[From the speeches of the Annual Khilafah (Caliphate) Conference organized by the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir on Saturday, 21 Rajab 1447 AH, corresponding to 10 January 2026 CE, broadcast via the TV channel of the Hizb, Al-Waqiyah TV under the title, “The Khilafah (Caliphate): The Vital Issue of the Ummah”]
Concluding Speech: Can we establish the Khilafah in a time of weakness and fragmentation?
Engineer Salah Eddine Adada, Director of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

In the name of Allah (swt), and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah (saw), his family (ra), his Companions (ra), and those who follow him.

The Islamic Ummah today is grappling with pressing questions, especially after what has happened in Syria, Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, and other places. These questions can be summarized in four points:

1. Can Muslims establish their Khilafah (Caliphate) today if they decide to do so?

2. If Muslims were to restore their Khilafah today, could it survive a decisive blow?

3. If the Khilafah were established today, could it be self-sufficient if it were subjected to a security and economic blockade?

4. The final question is: If the Khilafah were established today, could it keep pace with the technological advancements and strategic capabilities that the world has reached?

As for the first question: Can Muslims establish their Khilafah today if they decide to do so?

The answer is yes, they can establish their Khilafah today, and in fact, they are capable of establishing it within hours... yes, hours. We have seen the Islamic Ummah overturn the balance of politics and security in several countries with unprecedented speed. The Islamic Ummah is proactive, swift, and united in its purpose. If it resolves to achieve something that it deems beneficial, it will persevere and sacrifice blood, lives, and wealth to attain it. Then we see it interacting with itself, with its members inspiring one another to achieve this goal, leading to coordinated actions that often transform into fierce confrontations, as we witnessed during the Arab Spring in a region where all the rulers were tyrants.

The reason for this speed, decisiveness, and unity lies primarily in Islam itself, as the thoughts and feelings of Muslims are guided by a political compass. Muslims, in general, have memorized the key events of Islamic history since childhood, including:

1. The beginning of the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad (saw) in the cave of Hira

2. The embracing of Islam by the prominent Companions (ra)

3. The Hijrah (migration) to al-Madinah and the construction of al-Masjid al-Nabawwi

4. The Battle of Badr

5. The Battle of Uhud

6. The Battle of the Trench

7. The Conquest of Makkah

8. The death of the Messenger of Allah (saw)

9. The Khilafah (Caliphate) of the Khulafaa Rashidoon (Rightly Guided Caliphs) after him (saw)

If we examine this, we see that it is a political lesson in the stages of state-building that all Muslims have learned. This makes the Muslims’ response to the idea of establishing a Khilafah very rapid, as it is one of the fundamentals of their conception of the correct Islamic way of life.

For those who still doubt that Muslims are prepared for the Khilafah system, let them observe how millions of Muslims line up for Salah at the same moment in the Grand Masjid in Makkah. These are people from all corners of the world who do not know each other, yet they organize their rows for congregational Salah in silence without anyone speaking to another. This awe-inspiring scene of Muslim unity continues to baffle other nations of the world.

While Western societies harbor animosity towards one another, and during internal crises, they turn against each other, we find that Muslims show compassion for one another and stand together in the darkest of times. This is what we have witnessed in the solidarity campaigns with afflicted Muslim countries such as the Blessed Land of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, and others. Therefore, it can be said that the response of the Islamic Ummah to the establishment of a Khilafah today, especially with the advancements in communication technologies, could happen within hours.

The second question is: If Muslims were to restore their Khilafah today, would it be able to withstand an attempt at a decisive blow?

The events of the Syrian revolution and the events in Gaza have confirmed that a decisive blow against the Islamic Ummah is itself a figment of the imagination, and those who promote this idea are only spreading illusion and weakness among Muslims. We saw how the Jewish entity, backed by America, failed to deliver a decisive blow to Gaza, even though the rulers of the region assisted them. They inflicted unprecedented destruction on Gaza, and if any other non-Muslim nation in the world had been subjected to such brutal bombardment, they would have raised the white flag of surrender as soon as the number of martyrs reached the thousands. This confirms that, by Allah’s will, the Islamic Ummah is immune to a decisive blow.

