after me; but there will be caliphs, and they will be many.’ They asked, ‘What do you command us to do?’ He replied, ‘Fulfil your pledge of allegiance to the first and then the next, and give them their due. Allah will question them concerning those He entrusted to their care.’
When the caliphate passed to the Abbasid line and they needed to govern the people, judicial office under them was assumed by jurists of Iraq whose knowledge was inadequate for just governance. They therefore had to establish a special jurisdiction for redressing grievances, and they separated military authority from Sharia jurisdiction. The problem grew increasingly serious in many Muslim cities, until people began to speak of “the Sharia and governance”: one party would summon his opponent to the Sharia, while the other would summon his to governance. It thus became acceptable for one judge to rule according to the Sharia and another according to governance.
The reason was that those who identified themselves with the Sharia fell short in their knowledge of the sunnah. Consequently, in many matters their judgments resulted in rights being lost and prescribed penalties being left unenforced, to the point that blood was shed, property was seized, and sacred prohibitions were violated. Those who identified themselves with governance, meanwhile, began governing according to forms of personal judgment without holding fast to the Quran and the sunnah. The best among them ruled without caprice and sought justice; but many ruled according to their whims, showing favoritism to the powerful and to those who bribed them, and the like.
Likewise, cities in which the Medinan school prevailed enjoyed a degree of just rule not found elsewhere, for the authority of force was made subordinate to the authority of the Book. This was not the case in cities where the Iraqi school and the schools of its followers prevailed, for there the military governor did not follow the scholar. Allah Most High says: ‘We certainly sent Our messengers with clear proofs and sent down with them the Book…’—the verse [al-Hadīd: 25]. Thus, religion is upheld by a Book that guides and a sword that lends it support. And sufficient is your Lord as a guide and helper.