What is the ruling on appointing a woman to the affairs of the state?

The questioner : I came from Pakistan and I want to ask you a question: What is the difference between the rule of a woman and the rule of a slave? Some scholars say, meaning, there is no difference between the rule of a woman and the rule of a slave? Meaning, that a woman takes charge of the government? Or a slave takes charge? There is no difference between them. And what is your opinion on this issue?

The Shaykh : This is a legal and political question, and it is truly a topic of the day, especially in some Islamic countries that are ruled by a woman. Before answering this question... What is the difference between men ruling over a man from among them, or a woman from among them ruling over them? Meaning, a Muslim woman... A slave, meaning a captive?

The questioner : Yes, a captive.

The Shaykh : This has no relevance today. The relationship and the problem are between a woman and a man. Who are the slaves today?

The questioner : Some scholars say that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) This is the issue, Professor.

The Shaykh : I understand your question now, but what is the connection between this question and our present circumstances? Are there free people and slaves?

The questioner : They say, meaning, if a woman is put in charge of you, there is no harm, and likewise a slave?

The Shaykh : Well then, let our brother clarify his question, and I will answer it after we demolish the foundation upon which they built it. The ruling on a woman’s rule in Islam is refuted by two things. The first: It is refuted by the practice of the Muslims throughout these long centuries, during which the Muslims had many rulers, some of whom applied Islam perfectly, like the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and some who were close to that, and so on in degrees. That is, over the course of these years, Islam was ruling, even though some of them sometimes deviated, much or little, from ruling by Islam in some details. But, praise be to Allah, it did not happen in these long centuries that a woman ruled the Muslims, as is common in some lands of the disbelievers, like the English and those who imitate them or resemble them. So, the practice of the Muslims regarding not appointing a woman to the caliphate or what is close to it is the decisive proof for one who believes in such powers, Blessed and Exalted is He . The point of this verse, as we touched upon with some detail in a previous session, is only His saying, the Exalted . The Lord of the two worlds did not limit Himself to saying in this verse , but He added to opposing the Messenger . What is the wisdom of this phrase added to "and whoever opposes the Messenger and follows a path other than the path of the believers"? The wisdom is that the believers are those who transmit the methodology followed by the first Muslims. For that reason, the hadiths came one after another ordering us to follow the Salaf (the earliest generations). And for that reason, as we said in a previous lecture, we belong to the righteous Salaf, and one of us says about himself that he is a Salafi (a follower of the Salaf) and hopes to be so, because our saying "Salafi" is like our saying "believer," but there is a great difference between one who says "believer." This word in the present age includes the seventy-three sects, including the Qadianis who destroyed the creed of many Muslims, especially there in India and Pakistan, where they claimed that prophethood has not ended yet, and that a prophet came to them, they claim, and that other prophets will come after him. And their speech is true with the addition of false prophets, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: . The point is that the Salaf transmitted to us what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did in explaining the Book and the verbal Sunnah. So the Khalaf (the later generations) received that from the Salaf, and it became a path for the Muslims. So when we do not find in all these centuries, especially the three centuries attested to as the best, a woman who took charge of rule, that is proof that the path of the believers is that a woman does not take charge of them. This is the first proof, and it is a very, very strong proof for one who understands and comprehends this verse and its implication, and follows a path other than the path of the believers. The concern of some scholars has reached the point of prioritizing the practical Sunnah, which the Muslims practiced, over his (peace and blessings be upon him) sayings. That is because the former may be susceptible to more than one interpretation, whereas the practical aspect cannot be interpreted in more than one way. For example, His saying, the Exalted: . If a man came to this Qur'anic text, from which falsehood does not come from before or behind, and brought a new opinion: "Cut off their hands, God forbid, from the shoulder." What do we argue with him? This is a hand, or he says "from the elbow." Also, this is a hand. The answer is the practical Sunnah, which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) practiced and his Companions followed him in. This is the decisive argument in determining the intended meaning of the sayings of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And this is a very important rule, so I hope it is on your minds and in your remembrance. This is the first proof.
