The Concept of the Commandery of the Faithful:

It means that the head of state manages the religious and worldly affairs of the country. It is the original system based on the guidance of the prophecy. The first person to have been given this title was the prophet’s second successor Omar Ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.

The legitimacy of the Commander of the Faithful in the Kingdom of Morocco is based on a written contract known as bay^ca (oath of allegiance). The first oath of allegiance, which is a contract that specifies the Emir’s obligations and the Muslim community’s commitments, was the bay^ca which the early Muslims pledge the Messenger of Allah.

In Morocco, and since the beginning of the ninth century A.D.; that is, with the start of the first Royal family in the Islamic era in this country, the king or the sultan, who also bears the title of “Commander of the Faithful”, assumes power on the basis of the bay^ca contract.

The Allegiance oath:

The bay^ca is drafted by religious scholars, and signed by the notables of the various groups in the Muslim community and society. These are the sharifs (the prophet’s descendants), heads of Sufi zawiyas (lodge of religious order or fraternity), military leaders, prominent merchants and craft masters.

Through this contract, the signatories confer legitimacy upon the new ruler in his capacity as commander of the Faithful and owe him allegiance in the things he likes and dislikes. The commander of Faithful pledges to the Muslim community to commit to what Sharia scholars call “major issues or general aspects”; that is, to safeguard for the Muslim community the following five matters: 1) religion, 2) life security, 3) public order based on the rules which the mind accepts, 4) justice, especially in financial transactions, 5)honor; that is, dignity according to religious ethics.

These commitments comprise the very same major rules found in the constitutions of the modern era. This is why Morocco finds no contradictions between its political life according to the bay^ca and its life according to the constitution.

Throughout the history of Morocco to date, the bay^ca pledged to the Commander of the Faithful is renewed every week through the preachers’ supplications pronounced for him in mosques on Friday.

A number of bay^ca documents are kept in the royal archives, some of whose copies have been recently published. Some of these documents date back to before the beginning of the Alawite dynasty whose reign began in the year 1668 AD.

Every year, on the second day of the Throne Day; that is, July 31, elected representatives hail from all regions of the kingdom to renew the oath of allegiance as the dignitaries from among their ancestors used to do.