Is pledge of Allegiance to a caliph\Imam mandatory?

Question

Assuming a caliph has been appointed for Muslims (like this one), is it obligatory for a Muslim to pledge allegiance to a caliph if he is uncertain?

from what I read in hadiths: Ali did not pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr for a full 6 months and also there were some tribes who did not pay allegiance. Also during the time of Husain there were many pious people who did not pledge alligience to any person , neither Husain nor Yazid ,so the question is it Ok to go without pledge of allegiance and die in that state assuming that a khalifa exists ?

Answer 1

Assalamualeikum deoband,

Clearly our allegiance is to Allah alone and Caliphs are just leaders choosen by the community. As they are humans they are bound to make mistakes,so we need not have allegiance to them. But still if someone is doing good (halal) work we must support them even if they are not "Caliphs".

It is Allah alone who knows about the character of that person, so suppose the Caliph fools everyone and succeeds in making us believe that he is a Caliph it would obviously not be obligatory to have any allegiance to him.