We also saw this in Syria, where the people of Syria persevered in the face of bombs, barrel bombs, and death squads for twelve years until they overthrew the tyrant who had been imposed upon them, despite the West’s persistent attempts throughout the revolution to convince them that the solution lay in political understanding with the tyrant, not in his overthrow. Therefore, we say that the Islamic Ummah today cannot be dealt a decisive blow, as those who spread despair try to portray. On the contrary, recent years have confirmed that the Islamic Ummah, with its rapid response to sincere movements, will confound the entire West. Every time the West tries to deal with the emerging reality, the Islamic Ummah imposes a new reality on them, forcing them to step back and reconsider their decisions. We have seen this happen in the early days of all the sincere movements undertaken by the Islamic Ummah in recent years.

The third question is: If the Khilafah were established today, could it be self-sufficient if it were subjected to a security and economic blockade?

The answer is that Islam spread to where people lived naturally, meaning that Islam is prevalent among the populations of the world’s richest countries in terms of natural resources and those with the highest standards of living. From the green Atlas Mountains in the Morocco to the Nile Valley, to ash-Sham, to the Arabian Peninsula with its precious resources, through the Indian Subcontinent, and all the way to Southeast Asia in Malaysia and Indonesia. All Muslim countries are so rich in resources that the rest of the world needs them, but they do not need the rest of the world. They also lie along global trade routes, meaning that they are capable of blockading the world, not the other way around. We have seen how the West historically crossed continents and oceans to colonialize these lands because of their resources and invaluable geographical location. And we haven’t even mentioned the most important resource of the Islamic Ummah: its human resources, the Muslims themselves. Muslim populations are vast and young, with most of their people in their youth, unlike the West, which is beginning to fear that it will not be able to stop the clock on its aging population.

As for the security aspect, the geographical and numerical spread of Muslims has confirmed that the idea of blockading them is a futile one, especially since Muslim countries are interconnected. When the Khilafah is established, the first thing it will call for is the removal of borders between Muslim countries to unify them into a single political entity. Therefore, from the very first moment, the Khilafah will be in a state of continuous expansion, making its blockade a difficult task.

And as for the fourth and final question: If the Khilafah were to be established today, would it be able to keep pace with the technological advancements and strategic capabilities that the world has reached?

To answer this question, let each of us look around and see how many of our sons and daughters have spread throughout the world in pursuit of knowledge and learning. The world’s most prestigious universities and research centers are filled with Muslim scientists. And we have seen how these individuals became a phenomenon that bewildered the entire West when they turned out in large numbers at the most reputable universities to demonstrate and stage sit-in protests in support of Gaza.

The issue of brain drain is a temporary one that will inevitably reverse itself when the right conditions for their return are met. We have seen that whenever hope is rekindled in a Muslim country that it will overcome corruption and rebuild itself civically, its sons and daughters flock back from around the world, to contribute their knowledge and expertise to the effort of uplifting their homeland. This confirms that the Muslim World possesses scientific and intellectual capabilities, but these are scattered across the globe. All that is needed is for the Muslim World to build a safe and secure environment, and then we will see these capabilities return like a mighty river, contributing their knowledge and expertise to build a thriving Muslim civilization that will rank among the leading nations of the world.

On this, the 105th anniversary of the destruction of the Khilafah, Hizb ut Tahrir calls upon the sincere, active, and capable sons and daughters of the Islamic Ummah to join the ranks of those doing good deeds to establish the Second Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly Guided Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood. They must realize that claims of postponing its establishment due to weakness and disunity are mere illusions that must be quickly dispelled, and that they must then strive diligently to restore it without delay.

Wassalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatahu.