The Religion of Islam is a complete religion and the Messenger ﷺ already prophesized that we will have bad leaders, those who will consume our wealth and oppress us, the Prophet didn’t command us to criticize them publicly on the pulpit (minbar) and rise against them, he only commanded us to be patient and anyone who has the opportunity to meet the leader privately should meet him and advise him behind the curtains, the Prophet ﷺ said:
“Whoever sees from his leader something that he dislikes, then let him be patient with him because whosoever separates from the jamā’ah (i.e. the body of Muslims in a country) even by a handspan, and then dies in that condition, he will die the death of pre-Islamic ignorance (jāhiliyyah).”¹
‘Ubādah Ibn Sāmit (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said:
“Listen to the ruler and obey him when it is hard for you and when it is easy for you, whether you are pleased or displeased, and when others are given preference over you, and even when they consume your wealth and beat your back.”²
The great scholar Ibn Bāz (died 1420AH) was asked,
“Is it from the methodology of the Salaf [ Salaf: Those who came before us from the earliest generations of Muslims. In the purest sense, the term refers to the Companions of the Prophet . And thus, a Salafī is a Muslim who precisely follows their way in creed, methodology and all affairs of religion.] to criticize the rulers from the pulpits? And what is the methodology of the Salaf in advising the rulers?”
So he answered:
“It is not from the methodology of the Salaf to criticize the rulers from the pulpits, because that would incite chaos, and it would involve not listening and obeying in that which is good. And this would mean becoming engrossed in that which harms and does not benefit. However, the way of advising (the rulers) that the Salaf followed was to write to the ruler, or to convey the advice to the Scholars who would then convey it to him, until he has been directed towards good. So opposing the evil can be done without mentioning the doer. So adultery, intoxicants and interest can be opposed without mentioning the one who is involved in them. And it is enough of an opposition to sins that they be warned against without mentioning that so and so is involved in them, whether it is the ruler, or other than the ruler.
And when the fitnah (trial, discord) occurred in the time of ʿUthmān, some people said to Usāmah bin Zayd , ‘Will you not speak to ʿUthmān?’ So he said, ‘Do you think that I have not spoken to him, just because you have not heard it from me? Verily I will speak to him concerning what is between him and me, without opening an affair which I would not like to be the first to open.’ [ An authentic narration: Related by Ahmad (3/403) and Ibn Abī ʿĀsim (2/521).] So when they (the Khārijites) opened it, evil took place in the time of ʿUthmān .
They opposed ʿUthmān openly, thus completing the tribulations, fighting and corruption, which has not ceased to affect the Ummah to this day, was brought about their open opposition. And this caused the tribulation to occur between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiyah, and ʿUthmān was killed for these reasons…
Furthermore, a large number of Companions and others besides them were killed due to this open rebellion and the open proclamation of the faults of the ruler, until the people began to hate the one charged with authority over them and killed him. We ask Allāh for success.”³
When the prophecy of the trials and tribulations that Messenger ﷺ mentioned comes to past, the Imam as the leader of the Muslims is expected to guide the Ummah, and explain the patience to them acccording to the Qur’an and Sunnah. The Imam is shouldered with the responsibility of informing the ummah that corruption, hunger and insecurity we see around us are consequences of our evil action, they are consequences of how much we have turned from Allah, they are consequences of the evil orientation people have in the society. Allah said:
ظَهَرَ ٱلْفَسَادُ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِى ٱلنَّاسِ لِيُذِيقَهُم بَعْضَ ٱلَّذِى عَمِلُوا۟ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ
Evil (sins and disobedience of Allah, etc.) has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of men have earned (by oppression and evil deeds, etc.), that Allah may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return (by repenting to Allah, and begging His Pardon).⁴
When a nation turns away from Allah and corruption, gambling, fornication, theft, lewd dresses become so common among them, it is not surprising if Allah decides to punish them for their sins, as sins as always being a reason for punishment. Allah sends hunger and fear to nation who turn their backs to his commandment, He said:
