Editorial Board
November 9, 2012
Strong-fisted, hereditary kinship [al-Mulk al-‘Ād] symbolizes the rule of despotic kings who usurped power after the four Rightly Guided Caliphs, Abu Bakr, ‹Umar, ‹Uthman, and ‹Ali (God be pleased with them). The usurpers turned the system of government from Caliphate according to which the caliph is freely elected by the ummah to an oppressive, hereditary monarchy whereby the monarch forcibly commands allegiance from a subjugated ummah. Such rule was represented by the reign of the Umayyad, the Abbasids, and the subsequent dynasties until Ottoman rule.
