如果哈里发一职因其领袖去世、辞职或被罢免而空缺，则有义务在哈里发职位空缺之日起三天内任命一位哈里发。

If the position of the Khilafah becomes vacant due to the death of its leader, his resignation or his removal, it is obligatory to appoint a Khalifah within three days from the date that the position of the Khilafah became vacant.

任命哈里发从前任哈里发去世或被罢免的那一刻起就成为义务。然而，如果任命是因为正在努力促成而发生在三天三夜之内，则是允许的。如果超过三夜，哈里发仍未被任命，则需要考虑：如果穆斯林正在努力建立哈里发制度，但因无法克服的压倒性环境而未能在三夜的时限内实现，那么罪责便从他们身上免除，因为他们忙于努力建立这一义务，并因使其延迟的任何原因而被迫推迟其建立。伊本·罕拜和伊本·马哲从伊本·阿拔斯处传述：安拉的使者ﷺ说：

Appointing the Khalifah becomes obligatory from the moment that the previous Khalifah dies or is removed. However, it is permitted for the appointment to occur within three days with their nights as long as it is due to working to achieve it. If it takes longer than three nights and the Khalifah has still not been appointed, then the issue is considered – if the Muslims are working to establish it but are unable to achieve that during the three night time limit due to overwhelming circumstances that they are unable to overcome, then the sin is lifted from them since they are busy working to establish the obligation and are compelled to delay its establishment due to whatever forced them. It is reported from Ibn Hibban and Ibn Maja from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said:

. » إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَضَعَ عَنْ أُمَّتِي الْخَطَأَ وَالنِّسْيَانَ وَمَا اسْ تُكْرِهُوا عَلَيْهِ « .