#266: Ruling on the Meaning of Implementing the Shari`ah
Question
“I am confused about an issue, what does it really mean to implement the Sharia in Nigeria? A country where Muslims and other faiths are in almost same ratio”
ANSWER
Alhamdulillāh
The Sharī’ah of Allāh, as Ulamā have explained is multi-faceted and of different dimensions.
It involve the Creed that man must have. The Right Aqīdah and Īmān.
It also involves the Right ways of rendering Ibādah to Allāh in physical worship which is explained in the Books if Fiqh.
It also involves the ways to rightly interact with other than one’s self whether living or non-living things. This is Ādāb.
Also involves the Laws that should govern our Lands and how judgements and justice should be handed down.
Likewise it involves the ways we should interact with the enemies of the Muslim Lands in Warfare and Times of Peace. This is Jihād and Siyar.
This is how encompassing the Sharī’a of Allāh – Ta’ālā – is.
The Muslims are supposed to understand it in its encompassing form.
Allāh – ta’ālā – said:
الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دينكمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا
“Today I have perfected for you your Dīn and completed My favours upon you and I have become pleased and chosen for you Islām as Dīn.”
The establishment of Islām in its entirety in what the Sharī’a involves as mentioned above is obligatory upon the Muslims and not a matter of choice.
Shaykh Muhammad Al-Amīn Ibn Muhammad Al-Mukhtār Ash-Shanqītī – rahimahullāh – said in his Tafsīr _Adwā’u Al-Bayān_:
“Associating partners with Allāh in terms of Rulership and Judgement and associating partners with Him in terms of Ibādah are both one and the same, there is no difference between them both. The one that follows a System of Governance that is different from the System of Allāh, a Set of Laws different from that if Allāh is the same as the one that worships an idol and prostrates to an idol. There is no iota of difference between them both in any ways. They are one and the same, and both of them are Mushriks with regards to Allāh.”
Adwā’u Al-Bayān 7/162
What is then obligatory upon Muslims is to practice Islām in its totality to as best as they can and to live as Muslims for as best as they can.
It is also compulsory upon Muslims to strive as hard as they can to implement all aspects of the Sharī’a to the best of their abilities.
Coming to a place like Nigeria, it is wrong to assume that the Sharī’a of Allāh cannot be implemented and practiced.
We seek Allah’s refuge from such a saying.
Yesterday’s History has told us that Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio, rahimahullāh and his band of students made Da’awah for thirty years and waged Jihād for three years and established the Sharī’a in this same land of ours.
The state they established covered a span if land ranging from South Niger in the North of it to Lokoja in its South; the borders of the Borno Empire in its East to the limits of the Benin Rebuplic in its West.
Their Renaissance not only changed lives, its ripple effect was felt in as far as Guinea and Sierra Leone
Our Shaykh Muhammad Al-Hasan Ad-Daduw – rahimahullāh – mentioned that though Shaykh Mukhtār Al-Kūtī At-Timbuktī’s work had its influence on Shaykh Al-Fūdī – rahimahullāh -, the implementation of Shaykh Uthman Fūdī’s Sharī’a arose the Ulamā in Mali and Shanqīt (Mauritania).
And whosoever looks into his works will truly see that.
Shaykh Mahmūd Al-Māmī Al-Fūtī – rahimahullāh – said in his famous Nūniyyah:
أزيلوا الغرب قبل قيام عيس؛ لعل الله ينعشه سنينا
فيخرج قائم بالعدل منكم؛ فلستم بعده تتخالفونا
وينفي ظلم بعضكم لبعض؛
وبالحد المقام تطهرونا
بنو العباس ما زالوا كراماً؛ يقتل جمعهم ويصلبونا
إلى أن أدركوا ثأراً لقرنو؛ ما أدركتم ثأراً قرونا
وقلتم لا جهاد بلا إمام؛ نبايعه فهلا تنصبونا
وقلتم لا إمام بلا جهاد؛ يعززه فهلا تضربونا
إذا جاء الدليل وفيه دور؛ كفى ردعاً لقوم يعقلونا
فياشمشة أهل الذكر منكم؛ سلوا إن كنتم لا تعلمونا
تعين ذاك وليسأل سواكم؛ سواهم من يجيب السائلينا
كحرمة أو كباب بني عليفإني؛ منهما في الداخلينا
وآل الحاج أنصار كرام؛ إلى أبناء جبنة ينسبونا
“Uproot the West before the coming of Isa, probably his coming is soon in years;
Let there rise A Riser upon Justice among you, that you may not differ among yourselves after him”
That he may repel the Oppression of some of you over others, and you purify yourselves with the Capital Punishments that is established
_The Sons of Abbas did not cease to be honorable people, they were killed in masses and crucified_
_Until they knew uprising and revolted, You have not known uprising for Centuries_
And you said ‘No Jihād without an Imām, to whom we could give Bay’a’, won’t you then Choose one?’
And you said: ‘There can’t be an Imām without Jihād, that will strengthen him’, shouldn’t you then wage one?
Whenever an evidence with right reference has come, It suffices to put the Intelligent a straight.”
Brothers and Sisters, these words of Shaykh Mahmūd was made years before the coming of Shaykh Uthmān Fūdī – rahimahullāh.
Yet the Ulamā would say that Shaykh Uthman Fūdī was the one that implemented what the Shaykh said.
May Allāh be merciful to them all
For us, we say, these words are more important in this era of ours than in their era.
Will we get someone with the Tawfīq of Allāh that will rise and lead us in this struggle to implement the Laws if Allāh in our land?
We ask Allāh to grant us such people, āmīn
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
📚 IslamNode
