The Islamic Caliphate:

A Controversial Consensus
Ofir Winter
The institution of the caliphate is nearly as old as Islam itself. Its roots lie
in the days following the death of Muhammad in 632, when the Muslims
convened and chose a caliph (literally successor or deputy). While the
Shiites recognize Ali b. Abi Talib as the sole legitimate heir of the prophet,
the Sunnis recognize the first four rightly guided caliphs (al-Khulafa
al-Rashidun), as well as the principal caliphates that succeeded them the
Umayyad, Abbasid, Mamluk, and Ottoman. The caliphate ruled the Sunni
Muslim world for nearly 1,300 years, enjoying relative hegemony until its
abolition in 1924 by Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
Although Sunni commentators have defined the essence of the caliphate
differently in different periods, they tend to agree that the caliphate was
founded for the purpose of managing Muslim affairs in accordance with
the laws of God and organizing the lives of their people according to the
principles of Islamic religious law.1 In practice, the caliphate has experienced
highs and lows over the course of its history. In some periods, it exerted
authority over political, administrative, financial, legal, and military affairs;
in others, it was reduced to the symbolic and spiritual realm, such as leading
mass prayers, much in the manner of the modern Catholic papacy.2
The Islamic States 2014 announcement on the renewal of the caliphate
showed that the institution is not only a governmental-religious institution
of the past, but also a living and breathing ideal that excites the imagination
of present day Muslims. The secret of the caliphates appeal is twofold:
first, it contains a nostalgic promise to correct the modern political order
perceived by many as oppressive and corrupt and restore the original and
just order of Islam. This is accomplished through the unification of Muslims

28

I Ofir Winte

in a framework that will revive their honor and bring them national and
economic prosperity. Second, it is a concept that is embedded in the culture
and history of Islam, one that enjoys a broad consensus among scholars from
various Sunni sects. Yet alongside the shared belief that the caliphate is an
exalted aspiration, the Islamic religious clerics hotly dispute its substance,
the proper timing for its renewal, the manner in which its leader should
be appointed, and its reciprocal relations with modern Arab nation states.
From this perspective, the internal Muslim debate over the caliphate is yet
another facet of the struggle for hegemony and religious authority between
rival forces in contemporary Sunni Islam.

The Islamic State as the Realization of the Caliphate Vision

On June 29, 2014, Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani

announced the restoration of the caliphate and the appointment of Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi as caliph. His announcement aroused enthusiasm among
multitudes of Muslims in Arab and Western countries, who began thronging
to the battlefields of Syria and Iraq and dedicating and in many cases
sacrificing their lives for the consolidation and expansion of the newly
established caliphate. Suddenly, ninety years after Ataturk abolished the
institution, arguing that it was an anachronistic and disastrous system for
Muslims in general and Turks in particular, its vitality reemerged. What had
symbolized the backwardness and impotence of Islam vis--vis the West to
the nationalistic forces operating in the Middle East in the early twentieth
century now became the wave of the future, while the Arab nation states,
which had symbolized the future as well as the realization of independence and
modernity to those same secular forces, found themselves on the defensive.
Time, it appears, has made people forget the miserable downfall of the
most recent caliphate, the Ottoman Empire. The weakness of the Arab nation
states, as well as the failure of the secular ideologies of the twentieth century
to fulfill their promises, has thus brought the caliphate back to life. The vision
of a union of the faithful under a single leader, who will impose Islamic
law upon all, was once again regarded by many Muslims as an alternative
that reflects their beliefs and values, and will achieve their goals. In the
internal arena, the caliphate will be able to reconstruct the organic legal
and political order that prevailed since ancient times. In the international
arena, the caliphate will combat the injustices of both the Arab-Muslim
regimes that have strayed from the righteous path and the infidel Western

The Islamic Caliphate: A Controversial Consensus

I 29

superpowers, and restore Islamic civilization, the Islamic nation, and all
Muslims to their rightful place.3
At the center of the announcement on the caliphate stands al-Baghdadi,
who has become an integral part of the Islamic State brand thanks to his
much emphasized kinship with the tribe of Muhammad and his religious
education. The Salafi jihad organizations that have recognized the caliphate
have sworn personal allegiance to al-Baghdadi, thereby demonstrating the
impressive power of the caliph and his enterprise, even though doubts still
linger concerning the Islamic States ability to maintain its unity and choose
an heir after his departure. The announcement promises that al-Baghdadi will
establish institutions, dissolve oppression, impose justice, and replace the
current state of destruction, corruption, oppression, and fear with security.
It declares that the time has come for the nation of Muhammad to cast off
its disgrace and resume its glory. According to the announcement, the signs
of victory are already apparent: the Islamic State flag flies high while the
heretical nation states see their flags lowered, their borders breached, and
their soldiers killed, taken prisoner, and defeated. Such signals awaken the
dream deep in the heart of every Muslim believer as well as the hope of a
rejuvenated caliphate that beckons every jihad fighter.4

