Summary of Sunni concepts | 70- Concepts about contemporary political doctrines and terminology

0:00 Summary of the Concepts of Ahl al-Sunnah

0:08 Freedom

0:12 Freedom is the opposite of servitude,

0:15 and it signifies the realization of one's will.

0:18 The truth, however, is that there is no freedom entirely devoid of restriction.

0:24 It has famously been said that "one's freedom ends where the freedom of others begins."

0:30 By this, they mean

0:32 that if your freedom infringes upon the rights or freedom of others, it is prohibited.

0:39 Yet the correct view is to say

0:41 that one's freedom is delimited by the boundaries of the Sharia.

0:46 For the Sharia guarantees the rights of others,

0:49 just as it guarantees your own personal rights,

0:53 protecting them even from your own self.

0:56 Above and before all of that,

0:59 it actualizes servitude to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.

1:02 True freedom lies in absolute servitude to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.

1:08 For whoever is truly a servant of Allah

1:11 is free from everything besides Him—be it fellow human beings, base desires, or whims;

1:16 none of these can enslave him.

1:20 Liberalism

1:24 Liberalism is derived from the word "liberty,"

1:28 an English word meaning freedom.

1:32 Liberalism—

1:34 "liberalism" denotes emancipation and liberation,

1:38 by which is meant freedom from any constraint binding man in his thought, speech, or action.

1:45 Among these are the constraints of the pristine Sharia and the bounds set by Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.

1:50 Indeed, this was the very reason liberal thought arose,

1:54 as it emerged in opposition to the religion they had,

1:57 which had suffered distortion and become oriented toward the clergy's domination over the people.

2:02 So instead of seeking the true religion,

2:06 they tended toward shedding all religions, even the true one,

2:11 falling into enslavement to whims, Satan, and base desires.

2:16 Liberal philosophy continues to combat religion and the fundamentalist orientation in general

2:23 down to our present day.

2:25 Upon it many parties in the West are founded today,

2:29 such as the Democratic Party in the United States,

2:32 whereas the Republican Party is grounded in fundamentalism according to their understanding.

2:38 Since freedom must inevitably have boundaries to prevent harming others,

2:44 liberals were compelled to enact laws by which they regulate—

2:49 as they claim—rights among human beings.

2:53 Thus, the ultimate outcome was:

2:56 complete liberation from the bounds of religion alone,

3:00 alongside a freedom constrained by man-made systems meant to regulate relations between people, as they claim.

3:07 Liberalism, however, permitted religiosity solely under the rubric of personal freedom, without binding force,

3:15 allowing only private religiosity that obligates others to nothing.

3:23 Liberals in Muslim Lands and Their Agenda

3:29 Liberals in Muslim lands are mere subordinates of Western liberalism,

3:35 possessing in reality no genuine civilizational project to advance their nations.

3:41 Rather, their sole concern is combating the projects of the Islamists.

3:46 Dr. Fu'ad Zakariyya, one of the prominent figures among liberals and secularists in Egypt, was asked

3:53 about the liberals' project, and he replied: "They have no intellectual project;

3:59 their project is simply demolishing the project of the Islamists." This is an observable, tangible reality,

4:06 for they lack the slightest concern even for national and existential causes of Muslims and Arabs,

4:14 such as the cause of Palestine and the West's exploitation of the Muslim world's resources,

4:20 and so forth. Women's Liberation

4:24 Among the issues liberals frequently talk about is the so-called liberation of women.

4:34 What they truly mean by this is that a woman should strip away all virtue, modesty, and decency,

4:41 under the pretext of freedom, so that in reality she becomes enslaved to the desires of human devils,

4:48 fashion houses, and trendy fads, enticed by cheap money to serve as an advertising commodity for all kinds of products.

4:58 An illustration of this is that Tahrir Square in Cairo

5:03 was named so only because a women's march took place there during the era of the Egyptian monarchy;

5:10 it initially claimed to be an uprising against British occupation,

5:15 but the women suddenly removed the niqab from their faces in a theatrical gesture,

5:21 declaring their liberation from it.

5:24 We fail to see what the British occupation had to do with the niqab;

5:28 did the British impose it upon them, or was there an ulterior motive behind it all?

5:38 True Freedom of Thought and Opinion

5:42 is found within the sound methodology of Islam.

5:45 An indication of this is the Qur'an's urge to reflect and ponder across numerous verses,

5:53 and the fact that Tafsir based on transmitted reports—namely the Sunnah and statements of the Companions—is limited and specific in scope,

6:00 which opens the way for scholarly ijtihad in Tafsir

6:03 in accordance with the rules of this discipline and the qualifications of the qualified exegete.

