Salafism and the methods of change by Yasser Borhami

Before the Revolution of Jan. 25, 2011, Ad-Da'wa As-Salafiya (the Salafist Call) in Egypt, like the rest of Salafist currents, denied and forbid participation in any political activities, whether by founding parties or running for parliamentary elections. The Salafist Call would see political work as a waste of time and effort.

Founder of the call Yasser Borhami published a research, entitled ‘Salafism and the methods of change’, which clarified the reasons of abstaining from political participation in principle;

First: Legislation is a divine right; Allah allowed the lawful, forbid the forbidden and stipulated religion.

Second: Human-made laws contradict the Islamic law; and anything that contradicts the Islamic law is invalid.

Third: Allah would cast his wrath upon any ruling that contradicts the Islamic laws.

Fourth: The study mentioned two scenarios; the first one is the type of ruling that only intends to adjust matters for the public good and is not contrary to Islam and its laws, which is deemed permissible; however, the second type, which legislates in contradiction with what god stipulated and set, is deemed disbelief.

Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah in his third volume of Majmoo' al-Fatawa (compilation of fatwas) said, “Whoever declares to be lawful something that is unanimously agreed-upon as unlawful, or declares to be unlawful something that is unanimously agreed-upon as lawful, or alters the agreed-upon Islamic law, then he is a disbeliever and an apostate according to the scholarly consensus."

Fifth: There is a difference between Islamic and democratic secular rules; the Islamic stipulations are based on the Quran and Sunnah, and applies divine ruling. Secularism, on the other hand, draws its power from the public and sets its legislations and laws accordingly.

A secular system, according to the Salafist study, has no power over the will of people, even if this will consented adultery, homosexuality or alcohol, making all principles and laws vulnerable to change under secularism or democracy.

 Different consultation:

The sixth reason the study mentioned revolves around Shura (Consultation) in Islam and how it differs from democracy; it is forbidden to consult with individuals to decide whether to apply an Islamic law.

Seventh; Legislative Councils make laws that contradict the Islamic law and oblige the public to adhere to them. Such councils see that majority rules, even if contradicting Islam, therefore, they are considered “councils of infidelity”.

Eighth; Every Muslim should disown and fight parties that are based on secularism, democracy, socialism, communism, and other human-made principles that contradict with Islam.

Ninth; servitude is due to God alone, and not to any “tyrant”; based on the Islamic creed that declares belief in the oneness of God and the acceptance of Muhammad as God's prophet.

Tenth; moreover, the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice is deemed a great obligation in Islam, it gets fulfilled by calling to the way of Allah with wisdom and good exhortation, providing a good example, and changing evil by action, words, or heart, depending on the ability, for the public interest. This obligation is conditioned by one having the ability to do so.

Borhami further added that, after all of the aforementioned reasons, the legitimacy of participating in legislative councils differs based on the participant.

According to Borhami, unless being ignorant or confused, a participant that joined a legislative council for the achievement of democracy by adhering to human-made laws is deemed mushrik (a worshipper of anyone or anything besides Allah).

There are some participants who would take part in legislative councils with the aim to apply the Islamic Law, provided the disownment of any human-made laws. The first opinion in that it is authorized if the participation was for the application of Islamic Law; while the second opinion deems such participation as a sin, not as disbelief or apostasy, because the participant disowned the human-made laws only by heart, but still joined the legislative council.

The study concluded that Salafism denies participation in legislative councils, either by running for candidacy, election or contribution, lest greater evils occur, based on previous practices. It also added that democracy resembles “the cult images that infidels would make out of pressed dates, and later eat them if they got hungry;” secular rulers would rush into dismantling all parties and legislative councils if they sensed any threat, especially by “Islamists”, to their positions, “and their armies will be always ready to abort the democracy they invented.”