The Place of Politics & the Place of an Islamic Government in Religion

Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani  

"He [the Political Worker] departs the vehicle of effort and work from the road of faith in the unseen - yearning for the Afterlife, seeking Allah’s pleasure and devotion to His love - to the path of seeking rule, glory, dominance, and achieving rule and subsequently the materialist galaxy.”

"They made politics and the establishment of an Islamic government the primary objective and highest aim of all the rules of religion, and it is as though the rules of worship etc. are not aimed at [anything] besides one goal which is the establishment of an Islamic government."

Some Muslims in our time who undertook [the task] of refuting secularism have gone too far in this until they fell into a subtle mistake, that changed the focus and caused many errors in this field; that is, they made politics and the establishment of an Islamic government the primary objective and highest aim of all the rules of religion, and it is as though the rules of worship etc. are not aimed at [anything] besides one goal which is the establishment of an Islamic government, and it is as though worship and religiosity (diyanah) are all means in the attainment of this primary objective; to [the extent] that they diminished the importance of worship and made it an exercise and training for the fundamental target, which is the establishment of a theocratic government (al-hukumat al-ilahiyyah).


Due to this cogitation, two dangerous causes of corruption emerged:


First: since worship became a means in the establishment of a theocratic government, it is not regarded as an objective in itself, and by its [performance] is intended a gradual progression to the fundamental target. Thus, if the conditions demanded that these means be sacrificed by choosing other means to [attain] that important objective then indeed from the results of this cogitation is that there is nothing preventing sacrificing them because they are not the objective.


Second: one does not have a relationship with means besides a basic ordinary relationship [which falls] within the domain of necessity, and naturally he will regard it as a transitory passing stage, and will not regard it as his life target and the goal of his efforts, and will not progress in it and excel therein with the sensations of [spiritual] experience, delight and tranquillity within him.


In the words of the esteemed scholar and great preacher Mawlana Shaykh Sayyid Abu ‘l-Hasan ‘Ali al-Nadwi (Allah Most High protect him) in his refutation of some of the writings of the deceased teacher, Sayyid Abu ‘l-A’la Mawdudi: 


“Indeed those who obtain their religious information from the source of this interpretation of Islam alone, and limit their study of Islam to these books alone, their relationship with Allah will be rendered restricted and limited, and [will congeal] into dry, rigid formalism (jamidatun rasmiyyah), empty of internal states which the believer is required to adjust [himself] to. 


This is particularly when the emphasis that the root goal of sending Prophets and the end target of their teachings and the utmost of their actions is the production of change in this limited worldly life, and bringing about change for the better, and establishing human civilisation on proper foundations, appears [many] times repeatedly [in these books]; 


and when the focus on this aspect appears with ferocity and irascibility, enthusiasm and passion, and in a manner that makes conceptions of divine love, lordly pleasure and otherworldly success, meagre;


 it is natural and something that concurs with reason and is consistent with [logical] analogy that he departs the vehicle of effort and work from the road of faith in the unseen, yearning for the Afterlife, seeking Allah’s pleasure and devotion to His love, that road which the Prophets instituted, to the path of seeking rule, glory, dominance, and achieving rule and subsequently the materialist galaxy.” (Al-Tafsir al-Siyasi li ‘l-Islam, p. 107, published by Nadwat al-’Ulama Lucknow, 1399 AH/1979 AD)


In sum, these authors in their eagerness to refute secularism, and their focus on the political aspect of the Shari’ah, made all of Islam a political ideology, instead of making politics religious. 


The truth is that politics is a branch of the branches of religion, just as business and economics is a branch thereof, and indeed the rules of religion pertain to politics, just as they pertain to business. However nothing of politics and business is the root goal of the message of Islam, nor a fundamental objective of its rules and teachings. Thus, just as the connection of the rules of the Shari’ah to business do not entail that business becomes the objective of religion, similarly the rules of the Shari’ah pertaining to politics do not imply that politics be made the fundamental objective of Islam.


Hakim al-Ummah Shaykh Ashraf ‘Ali al-Thanawi (Allah Most High have mercy on him) drew attention to this point in a brief [but] firm statement, all of which is insightful, so we will quote it here, translating it from Urdu to Arabic. He says (Allah Most High have mercy on him):
“Allah Most High said: ‘those who, if We establish them in the land, establish regular prayer and give regular charity, enjoin the right and forbid wrong: with Allah rests the end and decision of all affairs.’ (Qur’an 22:41). It is clear from this verse that the essential objective is religiosity (diyanah) and nothing of politics and jihad is the fundamental objective — it is only a means to establish religiosity. And for this reason, spirituality and the rules [regulating] religiostiy were given to every one of the Prophets (upon them be peace) without exception, while politics and jihad were not given to all of them. Jihad and politics were given to some of them when the need and interest [of their communities] demanded [them], and indeed that is the condition of means, since they are not given except for a necessity.

Read full article: http://deoband.org/2010/05/general/politics/the-place-of-politics-in-religion/

Biography of Mufti Taqi Usmani: 

Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani is one of the leading Islamic scholars living today, an expert in the fields of Islamic Jurisprudence, Economics, Hadith and Tasawwuf.

Born in Deoband in 1943, he graduated from Dars e Nizami at Darul Uloom, Karachi, Pakistan. He specialized in Islamic Jurisprudence under the guidance of his eminent father, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, the late Grand Mufti of Pakistan. He has been writing on various Islamic topics in English, Urdu and Arabic and is author of more than 60 books and numerous articles.

In tradition to the scholars of Deoband, recognizing the importance of Tasawwuf, he traversed the path under the guidance of khulafa of Hakeemul Ummat Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi (rahmetullah ajmaeen). In addition to his busy schedule he is himself a mentor to numerous spiritual aspirants all over the world. He also conducts a weekly session for the public interested in spiritual improvement.

List of publications include: (Updated May 2004) The Authority of Sunnah, An Introduction to Islamic Finance, Discourse on Islamic way of Life, Islam and Modernism, Islam aur Seasate Hazra ( Islam and Contemporary Politics), Islahe Ma'ashara (Perfecting society), Islahi mawa’iz (Discourses for spiritual perfection) (3 volumes)  http://www.albalagh.net/taqi.shtml;