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In The Name Of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful
Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatuallahi wa barakatuhu
Judging or ruling according to other than what
Allaah has revealed
By
Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid
"He hath ordained for you that religion which He
commended unto Noah, and that which We inspire in thee (Muhammad), and
that which We commended unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying:
Establish the religion, and be not divided therein. Dreadful for the
idolaters is that unto which thou callest them. Allah chooseth for
Himself whom He will, and guideth unto Himself him who turneth (toward
Him). (42:13)
Judging or ruling according to other than what Allaah has revealed is
contrary to faith and Tawheed, which are Allaah's rights. It may be
counted as kufr akbar (greater kufr) or kufr asghar (lesser kufr)
according to circumstances.
By examining this topic from different angels, it becomes clear that
what is counted as kufr akbar is the following:
1. Abolishing sharee'ah as the law governing a country,
as Mustafa Kemal ("Ataturk") did in Turkey, as he abolished the book Majallah al-Ahkaam
al-'Adliyyah which was based on the Hanafi madhhab, and replaced it with
man-made laws.
2. Abolishing sharee'ah courts.
3. Imposing man-made laws, such as Italian, French, German law,
etc., to judge between the people, or mixing these laws and Sharee'ah,
as Genghis Khan did in his book al-Yaasiq, which combined laws from
different sources; the 'ulamaa' (scholars) ruled that he was a kaafir.
4. Confining the role of sharee'ah courts to so-called "civil"
matters, such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.
5. Setting up non-sharee'ah courts.
6. Discussing sharee'ah in parliament and voting on it; this
indicates that implementing sharee'ah is conditional upon a majority
vote.
7. Making sharee'ah a secondary or main source, along with other
sources of law. Even when they say that sharee'ah is the primary source
of legislation, this is still kufr akbar, because it means that they are
allowing the adoption of laws from other sources too.
8. Stating in the clauses of legislation that reference may be
made to international law, or stating in treaties that in the case of
dispute, the matter may be referred to such-and-such non-Islamic court.
9. Criticizing sharee'ah in public or in private, such as saying
that it is rigid, incomplete or backward, or suggesting that it is
incompatible with our times, or expressing admiration for non-Islamic
laws.
As regards the question of when ruling by other than what Allaah
revealed is kufr asghar, which does not exclude a person from the ummah
of Islam:
The answer is that this may be the case when a ruler or judge passes
judgement according to other than what Allaah revealed out of
disobedience or on a whim, or as a favour to someone, or because he was
bribed, and so on, although he believes that it is obligatory to judge
according to what Allaah has revealed, and that what he has done is a
sinful and haraam deed.
As regards the one who is governed by a non-Islamic law, if he refers to
it out of choice, then he is a kaafir whose kufr akbar means that he has
left Islaam. But if he has no choice but to refer to this law, and does
so reluctantly, then he is not a kaafir, because if he had been able to
resort to sharee'ah, he would have done so, and he believes that this
non-Islamic law is false.
And Allaah knows best. May Allaah bless our Prophet Muhammad.
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