What is the ruling on the elections that will take place in Algeria, and what do you advise the Algerian people?
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The questioner : It is, O our Shaykh, if you would be so kind and allow us to return to the matter of the parliament. Here in Algeria, our people, I mean our government, is heading toward the parliament, meaning there are upcoming elections, if Allah wills. What is your message to the Algerian people? What is your opinion, and what do you advise?
The Shaykh : Pardon me, what is my opinion about what?
The questioner : I mean your guidance or advice to the Algerian people. What is your message to them?
The Shaykh : It is as I mentioned earlier.
The questioner : Yes, we understood, but the Algerian people want to know more.
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : I mean, a specific message for them.
The Shaykh : We have received questions from Algeria regarding the municipal elections that took place there.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Yes, and questions like these have come to us here when the door was opened for the elections we referred to earlier here in Jordan. We have two positions regarding elections: it may appear to one who has no knowledge, or even at first glance, that there is a contradiction between them, but there is no contradiction. The first position is that we do not advise any Muslim, whether individuals or groups, to nominate themselves for such parliaments, and you know the reason for this as I mentioned earlier. Is that clear?
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Ah. The second thing is that we tell the general Muslim population in any country, if the ruling state imposes this system of elections, and here the owners of parties and opinions rush to nominate themselves and reach the parliaments with the largest possible number for their party or their bloc, in this case, if some Muslims nominate themselves, we advise them not to do so. But we have another position, so we say in that case, the jurisprudential rule is: "When a Muslim is caught between two harms, he chooses the lesser of the two evils." The parliament will stand on its crookedness and its crookedness, whether we Muslims like it or not. There is a very big difference between a parliament where all its members are non-Muslims and one where all its members are Muslims. A very big difference. Then, there is a big difference in the other case, where the candidates in the parliament are all Muslims, but some are righteous and some are wicked, some work for the benefit of Islam, and some work for the benefit of themselves, or their bloc or their party, and do not care about the interests of Islam. In that case, the Muslim voters should participate in electing the most righteous and most beneficial for Islam, at the same time that we say it is not permissible for a Muslim to nominate himself and enter the parliament, because in that lies the destruction of his soul and the approval of his violation of his Shari'ah. But we cannot convince everyone of our opinion, even if it is one hundred percent correct. So, as is the reality, there will be other people with their own independent legal reasoning and opinions, regardless of whether they are correct or wrong, or whether they are qualified to perform independent legal reasoning. This is the reality. The reality is that many righteous Muslims will nominate themselves in the parliaments. In that case, we tell the individual Muslims to choose these over the non-righteous individual Muslims, and over the disbelieving individuals, such as communists and others. This is the lesser of the two evils, compared to staying in your homes and not participating in choosing your representatives. Have I clarified the matter for you?
The questioner: Yes, Shaykh
The Shaykh: All right.
The Shaykh : Pardon me, what is my opinion about what?
The questioner : I mean your guidance or advice to the Algerian people. What is your message to them?
The Shaykh : It is as I mentioned earlier.
The questioner : Yes, we understood, but the Algerian people want to know more.
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : I mean, a specific message for them.
The Shaykh : We have received questions from Algeria regarding the municipal elections that took place there.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Yes, and questions like these have come to us here when the door was opened for the elections we referred to earlier here in Jordan. We have two positions regarding elections: it may appear to one who has no knowledge, or even at first glance, that there is a contradiction between them, but there is no contradiction. The first position is that we do not advise any Muslim, whether individuals or groups, to nominate themselves for such parliaments, and you know the reason for this as I mentioned earlier. Is that clear?
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Ah. The second thing is that we tell the general Muslim population in any country, if the ruling state imposes this system of elections, and here the owners of parties and opinions rush to nominate themselves and reach the parliaments with the largest possible number for their party or their bloc, in this case, if some Muslims nominate themselves, we advise them not to do so. But we have another position, so we say in that case, the jurisprudential rule is: "When a Muslim is caught between two harms, he chooses the lesser of the two evils." The parliament will stand on its crookedness and its crookedness, whether we Muslims like it or not. There is a very big difference between a parliament where all its members are non-Muslims and one where all its members are Muslims. A very big difference. Then, there is a big difference in the other case, where the candidates in the parliament are all Muslims, but some are righteous and some are wicked, some work for the benefit of Islam, and some work for the benefit of themselves, or their bloc or their party, and do not care about the interests of Islam. In that case, the Muslim voters should participate in electing the most righteous and most beneficial for Islam, at the same time that we say it is not permissible for a Muslim to nominate himself and enter the parliament, because in that lies the destruction of his soul and the approval of his violation of his Shari'ah. But we cannot convince everyone of our opinion, even if it is one hundred percent correct. So, as is the reality, there will be other people with their own independent legal reasoning and opinions, regardless of whether they are correct or wrong, or whether they are qualified to perform independent legal reasoning. This is the reality. The reality is that many righteous Muslims will nominate themselves in the parliaments. In that case, we tell the individual Muslims to choose these over the non-righteous individual Muslims, and over the disbelieving individuals, such as communists and others. This is the lesser of the two evils, compared to staying in your homes and not participating in choosing your representatives. Have I clarified the matter for you?
The questioner: Yes, Shaykh
The Shaykh: All right.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.