God bless the King of Saudi Arabia

This news on Friday yesterday made my day , really it is one of the most important and historical moments in the history of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

Some may consider a small step but as JFK once said "Small step on a moon , big step for humanity" , it is the same thing happened in Saudi Arabia on Friday

King Abd Allah Al-Soud issued a royal decree that changed a 70 years tradition in the monarchy system concerning the succession system

Before I explain the decree ,I will explain the old system

"The old System in Saudi Arabia concerning who would be the king : The king and crown prince are always from the eldest sons of King Abdul Aziz , and thus non of the Grandsons of  Abdul Aziz would be kings nor crowns princes except till their last uncle , last son of King  Abdul Aziz ,the founder of the kingdom and whom the kingdom was called after his name , is dead "

As you it is a very stupid system , at first it wasn't bad , but now after 70 years it proves that it doesn't go along with both time and political demands in KSA

It was causing big problem now ,because the sons of  Abdul Aziz are getting older and older , in fact his grandsons are getting older too

Now only this ,the second and third generation got bored from waiting

Not to mention the criticism from the public and the west

But now it is changed the last king to be chosen and rule according to this system will be inshallah crown prince Sultan Abdul Aziz after the current King' Abd Allah's death "after long time inshallah"

The change is to be the following:

The King decided to form the committee of El-Bay'ia "I will explain the term later", this committee consists of members from the Royal family , from the sons and grand sons of King Abdul Aziz, the rule of this committee is to organize the succession process and assess the health conditions of both the king and his crown prince . This committee headquarter will be in Ryad and will be headed by the oldest members of the Royal family, the regular meetings of this committee can be held with 1/3 of the members , yet its decisions will be reached to by majority through secret voting "impressive is n't it!!" The Secretary general of this committee is Abdul Aziz El-Togary who was appointed by another royal decree

Choosing the crown prince will be through the following process , because the decree won't be effective as I said above until Crown Prince Sultan becomes the King ,Choosing  the crown prince Prince will be like that

• The king gives to the committee a list of names from one to three names , to let them choose the name they think it is suitable for the crown prince position and thus as a future King
• The Committee can reject the King's candidates and suggest another name
• If the king didn't accept the Committee's candidates , then there will be a secret voting in the committee on both candidates ,the king's and the committee's and this is in the period of one month

There will be another committee for  assessing and following up the health condition of both the king and his crown prince, it will be formed from five members ,three of them are deans of Medicine schools in the Kingdom, this committee will know whether the king and his crown prince are capable of doing their duties permanently or temporarily

If the Committee finds out that the king is incapable of doing his job permanently the following will happen :

A  "temporary  council for rule " will be formed from fives members from the committee of El-Bay'ia ,who are also royals and this committee duty is to rule the country ,till they find a suitable man for the job from the family in the time of 7 days

I respect this move so much yes it is a small tiny more , but it is a great one

 Now here are some quick links about the change and new system from Al-Arabya.net and GN4ME yet unfortunately both in Arabic I couldn't find an English article or essay about the change and I am surprised because it is a significant one ,yet its media coverage was very modest ,I don't know ,I feel it is so quiet ,may be because it came suddenly ,may be because it is Ramadan and it was the last Friday in it ,I don't have a clue , but one thing I believe is that the Saudi Palace itself could be behind this quiet coverage , may be they don't want a cheering circus , despite it already pleased most of Saudi citizens ,if you can read Arabic,I recommend that you read the comments in Al-Arabya coverage

Link to أمر ملكي بإنشاء هيئة البيعة لاختيار ولي العهد مستقبلا بالسعودية

And here is also from GN4ME and the opinions of the people in BBC Arabic

El-Bay'ia system :

This word I could not find an English word for it , the only word I found in several dictations is "Selling" and thus I will explain it to you historically ,it is very interesting

El-Bay'ia system in Islamic Shri'a or Islamic laws is similar to the modern elections system in choosing the ruler

You will be surprised that before the modern democratic system in the west , this system was applied in Arabia ,in the Islamic State

After the death of Prophet Mohamed "PBUH",the Muslims had to choose as a successor , as the Prophet didn't recommend anyone ,and thus the leaders of the tribes in Arabia gathered in El-Medina to  choose who would rule the new Muslim State ,they chose the successor by majority voting , for the first four successors,they were chosen by that wonderful system ,which is based upon the Islamic verses saying "the matters of Muslims to be discussed among them" .

This system as I said was used until the Ummyadi came to rule and brought Monarchy and canceled that wonderful system and thus the first division between Muslims that caused later the split in the belief that led to the existence of Shiite and Sunni was caused by political reason

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