Yasir Qadhi – Confused Americans- Kamala or Trump for President – And- Is Voting Haram
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The American presidential election is causing confusion among political candidates and the media, with speakers emphasizing voter engagement, respecting people's opinions, and following laws. The political agenda of the current administration is discussed, with a focus on voter engagement and judgeability. The speakers also touch on the political agenda of the current administration and potential political chaos, highlighting the need for people to participate in the political process and make a positive impact. The segment ends with a brief advertisement for a video and a thank you for watching.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.
This is your brother Imam Bakir.
The American presidential election around the corner and
the situation in the Middle East is so
bad.
And a lot of Muslim people they are
asking a lot of questions.
One from these questions that should we participate
in upcoming election or should we not?
And another question is which party and which
candidate gonna fix the situation in the Middle
I was thinking about a scholar who can
answer all these questions from three actually sides.
The first side is the history.
I was thinking about a scholar who knows
well about history, who knows well about American
politics, who knows well about fiqh issues.
And I found him, Dr. Yasser Qadi.
I contacted him to interview him and ask
him all these questions and he welcomed and
now we are with Dr. Yasser Qadi here
in his masjid, Epic Masjid in Dallas.
Welcome Sheikh Yasser Qadi.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.
Sheikh, I have to say you're the only
person who comes to Epic to interview me.
It's my honor.
It's the third or fourth time.
The fourth time and it's my honor.
Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.
I'm always honored and for the record I
want to say that Mashallah, the Sheikh is
being humbled that he is finishing his PhD
from Al-Azhar University.
He is himself a sheikh and you know
scholar and alim, Mashallah.
He is himself a ba'ath and every
time he contacts me and he has a
long list of questions even though he himself
is qualified to you know answer them.
This is just his humility that he wants
a discussion that we benefit from each other,
alhamdulillah.
And everybody should know that the Sheikh and
I are very close, very tight, alhamdulillah.
And sometimes we disagree about our views but
that never changes our wud, our mahabba and
this is the way of people of knowledge.
So alhamdulillah, when he contacted me last time
again this time I said we agreed to
this date a few weeks ago and alhamdulillah
he came down and here we are for
the interview.
But before I start Sheikh, I have to
apologize for everyone who watches last interview.
I think there was a lot of interruptions
without my intention.
I would love just to you know play
the advocate.
The thing is you forgot there were cameras
and the people saw the real way we
actually dialogue with love and they didn't realize.
So alhamdulillah Sheikh, you were your authentic self.
No problem, there was nothing but love alhamdulillah.
The trendy question about Sheikh Yasser, everyone knows
that I'm going to interview him about American
election especially upcoming one.
They were asking me a clear question and
I'm going to ask him inshallah will will
be the third question.
Which candidate that Dr. Yasser gonna vote for
Kamala Harris or Trump?
So this question inshallah just wait for it.
We're going to answer it but before that
Sheikh, we have very important question which is
a question.
There is an idea, some people believe in
it.
They say that democracy is kufr and sometimes
even say that democracy is shirk and some
of them say that democracy is bid'ah.
Why?
They believe that the ayah in surah Ma
'idah which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
They interpreted it which is anybody does not
ruling Allah's laws in the earth, he will
be not believer and to participate in something
not believe or it's not like kufri issue
like what they believe it's like a part
like kind of also kufr.
That's what they believe.
I wanted to know what you believe and
how to reply even this hujjah which is
they believe in it.
So Sheikh, this question I will have to
spend a little bit of time discussing it.
I have around seven points to discuss but
before even get to the seven points I
just want to begin with the introduction that
unfortunately it is sad that we even have
to have these types of discussions for the
average Muslim because they're already so confused about
so many issues and now on top of
this they have to wonder amongst these opinions
we have one alim I respect he's saying
is kufr and shirk another alim I respect
he's saying you must go it is almost
wajib and the third one saying you know
in between I feel sorry for the average
Muslim who has to figure out how to
interpret all of this controversy even though with
utmost respect and love to all of them
and us sometimes they're not qualified to even
get involved but they have to because there's
no alternative whether we like it or not
there is a heated debate going on with
multiple opinions on aqidah issues on fiqh issues
on participation issues and the average lay muslim
who doesn't have the qualifications to judge is
forced to judge so we feel I feel
a compassion I feel a genuine sense of
sadness that we are forcing the educated laity
because the educated laity is the one that
has to make this decision that what can
I do amongst all of these competing views
and I don't want to add to the
confusion so before I even begin the seven
points my sincere request is that if you
feel overwhelmed and confused then if you wish
just shut this video make dua to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala pray istikhara and ask
Allah to guide you to the scholar or
group of scholars that is best for you
and then follow that sheikh no problem you
should not if it's confusing if it's whatnot
Allah is al-hadi Allah is the best
guide so never forget the spiritual element in
all of this but if you are intellectually
curious and you feel spiritually confident that I
want to listen to what they're saying in
that case bismillah I hope that what we're
saying will be of benefit to you that
is the muqaddimah inshallah you said seven points
seven points bismillah bismillah the first of these
points historically this ayah has been a very
uh significant one and we should be aware
that this ayah in particular actually it was
the root cause of the first split in
islam between the khawarij and between the sahaba
themselves and the khawarij use this ayah to
actually make takfir of the sahaba and they
broke away from Ali radiyallahu anhu and they
said that ya Ali radiyallahu anhu ya ameer
al-mu'mineen and they didn't call him ameer
al-mu'mineen you are unjust in your ruling
we believe you are not judging in accordance
with Allah's laws and then they quoted this
exact ayah and they said therefore because we
believe you're doing kufr so this ayah applies
to you so then there is no ta
'a you are no longer a muslim and
eventually they ended up as you know assassinating
him just this one historical fact should make
you a little bit concerned am i misunderstanding
the ayah or not i don't want to
misunderstand it the way the khawarij did i
don't want to fall into the extremism and
the fanaticism and when you look at the
books of tafseer you actually find that this
ayah has been understood in multiple different ways
some of the ulama including imam al-qurtubi
and others the famous scholar of qurtuba actually
many of the sahaba imam al-qurtubi they
said this ayah it is actually revealed describing
the kuffar it's not revealed you know for
the muslim who makes a mistake it is
revealed describing the kuffar because the siyaq or
the context of the ayah allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala mentions that وَكَتَبْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ فِيهَا أَنَا
النَّفْسَ بِالنَّفْسِ وَالْعَيْنَ بِالْعَيْنِ وَالْأَفْلُ وَالْأُذْنُ
