Below is a response on Voting from Mufti Ebrahim Desai

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Assalaamu `alaykum waRahmatullahi Wabarakatoh

Voting is an integral part in a democratic dispensation and it determines who will be elected and who will be in power. As Muslims, if we desist from voting, we will have no option but to be under the rules of people elected in power. We are living in a non-Muslim country and we will have to abide by their existing system.

As opposed to that, we could be part of the system to minimize harm on our selves and vote for such members that will advance our views and help the course of Islam. We should use the voting system to our advantage to the best of our ability. Voting does not mean that we accept and promote all the evils of the country. If we go by that rationale, then our living in a non-Muslim country will also mean to support the evils of the country as we pay taxes to the Government which in turn uses the money to promote its values. By that rational, we should not be living in a non-Muslim country. In fact, if we oppose the evils of the Government, use the system available to us to combat the evils and prepare suitable candidates for positions and campaign to have them elected.

Many senior Ulama and Muftis have considered the issue of Muslims voting in a non-Muslim country and issue a decree to vote. Voting for an individual falls in the category of Tawkeel (representation).

Q: Is it permissible to take part in the forthcoming SA democratic elections, by voting or standing as a candidate, etc.?
A: It is permissible to take part with the following conditions; a) there is no obtstacle in accomplishing the laws of Islam, b) one is able to serve the Muslims, and, c) one is able to save the Muslims from oppression. (Fataawa Mahmoodiya vol.13 pg. 425)

(Al-Mahmood No. 4 , May 1999)

And Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

Wassalam

Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Darul Iftaa, Madrassah In’aamiyyah

Pure Islam published a short article on voting, Islam & democracy. Many might disagree with the sentiments below and go ahead and vote anyway, please make sure your Niyah (intentions) is correct & islamic.

Assalaamu alaikum warahmatullah

Indeed All praise belongs to Allah SWT who has created us and to whom we shall return for judgment. May the choicest of peace and blessing be upon Muhammad S.A.W. his family, his companions and all those who follow them until the last day.

A BRIEF ADVICE AND REMINDER FOR THOSE CONSIDERING VOTING, CALLING TO VOTE OR OTHER THAN THAT – WITHIN A DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM.

With South African General Elections coming up in 2009, Muslims are being asked to participate in the electoral process commencing with voter registration over the coming weekend. This reminder and advice is addressed to every single Muslim who intends participating in the elections especially those who sincerely believe that that they are assisting Islam and Muslims

“Do you wish to offer Allah a manifest proof against yourselves?” (an Nisaa’ 4:144)

Before going ahead with registration think about this:

1) For Muslims, the Shari’ah has been a complete system of governance for over 1400 years until the khilafah was destroyed in the 1920′s

2) Muslims submit to Allah in all spheres of life

3) The most recently developed man-made system of democracy is an un-Islamic western system

4) It gives the Divine authority and right of legislation to man. The system is therefore a system of shirk (association of partners with Allah in His Names and Attributes)

5) It is not just the opposite of Islam but is now being presented as an alternative to the Shari’ah of Allah Azzawajal

6) Voting is a show of support for the system

7) Voting can lead to a false sense of security by Muslims starting to believe that democracy is equal to or better than the Shari’ah

This false sense of security and mixed belief can possibly lead to disbelief in Islam

Now ask yourself the following sincerely:

9) Do I want to aid a system that is opposed to the system that Allah CHOSE for me after He honoured me with Islam?

10) Will I demonstrate the same enthusiasm and willingness to call for or show support for the establishment of the Shari’ah?

11) Do my actions of supporting an un-Islamic system conform to the Sunnah of Muhammad (saw) and the methodology of the Sahaabah (ra), those who I claim to follow?

12) Do I want to call other Muslims to a haraam system and share in their sin?

13) Which of the reasons that are being presented to encourage me to participate are valid in light of the Qur’an and Sunnah?

14) Am I being forced to vote?

15) What further benefit can I attain for the Muslims via my vote that we don’t already have? More masjids? More madrassahs? More halaal butchers?

16) How many laws have been passed in this place in the name of democracy that are in total opposition to what Allah has legislated for His Creation?

Dear Muslim brother and sister,

Please don’t fall for this highly deceptive trap of Iblees. Stay away from the system of the Shaytaan and work instead for the system of Allah.

You can make a difference – give da’wah to the non-Muslims and support them in their Islam all the way. That’s the real way not the shortcut being proposed by the democrats.