The Debate over the Caliphate in Current Sunni Islam

The announcement of the caliphate prompted a sharp internal debate

between the Islamic State and its Muslim enemies, and reflects the struggle
between the newly proclaimed entity and traditional forces for hegemony
over Islamic religious law. The caliphate does not merely aim to build a
new reality; it is at war with everything that preceded it. Al-Adnani made
it clear that the reestablishment of the caliphate denies the legitimacy of
every other Islamic organization. The duty of all Muslims is to swear
allegiance to Caliph al-Baghdadi; those who do not are guilty of dividing
the Islamic nation. This divisive pronouncement was aimed above all at
Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda branch in Syria and the Islamic States direct
rival representation of the Salafi jihad vision in that territory. It likewise
posed a challenge to religious authorities deemed heretical by the Islamic
State, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the religious establishments
associated with Arab regimes.
Opposition to the caliphate has thus united sworn enemies, who now find
themselves on the same side of the fence against the Islamic State. It has

30

I Ofir Winte

compelled religious clerics of all stripes to tackle the seductive notion of

the caliphate among large Muslim audiences, especially youth. At the same
time, the counter arguments offered by opponents of the Islamic State vary.
The Salafi jihad forces and the Muslim Brotherhood, for whom the caliphate
is an ultimate objective, have resorted to convoluted apologetics in order
to reconcile their denunciation of the Islamic State with their support (in
principle) for the establishment of the caliphate. On the other hand, those
Arab regimes that regard the rise of the caliphate as a direct existential
threat to their countries have had to explain why, from the perspective
of religious law, modern Arab nations are in no way inferior to a rooted
Islamic institution such as the caliphate. The religious legal debate on the
caliphate has also revealed strategic differences of opinion over the future
of the Islamic nation, tactical arguments on the proper and effective means
of realizing its goals, and splits regarding the prevalent modern state order
in the Middle East.
The announcement of the caliphate reflects the anticipation by the Islamic
State of three possible religious critiques of its action, and therefore took
pains to provide possible answers: (1) to the argument that the caliphate was
established without a Muslim consensus (ijma), the Islamic State ridiculed
the demand for general agreement among the factions, brigades, divisions,
coalitions, armies, fronts, movements, and organizations of the Islamic nation;
(2) to the argument that the caliphate was established with no consultation
(shura) with religious establishments in Arab countries, the Islamic State
pointed to the absurdity of demanding that it consult with its enemies, who
do not recognize it; (3) and to the argument that circumstances were not ripe
for a move of this type, the Islamic State replied that any delay in forming
the caliphate once its essential elements are in place in other words, its
possession of large tracts of land in Iraq and Syria is deemed a sin under
religious law.5
The response by al-Qaeda, which opposed the declaration and vigorously
demanded that the Islamic State retract it, was politically sound but ideologically
complex. The organizations founders, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman alZawahiri, had discussed and studied the possibility of a caliphate and cited
it as a goal, but had done virtually nothing to bring it about. For al-Qaeda, a
caliph able to unite Muslims under the flag of Islam and institute a moral and
pious society is described as a desirable ideal, one that the organization uses
for propaganda purposes when recruiting Muslims to global jihad against the