وَالْأُذْنُ وَالْأُذْنُ وَالسِّنُ وَالسِّنُ وَالْجُرْعَ وَالْقِصَاصِ that we
gave this decree to the bani israel and
they rejected this decree of allah they did
not believe it to be valid so allah
is describing the status of the people who
rejected allah sharia and allah is saying because
they rejected allah is the one who is
musharra allah is the one who has the
right to legislate because they rejected this allah
is describing their state this ayah does not
describe a mu'min who makes a mistake in
judgment even if that mistake is done intentionally
for example even ibn abbas was when he
when he was asked about this he goes
well does this mean every single person who
judges in accordance with other than allah's law
he said no this is kufr duna kufr
it is not that type of kufr he
said it's not how they are assuming it
to be when a muslim who believes in
allah and who believes allah has the right
to legislate when a muslim follows his or
her desire when a muslim follows his hawa
that doesn't make him a kafir this is
even abbas is saying this if a judge
is bribed and a judge is bribed by
somebody who to make a different verdict right
the bribing of the judge is a sin
the acceptance of the bribe amongst the judge
is a major sin it is of the
kabira minal kabair but does the judge become
a kafir in allah when he follows his
desires similarly other examples can be given in
this regard so the bottom line judging by
other than allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
a broad category and if a person believes
that any entity other than allah has the
right to pronounce morality something is haram and
halal if a person believes this this is
kufr and shirk only allah has the right
to pronounce haram and halal however if a
person believes allah has that right but then
for whatever reason he follows his desires right
and he knows that he's following his desires
even abbas said this is kufr duna kufr
how about then the one who is not
following his desires but rather is forced by
circumstance rather he what doesn't want to do
it he's grudging he hates to do it
but he feels there is a greater good
to be achieved this person is not even
in the category of ibn abbas so the
first point out of the seven look at
the context read the books of tafsir understand
it's not just you take this ayah and
apply it unconditionally no there's many shades many
nuances and no scholar in all of islamic
history from our camp meaning ahlus sunnah we're
not talking about kharijites from our camp of
ahlus sunnah no scholar took this ayah and
then applied it to every single person who
made a judgment that he knows it is
not in the judgment of allah because if
we were to do so upon its apparent
meaning then in reality every one of us
would be a kafir every time we follow
a decision in our lives that is a
sin and we know allah does not want
us to do that sin but we are
judging in our lives and we are following
a judgment in our personal ethics and our
personal akhlaq in our personal you know mu
'amalat and we follow something that is a
sin and then technically if you want to
be zahid you want to be very literal
this ayah would apply to that person and
that person become a kafir if you were
to apply this literally there would not be
a single muslim left on earth okay this
is the point number one but number one
maybe some people gonna say yeah kufr duna
kufr it's okay but it's still something bad
why why we have to participate in kufr
duna kufr so we're getting to point numbers
two three four five six seven point number
two in this regard and that is the
simplistic understanding of politics from those who say
this politics is very very complicated and there
are multiple levels and layers in the simple
example in every western democratic democratic country there
are levels of politicians you have the city
politician you have the state politician you have
the federal politician and you have other levels
of politicians as well the city and state
have nothing to do with ethics and morality
the city and state have to do with
the zoning laws the city and state have
to do with you know how to get
funds for the school something simple that the
sharia actually allows you to participate in so
to claim that even if you wanted to
claim that okay uh al-musharra is allah
and therefore to participate in a system that
seems to suggest that there are other musharra
in besides allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even
this we say it would not apply to
any type of involvement of politics in which
that level of the sharia that level of
laws is being avoided and the simple example
state level city level community level in which
you are electing politicians that are going to
take care of city taxes they're going to
take care of city zoning laws they're going
to take care of curriculum this has nothing
to do with you know the federal issues
foreign wars uh invasion it has nothing to
do with morality lgbt all of this so
nothing because this is just the state level
and in fact state level politics is more
effective for community building and muslims can have
a greater impact because the number of votes
you need is much less right and so
to even claim that voting is haram and
kufr because of this issue it means they're
completely neglecting that most voting of the local
politics has nothing to do with what they're
saying anyway so this is the second point
that even if you wanted to go there
it will only apply to one level of
voting and not all of the other levels
a simple example here in many states including
texas you vote for the school board you
vote for the school board and the school
board decides curriculum it decides what you can
get off it decides timings of the school
right what type of kufr and shirk is
this nothing and if you have muslims on
the school board they can say you know
what we have enough muslims in the district
we should have eid off if you have
enough muslims on the school board you can
say you know what this curriculum this book
here it is anti-religious anti-islamophobic or
sorry islamophobic whatnot we don't want it there
and they can make a better curriculum how
can anybody say there's kufr and shirk when
it comes to for example voting for the
school board you see what i'm saying so
the second it all the second point is
that you are being extremely simplistic and not
understanding that there are layers of politics and
even if you wanted to criticize you only
criticize one layer and the rest would be
completely jade now let's get to the higher
layer because that's the point number point number
three here and that is that the the
critic once again takes a generic verse without
an understanding of fiqh and without an understanding
of maxims of fiqh and this goes back
to my introduction this is why i don't
like talking about this because you have to
sound complicated and fancy and the average muslim
you can easily impress the average muslim both
sides both the critic and the response to
the critic because average muslims not qualified what
is right what is they don't know these
terms and you just throw a few terms
you just throw a few maxims and and
you can mesmerize them and that's why as
i said i feel sorry for the average
lay person who has to now wonder what
do i do but still we have to
do this because one of this there's something
called maxims of fiqh and maxims of fiqh
are general rules that are used to navigate
difficult areas and of those general rules areas
that are not explicit in the quran those
that are explicit you don't use of those
general rules is the rule that when the
situation becomes difficult when the situation becomes dire
the sharia gives you concessions that would not
otherwise be given okay so when it's a
type of right then that which is right
that which is that which is prohibited or
that which is might become you know lifted
from you so now we're talking about navigating
you know allah is the musharrih allah is
the one who legislates you know you know
that allah has the ultimate right to legislate
but now there are for example in gaza
right and you feel if your community comes
together you can potentially save those people from
