Rebellion against rulers
Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:02 am
Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimull?h) said, “Rebelling against the kings and rulers is the basis of all evil and fitnah until the end of time – whoever contemplates on what has happened to Islam historically with respect to fitnah, whether major or minor, will recognise its connection to this fundamental problem i.e. that to resist the evil (authority) leads to an evil worse than it, and that the lack of patience with that evil and the seeking of its removal produces a problem even worse than in the first place. The Messenger of Allah (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) witnessed the greatest of evils in Makkah yet he was not able to change it; indeed when Allah opened up Makkah and made it D?r’l-Isl?m, he (the Prophet (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam)) was determined to change the Ka‘bah back to the original foundations of Ibrah?m but he did not despite being able to do so, fearing creating a situation even worse with the possibility that the Quraysh would not be able to handle it due to their newness to Islam and their recent departure from kufr. Thus, it is not allowed to rise up against the leaders due to the consequences that result, which is even worse than before, as is well known…” (Turuq’l-H?kimiyyah)
Hassan al basri (ra)said the following:
Hasan al-Basri (rahimull?h) also said about the king of all tyrant oppressors, Hajj?j b. Y?suf, “Have no doubt, Hajj?j is the Punishment of Allah; don’t try to repel the punishment of Allah with your hands, rather you must humble yourselves and have humility because Allah, the Most High, says, “We have already seized them with punishment, but they did not turn humble to their Lord, nor do they supplicate in humility,” (al-Mu’min?n, 76)
Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimull?h) mentions in his Majm?‘ a key point that we often forget when we think about revolting against the government, namely that the Prophet (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) highly praised his grandson Hasan (radhy All?hu ‘anhu) for the fact that he would mediate and unite the Muslims by the Will of Allah, without rebellion. Yet, he (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) never praised at all the actions of those who fight during times of fitnah, nor rebelling against the evil ruler, nor withdrawing allegiance to the ruler nor splitting away from the Jam?‘ah of the Muslims.
Indeed, remember that the Prophet (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) informed Abu Hurayrah (radhy All?hu ‘anhu) of the secret “two containers of knowledge”, and even though we are sure that this information was about the later rulers to come and the evil that would result from them and those that fought against them, Abu Hurayrah still didn’t command the Muslims to fight these rulers despite knowing all their identities. Why? Because he knew that the Prophet (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) didn’t want to establish such a precedent, and Abu Hurayrah knew that the evil that would result would be far worse than what he’d been told about as it was.
And why do we assume that Abu Hurayrah knew the identities of the people that would be involved in this fitnah? Why from history itself. Im?m al-Dhahabi (rahimull?h) narrates from ‘Ubayd b. Sa‘?d that he entered Masjid al-Har?m with Ibn ‘Amr (radhy All?hu ‘anhum?) and they found the Ka‘bah burning after it had been caught in the middle of a battle from the army of Husayn b. Nam?r. Ibn ‘Amr stopped and started to weep, so much so that the tears flowed over his cheeks and then he shouted, “O People! By Allah, if Abu Hurayrah had told you that you would kill the grandson of your Prophet and that you would burn the House of your Lord, then you would have said: there is no bigger liar than Abu Hurayrah! But you have indeed done that – so wait now for the anger of Allah to befall us…” (al-Siyar, 3/94)
When the people wanted to rebel with Ibn al-Muhallab during the time of Hasan al-Basri (rahimull?h), he advised them to stay in their homes and lock their doors and then said, “By Allah, if the people are put to trial by their leaders and yet remain patient with that, Allah ‘azza wa jall will lift that trial from them; (those who didn’t have patience) ran to the sword and they were eventually overtaken by it. I swear by Allah, they did not bring a single day of good whatsoever! Then he recited, “And the sublime word of your Lord was fulfilled for the children of Isr?’?l, because they stood patient; and We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people used to build and what they used to raise high.”” (al-A‘r?f, 137)
Even when Islam was being tested with the most dangerous of trials such as the introduction to orthodox Islamic theology of the “created Qur’an deviation”, Im?m Ahmad b. Hanbal (rahimull?h) stood and refuted the concept but never lead the people in revolt against the deviant ruler. When his companions came to him to urge him to do so against al-W?thiq, he replied, “Condemn their belief in your hearts but remain obedient to them and do not break the unity of the Muslims; don’t shed your own blood and the blood of the Muslims with you, rather look to the consequences of your actions and have patience…” (Ad?b’l-Shar?‘ah, Ibn al-Muflih and Al-Mihnat’l-Im?m Ahmad, 70-72)
Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimull?h) said, “From the key principles of Ahl’l-Sunnah wa’l Jam?‘ah is to keep (united) with the Muslim Community and to leave fighting the rulers during fitnah. As for the people of desires, such as the Mu‘tazilah, they see rebelling against and fighting the rulers from the very principles of their Deen…”
To be from Ahl’l-Sunnah is to live the ideals and to apply them as much as possible in every aspect of life that we can. We do this by preserving our unity, agreeing on the key basics and moving forward to maintain our collective strength until we deserve a better political condition and rulers. At this moment in time, it is a minor miracle that we are still able to worship Allah at all – maybe someone is making istighf?r for us somewhere.
