Re: Voting allowed in Islam
ak47 : This purpose of this thread to discuss and find out the views of (true) Islam about (1) Voting to get a decision about some issue (2) Voting to Select or Elect Khalifa/Imam/(True) Leader of(for) the whole Muslim Ummah;
(1) Is voting allowed in Islam for decision not related to the selection/election of a Khalifa e.g if there is a dispute among people to built a bridge on a river in a particular area; can we decide it by voting or so?
(2) Is voting allowed in Islam for the selection/election of Khalifa.
Voting is a method to find out the (selected or general) public opinion on certain issues; the issues for which voting takes place. Procedure/method/rules and regulation and policies can be different e.g age of voter, education of voter, nationality of voter; electronic voting, ballet boxes size colors, dates, time, polling booths etc etc. If somebody says electronic voting is HARAM in islam; does not make any sense or somebody say age of a voter should be 22 years otherwise its not allowing in islam. Variations in these does not make voting Haram or Halal in religion. These are the procedural things; which should also be decided by those who are involved in it.
We are discussing here the 2nd point Voting for Khalifa; no concern with the first point whether it’s valid or invalid.
To know about the ruling first we must know (1) the place/value/status of Leadership in Islam we must know (2) the goals of Islam
ak47: If somebody says voting is invalid for the election or selection of a khalifa in islam in an Islamic State and gives the example of a monarchical system instead which is ALSO invalid in Islam for an Islamic State is not a righteous act. This makes the situation from bad to worst.
Those emperors who you find in these chains who were good in their deeds and helped islam to strengthen it just like the good in a bad bunch – They were slightly less bad than other bad people in a group of monarchs.
We don’t say that though there were Killings, people were assassinated and there were lots of conspiracies but we take these mistakes as necessary evil because we don’t have any other choice other than the Khalafah system; The System about which you (ak47) are talking.
(True) Khalafah includes both intellectual authority and political leadership. Khalifah is entrusted with the guardianship of the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) accomplishments and the continuation of his leadership, in order to teach men the truths of the Qur’an and religion and ordinances concerning society; in short, he was to guide them in all dimensions of their existence.
Such leadership, exercised in its true and proper form, is nothing other than the realization of the goals of Islam and the implementation of its precepts, precepts established by the Messenger of God; it bestows objective existence on the ideal of forming a community and codifying a law for its governance. Imamate and leadership are sometimes understood in a restricted sense to refer to the person who is entrusted with exclusively social or political leadership. However, the spiritual dimension of man is connected intimately with the mission of religion, and the true and veritable Imam is that exalted person who combines in himself intellectual authority and political leadership; who stands at the head of Islamic society, being enabled thereby both of convey to men the divine laws that exist in every sphere and to implement them; and who preserves the collective identity and the human dignity of the Muslims from decline and corruption. In addition, the Imam is one whose personality, already in this world, has a divine aspect; his dealings with God and man, his implementation of all the devotional, ethical and social precepts of God’s religion, furnish a complete pattern and model for imitation. It is the Imam who guides the movement of men toward perfection. It is therefore incumbent on all believers to follow him in all matters, for he is a living exemplar for the development of the self and of society, and his mode of life is the best specimen of virtue for the Islamic community.
True leadership (Khalifah) is a form of divine governance, an office depending on appointment just like prophethood, something God bestows on exalted persons. The difference is that the Prophet is the founder of the religion and the school of thought that proceeds from it, whereas the Khalifa or Imam has the function of guarding and protecting God’s religion, in the sense that people have the duty of following in all dimensions of their life the spiritual values and mode of conduct of the Khalifaas/Imams.
After the Messenger of God, the Islamic ummah stood in need of a worthy personage who would be endowed with the knowledge derived from revelation, exempt from sin and impurity, and capable of perpetuating the path of the founder of the shari’ah. Only such a personage would be able not only to watch over the political developments of the time and to protect society from its deviant elements, but also to provide people with the extensive religious knowledge which spring from the fountainhead of revelation and derive from the general principles of the shari’ah. The laws derived from revelation would thus be preserved, and the torch of truth and justice held high.
Imamate and caliphate are inseparable, in just the same way that the governmental functions of the Messenger of God cannot be separated from his prophetic office. Spiritual Islam and political Islam are two parts of a single whole. However, in the course of Islamic history, political power did become separated from the spiritual Imamate, and the political dimension of religion was separated from its spiritual dimension.
If Islamic society is not headed by a worthy, just, God fearing person, one unsullied by moral impurity, whose deeds and words serve as a model for people; if, on the contrary, the ruler of society himself violates the law and turns his back on the principles of justice there will be no environment capable of receiving justice, and it will not be possible neither for virtue and piety to grow and ascend, nor for the aim of Islamic government to be accomplished, which is none other than orienting men to the Supreme Principle and creating a sound environment for the dissemination of spiritual values and the implementation of a law based on divine revelation. The moral conduct of the ruler and the role of government have so profound and powerful an effect on society that 'Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, regarded it as more influential than the educative role of the father within the household. He thus said: “With respect to their morals, people resemble their rulers more than they resemble their fathers.”[4]
Since there is a particular connection and affinity between the aims of a given government and the attributes and characteristics of its leader, attaining the ideals of Islamic government is dependent on the existence of a leader in whom are crystallized the special qualities of a perfected human being.
In addition, the need of a society moving forward toward its own perfection for leadership and governance is a natural and innate need, and in just the same way that Islam has made provision for the individual and collective needs of man, material and moral, by codifying and ordering a coherent system of law, it must also pay heed to the natural need for leadership in a fashion that accords with man’s essential disposition.
God has provided every existent being with all the tools and instruments it needs to transcend the limitations of weakness and lack and advance toward its own perfection. Is it then possible that man who is also nurtured in the embrace of nature would somehow be excepted from the operation of this inviolable rule and be deprived of the means of spiritual ascent?
Could it be said that a Creator Who has lavished generosity on man for the sake of his bodily development might deprive him of the most basic means needed for his spiritual elevation, that He might grudge him this bounty?
At the time of the death of the Messenger of God, the Islamic nation had not reached the cultural or intellectual level that would have permitted it do continue its development toward perfection without guardianship and oversight. The program that Islam had established for the development and elevation of man would have remained soulless and incomplete unless the principle of Imamate had been joined to it; Islam would have been unable to play its precious role in the liberation of man and the blossoming of his talents.
Fundamental Islamic texts proclaim that if the principle of Imamate is subtracted from Islam, the spirit of the laws of Islam and the progressive, monotheistic society based on them would be lost; nothing would remain but a lifeless form.
The Prophet of Islam, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said: “Whosoever dies without recognizing the Imam of his time dies the death of the Jahiliyyah.”[5]
The reason for this is that during the Jahiliyyah pre-Islamic era of ignorance the people were polytheists; they knew nothing of either monotheism or of prophethood. This categorical declaration by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, shows the importance that he assigned to the Imamate, to the degree that if someone fails to place his spiritual life beneath the protective cover of a perfected ruler he is equivalent to one whose whole life was spent in the Jahiliyyah and then went unredeemed to his death.
Notes:
[3] al-Duri, al-Nuzum al-Islamiyyah, Vol. I, pp. 72-84.
[4] al-Majlisi, Biharal-Anwar, Vol, XVII, p. 129.
[5] Ahmad b. Hanbal, al-Musnad, p. 96.
Source:
http://al-islam.org/leadership/