The Caliphate Today

Many Muslims today still revere the ideal of a Caliphate. Attitudes towards it as a contemporary form of governance tend to differ between the Sunni and the Shi'a, due to the difference in their perceptions of the history particularly after the deaths of Ali and his sons. Shi'a characteristically desire the return of the Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam.

One trend is represented by those Islamist movements which have sought a form of Islamic government, either as a transnational caliphate or by applying Shari'a in their domestic environments as a nation-state. Hizb ut-Tahrir (which literally means 'party of liberation') is one of the Islamic groups that call for the return of Khilafa in the form it was established as they see it, i.e. in its transnational form, not accepting the boundaries of the nation state. Al Qa'ida also aim to restore the caliphate, but explicitly sanction violent means and warfare to establish it.

Other Muslims do not aspire to revive the Caliphate as an ideal form of Islamic government. Rather, they see the spirit of the first four great leaders as an illustration of the most Islamic system, and draw out similarities to a modern democratic system. Some members of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially from the younger generations, as well as individual scholars like Khaled Abou El Fadl advance arguments of this nature.

Still other Muslims regard the Caliphate to be a historical structure that does not apply to our modern day world. These groups have more often been motivated by nationalism or secular political thinking, moving away from the past and attempting to strengthen Arab nationalism or socialism as a way of governing the affairs of the Muslims, mainly in the Middle East. The Ba'ath party is an example of this pan-Arabism.