Perhaps, as the sounds of the fun and games of Guy Fawkes fireworks start to fade away, and we realise that the sounds of missiles and gunfire increases with the loss of innocent life in the Muslim lands, we’ll start to call ourselves and our people to those defining characteristics of Ahl’l-Sunnah wa’l-Jam?‘ah in times of fitnah such as maintaining unity, not rebelling against our governments and having patience. May Allah jalla wa ‘al? give us all ability to do that, am?n.
Hassan al basri (ra)said the following:
Hasan al-Basri (rahimull?h) also said about the king of all tyrant oppressors, Hajj?j b. Y?suf, “Have no doubt, Hajj?j is the Punishment of Allah; don’t try to repel the punishment of Allah with your hands, rather you must humble yourselves and have humility because Allah, the Most High, says, “We have already seized them with punishment, but they did not turn humble to their Lord, nor do they supplicate in humility,” (al-Mu’min?n, 76)
Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimull?h) mentions in his Majm?‘ a key point that we often forget when we think about revolting against the government, namely that the Prophet (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) highly praised his grandson Hasan (radhy All?hu ‘anhu) for the fact that he would mediate and unite the Muslims by the Will of Allah, without rebellion. Yet, he (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) never praised at all the actions of those who fight during times of fitnah, nor rebelling against the evil ruler, nor withdrawing allegiance to the ruler nor splitting away from the Jam?‘ah of the Muslims.
Indeed, remember that the Prophet (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) informed Abu Hurayrah (radhy All?hu ‘anhu) of the secret “two containers of knowledge”, and even though we are sure that this information was about the later rulers to come and the evil that would result from them and those that fought against them, Abu Hurayrah still didn’t command the Muslims to fight these rulers despite knowing all their identities. Why? Because he knew that the Prophet (sallall?hu ‘alayhi wa sallam) didn’t want to establish such a precedent, and Abu Hurayrah knew that the evil that would result would be far worse than what he’d been told about as it was.
And why do we assume that Abu Hurayrah knew the identities of the people that would be involved in this fitnah? Why from history itself. Im?m al-Dhahabi (rahimull?h) narrates from ‘Ubayd b. Sa‘?d that he entered Masjid al-Har?m with Ibn ‘Amr (radhy All?hu ‘anhum?) and they found the Ka‘bah burning after it had been caught in the middle of a battle from the army of Husayn b. Nam?r. Ibn ‘Amr stopped and started to weep, so much so that the tears flowed over his cheeks and then he shouted, “O People! By Allah, if Abu Hurayrah had told you that you would kill the grandson of your Prophet and that you would burn the House of your Lord, then you would have said: there is no bigger liar than Abu Hurayrah! But you have indeed done that – so wait now for the anger of Allah to befall us…” (al-Siyar, 3/94)
When the people wanted to rebel with Ibn al-Muhallab during the time of Hasan al-Basri (rahimull?h), he advised them to stay in their homes and lock their doors and then said, “By Allah, if the people are put to trial by their leaders and yet remain patient with that, Allah ‘azza wa jall will lift that trial from them; (those who didn’t have patience) ran to the sword and they were eventually overtaken by it. I swear by Allah, they did not bring a single day of good whatsoever! Then he recited, “And the sublime word of your Lord was fulfilled for the children of Isr?’?l, because they stood patient; and We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people used to build and what they used to raise high.”” (al-A‘r?f, 137)
Even when Islam was being tested with the most dangerous of trials such as the introduction to orthodox Islamic theology of the “created Qur’an deviation”, Im?m Ahmad b. Hanbal (rahimull?h) stood and refuted the concept but never lead the people in revolt against the deviant ruler. When his companions came to him to urge him to do so against al-W?thiq, he replied, “Condemn their belief in your hearts but remain obedient to them and do not break the unity of the Muslims; don’t shed your own blood and the blood of the Muslims with you, rather look to the consequences of your actions and have patience…” (Ad?b’l-Shar?‘ah, Ibn al-Muflih and Al-Mihnat’l-Im?m Ahmad, 70-72)
Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimull?h) said, “From the key principles of Ahl’l-Sunnah wa’l Jam?‘ah is to keep (united) with the Muslim Community and to leave fighting the rulers during fitnah. As for the people of desires, such as the Mu‘tazilah, they see rebelling against and fighting the rulers from the very principles of their Deen…”
To be from Ahl’l-Sunnah is to live the ideals and to apply them as much as possible in every aspect of life that we can. We do this by preserving our unity, agreeing on the key basics and moving forward to maintain our collective strength until we deserve a better political condition and rulers. At this moment in time, it is a minor miracle that we are still able to worship Allah at all – maybe someone is making istighf?r for us somewhere.
Perhaps, as the sounds of the fun and games of Guy Fawkes fireworks start to fade away, and we realise that the sounds of missiles and gunfire increases with the loss of innocent life in the Muslim lands, we’ll start to call ourselves and our people to those defining characteristics of Ahl’l-Sunnah wa’l-Jam?‘ah in times of fitnah such as maintaining unity, not rebelling against our governments and having patience. May Allah jalla wa ‘al? give us all ability to do that, am?n.
