The governor’s term of office in a particular province is not to be long. He must be discharged whenever he becomes firmly established in his province or the people become enchanted with him.

Its proof is that the Messenger (pbuh) used to appoint governors for a period and then remove them and no governor remained over his governorship for the complete period of the time of the Messenger (pbuh) . Ibn Abdul Birr conveyed in Al-Isti’ab that the Messenger (pbuh) appointed ’Uthman b. Abi Al-’As Al301 Thaqafi over Al-Ta’if; he remained there through the life of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and the Khilafah of Abu Bakr (ra) and two years of the Khilafah of Umar (ra) at which point he was removed, which was a rare occurrence. For most of the time of the Messenger (pbuh) , he would not extend people’s time as governors. This indicates that a governor is not appointed to a permanent governorship but rather he is appointed for a specific time and then removed. However, the length of his governorship is not defined by a specific period, long or short, since there is nothing that indicates that from the actions of the Messenger (pbuh) . The most that can be said about the issue is that most of the time the Messenger (pbuh) appointed a governor, he did not remain as a governor there through the whole of his time; rather he would appoint and then remove them.

Though it is permitted to extend the period of governorship such as what occurred with ’Uthman b. Abi Al-’As, however it is apparent that the length of the period of the governorship of Mu’awiyah in Al-Sham at the time of Umar (ra) and then ’Uthman (ra), caused what resulted in the strife which shook the entity of the Muslims, and so it is understood from this that lengthening the governorship of the governor in the province results in harm upon the Muslims and the State, and based upon this the words that the term of office for the governor is not to be long were drafted into this article.