1037 – Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever turns away from obedience, separates himself from the community, and then dies in that state—his death is a death of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance.” Recorded by Muslim (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• “Whoever turns away from obedience”: obedience to the Muslim ruler.
• “Death” (mīta): the noun of manner derived from a triliteral root on the pattern fiʿla, with a kasrah on the first consonant. One may say, “He lived a good ʿīsha and died an evil mīta.” For verbs with more than three radicals the noun of manner follows the general verbal-noun pattern.
• “Age of Ignorance” (Jāhiliyyah): derived from jahil (ignorance); it denotes the state of one who died as an unbeliever before the coming of Islam.

Points derived from the ḥadīth

1. Appointing an imam for the Muslims is a communal obligation. He is installed by receiving the pledge of allegiance from the people of authority among the scholars, dignitaries, and notables.
2. The imam’s tasks include safeguarding the religion, protecting the citadel of Islam, enforcing the prescribed penalties, fortifying the frontiers, fighting obstinate enemies, collecting the obligatory charities, allocating public funds, and appointing trustworthy officials.
3. Whoever abandons obedience to the imam, leaves the community, and breaks away from it falls, according to the scholars, into one of four categories:
   a) A group that revolts against the imam and his authority with no interpretive claim; these are highway robbers.
   b) Those who revolt on the basis of an interpretive claim but are only a small band without real force—about ten men or so,