It is of the utmost importance that all in the Ummah understand clearly
the principles of ruling and its evidences in the same way in which we
work to understand fully all other obligations (furood). However, a few
guidelines need to be established before studying the principles of ruling
in Islam. For instance, the absence of any single principle will make the
system a non-Islamic system. Thus, all the principles have to exist in
order for it to be considered an Islamic Ruling System, e.g. if the
sovereignty does not belong to the Allah (swt) and the leader forces his
own rule on the people, the State can no longer be considered an Islamic
State. Simply put, there must be proper conditions laid down that qualify
a state to become an Islamic State, otherwise any state could claim
illegitimately to be so, as is currently the case with countries such as
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan etc.