dying in this case now you're following a
maxim of fiqh now the critic can disagree
that say it doesn't apply here but the
critic cannot disagree with the maxim of fiqh
the maximum what is the real about it
just to let people understand this so there
are multiple evidences for this the most obvious
evidence when allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
over 10 verses in the quran says that
or for example that that when you are
forced to do so right when there is
a greater good to do so and this
is actually proven even in the sunnah as
well that there was a sahabi who found
a lost camel and uh the lost camel
technically doesn't belong to you have to wait
for the owner but then that sahabi was
you know and his wife were literally about
to die they didn't have any food so
they had to they had to destroy they
had to destroy property that is not theirs
in order to save their lives and when
the processor found out of course he allowed
this to happen because you're balancing here the
technical rule this camel does not belong to
you you have no right to take its
life but now if it's between your life
and you know uh the camel's life well
then the camel's life it becomes permissible for
you right this is an authentic incident in
the seerah that demonstrates when you have priorities
clashing when you have differences of of uh
uh prohibitions you will take the lesser prohibition
over the bigger one so now you have
a gray area the person knows allah is
the musharra the person knows i'm not wanting
to challenge allah's rabubia allah's divine you know
nature to to legislate but now i have
to get involved to save lives you give
him an excuse this is rule number three
here that even if you disagree with his
application you cannot disagree with the rule and
if the person or the scholars are thinking
that this rule applies here this is their
itch they had you cannot bring shirk and
kufr into this issue it's like saying somebody
who's forced to eat meta oh so you're
saying allah azza wa jal allowed the pig
no they know pig is haram or they
know that something is haram but their circumstances
now again you can disagree say i don't
agree that circumstance warrants it that's your itch
to have the person in this context the
scholars who allow it their itch they had
is different than your itch they had and
in the end of the day you both
have to answer to allah but you cannot
then invoke shirk and kufr so this is
the third point here okay so the fourth
point we say is that uh our brothers
who say this simplistic statement that participating is
kufr participating a share participating is haram uh
i don't doubt their sincerity but i doubt
their knowledge of reality because what then is
the alternative we agree and let's just say
for the sake of argument's sake right let's
just say what do you want us to
do and some of them will say establish
the khilafah and i said multiple times may
allah bless and help you until then we
just sit back and allow this to happen
you go ahead i've said this multiple times
who's stopping you go ahead they tried then
go for these crazy groups be tried but
for some reason our critics don't want to
join those groups which i don't understand i
don't understand because according to you they have
established it so then join them but these
critics that say voting and shirk and haram
generally they don't want to join these groups
which again i personally still haven't understood why
because according to your philosophy they are applying
your version of the sharia they're applying your
understanding you would think they're legitimate khulafa and
i didn't understand why at the time they
didn't join them but let us leave that
because they get very sensitive in this regard
for the record i don't believe this group
is legitimate uh the one that pseudo applied
the khilafah i believe that they are fanatical
extremists who don't understand allah sharia as it
should be applied and just like the early
kharijites that they like the prophet said they
literally the process has literally predicted this this
mindset he literally said this description it applies
to many of these groups as well with
love and respect to them youngsters with idealistic
visions it sounds so good what they say
but what they are doing is destroying the
religion this is exactly the descriptions i'm not
saying these descriptions literally i'm quoting the prophetic
words idealistic envision utopic they have these grandiose
ideas but they're foolish and they're youngsters themselves
they haven't lived life they haven't experienced so
what is the alternative what do you want
us to do and they don't have an
alternative is just slogans and problems are not
solved by slogans actual problems are not solved
by emotional nice quips so this is point
number with you know respect to these groups
i don't doubt their sincerity i've met them
i've interacted with them i know they love
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala they they think
they want to establish allah's commandments in on
earth but they don't seem to have an
actual methodology an actual vision and chart is
just everybody else is wrong you're right but
they don't even have how to show you're
right how to go forth what do you
want us to do 50 000 people in
gaza have passed away directly quarter of a
million indirectly and you just want us to
sit back and do absolutely nothing i'm sorry
that's not a viable plan and may allah
protect you but with utmost may allah protect
you and your families if your family were
the one being killed right now you would
not have this view you wouldn't you would
do something to do that right so this
is point number four and that is that
they don't really have an alternative in this
regard point number five in this regard is
that when you look at the reality of
many european countries and it's european i'll explain
why you find this mindset has actually harmed
the ummah directly palpably tangibly i just came
back from germany and i'll give a whole
lecture about this one frankfurt which is one
of the global cities in the world one
of the most important cities in the world
frankfurt frankfurt has 15 muslims berlin hamburg other
cities 10 muslims london 12 13 muslim france
france is probably 20 uh uh paris 20
25 but many of them they don't participate
in politics not many the default other than
the uk which is a little bit better
than everywhere of the other countries other than
england which is now changing alhamdulillah for the
better in this regard every other european country
without exception has almost zero impact when they
told me that frankfurt has 15 muslims i
said well how many politicians are actually caring
and reflecting your interest they said zero why
because when we last time they said this
during a few months ago one of the
muslims was running and trying to do that
outside the masjid this group was giving flyers
voting is haram and they call this guy
a kafir and they said he has left
whatever because he is participating in shirki elections
why these guys live there well they live
in a system so what they believe it's
also exactly so this also needs to be
pointed out with a little bit of any
compassion we're not being sarcastic we're not wallahi
we're not but what are you doing there
when you have this type of mindset when
every you know they're the ones waving flags
we want to establish a khilafah in germany
right they want to and they give a
bad name to all of us what do
you think is going to happen they cause
so many problems to the rest of us
and again it's awkward to say because i
don't want to cooperate with the enemies of
islam against these brothers who i view as
being my brothers in islam i don't want
to do that but i have to ask
you are giving ammunition to the enemies to
hate us you are making the lives of
99 percent of the muslims difficult because you're
less than one percent you guys in that
mentality but you make it such a big
deal and you cover your faces with because
they're scared to come they cover their faces
so they're terrifying they're waving the flags of
the black flag which is the flag of
