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What matters most in this regard is identifying the person best suited to an office. This requires knowing the purpose of that office and the means of achieving it. Once the ends and means are known, the matter is settled. Thus, when worldly aims rather than religion came to dominate the concerns of most kings, they appointed those who would help them achieve those aims. Anyone seeking authority for himself preferred to appoint those who would uphold his authority.
The Sunnah was for the military commanders—the ruler’s deputies in charge of the troops—to lead the Muslims in Friday and congregational prayers and deliver sermons to them. Thus, when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, appointed Abū Bakr to lead the prayer, the Muslims appointed him to leadership in war and other affairs.
Whenever the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, dispatched a commander on a military expedition, he also appointed him to lead his companions in prayer. The same applied whenever he appointed a man as his deputy over a town, as when he appointed Attāb ibn Asīd over Mecca, Uthmān ibn Abī al-Ās over al-Tā’if, Alī, Mu‘ādh, and Abū Mūsā over Yemen, and Amr ibn Hazm over Najrān: his deputy was the one who led them in prayer and enforced