Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Premier, and Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin naïf bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior, received at the Governance Palace in Riyadh this evening princes, the Kingdom's General Mufti, Ulema, ministers, senior officials and citizens who came to offer their allegiance-pledge based on the holy Quran and the sayings and deeds of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) to the leadership as king, Crown Prince and Deputy Crown Prince respectively.

At the outset of the meeting, the General Mufti of the Kingdom Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Al-Shiekh, who is also Chairman of the Senior Ulema Commission, the Administration of the Religious Research and Ifta, announced that "we are, on this day, the third of Rabee'a Al-Thani of the year 1436 H., offer our allegiance-pledge to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Salman bin Abdulaziz as King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the teachings of the holy Quran and the sayings and deeds of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) and we also offer our allegiance-pledge to Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz as Crown Prince and Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz as Deputy Crown Prince".

He said "ours is a true and sincere allegiance-pledge upon which we are committed to pay our leaders every hearing, loyalty and obedience as long as he/they are doing what pleases God. We are never to go rebellions since this is a pledge based on Sharia law and Sunnah of the Prophet".

He cited the history of the allegiance-pledge as an Islamic tradition for how power would peacefully be transferred from an outgoing leader to another one from among the living people.

The Mufti considered the peaceful transfer of power from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz as a great achievement and one of the graces of Allah on this country, a tradition that leads to security and stability.

He appealed to Allah Almighty to help the new king run his duties as monarch of this country smoothly, advising him to fear God in all cases, perform the five prayers on time as well as the additional and optional prayers and become keen to unite the people of the country and protect their religion, economy, security and stability.

Then all the attendance offered allegiance-pledge to King Salman bin Abdulaziz, his Crown prince and Deputy Crown Prince upon the Islamic Sharia law and Prophet's Sunnah.