isis for example they're waving it in western
lands right and they're saying radical things somebody
amongst us needs to tell them you are
harming your own brothers and sisters more than
benefiting them right somebody amongst us wake up
man this is not the right way forward
but you know and then they say that
anybody who disagrees with them immediately you're no
not just that you're a sellout you're a
liberal you're uh you know the cia agent
i've been called the cia agent multiple times
you know so i say to them where's
my cia paycheck i need to get paid
because if i'm getting called an agent at
least let me get a paycheck and he
gets some fayda but no neither this nor
that so this is what number so uh
yeah so look at the reality of european
you know uh nations where such large percentages
of muslims and i'm sorry to be blunt
here they're impotent they don't have the actual
clout that we expect from them why well
not just this reason there is the reason
of they themselves are busy with the dunya
there is this reason as well they're not
interested in in political so that's an external
reason you know they're just in fc nfc
nfc but the internal reason there are these
movements that are now becoming mainstream in amongst
them and these movements are making it difficult
for us to you know uh take on
this this reality of political participation so this
is point number five or six let me
just say point number uh uh six then
and then seven point number six if you
wanted to be consistent so this was your
point why are they living here this point
number six you're saying that participation at any
level is kufr and shirk this means your
living in this land is paying taxes is
supporting the infrastructure right and this infrastructure you
have called it kufr and shirk so your
presence in these lands according to your own
verdict should make you mushrik and kafir and
you pay for tax you're paying for taxes
are you not working are you not working
you're working for the corporations you're working for
whatever it is so you are helping the
economy and according to you any level of
participation is kufr and shirk and that's my
point there are levels you know the shariah
is an interesting point i don't want to
be too like the shariah of course is
infinitely more wiser than than these critics the
shariah the the fuqaha have differentiated between direct
involvement versus indirect versus the one who is
forced to the shariah makes all of these
distinctions a simple example that you don't show
we've all studied fiqh here that the most
obvious example one of the biggest crimes in
islam is qatal is killing you and i
both know that the shariah has different levels
of participation and the one for example who
hires an assassin to go kill somebody we
all know this is basic fiqh the the
one who doesn't know fiqh is going to
say oh okay the one who hires is
the same as the one who fires the
gun but we all know that the one
who fires the gun will be given the
actual penalty as well who hires he will
be given a severe ta'zeer be sent
to long time in jail maybe lash whatever
but the actual punishment of qatal will not
be upon the one who pays the qatal
right because the shariah makes a distinction between
the one who is directly involved the one
who causes versus the one who is supporting
but not causing versus the one who is
forced versus the one there's a whole distinction
and i'm not trying to justify they're all
simple here but i'm saying our brothers or
sisters that are criticizing they just lump it
all together and they just make the verdict
of kufr upon even the lowest so we
say to them you're also the lowest you're
also involved in the system you're also supporting
why don't you apply the verdict on yourself
but they're going to say that there is
no choice no there is ardullahi wasi'a
who's telling you to live here then if
that's the way you feel go yaani allah
azza wa jalla will find a way for
you get a visa to another land go
and work somewhere but they don't want to
do that and we have to point this
out because they're causing harm to the ummah
so we have to point out internally that
you know your fanaticism really is destroying because
wallah it hurt me when i went to
germany they were saying our biggest issue we
cannot have any candidate that stands up for
mohammed says because that candidate is threatened by
our own peoples the biggest enemies are within
our own ranks literally that i gave the
they told me a few months ago we
had a candidate running there was mass protest
outside the masjid now they participated politics uh
style yeah so protest so exactly kind of
democracy it is a kind of protest and
democracy yeah they were handing flyers outside the
flyers flyers as well that voting is kufr
this guy has become kafir what not you
cannot vote and honestly i'm just saying one
of the brothers himself over there i don't
know this is true or one of the
brothers said that they feel that this group
might actually get support they're accusing me of
being the cia agent it's like this guy
said to me they feel the community feels
that this group might actually be getting some
support from others because of the fitna they're
causing in muslims trying to be a part
of the system muslims trying to be a
part but that was a rumor so let
us let us hope inshallah it's just a
bad rumor inshallah we hope the best that
that's not the case but one wonders that
why are you living in these lands and
doing these types of things because the presence
of such extreme we call them extreme right
-wing amongst ourselves the presence of that type
of mindset actually facilitates islamophobic sentiments and policies
from the government and the government loves to
quote the far extremists amongst us those clerics
that have the most radical views and they
say look these are the muslims of our
community we have to ban this i hope
inshallah they're not being supported by the governments
when they on this far right but without
a doubt without a doubt the presence of
fanatics helps the presence of the islamophobic far
right as well the presence of the fanatics
amongst us and they are fanatics and we'll
call them fanatics the presence of these fanatics
helps the policies of the far right that
actually harms the bulk of the muslim ummah
and these brothers need to be told for
the sake of allah for the sake of
helping his ummah and his deen wallahi open
your minds pray to allah to guide all
of us me and you pray to allah
if you are sincere raise your hands to
allah and say yeah allah guide me to
the truth right so the point number six
the final point we'll mention inshallah because again
and this is a long question uh for
your first question it's good to explain to
everyone with good arguments yes we need to
do this that's the purpose of the interview
so the final point we'll mention in this
and again this was a summary i actually
had more points but again time is limited
and i know you have other questions as
well the final point we'll mention is that
my advice to the confused muslim who's seeing
all of this is to understand that this
opinion that voting is kufr and participation is
kufr and democracy at any level is going
to make you a this opinion factually speaking
forget all of the hujjaj factually speaking it
is a small fringe minority opinion and the
bulk of the ummah with all of its
scholarship and all of its strands and all
of its madahib and all of its tayyarat
all of its various you know understandings the
bulk of the ummah does not agree with
this minority opinion look open your eyes the
scholars of al-azhar the scholars of morocco
the scholars of jordan the scholars of saudi
here's the irony some of our salafi brethren
and i'll say this you know gently as
well because i used to be in the
group even when i was with the group
i would be surprised at the youngsters who's
saying haram kufr shirk and we asked i
asked shaykh bin uthaymeen personally and i know
the fatawa of shaykh bin baaz and i
know the fashaba ibn jabreen and we asked
great ulama we asked when i was in
we asked the greatest scholar of medina at
the time shaykh abdul muslim abbad our group
of students of course if the muslims see