6:08 As for the freedom of thought claimed by liberals and the West in general,

6:13 they conflate freedom of thought with freedom of disbelief,

6:18 demanding the freedom to slander in the name of freedom of the press.

6:23 Yet whenever freedom opposes their own inclinations,

6:27 it is forbidden and combated.

6:31 Freedom, in their view, is merely the freedom to say what we want you to say.

6:37 When Roger Garaudy criticized the exaggeration of the number of Jews killed in the crematoria—

6:44 the Holocaust—

6:45 they prosecuted him and sentenced him to prison

6:48 on charges of anti-Semitism.

6:51 Nor did the West tolerate the founder of the WikiLeaks website leaking classified documents;

6:56 they pursued him relentlessly for seven years

6:59 while he was an asylum seeker in the Ecuadorian embassy in London,

7:03 until they finally arrested him

7:05 under the pretext of other charges relating to past allegations of harassment or assault.

7:10 Thus, when the West says,

7:12 "Freedom of thought with us is within the limits of the law,"

7:16 we say, "Freedom of thought with us is within the limits of the Sharia."

7:21 The Mu'tazilah and Freedom of Thought and Opinion

7:26 Many contemporaries claim

7:30 that the Mu'tazilite sect, which emerged among the earliest sects in Islam,

7:36 were the champions of intellectual freedom in Islam

7:40 and proponents of the enlightened rationalist school.

7:44 Yet the truth is precisely the opposite:

7:48 they were the most suppressive of sects toward freedom of thought and opinion.

7:52 Whenever they held political power,

7:55 they coerced people into adopting their creed and doctrine.

7:58 They did so regarding their doctrine of the createdness of the Qur'an,

8:02 subjecting people to the Inquisition over it.

8:04 Whoever did not submit to their view and agree with them

8:08 was dismissed from his post,

8:10 or tortured if he was among the prominent scholars—

8:13 as they did with Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him,

8:17 and other scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah

8:20 who stood firm upon the truth throughout this trial

8:23 and exposed their misguidance to the people.

8:26 Democracy

8:29 Democracy is a word of Latin origin:

8:34 "democracy."

8:36 It is composed of two roots:

8:38 "demos," meaning the people,

8:41 and "kratos," meaning rule.

8:45 Thus, democracy means

8:48 rule of the people by the people,

8:50 wherein supreme authority belongs to the people,

8:53 which they exercise through electing their president

8:56 and their representatives in the legislative assembly—

8:59 the parliament.

9:00 In it, whoever secures the largest number

9:03 of the people's votes is installed in power;

9:05 therefore, it is also referred to as

9:07 majority rule.

9:09 The people also possess, under a democratic system,

9:13 the right to hold referendums on major issues,

9:17 such as the nation's constitution.

9:19 Democracy arose

9:21 in opposition to theocracy,

9:24 which means rule by the priesthood

9:26 or religious rule,

9:28 by which is meant the clergy's monopolization of governance

9:31 and their despotic exercise of it

9:33 under the claim of divine right,

9:35 viewing themselves as authorized delegates of the Divine.

9:38 Democracy also describes itself

9:41 as being opposed to dictatorial systems of governance,

9:44 which denote rule by an individual

9:47 or autocratic rule by a particular entity.

9:50 Although democracy

9:53 appears ostensibly good

9:56 in that it prevents tyranny and despotism,

9:59 it nonetheless entails forms of polytheism and numerous evils,

10:03 as will be clarified in a separate concept.

10:06 Many Western politicians

10:09 and thinkers themselves have criticized it,

10:12 while many in the East have been captivated by it.

10:15 Famous is the remark of Winston Churchill,

10:18 the British statesman, regarding it:

10:20 "Democracy is not

10:22 the best system devised by man,

10:25 but it is the least evil of systems."

10:28 The West's Promotion of Democracy

10:33 in Muslim Lands

10:35 The West succeeded in promoting

10:37 democracy across Muslim lands

10:40 under the banners of liberation,

10:42 resisting tyranny,

10:44 and human rights.

10:46 Behind the veil of all these slogans,

10:49 democracy spread throughout Muslim countries,

10:53 and the West was emulated in vesting sovereignty in the people—

10:56 as is the core premise of democracy,

10:59 which constitutes blatant disbelief—

11:01 instead of vesting sovereignty in the Sharia,

11:04 as is the requisite reality in Islam.

11:08 The Difference Between Democracy and Liberalism

11:13 Between liberalism and democracy

11:17 lies a distinction that not everyone may realize.

11:20 For democracy

11:22 is founded upon the will of the majority,

11:24 whereas liberal philosophy

11:27 is founded upon individual liberty,

11:29 even if it conflicts with the majority.

