Taken from the Sharh Mas’aail Jaahiliyyah
It was narrated in the Two Saheehs that the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] said;
“Verily Allaah wants for you three things; To worship Him Alone and not to do ascribe partners to him, To be united together on the Path of Allaah and not to be disunited, To be sincere to the rulers that are over you.”
Explanation:
Shortcomings in the religion of the people are rooted from these three problems. Similarly these characteristics where found in those people who disbelieved in the day of Jaahiliyyah, so before the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] there was a huge spread of chaos. They population were not united under one ruler and they didn’t wish to be united. They failed in this because they held the notion that obedience to another human was degrading and didn’t make sense. How can they obey someone who was like them? How can they obey someone who they thought they were better than? So disobedience was seen as a character of having honour and pride.
The Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] came and disagreed with them. He [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] came with a religion that enjoined obedience to the ruler in good and not to disobey or rebel against them or not to be a cause of disunity within the general population.
The first to go against the command of the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] were the Kharaarij. They were stubborn and didn’t recognise the rule of ‘Alee ibn Abee Taalib [May Allaah be Pleased with him] and they fought him.
However the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] commanded and ordered us to be obedient to them. He [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] said, “Listen and obey the ruler even if he takes your wealth and beats you on your back.” He [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] was asked in another narration, “Shall we not fight them?....” He [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] replied “No, as long as they pray.” In another narration the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] replied to the question, “Unless you see from them a clear act of Kufr so that you can use it as a proof in front of Allaah.”
So the rulers are Muslim and they are ruling by Islam unless we see some act of Kufr from them or an act of apostasy. If this is the case, then we must obey them and the Muslim population must be united under them as long as the ruler is still a Muslim. Even if the ruler commits sins the Muslims must remain united under him because weakness is not a cause for us to become disunited.
If we were to look at the history of Islam and the Muslims we will see that this principle has gradually been forgotten and over looked. The Muslims throughout the ages have gone against their ruler, thinking that a greater good will come out of, however their act of rebelling against the ruler brings about no good at all. The Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] told us, “There will not come a generation of people except that the next generation after them will have more evil in it, until the Day of Judgement.”
This was the way of the people of Jaahiliyyah before us so the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] came and ordered for us to be different from them.
This is because pride and disobedience was rife amongst the various leaders that existed within the Arabian Gulf, so they differed, were disunited and a result there were a countless number of wars between them.
Therefore the principle of obeying the ruler is a great principle and for this reason we can see careful wording from the Prophet [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him]. He [Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon him] ordered us to “Listen and obey the ruler even if he takes your wealth and beats you on your back”, why did he order us to ‘listen’ and ‘obey’? This is because taking wealth and beating is a trial which one can be recompensed for on by Allaah, however obedience keeps the country in order. One single act of disunited could create chaos and the whole population to rebel.
If we look at the time whilst ‘Uthmaan ibn ‘Affaan [May Allaah be Pleased with him] was ruler, we can clearly see how Islam spread from the east to the west, all under one ruler. The Muslim empire was united and they all obeyed one ruler.
This hadeeth sets a great principle for Muslims to follow and stick to. The Muslims need to have Tawheed, by doing so they will repel shirk. The Muslims need to be united and by doing so they will protect their religion. If they obey the ruler and those in authority over them, give them god advice and not to rebel against them, then they will maintain the harmony in the land. These three principles are paramount for us to realise and act upon.
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