How to respond to those who attribute to Ibn Taymiyyah a statement permitting parliaments and elections?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Some of the brothers there claim that they found a fatwa by Ibn Taymiyyah in the eighth volume.
The Shaykh : In what?
The questioner : In the *Fatawa*, that it is permissible, meaning, elections and entering parliaments. They say his words resemble the speech of this time.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, this statement is not sufficient unless one recalls Ibn Taymiyyah’s words and discusses them, because the issue of parliaments was not mentioned in the time of Ibn Taymiyyah, and it is inconceivable that Ibn Taymiyyah would support such parliaments that are based on an election in which the Muslim and the disbeliever, the righteous Muslim and the wicked Muslim, the knowledgeable Muslim and the ignorant Muslim all participate. How is this? No one who has been given even a particle of knowledge would say such a thing. Perhaps Ibn Taymiyyah has other words that some people with desires and objectives interpret to support such elections.
Al-Halabi : Our Shaykh, speaking of elections, our Shaykh, the professor—may Allah bless him and prolong his life—reminds us of a word of our master Isa (peace be upon him). He said, “False prophets will come.” He was asked, “How will we know them?” He said, “You will know them by their fruits.” So now we ask those who permit elections and cite the words of the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, distorting them and attributing to them what they cannot bear, as our professor mentioned: “You will know them by their fruits.” What have the parliamentarians offered to Islam in any of the Islamic countries except regression and a return to the past? Look at the situation in Algeria now; truly, by Allah, it is something astonishing. Glory be to Allah, and we ask Allah to be merciful to us.
The Shaykh : Amen.
The Shaykh : In what?
The questioner : In the *Fatawa*, that it is permissible, meaning, elections and entering parliaments. They say his words resemble the speech of this time.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, this statement is not sufficient unless one recalls Ibn Taymiyyah’s words and discusses them, because the issue of parliaments was not mentioned in the time of Ibn Taymiyyah, and it is inconceivable that Ibn Taymiyyah would support such parliaments that are based on an election in which the Muslim and the disbeliever, the righteous Muslim and the wicked Muslim, the knowledgeable Muslim and the ignorant Muslim all participate. How is this? No one who has been given even a particle of knowledge would say such a thing. Perhaps Ibn Taymiyyah has other words that some people with desires and objectives interpret to support such elections.
Al-Halabi : Our Shaykh, speaking of elections, our Shaykh, the professor—may Allah bless him and prolong his life—reminds us of a word of our master Isa (peace be upon him). He said, “False prophets will come.” He was asked, “How will we know them?” He said, “You will know them by their fruits.” So now we ask those who permit elections and cite the words of the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, distorting them and attributing to them what they cannot bear, as our professor mentioned: “You will know them by their fruits.” What have the parliamentarians offered to Islam in any of the Islamic countries except regression and a return to the past? Look at the situation in Algeria now; truly, by Allah, it is something astonishing. Glory be to Allah, and we ask Allah to be merciful to us.
The Shaykh : Amen.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.