there is a maslaha they must participate the
muslims have to judge go back to my
point number three he's saying if the muslims
feel that this is going to preserve their
political freedom preserve their right to worship preserve
and help other ummah then they should do
this the daima of the kingdom which is
the senior most group of you know scholars
uh of that uh uh strand it's well
known who comes oh the youngsters say ah
they don't know reality they pick and choose
what they want to follow what they don't
want to follow the same goes for the
deobandi strand as well that their ulama say
the same thing the same goes for the
uh mutasawwifah as well that even though the
mutasawwifah generally don't like politics but their ulama
understand that when you're living in the west
you have to participate for your rights so
just of course the muslim brotherhood and ikhwan
and jamaat islami of course that is their
main focus is politics and whatnot so of
course for them it is a part of
their main focus so who's left it's only
and again i say this with respect so
we have to educate i'm not trying to
yani to to put the line good argument
who is the two main groups that oppose
number one as a default in its entirety
again his put the harir and for the
last few months i've had to mention them
politely with love and respect wallahi i have
interacted with them as a to a great
extent i know they are genuinely sincere they
love the ummah they want to benefit the
ummah but this view is your view not
the rest of the ummah's view his book
as a default has this as their view
and then the youngsters of the salafis not
the senior ulama it is generally the hot
-minded the refutation culture the ones that are
quick and whatnot their own ulama don't agree
with this the summary of this uh answer
it's great do you have anything else these
are the seven points just let me uh
summarize what you said in these seven points
first of all you uh you reply upon
their dalil from al-qur'an in surat
al-ma'idah you explained it then you
go through the fiqh rules especially al-mafasid
wal-masalih waqal al-adrar which we're gonna
talk about inshallah yes then you also brought
the ulama nowadays who accepted this and agree
with that you said the senior salafi imams
especially sheikh ibn thaymeen everyone is respecting sheikh
ibn thaymeen from al-azhar for sure from
ulama al-maghrib for ulama al-mutasawwufa all
of them for all of them except for
one and a half one and a half
hizb ut-tahrir and then not even half
yani ten percent of the salafis and usually
it's the youth amongst them clearly this is
was the answer of question number one we
have seven questions inshallah let us jump to
question number two before we go to the
trendy question will be question number three but
now let us just go with question number
two sheikh question number two is okay now
we understand that it is okay and permissible
to participate in politics even though if it's
not islamic thing and you explain that what
about with our circumstances now when i say
our circumstances i'm talking about the situation in
the middle east it's so bad and so
hard and people some people may say okay
we agree about that in regular time but
now which like what is happening in the
middle east now so they like feel that
they have to be away this period of
election just because of what is happening so
let me then rephrase what they're saying what
they would say is that the both of
them are equally evil the both of these
candidates are equally evil no no no we
do not reach to this then what then
what they just they say that it's okay
to participate in politics but this time because
what is happening in the middle east because
of what's happening it should be even more
even more reason to participate no but we're
gonna say that but why on what basis
or both of candidates we're gonna leave same
impact which they don't like okay so this
is a very important principle that many people
don't fully comprehend and grasp when you analyze
the positives and negatives of a particular candidate
when you analyze their potential impact this analysis
is not wahi from allah this analysis is
based upon your own mindset your own interpretation
your own ijtihad your own biases therefore somebody's
analysis cannot be used to enforce that analysis
on another person so if you feel in
a particular situation that both candidates both parties
are equally evil and suppose there's only two
to vote and if you feel in that
particular case you wish to abstain that is
your opinion good for you you cannot expect
others to necessarily agree with you and if
they disagree and say you know what in
my opinion i'm just giving a hypothetical example
this particular candidate is bad but he is
less evil than the other candidate you have
the right to disagree you have the right
to say i think you're wrong you have
the right to try to explain why you
do not have the right to accuse that
other person of not loving allah and his
messenger of not loving the palestinians or whatnot
only when somebody says i don't care about
the muslim ummah i just want my taxes
to be better i don't care if he
bombs astaghfirullah ghazar whatnot i just want my
business to succeed now you can say you
are you are what you are you have
no iman or what now you can get
angry at the person theologically but if somebody
says i disagree with your analysis what are
you going to say you can be angry
say no no but i'm right but you
cannot say but you are you are disagreeing
with allah's messenger it's your analysis in the
end of the day and that's even if
i strongly disagree with many muslims okay many
muslims in all of these camps when they
try to convince me no no our candidate
is the lesser of two evils when they
say this then all i can say is
i strongly disagree with you but i cannot
say you're an evil person you understand the
difference here yes i got it but if
somebody says i don't care about the ummah
i just care about my pocket now i
say you're an evil person you see the
difference between that yeah itself it's not yeah
so so all of this analysis of pros
and cons all of this weighing the factors
is something that is subjective it is opinion
based and one of our biggest issues is
when a person arrives at a conclusion that
is opinion based that person believes everybody must
agree with my opinion otherwise they are evil
people in the eyes of allah and his
messenger my way or highway exactly that's what
i said this is a sign of fanaticism
to this day i've never cancelled somebody you
know or disagreed with somebody theologically over a
political way and in fact even when the
arab spring happened sheikh i have a very
detailed post i divided into five categories when
the arab spring happened you know and i
said only the last category is they've lost
all respect for me and that is the
one that specifically you can tell clearly that
they are endorsing the massacre of innocent people
for the sake of their their dunya and
it's obvious even those that supported generically the
rulers because they felt that the other side
would bring more chaos but they didn't like
the rulers even that category i made an
excuse for i said you know what at
least they're looking at the ummah they're not
wanting to help tyrants they're not wanting to
help them they're trying to find the lesser
of the two evils and there are many
ulama and this was the default of even
the salafi movement in the 90s was this
way that you know what the status quo
is not good we don't like it but
the alternative of opening the door for civil
war and chaos which is what we're seeing
right now is worse so they were not
supporting the ruler because he's the ruler they
were supporting the status quo and so you
give them that excuse even if you disagree
you cannot say that they're they are astaghfirullah
bought and sold by the tyrants no who
is bought and sold the one who says
go ahead and kill every protester their dogs
on the streets anybody who protests against you
is a what not you can tell you
they've lost any sense of of of of
allah you see what i'm saying and he
said you can tell so i made this
categorization if i can make this excuse for
