They reject and refuse to recognize the rulers who held the...

They reject and refuse to recognize the rulers who held the caliphate from the beginning to the end because such caliphate was [in the words of Umar ibn al-Khattab himself] based on “a grave mistake from the evil of which Allah protected us,” and because it came as a rejection and a renunciation of the texts stated by Allah and His Messenger.

All those who came after that made such caliphate hereditary; each caliph ruled only because he was nominated by his predecessor or by fighting and winning the battle.[^2] Because of all this, “Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama`a” were obligated to say that obedience was obligatory to both a good and a bad Imam; they accepted the caliphate of all their rulers, including…