Salafi Research Institute SRI
Ṣāliḥ al-Luḥaydān (1) on Political Insurgencies (2)
Translated by: Abu az-Zubayr Harrison
Question:
Are political overthrows, insurgences, and revolutions from the characteristics of Islām and forms of Jihād?
Answer:
The question should more appropriately be, “Is chaos and causes of unjustified bloodshed from Islām?” because this is the actual meaning of such things. Those actions are the most severe factors that destroy Islāmic lands. If we look at the nonbelievers, for example the Jewish country (Israel) which contains resources and support from all over the world, we find that not once did a political overthrow occur. We do not find, during these times, overthrows and revolutions in the major nations of the east and west. No one supports and starts political overthrows and insurgences except for someone that has no concern for the well-being of his own nation or for its security. These are ways of jeopardizing the very existence of a nation, cultivating enmity among its people, spilling blood, and allowing its enemies to gain control over it. The evil of such tactics are obvious, yet the good of them is rare and minute and most of the time nonexistent.
The first overthrow to occur with regards to the Muslims was the insurgency against ‘Uthmān (RadhiAllahu Anhu) which eventually resulted in his murder. All the Companions unanimously agreed upon the evil of that action. So, it is compulsory upon every single Muslim to free himself and abstain from these affairs. When the Prophet (SalAllahu Alayhi Wasallam) was asked about the leaders, he commanded that everyone must listen to and obey them, and he forbade division and disunity. Also, when a group of senior scholars from Baghdad (during the Abbasid rule) came to Imam Ahmad talking bad about the Abbasid ruler, he then became angry with them and warned them from such things. So, these are evil, despised actions and the good lies only in following the Salaf.3
NOTES
1 Ṣāliḥ al-Luḥaydān: One of the leading scholars of Saudi Arabia. He currently holds the position of chief judiciary of The Ministry of Justice in Saudi Arabia. -T.N.
2 This fatwā was taken from a book called “Al-Fatāwā Ash-Shar’iyyah fī Al-Qadhāyā Al-‘Asriyyah,” a collection of various rulings by Muhammad Ibn Fahd al-Ḥuṣayn.
3 From the cassette: al-Jihād wa Ḍawābiṭuhu al-Shari’yyah.