The Islamic Caliphate: A Controversial Consensus

I 31

United States and its allies. Yet although its leaders regard the Arab nation
states as the possible core of a united Islamic entity, they have not directed
their immediate struggle at dissolving these countries and eliminating their
borders. Instead, they have focused on ousting the heretical governing
elite, attacking its supportive external forces, and creating the conditions
necessary for promoting the political, religious, and social reforms that they
preach.6 For example, Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, has
been engaged in the struggle to overthrow the Assad regime and establish
an emirate in Syria, in the belief that the caliphate can be established only
at a later stage, after a victory in Syria is achieved.
A positive attitude to a caliphate, along with reservations to its establishment
by the Islamic State, was thus reflected in Jabhat al-Nusras response to
Al-Adnanis announcement. In an article in al-Risalah, Jabhat al-Nusra
acknowledges the hope that the caliphate may offer to a younger generation
of Muslims, who live in the discouraging and depressing reality of Western
hegemony over the territory of Islam and who are grasping at any ray of
light as if it were the dawn. The article also expresses appreciation for
certain aspects of al-Baghdadis actions in Iraq and Syria, such as his release
of prisoners from jail and recruitment of the faithful to the path of jihad.
At the same time, it emphatically rejects the declaration of the caliphate
on the basis of three reasons. First, the process is unacceptable because alBaghdadi neither consulted with the sages of Islamic religious law nor was
selected by them. Second, the religious education of the appointed caliph
is inadequate; he purports to manage the affairs of Muslims without having
written a single religious text of any significance. Third, the Islamic State is
undermining the Salafi jihad project. The article also alleges that the brutal
executions conducted by the organization not only invited an international
coalition against it, but also gave Islam the reputation of being a barbaric
and merciless religion, and have thus alienated believers from the path of
jihad, which has seemingly become a synonym for bloodbath, slaughter,
and murder. Thus, instead of uniting Muslims under the flag of Islam, alBaghdadi has divided them and concentrated on antagonizing the heretics
at the expense of true Muslims. The article concludes that al-Baghdadi is
not the long hoped-for caliph who will lead the Muslims from darkness to
light, but is instead leading the nation toward catastrophe.7
The announcement of the caliphate caught the Muslim Brotherhood in
a similar apologetic trap. Like the Islamic State, it promotes a revolution,

32

I Ofir Winte

whose ultimate goal is the establishment of an Islamic caliphate and the

nation of Islam as a concrete political framework. Yet whereas the Islamic
State regards this as an immediate objective and attempts to achieve it by
force wherever possible, the Muslim Brotherhood treats it as an undefined
long term goal to be reached gradually, at some unknown point in the
future. Furthermore, while the Islamic State rejects nationalism, the Muslim
Brotherhood sees no wrong in harboring nationalist feelings for a particular
territory, provided that they remain secondary to a profound commitment
to the Islamic nation.8
Although the Muslim Brotherhoods response to the Islamic States
declaration of the caliphate is notable for its ambivalence, its conclusion
is unequivocal: the caliphate of the Islamic State is totally invalid under
Islamic law. Indeed, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, todays unofficial spiritual leader
of the Muslim Brotherhood, published an announcement in the name of
the International Union of Muslim Scholars that opened with fundamental
ideological support for the idea of a caliphate, but continued with objections
to any attempt to realize it before conditions are ripe. In the spirit of the
teachings of Hassan al-Banna, the founding father of the Muslim Brotherhood,
al-Qaradawi noted that these conditions included the establishment of countries
that would be governed by sharia, enjoy reciprocal relations, wield material,
spiritual, and human power, and possess an internal unity that would make
them immune to external attack. According to al-Qaradawi, al-Baghdadis
declaration of the caliphate also fails to meet other criteria in Islamic law. It
was issued unilaterally, without the backing of a general Islamic consensus
and with no consultation, as required by the Quran (Sura 3: verse 159).
It does not advance Muslim goals; it gives the caliphate a bad name and
encourages the enemies of Islam to join forces against the rebels fighting for
legitimate rights in Syria and Iraq. Finally, it leaves an opening for anarchy
in Islamic rulings by creating a situation in which any organization can
assume the authority to rule on a key issue such as the caliphate.9
The official religious establishment of Egypt, which is headed by al-Azhar
University and Dar al-Iftaa al-Misriyyah (the Egyptian House of Fatwa)
subject to it, is highly influential at the local level as well as in the Sunni
Arab world in general. After the announcement of the caliphate, it began
taking vigorous action to delegitimize the Islamic State, as did religious
establishments in other Sunni Arab countries. A special body was established
to counter the Islamic States rulings and prevent the spread of its ideas.10

The Islamic Caliphate: A Controversial Consensus

I 33

Unlike al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, it expressed substantive

