Are the Right to Imamate and to Officiating Nikah Inherited?

Question

There is a man among us who does not keep to fasting and prayer. His late grandfather kept to fasting and prayer and was a government-approved qadi; here it was he who carried out the duties of [leading] the prayer of the two Eids and of officiating nikah. He had the ability to carry out these tasks. The respected qadi died long ago; indeed, his son has also passed away.

Answer

The one entitled to the imamate is he who knows the rulings of purity (tahara) and prayer, is sound in creed, recites the Noble Qur’an correctly, follows the sunna and keeps to the Shari‘a. If these qualities are present in the grandson of the late respected imam, then it is better to keep him as imam: behind such a person the prayer of everyone, [including] the scholar and…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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