The Ruling on Parliamentary Elections

The Shaykh : ... He told me that Abd al-Rahman mentioned in a tape or in a message of his, perhaps in a tape, and Allah knows best, that Shaykh Al-Albani is more knowledgeable about the realistic political aspect than...The Shaykh : ...
The student: Correct.

The Shaykh : ... Glory be to Allah, this is... In my mind, he justifies it by saying that I lived in Syria, and there is a parliament there, and the Muslim Brothers, and so on. But even then, I said to Abu Khalid, "My brother, it is enough that the man is a Muslim. When he enters the parliament, the first thing he does is dress in excellent Islamic attire: a long beard, an Islamic shirt, and so on. After a few months, or let us say a few years, if the beard starts to get shorter and shorter until it becomes like the style of the common people of Syria, 'the best of the beards is the one that reaches the collar,' a little bit of taking off the shirt and putting on a jacket and trousers, a little bit of the gray suit, and so on. Is this going to be a fix? This has ruined his state; this is not going to be a fix. He stands firm like the mountains, and the waves surround him from every side, and then he stands firm, he stands firm, and then, as I say, he flexes his muscle like this, and then he relaxes it. What is the name of Shaykh al-Safarjalani?
The student : ... Muhyi al-Din al-Safarjalani?

The Shaykh : ... Muhyi al-Din, not 'Izz al-Din, Shaykh al-Safarjalani. You know him anyway.
The student : ... He is originally from Syria, this man.

The Shaykh : ... Yes, the one who used to sell manuscripts.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : .
The student : The important thing.

The Shaykh : ... The point is, we do not know this man as a Salafi preacher at all; on the contrary, he has Sufi tendencies, and he has... and he has...
The student : ... political views.

The Shaykh : ... and it ended. He has some very strange ideas; we are in one state and then we become in another state. He said he used to teach girls in a school. And he used to issue rulings to them that there is no text in the Qur'an that prevents a menstruating woman from praying. The point is, he had Sufi tendencies, and he had, I mean, a belief in Ibn 'Arabi, and so on.
The student : ... I mean, a Khawwas.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : ... A Khawwas.

The Shaykh : ... The point is, I heard from the history of his first publication that he was enthusiastic about the Salafi call, and he used to deny the practices of visiting graves and seeking nearness to Allah through the awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous. In the Umayyad Mosque, when he would see people prostrating around the grave of Yahya (peace be upon him)—they claim it is there—and supplicating, he would rebuke them. So the shaykhs rose against him, and the common people rose against him, and he turned completely around. He started standing like them, just to push off what? The accusation from him, like this, the one who enters with enthusiasm. And this is the verification of his saying (peace be upon him): So these are the ones who enter the parliament, these shaykhs, they say, "Good, for the sake of reform," but they do not realize that there is no room for reform, there is no room for radical reform at all. They may fix things in some aspects, temporarily, temporarily.
The student : ... As they say, throwing dust in the eyes.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : ... They say, throwing dust in the eyes. Some things.

The Shaykh : ... And now, they also say that the Islamists in the parliament, I mean, they have reached the methodology of acceptance in the Jordanian airlines, perhaps this is true and it is not a summer cloud that will soon disperse.
The student : ... Professor Ahmad Mazhar al-'Azzami mentioned once, I visited him, I said to him, I mean...

The Shaykh : Who is he?
The student : ... Professor Ahmad Mazhar al-'Azzami, may Allah have mercy on him, that I wanted to understand what he did with the ministries. He took over a ministry, do you remember, the Ministry of Agriculture. He mentioned that every year they used to hold a festival to choose the Queen of Cotton, so in the year he took over, he banned this festival. So the Muslim is not devoid of benefit, but only small details.

The Shaykh : ... Here, there was also a shaykh, I do not know his name, with a beard and Arab dress, the Minister of Agriculture, they made him... Recently, it caught my attention, and he changed his style and wore Western clothes and shortened his beard, even though he is not a minister now, I do not know what he is, a deputy and that is all. In Western style.
The student : ... Other than this poor man?

The Shaykh : ... Other than the poor man, the poor man was the Minister of Endowments, this one is the Minister of Agriculture.
The student : ... I mean, I understand from this that the issue of the matter of parliaments and ministries, I mean, is looked at only in terms of weighing the benefits and harms, or what? It is a matter of independent legal reasoning, I mean, there is no explicit text, or perhaps the Prophetic tradition is that there is no presenting of the matter so it is prohibited, but it is a newly invented matter, this was not in that time, so a ruling cannot be given on it.

The Shaykh : ... Do you have an idea, of course, that this system of elections contradicts the Shari'ah.
The student : ... From the aspect, I mean, that the rulers choose the people, or...

The Shaykh : ... That the people choose the deputies.
The student : From which aspect?

The Shaykh : ... From the aspect that the election law is based, first of all, on allowing every one who desires to nominate himself to be a deputy in the parliament, and this is against the hadith.
The student : .

The Shaykh : How?
The student : .

The Shaykh : ... Yes, exactly. Second: they do not set any condition for this one who nominates himself, that he be a Muslim first, then that he be a righteous Muslim, then that he be a scholar in a knowledge that benefits the Muslims in any way, but rather any person has the right to nominate himself.
The student : ... From the women as well.

The Shaykh : ... From the women.
The student : ... And if I did not notice, and Allah knows, in the posters, names of women, so I do not know if there are?

The Shaykh : ... There is one, originally from al-Zarqa, she nominated herself, yes, the point is, then the one who chooses these deputies, and this is their calamity, the contradiction with the Shari'ah, it is said about them what is said about those who nominate themselves: the open sinner, the wicked, the communist, the evil, and so on. He has the right to choose, finally, votes are bought with money, this is Islam. And therefore, those who will reach the parliament, which is the National Assembly, they claim, and it will not take the place of the Consultative Council in Islam, all that has no good in it except what Allah protects.
The student : ... It is undoubtedly.

The Shaykh : ... Therefore, the error of these Islamists appears, who do not look at how the method of elections is.
The student : ... This is if we overlook the issue of the oath of allegiance as well.

The Shaykh : ... It would have been applicable, finally, regarding the ministers and their like, God is the Greatest, where is the loyalty and disavowal, even though Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Khaliq hums around these two words.
The student : ... It may be for dire necessity as well, possible.

The Shaykh : ... The word, again, dire necessity has become debased.
The student : ... Stretched.

The Shaykh : ... It has become debased, the most trivial reasons are called dire necessity.