Episode 22 - The Harms of Islamizing Democracy That No Benefit Can Outweigh

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah, dear beloved.

Series Introduction

We are still in the series "Defending the Sharia," and today we are scheduled to discuss a topic of great importance, the doctrinal damages resulting from the mistakes of Islamists in their political work.

Series Methodology

Brothers, in this part of the series, we will proceed, God willing, as follows, and here is a detailed explanation, so I ask you to focus:

Step One: Clarifying the Doctrinal Damages

We will first clarify the doctrinal, intellectual, and methodological damages that have affected many Muslims due to the wrong political practices of some Islamists.

Step Two: Applying the Rule of Interest and Harm

This will lead us to the next step, where we will say to these Islamists: You justified your political practices using the rule of interest and harm, and you said that your political practices bring greater interests than the harms resulting from them. Now, after we have explained in the first step the extent of the harms resulting from your practices, let us apply your rule that you advocated and recalculate to see that the doctrinal and methodological harms that have occurred so far are greater than any imagined interest you aspire to. Therefore, your theoretical rules themselves lead to the prohibition of your practices.

Step Three: Indicating the Deviation in Applying the Rule

Then, in the third step, we will explain that we do not agree at all with the way parliamentary Islamists use the rule of interest and harm, and we will indicate the severe deviation in applying this rule so that it has destroyed the rules of Islam and produced a new religion that is not the religion of Islam.

The Negative Effects of Islamists' Engagement in Democracy

So, today we will pave the way for discussing the negative effects of Islamists' engagement in the democratic process, their confused stance towards Sharia, the concessions they have made, and the impact of all this on Muslims' beliefs and perceptions.

What Are the Negative Effects on Doctrine?

When we say negative effects and harmful effects on Muslims' doctrine, what do we mean? I will mention them briefly here, and the details will come in the upcoming episodes to identify the source of the flaw and address it, God willing. The follower of the positions and changes that have occurred in people's thoughts and language will find in his mind many examples of each effect I mention.

Examples of Negative Effects

Some of these effects are:

• Many of those who claim to be Muslims have spread among them the principle that the people are the legislative authority who have the right to legislate for themselves whatever they wish, and that their will is respected even if it contradicts Sharia, so what the people have made right is right, and what they have made wrong is wrong.
• The loss of the doctrine of loyalty and disavowal and the equating of the Muslim and the disbeliever on the basis of citizenship, even in matters where Sharia has made a distinction, indeed, equating them on a subjective value basis.
• Placing Islam on an equal footing with other religions and with positivist methodologies.
• The blurring in the minds of the fact that Islam is the absolute truth and everything else is false and misguidance, and the diminishing of the status of Sharia in the minds, so that some of the values advocated, such as freedom and strengthening the economy, have become prioritized over Sharia for some people.
• The weakening of trust in the innate disposition that Allah has placed in the hearts of His servants to be attracted to His Sharia.
• The practices of democratic Islamists have made many of those who claim to be Muslims justify and defend ruling by other than what Allah has revealed, describing it as rational and realistic, accepting recourse to positive laws, hating some rulings that are in reality from Sharia, even mocking them, seeing Allah's Sharia as unsuitable for application in some places and times, fearing its application, and imagining that people's morals and behavior can be improved by positive laws instead of Sharia.
• The loss of the meaning of servitude to Allah and the loss of the issue that rule belongs to Allah, and the trivialization of the image of Sharia so that the idea has spread that the rulings of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, are to be presented to the slaves so that they may choose from them what they wish, and some imagine that Sharia accepts being supplementary and remedial to the systems of ignorance.
• People have spread among them fabrications about the prophets of Allah, including the lie that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, made concessions at Al-Hudaybiyyah, and the like, the lie that Prophet Yusuf, peace be upon him, ruled by other than what Allah has revealed.
• People have become accustomed to not respecting the Sharia evidence and opposing it with rational arguments, and the spread of secularism cloaked in a Salafi cover.
• The Islamists themselves, through their practices and statements, have dampened the Islamic uprising, dispersed the immense charge that spread among the Islamic peoples during the Arab revolutions, lowered the ceiling of their ambitions, and limited their hopes, a role we have come to expect from the sincere enemies of Islam, but unfortunately, this time it was practiced by some Islamists.
• Justifying the evasion of Allah's commands and prohibitions under the name of gradualism, so that gradualism has become an intellectual slogan that is advocated and used to justify practices at the level of the individual, the family, and the institution, and this is one of the most dangerous effects.
• The practices of parliamentarians have given legitimacy in the eyes of the people to the systems of ignorance after their foundations have shaken, giving these systems a new lease on life.
• It has shaken the image of the call and the callers in the minds of the people, so that Machiavellian, pragmatic, utilitarian, and opportunistic callers have appeared, practicing political taqiya and competing with the people of falsehood for their worldly gains and positions, which will strike their call at its core and alienate people from it.
• It has promoted psychological defeatism so that people calculate a thousand calculations for the Christians in the Muslim lands and for the secularists, making the thought of pleasing them a compulsive obsession that governs actions and statements, seeking their pleasure more than seeking the pleasure of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted.
• Among the most important effects of the negative practices of some Islamists is the trivialization of all the aforementioned effects and not giving them any weight when comparing the imagined interests with the harms. This trivialization has come from many scholars and callers themselves, and this sends very negative messages to the collective mind and the subconscious, where this trivialization diminishes the importance of doctrine and its integrity.

The heavens are about to burst from it, and the earth is about to split open, and the mountains are about to crumble. These catastrophic effects, if any one of them were mixed with an ocean of interests, would ruin it. These negative effects can be summarized in two words: the loss of religion. Yes, the loss of religion.

Why Public Criticism?

After all this, some may ask: Why do you not direct your advice in this series personally to the Islamic parties and their leaders instead of publishing it publicly? In reality, brothers, the most important thing that drove me to proceed with this series is these catastrophic results on people's doctrines, perceptions, and ideas, for which you, some Islamists, bear the greatest responsibility due to your wrong practices. These mistakes were made publicly, and their negative effects were general, as we have seen, so secrecy with the private is not suitable.

Conclusion

These are the negative effects of the engagement of some Islamists in the democratic process and their wrong practices, which have led to the loss of religion and the distortion of the image of Islam and its callers. It is necessary to address these issues openly and honestly to protect the doctrine and the call from deviation and corruption.

Clarification of the Term "Islamists"

Here, it is essential to emphasize that we use the term "Islamists" in this context as a concession and for brevity. By this term, we mean those who allow change through parliaments and presidential elections within the democratic legislative system and existing constitutions. This proposition is never something we consider Islamic in origin, especially after reviewing its catastrophic effects that are destructive to Islam. How can it be Islamic? Therefore, we will tend to use the term "advocates of democracy" instead of "Islamists."

We also mention that we acknowledge the existence of Islamic parties and orientations, as well as individuals working to change reality in ways we see as both right and wrong. However, at least they have refrained from the path of democracy and its compromises, and from justifying it. Thus, the criticism and correction in this series are not directed at them.

Did the Scholars Take Notice?

We return to ask: Did the scholars notice the possibility of some of the negative consequences mentioned beforehand? The answer: Yes. But did they take the appropriate stance after their appearance? This is what we will know in the next episode, God willing.

Summary of the Episode

Summary of the episode: The approach of the advocates of democracy has resulted in harm to people's beliefs that is worse than any anticipated benefit.

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.