The Task at Hand

someone as a judge and this appointment is valid, it is because, once chosen, the caliph or governor becomes the representative of the Muslims. Through this representation, he gains, on their behalf, the authority to appoint a judge, and after such an appointment, the judge essentially becomes the deputy of the Muslim community itself. Judges believe that if the caliph or governor dies, the judge they appointed stays in office because his position comes from the Muslims themselves, who still exist. Since the authority that grants his position still exists, the death of the caliph or governor does not end his term. (See Bada’i al-Sana’i, Cairo 1910, vol. 7, p. 16, section: bayan ma yakhruju bihi al-qadi ‘an al-qada’). 3. The third key responsibility can be described, following the earlier discussion under the title “Witnessing and Introducing,” as the task of presenting Islam to those who do not know about God and His plan of creation—standing before them as carriers of both warning and glad tidings. After the conclusion of prophethood, Muslims are understood in this framework to act as representatives of the Prophet, tasked with sharing God’s message with all people. Thus, for Muslims, their immediate audience is the community of the land into which they were born. In this view,