Ml Bham says that “you cannot do nothing while you wait for the ideal” – the Khilafa. I agree. What I don’t agree with is that “doing something” is voting in a kufr system to improve our lot while we wait.
I also agree that calling to Istighfaar, Dhikrl, Dua and self reform, albeit very important, is not enough. There has to be a call to action. However that “action” is not voting.
Even if you believe that voting for an authority which challenges the sovereignty of Allah is permissible, (which it is not ) look at the effects of what you call towards:
1. You choose to be actively complicit in all the haraam that the party you vote for participates in.
2. Your vote being a drop in the river of 1.5% of Muslims out of the ocean of the entire population, has no meaningful impact on the results that can benefit the Muslims.
3. You only derive benefit benefit from your public demonstration of loyalty to the state or ruling party, hoping that it will win you favour with those in power.
4. The demonstration of loyalty as a strategy does not stop at voting- you must become a willing participant in their programmes of nation building including inter faith and supporting government initiatives even when it goes against your beliefs- like the closure of the Masaajid during covid. How many Shari laws have been bent and broken trying to appease those in power?
5. You must be seen to be patriotic to win favour. That is why your charity is marketed as “patriotic and humanitarian” rather than Islamic and open Da’wah.
6. You cannot do open Da’wah because that will mean interfering with the ruling party’s constituency and it runs contrary to your strategy of using patriotism to curry favour with power. You cannot steal the loyalty of their constituents, so you sacrifice the Sunnah of Da’wah for good relations with the state.
7. Voting for a party to show loyalty and avoid harm is not a principled position where you stand for something noble. It is an expedient one. It is the quality of the hypocrites to court power and sacrifice principle to stay alive or gain some benefit.
8. It is arguable that building a relationship of this nature with the state as a common Muslim, businessman or professional could be strategic to avoid oppression on the Muslim community. However, it inevitably leads to compromise of your Deen which can be a major sin or even kufr. As an Aalim however , when you compromise for political expediency , you don’t just sin and compromise yourself, you compromise the Deen of Allah with which you are entrusted, and the Deen of all those that follow you. You are then forced to justify the wrongs or be silent and this is what misleads the people because they believe that what you are doing is sanctioned by the Deen.
9. When you put yourself in a situation of loyalty and mutual benefit with the state or ruling party, all the so called “benefits” for the Ummah come at a price. To get the benefits you need to bring your constituency in line with what is expected by the state. Covid protocols are one of many examples of the quid pro quo playing itself out and Ulema selling a state position as a religious obligation. No different from selling voting as a religious obligation now.
10. How is it that when the party we vote for then enacts legislation against the Deen like the Bela bill and other evil legislation, we don’t accept responsibility for it? The social struggles we face as Muslims in trying to protect our Deen, are directly linked to the laws enacted by the parties we vote for. Are we then not responsible when lgbt is pushed down the throats of our children, prostitution is legalized, abortion is sanctioned or we are forced to comply with taxation and riba which are oppressive and haraam? Even then, those that promote political participation either avoid conflict with the state by pacifying their constituency with politically correct statements, or pretend to be saviours quoting the “holy”constitution as the only recourse to the ills. Islam in its true sense features very little in their solutions, if at all.
11. We cannot ignore the personal benefits that come with being the representative of a constituency to the ruling party. There are many perks, the least of which is status, privilege and recognition. It becomes hard to determine whether the representative is campaigning for the Muslims to the state or on behalf of the state to the Muslims. If it is the latter sold togther with a religious justification by a scholar, it is a very very scary thought.
So if not voting, then what?
What is the sunnah? There is nothing suggesting that our Nabi ﷺ encouraged participating in kufr politics in Makkah. The Muslims were certainly not complicit in choosing leadership like Abu Jahl. And if, as some have suggested, the oppressive leaders placed over us are on account of our actions (as stated in the hadith)- does the hadith refer to Muslim leaders OR kufaar leadership? How can it be referring to kufaar leaders when all the Ambiya had the worst of leaders over them and that could not have anything to do with their pure actions Na’oothubillah. There was always conflict between kufaar leadership and believers on the truth. Where is our conflict with kufr?
Our religious “leadership” across the spectrum avoid conflict and confrontation with the state. To do that they must avoid publicly putting forward the true and correct Shari position on political matters. Most are silent or call to self reform to deal with the oppression of kufr, others justify compromise in order to win favour or keep things on an even keel with those in power. Those that stand up for the truth are shut down from within and labeled, so that the correct Shari position is dismissed without thought because it is not sanctioned. Not sanctioned, not because it is wrong, but because it runs contrary to political expediency or a passive strategy of staying below the radar to avoid conflict with the state. It is scary how many institutions co operate with local intelligence agencies to diffuse any “radicalization” within the community.This is the consequence of being comfortable under kufr and wanting to preserve those few aspects of Islam which the kufaar “allow” us to practice upon. We are willing to trade the Deen at the highest levels for institutional and self preservation. What could be worse than that? How is that Leadership?
Our solution lies in the Sunnah. Our efforts should be in line with the Sunnah. We should be striving to establish Allah’s law on the earth. The heavens and the earth belong to Him. If we do not recognize the legitimacy of kufr rule over His earth, then we should not be asked by fellow Muslims to go elsewhere. Kufr has usurped Allah’s rights and we are simply opposing it in protest with whatever means we have available- even if it is doing as little as refraining from voting on principle.
We should give the message of Islam openly to those who disbelieve, notwithstanding the consequences. We must strive with our wealth and lives like the Sahabah did to bring the beauty of Islam to all. We do not need to fit in with kufr! It is a falsehood and we are the ones holding the truth. We have no right to keep it to ourselves. We have an obligation to share it with mankind and to “liberate mankind from the servitude of man to the servitude of Allah”, the Creator.
The striving has many forms. How many have we tried – the least of which is open dawah to the local people – the highest of which is Jihad. I am not advising reckless behavior. I am simply saying that we should be working towards the ideal in the meantime, rather than selling our Deen to stay safe in the interim. Yes it will bring with it difficulty- and we may not enjoy all the perks of compromise – but we will be clear by Allah Insha Allah and we will be following in the footsteps of those who came before us who were on the truth. They also did not enjoy the ideal immediately but they never chose the road of expediency over truth and sacrifice. Like them, we should not stop working towards the ideal, but we should do so in accordance with the Quraan and Sunnah.
Brothers and sisters while we wait for the ideal we cannot do nothing – but there are certainly many more things from the Quraan and sunnah that we should be doing rather than voting.
May Allah guide us all
(Source: Post on social media)