that then million times more if a person's
debating political candidates and their analysis is different
than our analysis you can disagree with their
analysis but you cannot bring in levels of
iman and say now you're an evil person
no you cannot do this okay now we
understand from dr yasser that we have to
participate and we have even to participate this
time even though what happened because being that
you support a candidate it doesn't mean that
you agree about his evil or his bad
things we didn't say this explicitly it should
be added here that this is a very
simplistic notion only our brothers who are criticizing
involvement have this view that if i support
a candidate for a good reason this automatically
means i must support a candidate for the
bad that he also has right and they're
looking at support as being uh we say
in english binary either zero one like a
complete nobody in the real world actually works
this way nobody even even when you join
a corporation when you even get married there's
nobody perfect the good outweighs the bad that's
why you're in that corporation that's why you're
living in a country that's why the marriage
is flourishing right nobody's perfect you don't have
to agree with every single thing when you're
with somebody when you're working with somebody even
i'm sure every one of you has friends
they have bad habits and you know those
bad habits you don't like those bad habits
right you're trying to help them try but
their good outweighs their bad you understand this
in every facet of life except our critics
when it comes to voting they have this
naive notion that nobody actually believes nobody actually
works this way that if you support somebody
for the good automatically this implies that you
endorse their evil says who this is coming
from your imagination it's not the real world
and it's not even how politics works you
look at the evangelicals look at the far
right look at they all have two three
key issues for let's go before the conflict
when the evangelicals were obsessed with abortion for
example right for 20 years they made abortion
their only issue when it comes to candidates
many of them would say i strongly disagree
with this candidate when it comes to immigration
but my goal as if back in the
90s and 2000s when there was you know
better time they would say i want to
save the babies i don't want 200,000
kids to be aborted in america for them
it became one issue candidate one issue and
they fully understood when i endorse this candidate
doesn't mean i agree with anything else even
kuffar understand this it's only this small group
of critics who say if you endorse this
means says who that's coming from your pocket
your jake do you have any dalil sheikh
from even sunnah history islamic history do you
have any dalil about that yeah so it
happened before so the the qaeda the maxim
says that when you are going to undertake
two options each of which is going to
be evil the sharia says you choose the
lesser of two evils as i said this
is a maxim that does not have any
dispute and the example i gave of the
sahabi who was forced to eat the camel
there's two evils or even sheikh uh sorry
peed in the mess exactly he was uncovering
there's two evil being in the masjid exactly
then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said because
the lesser evils and also there's uh the
evidences as well that are not as explicit
but the concept is given for example killing
uh the head of the munafiqeen in medina
and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he goes
i don't want to do this because what
will the people say right you know he's
a munafiq you know he's a leader that
yeah so you have to weigh the pros
and cons and the con of the evil
rumor spreading that uh yeah this is a
pr move pr yeah so there's other things
as well now the trendy question now the
trendy question and actually sheikh millions of people
are waiting for that because um from three
sides like what i said uh you are
uh i know you don't like to uh
and be praised but sheikh um when we
talk about history you know what's going on
exactly uh and you are knowledgeable of general
history islamic history american history then when you
talk about your episodes about sirah you know
sheikh about this side a lot and the
side also of politics in america then the
side of fiqh issues so everyone is waiting
for your even i don't think everybody's right
but endorsements and you have right for that
sheikh as a as a american muslim scholar
let me just everyone is asking which uh
candidate you're gonna vote for sheikh i have
always been consistent in one issue and that
is shuyukh people of people walking in the
path of the prophet shall not be at
the forefront of political engagement and therefore i
have never to this day explicitly endorsed any
candidate and i don't think and i don't
think it is appropriate because it harms uh
our scholarship and our neutrality in this regard
so i have never endorsed by name and
i don't plan to do so but i
did sign a public petition that said that
we cannot endorse any candidate that has actually
uh been involved in the genocide of gaza
or even publicly supported the genocide in gaza
and that disqualifies the two main candidates in
this regard because they're both literally jumping over
each other to see who can do more
uh for the apartheid regime of israel how
can we reward these people so even though
i i don't want to and i but
if you believe in like these are of
two evils yeah do you think that there
is evil less than other candidate like there
is a candidate has evil than uh like
less than other one in the third parties
yes in the third parties find one that
is the lesser of two because another thing
sheikh we need to think long term but
i don't like to interrupt you but this
is very important thing when we talk about
the third party do you like support the
third party like so i don't support anybody
by name okay but i cannot support at
this stage for this election uh the two
main ones at this stage i cannot support
them they're both literally jumping over each other
to see who somebody will be uncommitted so
the third party but here's what i'm trying
to say here any third party that you
feel is better we need to understand that
the philosophy of those who are wanting to
go third party is not just for this
election it is long term because the two
-party system clearly has failed america the two
-party system they are now becoming closer and
closer to each other in many key issues
and their differences are becoming trivial and that's
why in this latest round unbelievably some of
those who 15 20 years ago were core
high senior republicans have now openly come out
and said oh we're going to become democrats
and the democrats are happy look they've become
they're gonna they're gonna be voting but they
don't understand what this shows and a senior
white house officials including dick cheney for example
one of the most one of the most
evil people in american history a war criminal
at every single sense profiteering off of killing
americans you know dick cheney i don't mind
even saying this like one of the most
evil politicians in recent memory you know the
one who engineered us into a war in
order that he profits multi-billion dollar corporations
hallie burton and exxon and others and he
is directly involved with these corporations as soon
as he left the white house he became
the vice president and one of these multi
-billion dollar corporations right his literally agenda for
politics was to make his his bank account
bigger and he's willing to sacrifice american lives
to do this well i would an evil
person he is a republican through and through
and in this election he's like i'm going
to be voting democrat what does this show
shaykh ana it shows the democrats and the
republicans are actually in this issue in this
campaign they're actually almost on the same wavelength
and that's why a lifelong republican can actually
see republican values in the current democratic party
so the point of going third party is
what we want to break the two-party
system we want to start any third party
