Author: islamciv

Should we fear an Islamic Government in Syria?

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Zaid bin Thabit narrated that, we were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ collecting the Qur’an on pieces of cloth, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: طُوبَى لِلشَّأْمِ “Blessed is Ash-Sham!”[1] So we said: فَقُلْنَا لأَىٍّ ذَلِكَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ  “Why is that O Messenger of Allah?” He said: لأَنَّ مَلاَئِكَةَ الرَّحْمَنِ بَاسِطَةٌ أَجْنِحَتَهَا عَلَيْهَا “Because the angels of Ar-Rahman spread their wings over it.”[2] There is no doubt that the victory of the Syrian revolution took everyone by surprise, even the rebels themselves. As one shocked commentator wrote, “The war in Syria was supposed to be over.”[3] What started off as a limited campaign turned in to a lightening offensive which encompassed the entire country, and ended decades of torture, oppression and tyranny by the Assad regime. Despite all their overt and covert military and political support to Assad, the powers Russia, America, Israel and Iran couldn’t prevent the plan of Allah. وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ ٱللَّهُ ۖ وَٱللَّهُ خَيْرُ ٱلْمَـٰكِرِينَ “They planned, but Allah also planned. And Allah is the best of planners.”[4] The …

Christians in 1970s Syria

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This is an excerpt from John McHugo’s ‘Syria: A Recent History’ where he describes his experiences with the Christian community of Syria in 1974. The fact that Christians made up 10% of the Syrian population prior to the civil war, is a testament to their protection and fair treatment under 1300 years of Islamic rule. The social norms John McHugo observed among the Christian communities in the 1970s show the remnants of this rule. John McHugo is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Syrian Studies at St Andrews University. A board member of the Council for Arab British Understanding and the British Egyptian Society, he is also chair of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine. He writes: I first went to Syria in November 1974 when I was twenty-three years old and studying Islamic history at postgraduate level at the American University in Cairo. I had planned a week walking in the mountains which run parallel to the coast. Armed with a sleeping bag and ground sheet, I got off the bus at the …

Why is the head of an Islamic State called a caliph?

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The term khaleefah (خليفة) or caliph, literally means successor or deputy. Imam Al-Mawardi says, “Imamate[1] is prescribed to succeed prophethood as a means of protecting the deen and of managing the affairs of this world. There is a consensus of opinion that the person who discharges the responsibilities of this position must take on the contract of Imamate of the Ummah.”[2] Throughout Islamic history the caliphs were known by multiple titles. It’s important to note however, that you don’t need to be explicitly called a caliph to be a caliph. In fact, a leader today or in history may take a title used by the caliphs of the past, or even have the title ‘caliph’ but they are not caliphs. Can we use any title for the caliph? Abdul-Qadeem Zallum answers this question. According to his opinion he says, “With regards to his title, it could be the Khaleefah, or the Imam or the Amir of the believers…It is not obligatory to adhere to these three titles, rather it is allowed to give whoever takes …

Ibn Badis’s 13 Foundations of Islamic Rule

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Abdel-Hamid ibn Badis (d.1940) is the founder of the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema, which was a national grouping of many Islamic scholars in Algeria from many different and sometimes opposing perspectives and viewpoints. The Association would have later a great influence on Algerian Muslim politics up to the Algerian War of Independence. In the same period, it set up many institutions where thousands of Algerian children of Muslim parents were educated. The Association also published a monthly journal, the Al-Chihab and Souheil Ben Badis contributed regularly to it between 1925 and his death in 1940. The journal informed its readers about the Association’s ideas and thoughts on religious reform and spoke on other religious and political issues. Here are his thirteen foundations (usul) of Islamic rule: 1- ‘No one has the right of wiliyah (trusteeship) of any matter among the matters of the ummah except by the conferral of trusteeship by the ummah. The ummah has the right and the authority to confer trusteeship and remove it…’ 2- And that ‘the one who is …

Hassan al-Banna’s Pillars of Islamic rule

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This is an excerpt from the letters of Imam Hassan al-Banna. Islamic government is based on a well-established principle, which forms the basic structure of the Islamic system of government. It is based on the responsibility of the ruler, the unity of the nation, and respect for its will. After this, different terminology and models are of no importance. Responsibility of the Ruler (Al-Hakim) The ruler is responsible before Allah and the people, he is their employee and worker. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, أَلاَ كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ، وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ “Each of you is a guardian and each of you is responsible for his charges.”[1] Abu Bakr (ra) said when he assumed power and ascended the pulpit: أيها الناس ، كنت أحترف لعيالي فأكتسب قوتهم ، فأنا الآن أحترف لكم ، فافرضوا لي من بيت مالكم “O people, I used to work as a professional for my family to earn their living, but now I work as a professional for you, so give me from your treasury.” With this, he explained the theory …

