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April 11, 2005

Are Elections Haram? Says Who? And Based on What? Part 4

Section: WRITINGS | 111 reads

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Rejoicing with Divine Expressions:

When human beings get excited they often seem to have a need to resort to animated and colorful use of language. Some of the expressions they choose on these occasions invoke bad outcomes for themselves or for others.

Islam teaches us how to cope with that human need too. It gives us a supply of expressions that provide psychological relief, capture the mood and also at the same time fill our life as well as our world with immeasurable divine blessings.

Among such divine expressions in the Qur’an are the following:

Alhamdulillah!

It means all praise belongs to God.

You say it when good things happen. And on every other occasion.

For, no matter what happens, to you or to anyone else, God still deserves to be praised.

Mashallah!

It means that is what God willed and how wonderful is what God willed.

It is an expression of joy and rejoicing at something good that has happened.

Therefore, as I feel good and wonderful about Muslims being the West, and as my natural human inclination looks for ways to express this feeling in words, I cannot do better than to express the exuberance of the moment in words like Alhamdulillah!

And Mashallah!

And, of course, Allahu Akbar!

All that these expressions mean in this context is how wonderful it is that it is so: That we Muslims are in, of and from the West.

And that we are “The West.”

Even in times as hard as the ones the world is currently going through.

And even in times as hard as the ones the Muslims in particular are going through right now.

Forgetting a Fundamental Fact:

It is this fundamental and all-important fact – the fact that we Muslims are in fact the West – that some of us Muslims seem to forget, as do a lot of non-Muslims also, while we bicker and fight over things like whether elections are Halaal, Haraam or Fard or something else.

And while we squander our energies and opportunities debating such non-issues and irrelevancies as whether elections and democratic forms of government are a Western invention or an exotic Eastern concoction.

15. Ignoring a Beautiful Hadith

In doing all this, we ignore the simple fact that if there are three or more of us human beings in a place, then the best way for us to arrive at a commonly acceptable decision is through mutual debate, discussion, opinion sharing and agreement.

But when our numbers reach hundreds of thousands or more, the best way for us to arrive at mutually agreed decisions is through balloting, referenda and elections.

How beautifully the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, captures this scenario, which I paraphrase here:

When three of you set out on a journey,
let them appoint one of them as their leader!

“Let them!” That is what the Hadith says.

And that says it all.

Wallahu A’alam! Allah knows best.

Allahumma Aslih Ummata Muhammadin, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!

Ya, Allah! Straighten out the affairs of the Ummat of Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!

This brings us to the end of Part IV of Are Elections Haram? Says Who? And Based on What?

Inshallah, we will bring you Part V as soon as Allah enables us to finish working on it.

But do bear in mind, however, that our manuscripts are mostly drafts in need of further research and revision, which we are often unable to undertake or complete due to time and resource constraints.

End of Part 4 of 8

Written, January 2001
Modified, 2004, 2005

(To be Revised)

© 2005 Syed Husain Pasha

Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional 
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at] 
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.

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