Are Elections Haram?
Says Who? And Based on What?
Part 1

Dr. Pasha

 

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1. Waa Islaamaah!

Waa Islaamaah!

That is what I say: Waa Islaamaah!

It is a distress cry – about the condition of Islam today. Poor, poor Islam! That is what it means: Waa Islaamaah!

And I will tell you why I am crying Waa Islaamaah!

It is a cry of deep distress and anguish, of the soul and mind, at the sad condition in which the most glorious system sent down by God to save humanity finds itself at the hands of its followers, and others, today – so many of whom deign, and dare, to speak in its behalf, no matter how little they may know or understand it.

Or how little they may understand the world in which Islam operates. And no matter how inadequately prepared and equipped they may be to do so.

Not so long ago, I was shown a Fatwa declaring elections to be Haram. It was in UK, I think. I call it a rejectionist, isolationist Fatwa.

But at bottom it may also be an un-Islamic one. For, elections and the fundamental right of choice they represent, is the way of life in Islam – the system God Almighty designed to run his world and which he then sent down at the hands of his messengers and prophets to guide, direct and organize human life on earth.

By seeking to keep Muslims from voting and from elections, this Fatwa rejects participation of Muslims in the political process in the West. And it seeks to isolate them from life around them – reducing Muslims and their communities to small, ineffective, marginalized, disfranchised ghettoes.

Anyone can see that it is a rejectionist, isolationist Fatwa. If some of you are shocked by this Fatwa, so was I. The logic behind the Fatwa was, I take it, if there was any logic to it at all, that elections were a Kafir concoction, opposed to the pure divine way of doing things in Islam – whatever that meant.

I am trying to reconstruct the argument here as best as I can. And then see if it holds any water.

Poor, poor Islam! I said to myself, over and over. Poor, poor Islam!

Waa Islaamaah!

Beycharah Islam, as they say in Urdu and Farsi.

Or Al-Islamul Mazloom, as you would say in Arabic. Or, as my own heart cries out every time I see or hear one of these things – among so many other things one sees and hears these days: Waa Islaamaah!

And Yaa Lal Islaam!

It means will someone help me! It means I am in distress, please help. My poor, poor Islam is in trouble, it is in need of help. Is there anyone who would help? That is what it means: Yaa Lal Islaam!

My heart cries out Waa Islaamaah! And Yaa Lal Islaam! at what so many non-Muslims seem to be doing to Islam and Muslims these days. And anyone with even the least amount of intelligence can see that some of them have set out to do some really terrible things to Islam and Muslims, reminiscent of the implacable hate and hostility the people of Makkah displayed for Islam, Muslims and the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, centuries ago.

And not very different from the wickedness and machinations that Pharaoh and his arrogant hordes displayed before that against another Prophet of Islam, Musa, Alaihis-Salam – till Almighty Allah caused the ocean to split and swallow them.

And my heart cries out saying Waa Islaamaah! and Yaa Lal Islaam! at what so many Muslims themselves seem to be doing to Islam and Muslims – some of them in the name of Islam itself.

Poor, poor Islam! And I say: with friends like these, who really needs enemies?

There are those among Muslims who have wanted Muslims to go back from wherever they are in America, France, the Netherlands, U.K. or Switzerland to wherever they think “back home” is. How little they seem to care for the fact that we are all from Allah and to him it is that we must return.

Where are the poor Muslims supposed to go? What are we supposed to do? And to whom are we supposed to complain? Who would know our pain and our despair and our sense of frustration and come forward to help us deal with them?

What source of comfort, counseling and support can we turn to? All we can do perhaps is cry out to Allah for help. And I do so using the most beautiful words of the Qur’an:

Waj-‘al Lanaa Mil-Ladunka Waliyyan
Waj-‘al Lanaa Mil-Ladunka Naseera (4:75).

Paraphrase:

Provide for us a friend and protector from you;
And provide for us a helper from you.

In our own humble and confused ranks, who has the knowledge, background, courage, ability, skill, wisdom, tact, sophistication, patience – and resources – to represent the case of Islam – and Muslims – adequately in today’s complex and sophisticated world?

Or to defend Islam effectively against the myriad misrepresentations, attacks and vilifications to which it is subjected these days so relentlessly, meanly, viciously and I should say shamelessly?

And do so properly, adequately, nicely, smartly, effectively, using nothing but the finest and the most beautiful of the means and techniques that the Qur’an teaches and advocates?

Wa Jaadilhum Billatee Hiya Ahsan!

Paraphrase:

And counter them with that which is nicer, sweeter and more beautiful and meaningful!

What a beautiful message! What an amazing teaching! And what a decisive refutation of all the nonsense that a lot of people with vested interests and with all kinds of personal, political and religious agendas and motives have started to throw so brazenly at Islam and Muslims these days!

That is what it means to say Waa Islaamaah and Yaa Lal Islam.

It is the distress call of a heart in agony, a soul in pain, a mortal near despair, a community in confusion and an entire generation of humans reduced to utter helplessness and subjected to a state of personal and cultural depression and dysfunction.