Ibn ʿĀbidı̄n’s Seven Levels of Jurist

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This is an excerpt from the book ‘Fatwa and the Making and Renewal of Islamic Law: From the Classical Period to the Present’ by Omer Awass.[1] The famous Ḥanafı̄ jurist Ibn ʿĀbidı̄n (d. 1252H/1836CE) in his treatise ʿUqūd rasm al-mufti outlines a hierarchy for mujtahideen (jurists) who occupy different authoritative levels within the Ḥanafı̄ madhhab. This structure that Ibn ʿĀbidı̄n lays out consists of seven levels (ṭabaqāt). al-mujtahidı̄n fı̄ al-sharʿ (Independent Jurists) The first, which stands at the very top of this classification, is the level of the absolute independent jurists of Islamic law (what he calls al-mujtahidı̄n fı̄ al-sharʿ, [also known as a mujtahid mutlaq], which consists of the madhhab predecessors of the four Sunnı̄ legal schools (Abū Ḥanı̄fa, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿı̄, and Ibn Ḥanbal). These were the second-/eighth- and third-/ninth-century jurists some of whose legal opinions were examined in previous chapters. His claim is that this class of jurists established original legal principles and extracted doctrine from the sources of the law without imitating other jurists in their legal principles or their doctrines. mujtahidūn …

The Dangers of Religious Fanaticism

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In this khutbah (sermon), Sheikh Yasir Qadhi tackles the subject of fanaticism, extremism and sectarianism which unfortunately we find among some sections of the Muslim Ummah today, especially those involved in Islamic activism and daw’ah. His talk outlines five dangers of fanaticism, five points on how to recognise fanaticism and three ways to protect ourselves from such ideas and groups. This is a paraphrased transcript of Yasir Qadhi’s khutbah on ‘The Dangers of Religious Fanaticism’. For the full lecture please watch the video below. Introduction During Hajj on the morning of Al-’Aqabah, our Prophet ﷺ told his cousin Ibn ‘Abbas to collect pebbles for throwing at the jamarat. So Ibn Abbas brought a whole bunch of pebbles and he showed them to the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ looked at this group of pebbles, and he picked from them all of the large ones, and he threw them away, and said, ‏ أَمْثَالَ هَؤُلاَءِ فَارْمُوا ‏ “Throw something like these (i.e. the small pebbles).” Then he ﷺ said to the people, يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِيَّاكُمْ …

Fanaticism breeds a hatred of kindness and compassion

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By Yasir Qadhi  When people start going down the dark road of extremism, not only does one cease to be compassionate to others, seeing compassion in others actually fuels one’s own extremism. That is why, from the beginning of time, extremism and fanaticism have been linked with harshness and a lack of mercy.  Ibn Muljam was the Khārijite who assassinated Alī b. Abī Ṭalib (r). An interesting story is mentioned in our history books that demonstrates this hatred of compassion.   Ibn Muljam was sitting in the sūq (market) of Kufa a few days before he murdered Ali (r), and he saw a large funeral procession pass by composed of both Christians and Muslims. He was disgusted at this and said, “What is going on?” meaning how dare Muslims and Christians be together in a funeral.   Someone said, “This is the funeral of Abjar b. Jābir [the chieftain of the Ijl tribe, who died as a Christian]. The Christians are here to honor him, and the Muslims are here to sympathize with his son Ḥajjār.” Ḥajjār …

Sovereignty in an Islamic State

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Sovereignty (siyadah سِيادَة or hakimiyyah حاكِمِيَّة) and Authority (sultah سُلْطَة) are the foundations (usul أُصُول) of the Islamic ruling system. In fact, these are the foundations of all ruling systems in existence whether Islamic, democratic, monarchical or dictatorial. Sovereignty and authority will ultimately define the principles (qawa’id قَواعِد) which branch off from these usul and which underpin all of the state’s institutions (ajhizah أَجْهِزَة). Therefore, we need to discuss these usul in order to understand the shape of the Islamic ruling system, and to give us a yardstick for assessing any ruling system or state – whether today or in history – to see if it conforms to Islam or not. Actions speak louder than words, and simply putting the shahada or other Islamic emblem on a flag, or calling oneself an “Islamic Republic” doesn’t make a government “Islamic”. What is sovereignty? Before we begin, it’s important to note that the sovereignty (siyadah) we are discussing here, is not Allah’s sovereignty (مُلْك) over man, life and the universe, which is a concept related to ‘aqeeda …

The principles related to a state imposing restrictions upon the mubah (permissible acts)

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This article is based on an excerpt from the book Al-Hakimiyah Wa Siyadah Ash-Shar’i, by Professor Muḥammad al-Mass’ari produced by the Renascence Foundation. It has become widespread among the masses[1] that the state is permitted to “Prevent and compel in the mubah” (المَنْع وَ الإِلْزام بِالمُباح), due to what some have called the public benefit (al-maslaha al-‘aamah). This understanding is based upon the premise that the shar’a has provided the legally responsible person (mukallaf) with a choice in performing or not performing the mubah. An erroneous view has arisen from this belief, which is the prohibition (tahreem) of what Allah and His Messenger have made halal, and obliging that which Allah ta’ala did not make obligatory, by compelling the subjects, and punishing them for their violations, without any clear shar’i restriction, or permission of Al-Shaari’ (the legislator) to do that. Allah ta’ala has rebuked the one who makes haram what He has made halal with the greatest rebuke, and has named the one who has done that from a legislative perspective as a mushrik. Allah …