Al-Ghazali's View On Caliphate

Al-Ghazali’s View on the legitimacy of Caliphate The Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) is the last Prophet who was ever sent to the world, and after his death, the problem of who would lead the Muslim Ummah came up. During his life, the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) clearly said, “The tribe of Israel was guided by prophets. When a prophet passed away, another prophet succeeded him. But no prophet will come after me; only caliphs will succeed me” (BUHKARI). Hence, the concept of caliphate came into being. Caliphate is a form of Islamic governance in which a person is chosen as the head of the state through consultation, however that was not always the case. The form of governance generally, and the caliphate specifically, has always been a target of the philosophers. The Muslim philosophers in particular, have spread their light and their views on the legitimacy of the Caliphate as a political form of government, and have analyzed and talked about the different caliphates that have ever operated in the world. Al-Ghazali, one of the most brilliant and the most well-known Muslim philosophers who ever lived, also gave

A Caliph being the leader of the state should be pious and it is necessary that he be from Qureshi descend. In order to explain the Caliph to be pious point, Ghazali narrated the example of a fountain, that a Caliph is a fountain of justice and the other officials are the streams of water that flow from it. Hence, if a Caliph is pious and conforms to the Islamic teachings and is truly just, the system should be perfect. If an Imam has those qualities, he could also become the Caliph. Al-Ghazali emphasizes that the Caliph should confine himself to religious duties in order concentrate on the study of the laws of Sharia and practice the religious virtues of piety, humility, charity and compassion because it is for that he has been