"Listen and Obey"

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said^*: I made Ḥajj with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and I saw him when he threw the stones at Jamrat al-ʿAqabah. And then he came back riding on his camel, and with him were Bilāl and Usāmah: one of them was leading the camel, and the other was raising his garment over the head of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to give him shade from the sun. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said many things, and I remember, among the things he said: if a slave with cut-off limbs is appointed as leader over you, and he leads you by the Book of Allah, then listen to him and obey. Whoever has all of these qualities in him is at the lowest level: he is a slave, and his limbs are cut off. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is telling us that even if such a person is appointed over you, as long as he is ruling by the Book of Allah, you should listen and obey. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) ordered that those appointed over us be followed, as long as they do so by the Book of Allah.

He said: the meaning of this is — as long as they are following Islam, and they are inviting people to the Book of Allah — regardless of what they apply to their own selves, and regardless of what their character is like. So the meaning of this is: if the laws are according to the Book of Allah, and if they are implementing the rule of Allah and inviting others to it, it does not matter what their personal character is like, or what they are doing in their own privacy; that is not something that should concern us, as long as they are ruling according to the Book of Allah. And then he says: people should not revolt against such rulers; but if they do something wrong, they should be given naṣīḥah.

The question arises: how can one follow a slave, when it is known that the caliph should be from Quraysh? The answer has two sides. One: what is meant here is that the caliph is the one who appointed this person, so it is not speaking about the caliph. He said: if a slave takes over a government, and that is it — he has installed himself, lodged himself, in a position of leadership — then his rule applies, and it is mandatory to follow him, as long as he is ruling according to the Book of Allah.