The Ruling on Rising Against the Ruler and the Conditions for Declaring Someone a Disbeliever
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Question:
The questioner asks: Is it forbidden to rise against the ruler, even if he replaces the legislation of Allah with other laws to adjudicate people by them, and openly declares that there is no difference between religion and politics?
Answer:
This issue of takfir (declaring someone a disbeliever) and rising against the ruler requires that the case of the person about whom a ruling is sought be presented and heard. One must know what he is upon and what doubts led him to this, and only then is a ruling issued. As for simply saying off the bat that he is a disbeliever and that one must rise against him, that requires study. The matter is very serious. If everyone declares people disbelievers and tells people to rise against this one because he is a disbeliever, it causes chaos. Therefore, one must return to the scholars of knowledge in these matters. Allah the Exalted said:[An-Nisa 4:83] These matters are presented to the scholars of knowledge and those with insight, who look into the reality of these leaders and rule upon them according to what the Shari'ah requires. As for rushing into rulings—so-and-so is a disbeliever, so-and-so must be risen against immediately—is that complete? It causes chaos, and that is the end of it?
The questioner asks: Is it forbidden to rise against the ruler, even if he replaces the legislation of Allah with other laws to adjudicate people by them, and openly declares that there is no difference between religion and politics?
Answer:
This issue of takfir (declaring someone a disbeliever) and rising against the ruler requires that the case of the person about whom a ruling is sought be presented and heard. One must know what he is upon and what doubts led him to this, and only then is a ruling issued. As for simply saying off the bat that he is a disbeliever and that one must rise against him, that requires study. The matter is very serious. If everyone declares people disbelievers and tells people to rise against this one because he is a disbeliever, it causes chaos. Therefore, one must return to the scholars of knowledge in these matters. Allah the Exalted said:
And when there comes to them information about [public] security or fear, they spread it around. But if they had referred it back to the Messenger or to those of authority among them, then the ones who [can] draw correct conclusions from it would have known about it.
وَإِذَا جَاءَهُمْ أَمْرٌ مِّنَ الْأَمْنِ أَوِ الْخَوْفِ أَذَاعُوا بِهِ وَلَوْ رَدُّوهُ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ وَإِلَىٰ أُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنْهُمْ لَعَلِمَهُ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَنبِطُونَهُ مِنْهُمْ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-06-لمحة عن الفرق\صالح الفوزان\كبار العلماء — youtube.com (1:09:59)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.