There are three ways the caliph as Commander-in-Chief keeps full effective control of the armed forces.

The bay’ah contract
No obedience in sin
Appointment and dismissal of the general staff

1- The bay’ah contract

The bay’ah or pledge of allegiance, is a ruling contract which governs the relationship between Muslims and the Islamic state. For those Muslims living under the authority of the state, the bay’ah is their citizenship contract with its ruler – the caliph.

This oath and pledge contains explicit words of loyalty and obedience to the head of state.

Ubada ibn Al-Samit said:

بَايَعْنَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَلَى السَّمْعِ وَالطَّاعَةِ فِي الْمَنْشَطِ وَالْمَكْرَهِ‏.‏ ‏‏وَأَنْ لاَ نُنَازِعَ الأَمْرَ أَهْلَهُ، وَأَنْ نَقُومَ ـ أَوْ نَقُولَ ـ بِالْحَقِّ حَيْثُمَا كُنَّا لاَ نَخَافُ فِي اللَّهِ لَوْمَةَ لاَئِمٍ ‏‏‏

“We gave the bayah to Allah’s Messenger that we would listen and obey him both at the time when we were active and at the time when we were tired, and that we would not fight against the ruler or disobey him, and would stand firm for the truth or say the truth wherever we might be, and in the Way of Allah we would not be afraid of the blame of the blamers.”[1]

Every citizen, including every soldier no matter his/her rank are bound first and foremost by the bay’ah.

2- No obedience in sin

Following on from this, the implementation of any law relies on the consent of the people to obey the law. If the government doesn’t have the legitimacy to rule (authority) from the strongest faction in the society, then you will inevitably end up with a police state – something Islam forbids – and which will eventually crumble and disappear as we have witnessed during and after the Arab spring.

The authority in an Islamic state is derived from people’s belief in Islam and its culture. If the ideology of Islam is strong within people, then inevitably the authority will also be strong. What makes the Rightly Guided Caliphate such a strong era where the Roman and Persian empires who had ruled for centuries crumbled within just a few decades after Islam’s emergence, was not down to the caliph alone. Rather it was down to the strength of the wazirs, commanders, advisors and governors who were all senior sahaba, and the strongest generation in terms of Islamic thought and practice. The Prophet ﷺ said, خَيْرُ النَّاسِ قَرْنِي “The best people are those of my generation.”[2]

The military structure is built upon obedience to the officers in command, and without this the entire apparatus would fall apart. Having said this, there are limits to this obedience and any moves by senior officers to undermine the caliph and his government, and commit treason through an illegitimate coup d’etat must be disobeyed. The Prophet ﷺ said,

‏ لاَ طَاعَةَ فِي مَعْصِيَةٍ، إِنَّمَا الطَّاعَةُ فِي الْمَعْرُوفِ

“There is no obedience to anyone if it is disobedience to Allah. Verily, obedience is only in good conduct.”[3]

The Prophet ﷺ sent a sariyya (expedition) under the command of a man from the Ansar and ordered the soldiers to obey him. He (the commander) became angry and said “Didn’t the Prophet order you to obey me!” They replied, “Yes.” He said, “Collect fire-wood for me.” So they collected it. He said, “Make a fire.” When they made it, he said, “Enter it (the fire).” So they intended to do that and started holding each other and saying, “We run towards (i.e. take refuge with) the Prophet from the fire.” They kept on saying that till the fire was extinguished and the anger of the commander abated. When that news reached the Prophet ﷺ he said, “If they had entered it (the fire), they would not have come out of it till the Day of Resurrection. Obedience is [only] required when he enjoins what is good.”[4]

The soldiers on this sariyya obeyed the officer in command up until he ordered them with a clear-cut definitive sin i.e. suicide.

3- Appointment and dismissal of the general staff

The caliph is the Commander-in-Chief and as such appoints all the generals of all the services – Army, Navy and Airforce, and the Chiefs of Staff who head each of their respective services.

The lower ranks (colonel and below) are approved by the promotion boards, overseen by the general staff. This is the same as the US system with one major difference. In the US system all appointments by the President to the general staff must be approved by the Senate Armed Forces Committee. In the Islamic State there is no such requirement in principle, but since shura is a fundamental principle of the Islamic system, then these appointments will be scrutinised by the upper house – Dar Al-‘Adl – which institutionalises part of the Mazalim (judicial redress) principle outlined by Al-Mawardi. This will be discussed later.