This is a summary. More detailed information is available upon your request insha allah

info@pureislam.co.za

May Allah guide us to see the truth as truth and to accept it

May Allah guide us to see the falsehood as falsehood and to refrain from it

Anwar Al Awlaki is really causing a stir with his stance on voting & democracy, especially amongst the USA. With elections complete & teh world going Obama crazy, below is his thoughts:

One of the characteristics of a humiliated and oppressed community is their submission to their oppressor and their tolerance of oppression. On the other hand they are arrogant and intolerant among themselves. This is how it was with Banu Israel when living under the Pharaoh. I am sorry to state this but unfortunately this attitude is been reflected by many American Muslims who humiliated themselves by voting for candidates who have no serious concern for their issues.
I mentioned in my previous post:

The perception the American Muslims are giving is that by giving them nothing substantial and by giving them just a little bit of recognition you can get their support, vote and loyalty even if you carry on your war against their brothers and sisters. Just like a dog owner abusing his dog but as long as the bone is thrown out the dog will still give his owner all his loyalty. It is sad but true.

The American Muslims who decided to vote have made a fool out of themselves and the whole world knows it.
Under the heading:”America’s outcast Muslims: Once Bush backers, Muslims today are staunch Democrats. But both Obama and McCain shun them.” The UK’s The Guardian states: “American Muslims have been called the “outcasts” of this presidential election. Muslims themselves have told the media that Islam is being treated as “political leprosy”, a “scarlet letter”, or the “kiss of death””.
Why not just call them house Negros?

The Australian newspaper The Age says: “Neither campaign courts America’s Muslim vote.” they go on to state that: “Neither presidential candidate has made a single visit to a mosque.” If they didn’t even bother to visit a mosque, which is no more than a ceremonial thing anyway but does make the house Negros happy, how can one expect from them any support on our issues? Nevertheless the proud American Muslims have been running around in service of both candidates.
Many American Muslims still insisted on voting. Chasing a mirage that somehow the new president will improve their lot. First it was Bush now Obama. There is a striking similarity between the American Muslim community and the Muslims of al Andalus who chose to stay behind after Muslim Spain fell into the hands of the Catholic monarchs. There are some writings that reveal that after all the oppression they suffered they still had hope that their situation would improve, even after the Catholic monarchs showed them the worst treatment. Since there were no elections back then and no Barak Obama they were clinging their hopes on a Mahdi that would appear and deliver them to safety. A few decades later no Mahdi appeared and their children and grandchildren slowly but surely were loosing their identity until Islam seized to exist all together in the Iberian peninsula. I do not believe that America would do the same because they have grown wiser and more sophisticated than their Spanish predecessors. Muslims will be allowed to pray, fast, and practice Islam as long as it is contained within the spiritual compartment. But they will not be allowed to be Muslim in the full sense of the word. The issues of Sharia law, Jihad, wala and bara, hudud, khilafah, the Quranic teachings concerning the Jews and Christians, and support of Muslim resistance fighters around the world will not be tolerated. Now the spiritual aspect will also be under attack, probably not by the government but by the society at large. The American culture will destroy their families. It will deprive their children and grandchildren of their identity. Time will be the witness.
Muslims have given their vote for free. Back in the nineties we were told that we should not expect anything back because we are not seen as a voting block (back then the prominent view among the Muslims was against participation in the elections.) Well now there is definitely a voting block and it is quite large as some reports say that the Muslim registered voters are around two million!
So what are the Muslims getting in exchange for their vote? Nothing.
Brothers and sisters you can vote, you can run around supporting the campaigns, you can stay silent about the aspects of your religion that do not appeal to your fellow citizens, you can speak out against your Muslim brothers and sisters who support the Muslim causes around the world, you can try your best to fit in and be accepted and the end result will be that you will always be seen as the enemy and you will never be accepted unless you do one thing: give up your religion.
“And never will the Jews and Christians approve of you until you follow their religion” [2:120]

With all of this activism and increased participation the situation of the American Muslims did not improve but in fact it regressed. The Bush campaign of 2000 has outreached to the Muslims more than both candidates of 2008.
Giving a fatwa calling on people to vote in democratic elections is not an easy thing. One would expect solid evidence from Quran and sunnah when inviting people to take such a step. However what I have seen is the opposite. I would ask you to read such fatawa and judge them not based on the names or numbers of scholars who are behind them but on the evidence. There was a moment in time when the majority of the scholars of the Muslim world were towing the official line of the Mu’tazila and that didnt make it right. Then look at the fatawa of scholars such as al Albani, the Lanjna da’ima, Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, al Gabashy and many of the scholars of the salafi orientation around the world who are against participation in democratic election. That is the position of large Islamic movements and individuals such Sayed Qutb, Dr. Israr Ahmad, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and the Salafi Jihadi movement. In Yemen prominent scholars from the Muslim Brotherhood have finally come to the conclusion that the democratic process is no more than a game that wastes the efforts of Muslims with very little gain.

