He (Abu Ja’far) said: “ The great kingdom is to appoint Imams among them .

He (Abu Ja’far) said: “ The great kingdom is to appoint Imams among them . Whosoever obeys them has obeyed Allah, and whosoever disobeys them has disobeyed Allah. So, that is the great kingdom.”[^4] ‘Allamah al-Majlisi says about the hadith : حسن Hasan .[^5] ‘Allamah al-Ruhani, on his part, states: صحيح Sahih .[^6] Then, he adds: الملك بالضم هو المملكة، فجعل الأئمة من جهة الأمر بإطاعتهم وجعلها قرين إطاعة الله تعالى صاحب الملك العظيم عبارة أخرى عن الحكومة المطلقة كما هو واضح.

The kingdom is the royal power . So, He appointed the Imams and, in terms of the command to obey them, He made it equivalent to obedience to Allah the Most High. Obviously, “the possessor of the great kingdom” is another terminology for the absolute government.[^7] The Qur’an has further given the specific example of Dawud, ‘alaihi al-salam , who was one of the Imams from the family of Ibrahim: يا داوود إنا جعلناك خليفة في الأرض فاحكم بين الناس بالحق O Dawud!

We have appointed you A KHALIFAH over the earth. Therefore, judge between mankind with the truth.[^8] Meanwhile, while referring to his khilafah elsewhere, Allah emphasizes its royal nature: وشددنا ملكه وآتيناه الحكمة وفصل الخطاب We made HIS KINGDOM strong and gave him wisdom and sound judgment.[^9] So, he was – as in the case of all the other Imams too – a royal khalifah .

More importantly, his khilafah was also hereditary in nature: وورث سليمان داوود And Sulayman INHERITED Dawud.[^10] Imam al-Tabari (d. 310 H) says in his exegesis of the ayah : يقول تعالى ذكره :وورث سليمان أباه داود العلم الذي كان آتاه الله في حياته، والملك الذي كان خصه به على سائر قومه He, the Most High, says: Sulayman INHERITED the knowledge which Allah gave his father during his lifetime and the kingdom which He specially bestowed upon him above all of his people.[^11] Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir (d.

774 H) also states: قال الله تعالى: }وورث سليمان داود) {...النمل: ١٦ (أي ورثه في النبوة والملك Allah the Most High said: {And Sulayman inherited Dawud...} [27:16], that is, INHERITANCE of prophethood and kingdom .[^12] And Imam Ibn al-Jawzi (d.

597 H) has these words too: قوله تعالى: }وورث سليمان داود {أي :ورث نبوته وعلمه وملكه Allah the Most High says {And Sulayman inherited Dawud}, that is: he INHERITED his prophethood, knowledge and kingdom .[^13] The moral of all this, simply, is that the khilafah is clearly a hereditary royal system. The khalifah is an absolute monarch, and he rules over the earth by kingdom. His authority, by its nature, is equally hereditary.