11:32 The Social Contract

11:35 is Rousseau's theory,

11:38 which denotes

11:40 an agreement among members of a society

11:43 to be governed by a particular administration

11:45 or bound by a specific bond.

11:48 Rousseau actually adapted this

11:50 from the concept of the bay'ah in Islam.

11:54 A republic

11:58 is a state ruled by the public,

12:01 as they claim,

12:03 in contrast to a monarchy,

12:05 which is a state ruled by

12:07 an individual from a specific family—

12:09 namely the ruling family,

12:11 or the dynasty possessing the realm,

12:13 where governance is inherited

12:15 among its members.

12:17 Republics typically exist within democratic

12:19 systems,

12:21 whereas monarchies

12:23 are often found within authoritarian regimes.

12:25 Yet in the West there are

12:27 some monarchical states

12:29 in a democratic system,

12:31 where the king

12:33 is merely a figurehead

12:35 with limited powers,

12:37 while actual authority

12:39 belongs to the prime minister

12:41 and his government, who belong

12:43 to the party that wins

12:45 the parliamentary elections

12:47 according to the democratic system.

12:49 Examples of

12:51 democratic monarchies include

12:53 England and Belgium.

12:55 All of this

12:57 clashes directly with the system of governance in Islam.

13:02 The Theory of Sovereignty:

13:05 The theory of sovereignty

13:07 is the theoretical, philosophical foundation

13:09 for the principle of self-rule by the people,

13:11 whereas democracy

13:13 is its practical political

13:15 exercise.

13:17 The concept of sovereignty originated

13:19 in France

13:21 at the end of the Middle Ages,

13:23 when popes,

13:25 emperors,

13:27 and estates confronted one another with it,

13:29 each claiming sovereignty for themselves

13:31 on the grounds that it was an inherent right

13:33 and a divine mandate.

13:35 The monarchs responded to them

13:37 with the very same weapon,

13:39 assigning sovereignty to temporal power—

13:41 that is, the power that governs

13:43 during a specific era,

13:45 namely the kings.

13:47 Subsequently,

13:49 French jurists seized upon this concept,

13:51 stripped it from all parties,

13:53 and formulated from it the theory of sovereignty.

13:58 Jurists initially defined sovereignty

14:00 at first

14:04 as an exclusive attribute

14:06 of political authority,

14:08 signifying the absence of

14:10 any other authority

14:12 superior to the existing authority

14:14 or equal to it.

14:16 The concept of sovereignty

14:18 in this sense was negative—

14:20 that is, it did not endow

14:22 sovereignty with positive substance

14:24 or specific defining characteristics,

14:26 but merely rested on negating

14:28 this description

14:30 from anything else

14:32 other than the ruling authority.

14:34 Before long, however,

14:36 jurists subsequently went on

14:38 to make sovereignty itself

14:40 the supreme commanding authority of the state,

14:42 rather than merely an attribute

14:44 of political power.

14:46 Thus, they gave it specific substance

14:48 and defined characteristics,

14:50 attributing it to the nation or the people—

14:52 despite detailed differences

14:54 between the two views—

14:56 divesting the king or ruler of sovereignty

14:58 and reducing him to a mere

15:00 executive functionary

15:02 carrying out the will of the nation or the people.

15:04 The substance of sovereignty

15:07 and its characteristics

15:09 according to this theory:

15:11 The primary substance of this

15:14 sovereignty, which

15:16 encompasses all of its

15:18 characteristics and elements,

15:20 is that it is a supreme will

15:22 possessing characteristics found

15:24 in no other will.

15:26 It is a will that determines itself

15:28 by itself, bound by

15:30 no other will,

15:32 and committed to no specific course

15:34 of action unless

15:36 it so desires.

15:38 From this primary substance

15:40 stem the following characteristics:

15:42 First:

15:44 it is absolute,

15:46 meaning unrestricted by anything,

15:48 even by law;

15:50 rather, law is merely the expression of

15:52 its will.

15:54 Second: supremacy,

15:56 meaning nothing, as they claim,

15:58 rises above it or equals it.

16:00 Third:

16:02 indivisibility and singularity,

16:04 for there exists only

16:06 one single sovereignty for a single

16:08 territory, which is the sovereignty

16:10 of its people.

16:12 Fourth: originality,

16:14 as it is, in their claim, primary,

16:16 not derived from

16:18 anything that precedes it or stands

16:20 above it.

16:23 Fifth: inalienability;

16:25 for if it were usurped

16:27 by one who is not entitled to it

16:29 according to their norms,

16:31 and who imposed his rule over the people

16:33 for a period of time,

16:35 that would not grant him legitimacy,

16:37 no matter how long the period

16:39 of usurpation lasts.