Every single Amir of an expedition no matter how large or small was appointed by the Prophet ﷺ. The Rightly Guided Caliphs followed this method by appointing the heads of the armies and even some of the deputies. The lower ranks would be appointed by the Amir of the expedition or campaign.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed Zaid ibn Haritha as the Amir of the Expedition to Mut’ah in charge of three thousand men and gave him a white liwaʾ.[5] Three thousand men is the size of a modern-day brigade (liwaʾ) headed by a one-star Brigadier-General (عَمِيد ‘amid). In this campaign he ﷺ didn’t just appoint Zaid but also appointed the deputy commanders who would take over if Zaid was killed. He ﷺ said, “The Amir of the people is Zayd bin Haritha. If he is killed, then Ja’far ibn Abi Talib. If he is killed, then Abdullah ibn Rawahah. If he is killed, then let the Muslims choose a man from among themselves and make him their Amir.”[6]

Umar ibn al-Khattab, when he was caliph appointed Amr ibn Al-‘Aas as the Amir (commanding-general) of the Egyptian campaign. Umar wrote a letter to Amr:

“I am very surprised at how long it is taking to conquer Egypt, as you have been fighting for the last two years, unless it is because of some sins that you have committed, or you have started to love this world as your enemy does. Allah, may He be blessed and exalted, only grants victory to people who are sincere. I am sending to you four individuals, and I have told you that each one of them is equivalent to one thousand men as far as I know, unless something has changed them…”[7] These four individuals were well-experienced commanders, each in charge of a battalion (كتيبة katība) of 1000 men. These commanders were Al-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwam, Al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad, ‘Ubadah ibn as-Samit and Maslamah ibn Mukhallad.

In famous incident during the caliphate of Umar, he dismissed Khalid ibn al-Walid, the sword of Allah as the Amir of the army in Syria and appointed Abu Ubaydah ibn Al-Jarrah in his place. Even though Khalid was more qualified military than Abu Ubaydah, Umar’s decision was based on wider political thinking and the ramifications of keeping Khalid in place. This links back to the discussion on civilian control or political control of the military. Military decisions need to always be subservient to the wider political goals of the state. Umar was afraid that the people were too attached to Khalid and believed that victory was connected to Khalid’s blessing and military expertise, and that they would put their trust in that rather than Allah.[8]

In his letter explaining the dismissal of Khalid, Umar wrote, “I am not dismissing Khalid out of anger or betrayal, rather the people have become confused because of him, and I want them to know that Allah is the One who does what He wills.”[9]

The chain of command in an Islamic State is therefore from the caliph directly to the combatant commanders on the ground. Similar to America, the Chiefs of Staff are not in the chain of command, and are simply advisors to the caliph charged with preparing the armed forces to fight to the best of their ability.

These are three ways that the Islamic state protects itself against the encroachment of the military into politics and civilian affairs. If this model was in place, then Mohamed Morsi (d.2019) the former President of Egypt wouldn’t have been removed so easily by General Sisi who was his Minister of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.[10] In this position, Sisi had effective control over the military, with Morsi’s role as Supreme Commander being a mere ceremonial position.[11]

Notes

[1] Sahih al-Bukhari 7199, 7200, https://sunnah.com/bukhari/93/60

[2] Sahih al-Bukhari 6429, https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6429

[3] Muttafaqun Alayhi (agreed upon). Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 7257 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:7257; Saḥīḥ Muslim 1840 https://sunnah.com/muslim:1840a

[4] Sahih al-Bukhari 4340, https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4340

[5] Ibn Sa’d, Tabaqat, https://shamela.ws/book/1686/487#p1

[6] Ibn Sa’d, Tabaqat, https://shamela.ws/book/1686/486#p1

[7] Dr Ali Muhammad As-Sallabi, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, his life and times,’ International Islamic Publishing House, volume 2, p.321

[8] Dr Ali Muhammad As-Sallabi, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, his life and times,’ International Islamic Publishing House, volume 1, p.297

[9] Ibid

[10] In the Egyptian constitution Article 201 states, “The Minister of Defense is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, appointed from among its officers.” https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Egypt_2019?lang=ar

[11] In the Egyptian constitution Article 152 states: “The President of the Republic is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The President cannot declare war, or send the armed forces to combat outside state territory, except after consultation with the National Defense Council and the approval of the House of Representatives with a two-thirds majority of its members.” Ibid