Obedience to those in authority and not rebelling (in the Tahawi creed)

"We do not hold rebellion against our imams and the rulers of our affairs, even if they wrong; we do not pray against them, nor withdraw a hand from obeying them"; he holds "obeying them part of obedience to God — an obligation, unless they command a sin; and we pray for their soundness and well-being" ¹.

"The hajj and jihad continue with the Muslim rulers, their righteous and their wicked, until the Hour rises; nothing annuls them or undoes them" ².

Joined to that he says: "We follow the Sunna and the Community, and avoid deviation, disagreement and division" ¹; he loves the people of justice and trustworthiness and hates the people of wrongdoing and treachery ¹. He does not dissent from the community of the Muslims ³.

Ibn Qudama says: "We hold the hajj and jihad proceed under obedience to every imam, righteous or wicked" ⁴. Of the Sunna for him is "hearing and obeying the Muslims' imams and the believers' commanders — their righteous and their wicked — so long as they do not command disobedience to God; there is no obedience to anyone in disobedience to God" ⁵. Then he adds: "Whoever takes the caliphate with the people gathering upon him and consenting to him, or overcomes them by his sword until he becomes caliph and is named Commander of the Faithful — obeying him is obligatory, and dissenting from him, rebelling against him and splitting the Muslims' stick are forbidden" ⁵.

Ibn Taymiyya says: "Along with these principles they enjoin the good and forbid the evil as the shari'a requires; they hold the establishment of the hajj, jihad, Friday and festival prayers behind the rulers — righteous or wicked — and they keep to the congregations and hold sincere counsel for the umma a religious duty" ⁶. He does not mention in this place of the creed the ruling on rebelling against the ruler.

In "the account of the sum of the saying of the people of hadith and sunna" in Maqalat al-Islamiyyin, Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari presents what the people of hadith and sunna hold, ending: "And in all we have mentioned of their saying we speak, and to it we go" ⁷. He relates there that they "hold the festival, Friday and congregational prayers behind every imam, righteous or wicked" ⁸; "hold praying for the Muslims' imams for righteousness, not rebelling against them with the sword, and not fighting in the fitna" ⁸; and hold praying over everyone who dies of the people of the qibla, righteous and wicked ⁹.

This entry presents the positions of the 'Aqida al-Tahawiyya, Ibn Qudama's Lum'at al-I'tiqad, Ibn Taymiyya's al-Wasitiyya, and what al-Ash'ari related in Maqalat al-Islamiyyin of the people of hadith and sunna and declared his own — each attributed to its book. The sayings of the Maturidis and the remaining Sunni and non-Sunni schools from their own books have not yet been added; the entry needs specialist review before promotion.