,وَضَرَبَ ٱللَّهُ مَثَلًا قَرْيَةً كَانَتْ ءَامِنَةً مُّطْمَئِنَّةً يَأْتِيهَا رِزْقُهَا رَغَدًا مِّن كُلِّ مَكَانٍ فَكَفَرَتْ بِأَنْعُمِ ٱللَّهِ فَأَذَٰقَهَا ٱللَّهُ لِبَاسَ ٱلْجُوعِ وَٱلْخَوْفِ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَصْنَعُونَ
“And Allah puts forward the example of a township (Makkah), that dwelt secure and well content; its provision coming to it in abundance from every place, but it (its people) denied the Favours of Allah (with ungratefulness). So Allah made it taste the extreme of hunger (famine) and fear, because of that (evil, i.e. denying Prophet Muhammad ﷺ) which they (its people) used to do.”⁵
The affair of how corrupt the citizens of this country is is not hidden to anyone in this country, our streets are littered with young boys who are into cyber crimes, grown up men who are involved in ritualism and ladies who are fully drowned into prostitution. Our first step of condemnation should not start from the leaders, it should start from the society that produced them, if we are all facing the leaders without facing the society, we will keep recycling corruption-oriented leaders. Since our leaders didn’t fall from heaven; they are results of every home in the society, they are results of fathers who jump queues at banks, they are results of mothers who take their children to ‘special centers’ for O’level, they are results of the society that justifies cybercrimes with slavery and colonialism, then the society is more in need of our preaching of rectification than the leaders.
We have direct access to the masses, we should let them understand that they are the foundation of the problem and they should rectify their quota first. Attacking the leaders would only make the citizens to become more angry against the leaders, and the incitement turns out to be an uprising against the leaders, we won’t all love it. We all saw what the #EndSars caused to us? We all see what uprising against the government caused in Libya and Syria, uprising against the government won’t bring about the change we want, it will only turn our streets to toils of war.
Allah informed us that if we should return back to piety, he would provide for us and take this punishment away from us, He said:
وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ ٱلْقُرَىٰٓ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَٱتَّقَوْا۟ لَفَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِم بَرَكَـٰتٍ مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَـٰكِن كَذَّبُوا۟ فَأَخَذْنَـٰهُم بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ
“And if the people of the towns had believed and had the Taqwa (piety), certainly, We should have opened for them blessings from the heaven and the earth, but they belied (the Messengers). So We took them (with punishment) for what they used to earn (polytheism and crimes, etc.).”⁶
He also said:
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ أَقَامُوا۟ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةَ وَٱلْإِنجِيلَ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِم مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ لَأَكَلُوا۟ مِن فَوْقِهِمْ وَمِن تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِهِم ۚ مِّنْهُمْ أُمَّةٌ مُّقْتَصِدَةٌ ۖ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ سَآءَ مَا يَعْمَلُونَ
“And if only they had acted according to the Taurat (Torah), the Injeel (Gospel), and what has (now) been sent down to them from their Lord (the Quran), they would surely have gotten provision from above them and from underneath their feet. There are from among them people who are on the right course, but many of them do evil deeds.”⁷
Rather than openly criticizing the leader, the Imam should pray for the rectification of the leaders, because the rectification of the leaders is the rectification of the society, the subjects who do not wish their leader well are just like passengers who do not wish the driver well, the misfortune of the driver behind the steering is a calamity for the passenger.
It is reported that Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyyāḍ – Allāh have mercy on him – said, “If I had one supplication that was going to be answered I would make it for the ruler (imām), for the wellbeing and righteousness of the imām means wellbeing for the land and its people.”⁸
We beseech Allah to rectify our affair
Mubaarak Olayemi Ismail
Abu Muhsinah
1. Bukhāri (7054) and Muslim (1849)
2. Delared sahīh [authentic] by Al-Albāni; see Dhilāl Al-Jannah and At-Ta’līqāt Al-Hisān
3. Refer to Al-Maʿloom min Wājibil-’Ilāqah baynal-Hākim wal-Mahkoom, pp. 22-33. Taken from abukhadeejah.com
4. Ar-Rum:41
5. Nahl: 112
6. A’raaf: 96
7. Maa’idah : 66
8. Al-Dhahabī, Siyar A’lām Al-Nubalā` in his biography of Al-Fuḍayl b. ʿIyyāḍ.
