini 1970)
Heads of state Ali Khamenei Omar al-Bashir Muammar Gaddafi Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Ruhollah Khomeini Mohamed Morsi Zia ul-Haq Mohammed Omar House of Saud House of Thani Hibatullah Akhundzada
Key ideologues Abu Hamza al-Masri Muhammad Abduh Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī Qazi Hussain Ahmad Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani Muhammad Asad Hassan al-Banna Rached Ghannouchi Safwat Hegazi Muhammad Iqbal Ali Khamenei Ruhollah Khomeini Necip Fazıl Kısakürek Abul A'la Maududi Abul Hasan Nadwi Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani Yusuf al-Qaradawi Sayyid Qutb Tariq Ramadan Ata Abu Rashta Rashid Rida Navvab Safavi Ali Shariati Haji Shariatullah Hassan Al-Turabi Ahmed Yassin Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
Criticism of Islamism Criticism of Islamism Liberal and reform movements within Islam in Europe in North America Khaled Abu al-Fadl Farag Foda Abdelwahab Meddeb Maryam Namazie Maajid Nawaaz Sam Harris Olivier Roy Bassam Tibi Muhammad Sa'id al-Ashmawi Gilles Kepel Shiraz Maher Magnus Ranstorp
Related topics Islam and modernity Modernism Islam and other religions Islamophobia
Islam portal Politics portal
v t e

Al-Khilafa aw al-Imama al-ʿUzma (transl. The Caliphate or the Supreme Imamate; Arabic: الخلافة أو الإمامة العظمى) is an Islamic political treatise published by Syro-Egyptian Salafi Islamist theologian Rashid Rida in 1923. The book initially had appeared as a series of articles in Rida's Al-Manar Islamic magazine throughout the winter of 1922–23 during the tumultuous events of the abolition of Ottoman Sultanate. The book became the first substantial Islamic scholarly treatise of the 20th century which elucidated the theological basis of a Khilafah and advocated the religious obligation of establishing a pan-Islamic supra-state. The treatise gave an in-depth explanation of the governance and working of the Caliphate system through precedents from Islamic history and decried the newly emerging trends that downplayed the orthodox Sunni doctrines on Caliphate; and equated the absence of Islamic state with the era of Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic ignorance). Rida produced the theoretical framework for an international Islamic order that enforced Sharia (Islamic laws), cementing his scholarly status as "the founding theoretician" for Islamist and Jihadist movements of the contemporary era.^[1][2]

In the book, Rida postulated that the Islamic State should ideally be headed by a Mujtahid. The Caliph should enforce the laws of the Islamic Imamate/Caliphate based upon Quran, Hadith and the precedents from the four Rashidun Caliphs. Qualified ulema (Islamic scholars) have the responsibility to aid the government in this task, with the power to constantly evaluate and correct the Caliph and are obliged to act as the moral guardians of the Islamic order. So long as the elected Caliph rules in accordance with Islamic principles and justice, all Muslims are obliged to obey and unite behind him. The establishment of the ideal Caliphate was outlined as a deep-rooted visionary programme. In the absence of the ideal Caliphate, Muslims are obliged to form a "caliphate of necessity", an Islamic state that didn't satisfy the above stipulations.^[3]

The treatise would have a profound influence on Islamic scholarly circles and sparked a revolutionary variant of pan-Islamist activism that opposed all forms of Western social, political and cultural influences. Inspired by the programme of the treatise, Islamists all across the world began totally rejecting all Western political theories and emphasise beliefs in the inherent superiority of Islamic system. Rida's Caliphate doctrine would directly influence ideologues of the Muslim Brotherhood, South Asian Jamaat e-Islami and Saudi Arabian Sahwa movement.^[4][5][6][7]