The famous sociologist Max Weber (d.1920) defines authority as “the probability that a specific command will be obeyed.”[1] He then goes on to discuss three types of legitimate authority.[2]

1- Traditional Authority – power that is rooted in traditional, or long-standing, beliefs and practices of a society. It exists and is assigned to particular individuals because of that society’s customs and traditions. Hereditary rule would fall under this category.

2- Rational-Legal Authority – derives from law and is based on a belief in the legitimacy of a society’s laws and rules and in the right of leaders to act under these rules to make decisions and set policy. This form of authority is a hallmark of modern democracies. It is also the type of authority we find in an Islamic State. Although unlike in a democracy, the laws and rules in an Islamic State are derived from the sharia, since the sharia and not human beings is sovereign.

3- Charismatic Authority – stems from an individual’s extraordinary personal qualities and from that individual’s hold over followers because of these qualities. Many times this type of authority is combined with either traditional or rational-legal authority. The Rightly Guided Caliphs of the past were exemplary personalities and could be described as Philosopher-Kings in Platonic speak, but their legitimacy was always from the Muslim ummah who consented to their rule through the contract of bay’ah. Hence they had a rational-legal authority combined with a charismatic authority.

The bay’ah falls under the category of rational-legal authority since it is a ruling contract. For this contract to be valid the ummah must give their consent, which means they must be consulted (shura) either directly or through their political representatives the Ahlul hali wal-aqd. Ibn Khaldun says, “Therefore, it is necessary to have reference to ordained political norms, which are accepted by the mass and to whose laws it submits. The Persians and other nations had such norms. The dynasty that does not have a policy based on such (norms) cannot fully succeed in establishing the supremacy of its rule.”[3]

Notes

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[1] Max Weber, ‘Three Types of Legitimate Rule,’ Translated by Hans Gerth

[2] The University of North Carolina Press, ‘Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World,’ 2019, Chapter 14.1

[3] Ibn Khaldun, ‘The Muqaddimah – An Introduction to History,’ Translated by Franz Rosenthal, Princeton Classics, p.251