Part 13

the most degenerate of people.

Indeed, the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him

peace, have come true: He said,

ʹʺThese nations will persistently beckon you, like food to a hungry

man." Someone asked, ʺBut who will be fewer then?" He replied,

ʺIndeed in these days you will be many but you will be like flotsam and

jetsam on the sea, for Allah will strip fear of you from the breasts of

your enemies and He will cast faintheartedness into you." They said,

ʺWhat is this faintheartedness?ʺ He said, ʺLove of the world and a

A large part of the imbalance in Muslim life today is due to the handiwork

of men who, disguised as scholars, have persuaded people to substitute human

speculation for the Shariʹah of Allah. Surely they will carry the full burden of

their actions, and also that of those whom they have lead astray, until the Day of

Resurrection. Islam will not be sullied by them. May Allah preserve the ulamaʹ

from among our rightly guided predecessors who guarded the gates of Islam so

that none of its enemies could penetrate beyond them.

Ibn Kathir discusses the condition of the Muslim Nation in the days of the

Tartars. Discussing in his Tafsir the ayah:

87 Abi Hibbatuʹllah Ismaʹil al‐Khateeb, Tahdheer Al alI‐man ʹan alHukm bighayri ma Anzalaʹr‐

Rahman, in Rasaʹil al‐Muniriya, 1139.

88 Abu Baud, Kitab al‐Malahim, 4/484. (4297); Mishkat al‐Masabih; also alBaihaqi; al‐Albani

Is it a judgement of the time of ignorance that they seek??(5:50)

ʹThe law of Allah encourages whatever is beneficial and

discourages whatever is detrimental. Allah has rejected all who

would depart from it, and who accept the views, opinions, and

conventions determined by men without any support from the

Shariʹah. This was done in the times of the Jahiliyya, when people

ruled by chance and blind conjecture in accordance with their own

ʹSo too do the Tartars rule, in accordance with their own royal

policy, pronounced by their king Ginghis Khan, which they call the

Yasaq. This Yasaq is a hotchpotch of all of the rules and systems

that they have come across, taken from the Jews and the Christians

and the Muslims, with many elements added which are based

purely on their whims and fancies. This, they say, is the law of the

land to which they give precedence, above the Book of Allah and

the Sunnah of His Prophet. Whoever amongst them does this is a

disbeliever who must be opposed until he returns to the rule of

Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him

peace. Such a person should not rule even for a day.ʹ 89

Shaikh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al‐ash‐Shaykh outlines the ways in

which a ruler may commit the greater disbelief that takes a person out of Islam:

'If the ruler who rules by other than the Revelation of Allah challenges the

legal obligation to rule by the Shariʹah then he is outside Islam. This is the

meaning of what has been reported by al‐Tabari on the authority of Ibn

Abbas, who said that there is no disagreement among the ulamaʹ about

someone who challenges the legitimacy of the Shariʹah; that this is a

fundamental point about which everyone agrees; and that anyone who

challenges a fundamental point of belief or even a secondary issue that all

the ulamaʹ are agreed about or who denies any part of the Revelation out

of hand, is a disbeliever and is not a part of this Community. 90

89 Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, 3/123.

If such a ruler does not challenge the legitimacy of the Shariʹah, but

believes that he rules by a better system of law than that which the

Prophet observed, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, a system

which in his opinion is more coherent and more suited to the needs of the

people in the face of their changing needs and circumstances, then there

can be no doubt that he too is a disbeliever. He has formulated a rule that

can never compete with that of Allah. There is no issue whatsoever whose

answer is not contained in the text of the Qurʹan and the Sunnah, either

explicitly or implicitly; whether or not a person knows this is a different

If a ruler does not believe that what he has is better than the Shariʹah, but

still thinks that it is at least equal to it, then he is like the others. This is

disbelief that takes him out of the community, because it seeks to equate a

creature with his Creator. This is also true of someone who believes that a

ruler has a right to deviate from the Shariʹah in the way that the three

types of rulers outlined above do.