The second piece of evidence is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has decreed, with His perfect wisdom, that the non-Arabs of Persia, after the death of their king, appointed a woman as their ruler. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was informed of this, he said: . The truth, my brothers, is that if a Muslim were to reflect on this hadith alone, he would find it sufficient to deter Muslims, if they were truly believers, from appointing a woman to rule over them. For the meaning of that, in the language of reality and circumstance—as the scholars say, the language of reality is more eloquent than the language of speech—is that the situation in that land was reversed, so that women became men and men became women, because they found no one to take charge of their affairs and manage their matters according to the Shari'ah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) except a woman. There is no doubt that this reality alone is sufficient to show that these people will not succeed. How much more so when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us of this explicit statement: . If it is established—and it is established with certainty, if Allah wills—that it is not permissible in Islam, whether in the Islam practiced historically or in the Islam supported by his statement (peace be upon him), for a woman to take charge of them, then this serves as a premise for answering the distortion of the truth by some people. They claim that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted a non-Arab Abyssinian man to take charge of the Muslims. We answer this with what the scholars of knowledge said, reconciling the hadith they rely on with the hadith they completely ignore. In doing so, they place themselves in the company of the people of desires, who take from Islam what suits their desires and leave what contradicts their desires. We say that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, as it is mass-transmitted, according to the testimony of the Commander of the Faithful, Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, who said that his statement (peace and blessings be upon him): is an authentic hadith. Not only is it authentic, but it is also mass-transmitted, according to the testimony of the Commander of the Faithful in his time and in the time after him, as far as we know. Thus, our Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) establishes in this hadith a condition for the ruler who wishes to rule the Muslims, which is that he must be a Qurayshi. I know that some people of desires, both in the past and the present, interpret this hadith based on what one of the historians mentioned in the past, namely that this was because Quraysh had lineage, strength, status, and rank among the Arabs, as the Arabs submitted to them by inheritance, reverence, and affirmation of their status. And on this basis came his statement (peace be upon him): . However, after this Arab tribal bond between the tribe of Quraysh and the other tribes disintegrated, there is no room for continuing to apply this hadith, because in their claim, it was for the reason mentioned above. We naturally responded to our scholars regarding this interpretation, which is akin to denial (ta'til) in the matter of the verses and hadiths of the attributes. We responded to this interpretation with the statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . Therefore, their interpretation of the first hadith as being, in their expression, a temporary law in the first era is invalidated by this authentic hadith. If we know this truth, the scope of discussion on this issue is very wide given our current circumstances. But it is necessary to also link this premise to the answer regarding the doubt mentioned by the noble brother just now. It is reported in the Sunan and the Musnad of Ahmad, through chains that strengthen one another, from al-'Abd ibn Sariyyah (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he delivered a sermon to them one day, and they said, "O Messenger of Allah, give us a piece of advice that we will not need anyone else for thereafter, ever." He (peace be upon him) said: . And he added in a narration, which is authentic in other than this hadith: . Therefore, his statement (peace be upon him): , and it has corroborating narrations, some of which are in Sahih Muslim, does not mean that if a man who does not rule by the Shari'ah of Allah is appointed over you, but rather that a ruler who rules by what Allah has revealed is appointed over you. Because we have known from what preceded that it is a condition for this ruler that he be an Arab Qurayshi. So, if he appoints an Abyssinian slave to a certain authority, obedience to him is obligatory, not because he is an Abyssinian slave, but because a Muslim Qurayshi, who has the right of authority, appointed him. The practice of the Muslims also proceeded on this basis. Thus, we are faced with two issues that do not conflict or contradict each other. The first issue is the major authority, in which the Muslims agreed that it is a condition that the ruler be an Arab Qurayshi. The second is the minor authority, in which it is not a condition that the ruler be a Qurayshi. The practice of the Muslims also proceeded on this basis. And if we know this truth, the correct evidence is established to refute the claim of those who take the hadith as a proof that it is permissible to appoint a woman, because we will say that if an Abyssinian slave is more deserving of the authority that suits him, as detailed above, he is more deserving than a Qurayshi woman, because a Qurayshi woman has no authority by the ruling mentioned just now. Thus, my answer to that question ends here.