16:41 The usurpation of sovereignty remains a usurpation;

16:43 it is not validated by mere possession,

16:45 nor is it justified by the passage of time.

16:47 Based on these characteristics

16:49 and definitions,

16:51 holding it to be the absolute, supreme authority

16:53 which alone possesses the exclusive right

16:55 to issue binding rulings

16:57 pertaining to

16:59 judging things and actions,

17:01 such authority belongs

17:03 strictly to the pure Divine Law.

17:05 Exalted is Allah far above what

17:07 the wrongdoers say, high above all!

17:09 Believing

17:11 in these attributes of sovereignty

17:13 for the nation or the people

17:15 is associating partners with Allah Almighty in His Lordship (Rububiyyah)

17:17 and an explicit contradiction

17:19 of the words of Allah Almighty:

17:21 "Legislation is

17:23 not but for Allah,"

17:25 and His saying:

17:27 “Say: Allah is Best Aware how long they tarried. His is the Invisible of the heavens and the earth. How clear of sight is He and keen of hearing! They have no protecting friend beside Him, and He maketh none to share in His government.” (18:26)

17:29 and the words of the Almighty:

17:31 "And whoever does not judge

17:33 by what Allah has revealed—then it is those

17:35 who are the disbelievers."

17:40 The evils of democracy:

17:43 Since democracy

17:45 is the political exercise

17:47 of the tenets of the theory of sovereignty,

17:49 its fundamental evil, then,

17:51 is that it entrenches

17:53 polytheism with Allah in governance,

17:55 which we have demonstrated

17:57 to be an inevitable corollary of subscribing

17:59 to the theory of sovereignty and believing

18:01 in it. For democrats merely flee

18:03 from the worship of

18:05 rulers and popes

18:07 to the worship of peoples

18:09 and parliaments,

18:11 and from tyranny exercised in the name of

18:13 the divine right of the Church

18:15 and monarchs

18:17 to a tyranny exercised in the name of the divine right

18:19 of peoples and parliaments.

18:21 Thus, we have come to hear

18:23 phrases such as

18:25 "the rule of law" instead

18:27 of "the supremacy of Divine Law,"

18:29 and "there is no crime and no punishment

18:31 except by legislation" instead

18:33 of "the unlawful is what the Divine Law forbids,

18:35 and the lawful

18:37 is what the Divine Law permits."

18:39 That alone suffices as the greatest abhorrence

18:41 of the disbelief inherent in democracy.

18:43 In addition

18:45 to this cardinal evil

18:47 in the democratic system,

18:49 democratic thinkers

18:51 themselves have enumerated

18:53 other defects of democracy,

18:55 among which are:

18:57 First:

18:59 it is not, in reality,

19:01 rule by the majority,

19:03 because the majority of people

19:05 abstain from voting

19:07 and do not take part in it,

19:09 as clearly indicated

19:11 by voter turnout rates in elections.

19:13 Second: the capitalists

19:15 are the actual controllers

19:17 of the democratic system,

19:19 because they dominate

19:21 the media, which depends

19:23 to their wealth,

19:25 and the media is what manufactures

19:27 public opinion, even through news,

19:29 analyses, and propaganda

19:31 that are false and deceitful.

19:33 Consequently,

19:35 opinion and governance do not truly belong to the majority,

19:37 in reality, but rather to the wealthy,

19:39 and serve to advance

19:41 their views and consolidate their political

19:43 influence.

19:45 Thirdly, the democratic

19:47 system is built

19:49 upon political parties,

19:51 which are divided

19:53 in ideology and methodology—

19:55 a divergence that leads to mutual rancor

19:57 and conflict among them,

19:59 instead of cooperation and solidarity

20:01 to serve the best interests of the country

20:03 and its people.

20:05 Fourthly, the principle

20:07 of equal weight in votes

20:09 and referendums

20:11 makes no distinction between the vote

20:13 of an experienced, sound-minded,

20:15 and highly educated person,

20:17 and the vote of an unlearned person

20:19 of limited intellect and discernment.

20:21 This deprives the Ummah

20:23 of effectively benefiting

20:25 from the counsel of these qualified experts

20:27 who are capable of guiding

20:29 the course of events,

20:31 whereas the system of shura (mutual consultation)

20:33 in Islam

20:35 maximizes the benefit derived from such expertise.

20:37 Fifthly,

20:40 studies have shown

20:42 that the average lifespan of governments

20:44 in democratic systems

20:46 over the past half-century

20:48 did not exceed eight months.

20:50 This is a very brief period,

20:52 insufficient for any government

20:54 to execute its plans

20:56 and its reform and development programs.

Summary of Sunni concepts | 70- Concepts about contemporary political doctrines and terminology | Concepts (1090-1104)

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