Khilafat-e-Rashidah — Page 73
KHILAFAT-E-R A SHIDAH 73 part of the people, and that all decisions should be according to the verdict of the majority of Muslims, because to honour a ruler as worthy of complete submission from the people is against this verse 18 : “There is no judge except Allah. ” The Doctrine of Unelected Khilafat of Hadrat Ali ra This was the first disagreement in the matter of Khilafat. At that time, the people who were in favour of Hadrat Ali ra started refuting those objections. While doing so, the prophecies of the Holy Prophet sa about Hadrat Ali ra were also discussed in detail, and some of the miscreants stressed that debate on Khilafat was unnecessary because the Khilafat of Hadrat Ali ra was based, not on an electoral decision, but on the prophecies of the Holy Prophet sa about him. Therefore, he was the Khalifah appointed by the Holy Prophet sa without the need for any electoral decision. This is the same as if someone, while discussing me as Mu s le h Ma‘ u d [the Promised Reformer], should say that he pledges allegiance to me as Khalifah because there are prophecies of the Promised Messiah as about me, and not because my Khilafat was established through the majority vote of the 18 Al-K a mil fit T a r i kh , Vol. 3, p. 335, by ‘Izzuddin Abul Hasan Ali bin Abul Karam Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Abdul Kar i m bin Abdul W ah id Ash-sh i b a n i , known as Ibnil Ath i r, publisher D a ru Sa dir, D a r Beirut, AH 1385, AD 1965.