The question arises because the system of democracy does not originate from Islam. It is a Greek system and its name comprises of two Greek words. ‘Demo’ means ‘People’ and ‘Karots’ means ‘Government’. That is, Government of the People. Former American President Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well by his famous slogan Government of the People, By the People, For the People. In a little detail, it means that supremacy of power lies with people, people have the right to legislate the law of the land and the will of people will be judged by the will of the majority.
Whereas the ideology of Islam is that supremacy and sovereignty belongs to Allah Almighty, the Creator of the world and the people. Allah Almighty created not just the world and the people, but created a constitution for them too so that nobody legislates with vested interests. He has already decided the basic laws regarding politics, economics, defence, society, education and so on. Islam is not just about religious rituals but is a complete code of life encompassing all spheres of life and providing guidance for them. Any further legislation, which may be required according to the situation and circumstances, must originate from the core constitution of Islam, as allowed under the religious provision of Tazeerat and Ijtehad. Tazeerat means formulating a relative penalty due to a varying degree of crime and Ijtehad means to infer an Islamic law for a new situation via pattern matching. However, the bottom-line remains that the laws will originate from the Divine Code and not from the mind of an individual.
I came upon a booklet published by Tehreek Nifaz-e-Islam by the name of ‘Democracy and Elections’ in Urdu. It gave a very smart analogy of the fallacy of supremacy of people. In the olden times, kings like Pharoah used to proclaim kingship and sovereignty and supremacy over their lands and did what they will.
Today, that consolidated supremacy has been dissipated and divided into bits and pieces called ‘votes’. Now entire communities of people believe themselves to be supreme in their right to legislate for themselves and do as they will. A glaring example of the vice of such an unbridled democracy is the legitimacy of gay and lesbian marriages in the West today.
I read the Constitution of Pakistan. It is a patchwork of the Greek Democracy and Islam, for it says in the very beginning,
‘Whereas sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the authority to be exercised by the people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust;
And whereas it is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order;
Wherein the State shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the people;…’
Further Article 62, 63 of the constitution, if followed in letter and spirit, defines such prerequisites for the legitimacy of the parliamentarians which are quite the same as the requisites for the members of the Majlis-e-Shoora of the Islamic governance.
The exact system of governance prescribed by Islam is Khilafah. In Khilafah, a leader is selected by a group of wise men based on his piety, wisdom, intelligence, strength, capability, foresightedness and such qualities. This leader is called the Khalifah. The entire Muslim nation then takes an oath of allegiance to him. Mind you, by the Muslim nation, it means exactly that, the entire Muslim nation. No Pakistanism, no Afghanistanism, no Iranism and so on. Islam views all Muslim lands as one empire. The Khalifah governs the Muslim nation according to Islamic laws and values. Also, the Khalifah stays the Khalifah till he is performing well, be it one year or ten years. It does not matter. There is no logical reason to disrupt a good leader just because some Greek theologian thought it is a good idea to do so. Neither there is a logical reason to continue a bad ruler for five years just because some Greek theologian thought it is a good idea to do so. Finally, the best part about Khilafah, which is very close to the much favored democracy’s ideology, is Prophet Muhammed Pbuh’s saying, Al-Hakim Al-Khadim, meaning that the ruler is the service man of the people. That is, he is for the service of the people and not at all to throw about his weight or to loot them. Indeed, this noble character has been lived by many pious Muslim governors of the past.
The question is, since Khilafah does not exist for the time being, is it wise to boycott the existing system of democracy and leave the field open for corrupt politicians to get elected and create havoc in the land?
How to struggle for Khilafah and Khalifah? As said before, a group of wise men select a Khalifah. These days, there is so much disunity among Muslims that people of the same school-of-thought within religion are unable to unite on a single issue, let alone a nominated person. A very recent example is the Lal Masjid incident. The Lal Masjid folks belong to the Deobandi school-of-thought. Tableeghi Jamaat, Jamya Ashrafiya, JUI, and countless other religious, educational and political organizations also belong to the Deobandi school-of-thought. Many supported them in theory for their effort towards The Shariah Rule, but none in practice; either in fear of persecution or disagreement upon the methodology. How will all the Muslims then, unite upon a movement towards Khilafah? More importantly, how will all the Muslim scholars unite upon the nomination of the Khalifah?
Definitely Khilafah is the best form of governance, but it has to be achieved by a practical method. It will not be achieved by simply wishing for it or waiting for some Khilafah movement to gain momentum. I truly appreciate all movements worldwide towards Islam and Khilafah, but it is more important to actually achieve it.
If we truly follow the existing constitution of Pakistan, focusing on its Islamic guidelines and ignoring the little diversions, it is not that hard to work towards Khilafah from within the existing system. If all legislation is truly done in the light of Islam, and all the ministers are truly nominated after an Islamic scrutiny, then we have only unity of the Muslim ‘countries’ to work out. That should not be too difficult either. Just like we have provincial assemblies, we can convert the current national assembly into the state assembly and supersede it by a national assembly, or Majlis-e-Shoora, which would comprise of the heads of all Muslims states as its members. Policy-making would be done by this national assembly and the Muslim states would at least share the economy, media and defence. If there can be a United States of America, why cannot be there the United States of Islam?
The procedure of election will in fact resolve the issue of eternal disagreement among Muslims and Muslim scholars. Yes, we will be electing, but only among candidates of a noble character as short-listed by Article 62, 63 of the constitution.
And yes Islam does not appreciate people themselves seeking and asking for position of power, but in situations of scarcity of good candidates, it is in fact recommended. Don’t you remember Prophet Yousuf AS offering his services as the treasury and resources minister to the king of the times?
And I agree that wise people should have more say in the electoral process. This logic can be incorporated in the electoral process by introducing ‘value votes’. An uneducated person’s vote may have value one, an educated person’s vote may have value two and a person having both worldly education and religious education may have a vote value of three. Why not? If the UNO can grant some of its members the veto power, why cannot the Islamic empire do so?
If you do not like the idea of a converted democracy, then perhaps you like to recall the time when Allah Almighty told the Muslims not to pray while they were drunk. He could have said ‘Quit drinking at once’ and He could have said ‘Do not pray at all until you have quit drinking for good’, but He knew that the Muslims were in a transition and hence ordered them accordingly.
Finally, by the prophecy of Prophet Muhammed Pbuh, the Khilafah will ultimately be re-established by Imam Mehdi, who is agreed upon by all schools-of-thought of Islam. And we are all waiting for him. However, we should not twiddle our thumbs while we are waiting, but work hard towards Khilafah to the best of our knowledge and circumstances so that when Imam Mehdi arrives, the stage is all set for him to take the lead and Prophet Isa AS (Jesus Christ) to reappear. Indeed, the Jews are doing exactly this, but for Dajjal. For he is their awaited messiah against our messiah and you can see the work they have done for him by the insignia of his one eye visible everywhere around us as depicted in the documentary ‘The Arrivals’. How much work have we Muslims done?
Indeed, it is important to vote and to vote for Islam-oriented personalities, who will keep out the corrupt politicians, establish a welfare state and work towards Khilafah.
Unfortunately, I have discovered that my vote is registered from Lahore while I am residing in Islamabad. Insha Allah, I will go to Lahore to cast my vote.
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