doubts not only about the timing, form, and expectations of the caliphate
but also about the institution itself. The principal challenge facing Egypt
vis--vis the formation of the Islamic State and the allegiance it has won
from the Sinai-based Ansar Bait al-Maqdis organization in November 2014,
was how to anchor the legitimacy of the nation state at the expense of the
historical institution of the caliphate. Its position reflects a political shift
rather than a change in the concept of regular religious law, since until the
Islamic States declaration, Dar al-Iftaa al-Misriyyah was careful to avoid
questioning the idea of the caliphate. In a fatwa (religious ruling) published
in May 2011 it even defined the caliphate as a religious commandment,
noting that modern nation states temporary substitutes for the caliphate at
a time of weakness have not stopped yearning for a caliphate; indeed, the
dissolution of the caliphate in 1924 and its division into countries according
to the Sykes-Picot agreement was a disaster for Muslims. Nonetheless, as
the leaders of modern nation states have prevented anarchy and provided
stability for believers, they should therefore be obeyed; rebellion against
their rule is thus forbidden.11
After the announcement of the caliphate, Dar al-Iftaa al-Misriyyah too
modified its views. It now stated that the legitimacy of the nation state was
based on more than the mere absence of a caliphate, and provided other
reasons for upholding this idea. In November 2014, Shawqi Allam, Grand
Mufti of Egypt and head of Dar al-Iftaa al-Misriyyah, published a book in
English targeting young Muslims in the West entitled The Ideological Battle:
Egypts Dar al-Iftaa Combats Radicalization. Opposing the claim of the
Islamic State, he ruled that the caliphate was not a holy institution derived
from religious texts, and that the Prophet Muhammad had not commanded it
at all; rather it was a governmental framework that had developed out of the
political, social, and religious circumstances of the period. According to this
narrative, a replacement was needed to help Muslims maintain their unity
and spread their views after Muhammads death. This, however, does not
signify that Islam is a static religion that demands the restoration of a fixed
form of government and a return to the Middle Ages. Quite the contrary;
flexibility is the soul of Islam, and the fatwas represent the bridge between
the legal tradition and the contemporary world in which we live. They are
the link between the past and the present, the absolute and the relative, the
theoretical and the practical.12 According to Allam, this means that Muslims

34

I Ofir Winte

are allowed to choose any form of government that serves their interests in
any given period, and that there is no religious objection to the definition
of Egypt as a modern and democratic nation state.

Conclusion

Although the caliphate is an historic institution, it is also a concept that

resonates among many Muslims and continues to affect political, religious,
and ideological discourse in contemporary Sunni Islam, all the more since
the Islamic State announcement. The debate over the caliphate between the
Islamic State, al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and national religious
establishments is not exclusively a religious legal dilemma; rather it is
a political struggle about who the legitimate interpreter of the holy texts
and their significance ought to be. It is a struggle between an entity that is
disseminating a radical, subversive, and incendiary message that eradicates
the borders of nation states, and forces of a territorially particular nature;
between a religious leader with no recognized institutional authority who
has appointed himself caliph and attracted masses of believers, and Islamic
legal scholars who hold official status and are fighting to preserve their
religious hegemony; between an organization that appeals to young Muslims
in the language and media tools familiar to them, and older institutions that
are being forced to adjust to a dynamic reality and operate beyond their
natural comfort zone in order to maintain their influence. The struggle over
the status of the caliphate is expected to continue in the coming years and
will be decided not only by an overthrow of al-Baghdadi and the defeat of
his combatants, rather and perhaps most of all in the struggle over the
ideology and values in the political and religious fields.

Notes

1 Assad al-Qassam, The Crisis of the Caliphate and the Imamate and its Modern
Consequences (Beirut: al-Adir, 1997), pp. 21-25; Fauzi M. Najjar, The Islamic State:
A Study in Traditional Politics (Darien: Monographic Press, 1967), pp. 13-15.
2 Khalifa, in Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition (Leiden: Brill, 1978), pp. 937-53.
3 Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, This is Gods Promise, Muassasat al-Battar
al-Ilamiyya, http://goo.gl/hfLcFV.
4 Al-Adnani, This is Gods Promise.
5 Ibid.
6 Reza Pankhurst, The Inevitable Caliphate? (London: Hurst & Company, 2013),
pp. 133-60, 202.

The Islamic Caliphate: A Controversial Consensus

I 35

7 Abu Faruq al-Muhajir, Khilafa One Year On, al-Risalah 1 (July 2015): 21-25.
8 Pankhurst, The Inevitable Caliphate? pp. 194, 199.
9 Ali Muhyi al-Din al-Qurra Daghi and Yusuf al-Qaradawi, The International Union
of Muslim Scholars emphasizes that the declaration of the caliphate by the Islamic
State organization in Iraq is illegitimate and unrealistic, International Union of
Muslim of Muslim Scholars (July 3, 2014), http://goo.gl/94vCvR.
10 For example, Mirsad al-Ifta, The pamphlet The Takfir of the Arab States is a
new means by the Islamic State to recruit fighters and destabilize the Arab states,
Dar al-Iftaa al-Misriyyah, April 10, 2015, http://goo.gl/Kiak4S.
11 The Fatwa Council, The Caliphate and the Islamic Countries, Dar al-Iftaa
al-Misriyyah (May 18, 2015), http://goo.gl/RqTFIs.
12 Shawki Allam, The Ideological Battle: Egypts Dar al- Iftaa Combats Radicalization,
2014, pp. 102-8, http://dar-alifta.org/BIMG/The%20Ideological%20Battle%20(2).
pdf.