In addition to that I found out that many people are asking the ones who are telling the people not to vote to bring their evidence! The burden of proof is on the ones who call others to participate in a disbelieving system, in a disbelieving country not the other way around. Anyway the evidence for not voting are all the verses of Quran that refer to governance as a right of Allah in surat al Nisa and al Bakarah, the verses talking about disavowal of the disbelievers in surat al Bakara, al Nisa and al Mumtahina, and the hadiths of Rasulullah that instruct us to be separate from the disbelievers. There are scholars who wrote detailed papers on the subject and you may find the links to them on the comments made by some brothers and sisters on my last two posts.
For those who did send me evidence for the position on voting I did respond to some of them and there remains the issue of the Muslims in Abyssinia and Yusuf (as). The response to this is very straightforward: Both the king of Abyssinia and the King of Egypt were not at war with the believers and were both very supportive of the Muslims. In addition to that, there are authentic narrations that al Najashi was Muslim and weaker ones that state that the king in the time of Yusuf became Muslim. But lets assume that this is not the case. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of Fiqh should realize that there are stark differences on how Islam calls us to deal with those who are at war with us and those who are not. Allah says:
Allah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes – from being righteous towards them and acting justly towards them. Indeed Allah loves those who act justly. [60:8]

Now that Obama is in office we will see how these four years will unfold. I personally think that since what Obama stands for is falsehood, the justifications of the Muslims in choosing him were false and the process in which the Muslims chose him were also false we cannot expect any good to come out of falsehood.
“Indeed Allah does not amend the work of the corrupters” [10;81]

Assalamu alaykum
Your Brother
Anwar Al Awlaki

Quited a heated discussion going on at Anwar Al Awlaki’s blog, he has raised the issue of Voting in the US Elections.

http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com/2008/10/31/voting-for-the-american-president/

The Muslim community in the US is busy with the vote and are debating who the Muslims should pick as their president. The argument presented is we are choosing between the lesser of the two evils. In reality it is more about being American and part of the system than it is about benefiting the ummah because the fact of the matter is there is no benefit in either candidate whatsoever.

Democracy in an un-Islamic system and we as Muslims should have nothing to do with it. Whether one looks at the root and history of democracy or at the reality of democracy today one can realize that it is a system that is not only different than the Islamic system but is opposed to it. Can’t you see that the West in its war against Islam is offering the democratic system as an alternative to Sharia? So if the West, which is the founder of democracy, sees democracy as an opposing system to Islam why are some Muslims still insisting on participating in it and adopting it as their political religion?

Democracy is a Western system that was founded and developed in the West and today the West, not the Muslims, have full authority and right to tell the world what democracy is and how it should be practiced and implemented. We have our own system of government and likewise it is the Muslims who are going to define it and will not allow non Muslims to meddle with our religion and teach us what is right from wrong.
Muslims should seek to avoid any forms of participation in Western democracy.
The promoters of participation in American elections argue that we are choosing the least of the two evils. This principle is correct but what they are missing is that in the process of choosing the lesser of the two evils they are committing an even greater evil . The breaking down of the psychological barrier that should exist between Muslims and non-Muslims, the erosion of the aqeedah of wala and bara (loyalty to Allah and disavowal of the enemies of Allah,) and the risk of loosing one’s religion are evils that outweigh any benefit that may come out of such participation.

Also the types of candidates that American politics has been spitting out is absolutely disgusting. I wonder how any Muslim with a grain of iman in his heart could walk up to a ballot box and cast his vote in endorsement of creatures such as Mcain or Obama?! How can a Muslim sleep with a clear conscience after he has chosen the likes of G.W. Bush? No matter how irrelevant your vote is, on the Day of Judgment you will be called to answer for it. You, under no coercion or duress, consciously chose to vote for the leader of a nation that is leading the war against Islam.
There is also a strange belief among some that if we participate in the elections of the disbelievers we will bring good to ourselves, while if we have trust in Allah and avoid the disbelievers, as He wants from us, we will be missing out on some good and would draw harm to ourselves. They are so weak they believe we can only survive in today’s word if we seek support from the enemies of Allah. But for the believers Allah is sufficient for them and they do not need to seek assistance from the leaders or the governments of the disbelievers.

The is no benefit for the ummah in voting for the new American Pharoah