It should be noted that his leadership was bestowed upon him...

It should be noted that his leadership was bestowed upon him by God without being chosen by the people for such a huge position. The important point is to know who resumed the Islamic leadership after the Prophet’s demise and to realize who should have been the social and political leader of the Islamic society in order that such a society does not revert or encounter chaos.

No doubt, a system such as the worldwide and eternal system of Islam had calculated this significant topic carefully in advance and the great prophet of Islam had not ignored this critical matter and had deemed it necessary for all Muslims to follow and obey the legitimate custodians of authority.[^5] There is a concensus with regard to this view.

The point is that Muslims should recognize the characters of their rulers whose obedience has been demanded so that they can obey their rulers accordingly. A group of Muslims contend that the great prophet had appointed the successor after him, by God’s commands, bestowing upon him the socio-political affairs of the society. A second group holds the view that God let people elect their own leaders upon the Prophet’s demise. The Shiites adhere to the first view and the Sunnites hold the second.

If we confine ourselves to discussing who got the position of leadership upon the Prophet’s demise and how he was elected to such a position, whether he was appointed by the Prophet or elected by people, then such a discussion will be nothing but a historical issue, which would not be of any interest for the present generation after the lapse of fourteen centuries (however such a recognition was of utmost significance at that period).

But if we look at the issue from another angle and consider it not from the socio-political aspect of the Islamic community on the Prophet’s demise, considering the Prophet the supreme source for the Islamic principles and paying heed to the characters of those who could be a source for the distinction between the permitted affairs and the prohibited ones and who could handle the issues of enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong, then the recognition of the Imam and the discussion on Imamate and the religious leadership would be the issue for every Muslim and nobody would be exempt from such a recognition.

Let us consider what all these mean: In the Islamic Culture and Commandments There is no doubt that the Prophet’s leadership was not exclusively of a socio-political nature.