to become bigger and bigger such that 15
20 30 years down the line when the
third party actually becomes illegible people can say
oh they started their journey because of gaza
opened the door for them to start becoming
bigger and bigger this two-party system has
hijacked america for the last 150 years it
has completely suffocated real that's why i believe
it or not european politics in many countries
is actually more effective than american politics they
have so many different parties and these parties
take members of parliament they have like sweden
norway germany they all have competing parties and
you can have far left far right pro
-palestinian well some of them are pro-palestinian
you can actually make it into parliament easily
because it's not two parties so if we
were to get a third party to have
a few seats to be to break that
this is long-term strategy sheikh that long
-term strategy we're not going to see the
the results today we're going to see them
in the long run so the goal of
saying third party is not necessarily we think
the third party will become president this year
it's not going to happen impossible to happen
but the goal is slowly but surely four
years eight years 16 years this any third
party will become bigger and bigger until we
break the two-party system that is the
goal okay there is one very important question
here gonna come from some people especially who
believe in fiqh matters they're gonna say there
is a very famous yes like to uh
to avoid an evil now is better than
to have maslaha in the future yes so
i'm about next four years will have a
big impact uh especially on the war in
the middle east so people are thinking sheikh
not about the third party with my due
respect for this view but the third party
gonna if it work gonna have in the
future what about next 40 years which is
why i said when people disagree about political
analysis they have the right to do so
and you cannot bring in the religious card
i don't have a problem with you endorsing
one of these two when i want to
say i don't have a problem i'll disagree
with you but i will not doubt your
sincerity that's what i say mean when i
say i don't have a problem i will
disagree with your analysis but i will not
doubt your love for allah and his messenger
and your support for the palestinian cause if
you say that and that's why we have
muslims in both of these parties you know
this yeah we have muslims for trump we
have muslims for for kamala and they're publicly
going endorsing them and if you speak to
them they will say ah but this candidate
is going to be better than the other
candidate yeah less of evil what you're talking
about exactly do you see sheikh one candidate
has evil less than other well personally i
don't but that's my analysis and i could
be wrong my analysis is not you think
it's same when it comes to gaza it's
the same other things so other things right
now is not the time to get into
it when you have a genocide taking place
i'm not worried about my taxes or immigration
or other things even if the genocide gonna
be increased no but that's the point so
those who firmly believe this they firmly believe
it they must act on their conscience that's
what i'm saying you're saying even if it's
increased this is your opinion those who feel
that way they must vote according to their
conscience in the eyes of allah and that's
what i'm saying my position is more nuanced
than many people understand even if i disagree
with your analysis i will not doubt your
sincerity as long as you make this argument
and that what is that argument if you
really believe this sincerely believe it this is
your opinion and i cannot criminalize you for
it because in the end of the day
all political analysis is subjective it is finicky
and it could be wrong correct yes okay
so then i have an analysis you have
an analysis in the end of the day
allah will judge us based upon any yet
but you keep it for the individuals about
their ishq but there if they see there
is less and i have the right to
explain my view yeah but i cannot force
somebody to follow and in my view these
two parties are equally genocidal tendencies in my
view the big parties genocidal wise they're exactly
the same you can't really make a cost
-benefit analysis which is going to be better
than the two they're both just as crazy
just as unhinged just as deranged that's my
view but again i am not astaghfirullah that
arrogant to say my view is the view
that allah endorses it's an opinion and whoever
agrees with me come and sign the document
which many of their we have a document
that we released two weeks ago i don't
know if you know aware or not that
we said that both of these parties are
genocidal and we should boycott these two parties
vote for any third party we cannot i
did not endorse any one of them just
any third party that you feel because by
the way i don't know if you know
there's many third parties in america not just
one there's many third parties these third parties
there's no realistic chance right now for them
to win but it's only a matter of
time sheikh how long will the two parties
last things to change these two parties have
a beginning as well and they're going to
have an end as well so the goal
that we have is we want to expedite
a third party to start challenging the two
-party system it's filigree how the interruption so
far good no interruption sheikh okay forget about
these candidates and let us talk generally about
the notions of both parties i'm not talking
about the election now but just i would
love to know your view about three points
first of all do you prefer a party
who works to the economy for the best
and for this sake be gonna reduce the
numbers of refugees and oppressed ones around the
world to bring them here and to make
immigration system with them or with a party
who love to help a lot of these
weak people bring them here even take from
the economy and put and give them and
spend a lot of money for this which
notion yeah you prefer so i go back
to what i just said a few minutes
ago when it comes to you know somebody
asked me this i have a whole q
a uh is islam for or against gun
rights second amendment somebody asked me this okay
i have a question online you could listen
to the answer and i said who gets
to represent islam when you say when you
ask me is islam for yani who am
i to make a claim on behalf of
islam and then allah subhana wa ta'ala
a lot of our innocent muslims don't understand
allah has allowed when it comes to governing
a country allah has allowed the bulk of
these laws to be something open people don't
understand they think the sharia is a very
minute system that everything you know is is
regulated no the sharia did not regulate you
know the zoning of the city the sharia
did not regulate you know does islam say
health care is going to be free or
not let me ask you this does islam
say that health care should be free or
not no but islam says that you have
to help poor ones ah you meaning individual
yeah okay in the history of the ummah
health care generally was not free in the
history of them you paid for the doctor
right but many naive muslims think ah they
as i said i said this in a
joking manner they want a hijabi version of
norway they want norway but everybody hijab and
beards right and they think this is the
khilafah and i'm sorry they don't know the
khilafah is not like this they don't they
don't understand they haven't studied history they haven't
studied fiqh there so to answer your view
your view not islam yeah so to answer
no but i have to say this okay
go ahead my view yes your view is
my personal view yes and if somebody disagrees
islam allows them to disagree yep allah did
not legislate amongst us that should a land
be pro immigrant or anti-immigrant allah did
not legislate this allah did not legislate that
should we open up the doors or close
the doors should we it's not something that
it's open imagine sheikh if yasser qadi is
responsible for this decision in this country imagine
sheikh imaginary thing yeah so jayyed so you
will be with this as a personal yes
opinion yeah not on behalf of islam not
to shut a verdict personally i think a