But Allah’s mercy – and the law of Islam – forbids despair and denounces helplessness. The Qur’an says:

Wa Man Yaqnatu Mir-Rahmatillahi
Illal Qawmul Kaafiroon.

Paraphrase:

Who but unbelievers will despair of the mercy of God?

And the amazing Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, says Allah does not like someone who in the face of necessity or adversity just sits around and does nothing. The Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, used to seek Allah’s protection from being such a hopeless, helpless person.

Al-‘Ajz is what he called it – a state of self-imposed helplessness and inefficacy that keeps a person from getting up and taking steps to control his environment and change his life and work to change the conditions in which he finds himself.

Inactivity and helplessness, therefore, are not options for us. Certainly, not in the name of Islam!

And while I am at it, let me also make it perfectly clear that there is no such thing as fatalism in Islam – no matter how much Islam’s own ill-informed and confused followers from inside, or its many ill-wishers of questionable knowledge and suspect motives from outside, may say there is.

So here it goes – Wallahul Musta’an – even though I am by no means the most qualified person to do it. Here is an attempt, a rather reluctant one, and certainly a very diffident and halting one, to represent what I believe is the position closest to the teachings and spirit of Islam on the question of Muslim participation in the political process in general and in voting and elections in particular.

But what it is really is a commonsensical review of a rather simple question: Are elections and voting really Haram in Islam?

And I undertake this review by simply asking a counter question: Says who and based on what?

And then I also have some other questions that I would like to ask the rejectionists.

For example, if elections and voting are not the way to go, and if consultation, consent, communication, consensus building and persuasion that accompany voting and elections are not the way to go, then what other way is there for a group of people to elevate some among them to positions of power and leadership?

What other possible alternative could there be to the method of talking to people, consulting and reasoning with them and persuading them to select one or more of them to govern them for a specified period of time using a specified set of laws, rules and procedures?

However, I do much of my review here without resorting to too many direct quotes from the Qur’an and Hadith in defense of my points, theses, positions, conclusions and arguments. My purpose in doing so is to avoid trivializing or making a mockery of the Qur’an and Hadith before people whose respect for them seems to be an open question.

So, you will not see me rush to quote the Qur’an or the Hadith directly or profusely in this book unless the context is quite clear and the room for disagreement and disputation quite minimal. Even though those with more than a surface knowledge of the Qur’an and Hadith can see that those are indeed the sources that permeate, inform and guide my thinking, analysis, evidence, argument, conclusions, logic and language.

Therefore what I seek here is rather to analyze and understand the question of political participation, elections and voting from the point of view of simple reason, logic, science, facts, practicality and common sense.

What many people – both Muslim and non-Muslim – don’t seem to realize is that all of these are really components, aspects and stages of this most amazing divine way of living life on earth that Allah calls Islam – the same system of laws Allah uses to govern his universe and which he humanized and sent down to earth for our benefit.

And that all of these have their natural and perfect home in his most amazing book, the Qur’an, as well as in the Hadith of his most amazing Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.

And that the struggle for freedom, dignity, justice, peace, equality and truth has been at the core of the mission of the prophets of Allah from Nuh, Alaihis-Salam, to Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam – a core that in the technical language of Islam is summed up under the overarching label of Tawhid or divine unity and oneness.

And which finds its quintessential expression in that most amazing and powerful of all expressions, La Ilaha Illa Allah!

No God but Allah!

These are the four words that changed the world, over and over and over, and will continue to do so as long as the world lasts, Inshallah – should that be the will and pleasure of Almighty Allah.

And which in turn finds its most complete, up-to-date, effective and successful human manifestation in the three words of Muhammad Rasul Allah (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam).

These three words – Muhammad, Rasul Allah (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) summarize all the teachings, wisdom, guidance, instructions, rules, regulations, models and methods that human beings need to live a truly meaningful, peaceful, fulfilling, successful life on earth – as individuals; as families; as groups, organizations and institutions; as cultures and societies; and as a comity of nations and peoples throughout the world.

And they guarantee an even better life for their adherents in the next life – the Aakhirah as the Qur’an calls it.

Such a beautiful life, lived under the divine shade of the seven words of La Ilaha Illa Allah, Muhammad Rasul Allah (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!), is the perfect formula for a perfect life, both here in this world as well as after death in the next world.

The Qur’an calls such perfect life Hayat Tayyibah – Life Beautiful!

Such a perfect life is in store for those men and women – that is right, that is exactly what the Qur’an says, from 1400 years ago: Min Dhakarin Au Untha (exact translation: male or female) – who embrace the message of La Ilaha Illa Allah, Muhammad Rasul Allah and do good things.

That is right – Min Dhakarin Au Untha (male or female). Those are the exact words that the Qur’an uses – coming out of a murderous, male-chauvinist Arabia, surrounded by a generally male-chauvinist world culture – dating back 1400 ago.

Min Dhakarin Au Untha – male or female!

This marks the end of Part I of Are Elections Haram? Says Who? Based on What?

We will bring Part II of Are Elections Haram? Says Who? Based on What? to you as soon as Allah makes it possible for us to do so.

Wallahu A’alam!

Wassalam!

End of Part 1 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.