It is even worse still when a person stubbornly supports his own rule in

opposition to that of Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and

grant him peace, aggrandizing it at the expense of the Shariʹah. This is

what modern secular rulers do, whose recourse is to French, British and

American law, or to whatever else they please to choose from non‐Muslim

systems. What could be greater disbelief than this? What could be more

excessive than this in contradicting the declaration of faith, ʹThere is no

god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messengerʹ? 91

Finally, there is the disbelief of many of the chieftains of the tribes and the

clans of the Bedouins and others like them who cling to the tales of their

ancestors, to their habits and their traditions. These form a kind of

inherited common law by which they rule themselves in preference to,

and in spite of, the revealed law of Allah.

Then there is the type of disbelief that does not take one out of the

community, and which Ibn Abbas termed ʹa disbelief less than disbelief.

Thus someone who is overcome by his own desires in a particular

situation may act contrary to the Shariʹah, and yet still be aware that he is

acting wrongly. He may later reproach himself for his error and failure to

follow the guidance of Allah. Even though this action does not take him

out of the community, it is still a very great sin, greater than fornication or

drinking or theft. Allah has called this ʹdisbelief, so it is more grave than

other wrong actions which have not been described in this fashion. 92

It is because of the significance and importance of the matter that we have

examined the subject of governance in detail. To ally oneself with a ruler who

does not rule by what Allah has revealed, to approve of his rule and the

implementation of legislation under his authority ‐ saying this is lawful, that is

unlawful, without the permission of Allah is a contradiction of the declaration of

faith. Allah is the only God, to whom all devotion from the heart is due, in love,

and in awe, and in obedience, and in submission.

Such behaviour is a contradiction of the statement, ʹMuhammad is the

Messenger of Allahʹ, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, since whoever

truly believes this will follow what the Messenger has commanded and leave

what he has forbidden and what he has criticised. If people only understood this

fact then tyranny could not persist, nor could it establish disbelief and push the

Shariʹah of Allah to one side. The second matter that should be considered in this

context is the helping and assisting of the disbelievers against the Muslims.

Helping the Disbelievers against the Muslims

And whoever of you takes them for friends is (one) of them. Surely

Allah does not guide wrongdoing people. (5:51)

This is a major contradiction of the declaration of faith into which many

people today have fallen. They are nominally Muslims and still apparently

within the fold of the faithful. And yet, we have come to feel a certain

embarrassment when it comes to calling a spade a spade, to saying to the

supporters of kufr, ʹYou are disbelievers!ʹ

Some people even see this as impertinence in view of the wonder and

awe, and the fear and anxiety that they feel for the enemies of Allah. And so the

matter of setting the pace, of setting an example, has given way under the weight

of their feebleness of faith. They are dazzled by the enemies of Allah and long to

be like them, even to the point that if they entered the den of a wolf they would

From whatever perspective you look, the picture is the same. From the

leanings of the heart, to the imitation of the disbelieversʹ godless ways, to the

adoption of their laws, to the exposing of our own shame to them, almost every

aspect of our lives is subjected to the disbelievers in some way or another.

An awareness of the true nature of our belief and its antithesis is

accordingly of vital importance, for this alone will make us watchful over our

own behaviour, which must be based upon what the Shariʹah requires, and not

upon other peopleʹs fantasies and desires.

You must ally yourself only to Allah, and to His Messenger, and to the

believers, and you must cut yourself off from whoever or whatever else demands

to be followed, desired or feared and turns you away from Allah and His

Messenger, may the blessings and peace of Allah be on him and on his family

and on his companions and on all who follow him and them in what they are

able, with sincerity, until the Last Day.

Allah taʹAla: Allah, the Most High, the Lord of all the worlds. Allah, the

supreme and mighty Name, indicates the One, the Existent, the Creator, the

Worshipped, the Lord of the Universe. Allah is the First without beginning and

the Last without end and the Outwardly Manifest and the Inwardly Hidden.

ahluʹl‐sunnah waʹ1‐jamaʹa: the people who follow the sunnah of the

Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and who hold

together as a community on that basis.

ʹalim: a man of knowledge from amongst the Muslims who acts on what

ʹaqeedah: belief or faith firmly based on how things are, rather than on

how they may be imagined. Thus ʹaqeedah can only fully be derived from an

original revelation from Allah and from the sayings of the Messenger to whom it

was revealed: in this age, the Qurʹan and the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah

bless him and grant him peace

ayah: a sign, a verse of the Qurʹan.

ayat: the plural of ayah.

baraʹ: withdrawing from and opposing all that is displeasing to Allah and