The Ruling on Democracy and Elections and Counting Them as Part of the Religion
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: Is it the case that Satan plays with some of the people of this time, leading them astray with what is called democracy and elections, until they consider it part of the religion by which they draw near to Allah?
The Shaykh:
Democracy? What is democracy? Elections are not an Islamic system. The Islamic system is that the one in authority is the one who appoints the employees and the governors and the princes; he chooses them. This one in authority is subject to the one in authority.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
(Exalted and Majestic is He) said to the rulers:[An-Nisa 4:58] And the trusts are the positions; you must fulfill them for the one who is competent to perform them in the correct manner. You do not favor anyone with them, nor do you appoint someone who is not qualified for them. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: Is it the case that Satan plays with some of the people of this time, leading them astray with what is called democracy and elections, until they consider it part of the religion by which they draw near to Allah?
The Shaykh:
Democracy? What is democracy? Elections are not an Islamic system. The Islamic system is that the one in authority is the one who appoints the employees and the governors and the princes; he chooses them. This one in authority is subject to the one in authority.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
(Exalted and Majestic is He) said to the rulers:
Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل ومن حيله ومكايده : الكلام الباطل والآراء المتهافتة والخيالات — islamhouse.com (55:51)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.