reasonable immigration policy makes the people happy and
the country better and so we would open
the door i would like to open the
door with conditions being met not open door
that anybody who comes no if they but
even if the economy does not work like
in good state because of that but i'm
a firm believer that and again this could
be my bias or not that and this
is a theological bias people bring the risk
with them people bring the risk with them
that it's like allah is telling us in
the quran this is my theological bias when
it comes to immigrants but allah calls it
in the quran that i believe that if
people who want to work come they will
find jobs to work there's always jobs there's
always only those that we know them to
be criminals or they're coming just for the
benefits of the country they're not really planning
to i'm not talking about grandmothers to come
with their whole families i'm talking about somebody
who doesn't want to even participate yes if
a whole family comes right and they have
a grandmother that needs to help of the
system no problem because that that son realizes
this country has helped my mother and i
have to be even better now no problem
and i know as somebody of the children
of immigrants that a lot of times immigrant
families are actually more wanting to benefit because
we know we see the reality of how
back home versus now right and so personally
my heart is towards immigration but reasonable i
.e we have quotas we put a system
we don't want to just open the door
unconditionally and we have checks for people who
come in but this is personally you cannot
say islam says so you are not core
capitalist no it looks like okay the second
thing right away sheikh with do you love
by the way by the for the record
i would also want free health care even
though i know islam doesn't say this but
to me it makes no sense you're gonna
get all of the taxes from the people
build all the roads build all the schools
right but you're not gonna have health care
we are the only developed country in the
world that doesn't have health care every european
country canada australia new zealand every even the
middle east subhanallah so many of the countries
under the dictatorships have cheaper and more accessible
health care than america does but the critics
of that gonna say you're gonna take the
country to communism a little this is a
word in here you just scared of the
word what do you mean norway is communist
australia is communist it's just a word they
won't try to make you scared the bulk
every western country in the world other than
america has free health care every western country
go and travel in the world and you
will see because because they understand why are
you taxing your citizens and not giving them
free why is the school free and not
everybody needs school but health everybody needs health
why are the roads free why is the
9-1-1 free you're paying money for
your government for what reason you're gonna take
money from them they'd better take care of
your needs so to me it makes no
sense economically right and as we know our
problem in america is that we spend uh
so much percentage of our money on foreign
invasions and the military the american military takes
collectively more than the next 25 countries combined
combined not more than the next one next
25 add them up our military and our
70 80 i don't even know how many
hundred air bases around the world and our
marines and whatnot we are a country that
is obsessed with war war war war invasion
invasion invasion and our military complex has absorbed
and this is not a conspiracy theory sheikh
this is not a conspiracy theory much of
our foreign policy is actually catered to how
else to say this to make our multi
-billion dollar corporations richer much of our foreign
policy is meant that our taxes are then
spent by these other companies whether it's exxon
whether it's hallie burton whether it's raytheon whether
it's boeing we want trillions of american taxes
to be spent by our own corporations but
our corporations need contracts from the government how
will the contracts happen and this is by
the way political analysis i'm not speaking as
a sheikh here i'm speaking as somebody who
reads history who likes political science who understands
what's going on the politician yeah i have
to i have to make this distinction this
is my opinion somebody disagrees doesn't make them
an evil person it's my analysis right and
it's not just my analysis go listen to
any uh political science is worth his or
her salt they're the same thing and that
is that unfortunately and by the way president
eisenhower who was the hero of world war
ii the hero of world war ii the
last i would say real president who cared
for the people in my analysis the last
president who was genuinely loving for the people
he was against you know fascism nazis community
world war ii he fought as a military
general then he was elected as the president
when he came back as a hero right
president eisenhower has a lecture before he left
the white house in 1959 1960 it's on
youtube the last address to the american people
he said i have one big concern and
worry and that is that we now have
politicians who are catering to our multi-billion
dollar corporations rather than to the people and
i'm worried that these politicians will divert america
and america's interests to benefit the companies rather
than the people this is eisenhower look at
the reality the next 70 years what is
happening all of the invasions all of the
bombings all of that once you go to
war the military will have a contract with
raytheon with boeing with whatnot and will give
them seven billion dollars you provide food packages
to the soldiers huh you provide weapons how
you provide that and this money where is
it coming from my taxes and your taxes
who gets rich the politicians as well because
they get the cutbacks and the bribes and
now literally like dick cheney i'm saying this
bluntly dick cheney literally goes from being the
vice president in the white house to become
the vice president of hallyburton literally how does
that happen literally he goes from here to
there because his ties are right there all
of these people the neocons were directly invested
in uh the oil industry bush and his
father's but they're all the part of the
oil industry and they end up in the
white house and then they go back to
the oil industry unfortunately americans need to wake
up and we muslims need to be need
to be blunt about this much of our
foreign policy is actually meant to benefit not
us american people it is meant to benefit
the multi-billion dollar corporations if we cut
back that we would be able to take
care of health like this if we stop
spending seven trillion dollars invading afghanistan and iraq
all lies we now know this right not
a single one of our politicians is in
jail even though they lied and they knew
they lied there were no weapons of mass
destruction destruction at all afghanistan was being run
by ragtag people who had nothing to do
with 9-11 they were not responsible for
9-11 they were not responsible the the
taliban types of people there we could disagree
with them but not but they had nothing
to do with what was and we bombed
them and we killed another million people and
seven trillion dollars spent that seven trillion if
we spent it on our health care what
would happen fix them so sheikh we have
to be blunt here sheikh you good to
be like a senate or someone the second
concept sheikh annotion you prefer to work with
the one who claim or the one who
that he has freedom of speech freedom of
religion with hypocrisy or the one who is
so clear that he doesn't need you here
he doesn't like you to be here and
he has some values which you have this
question sheikh is gonna change from candidate to
candidate and from year to year these are
very similar and you have to see which
one is benefiting you more i don't think
we can just put all of our eggs
in one basket in this case it's not
healthy also because if one of them becomes
more powerful like i said as well known
i've said that multiple people have said this
as well the left loves muslims but hates
islam and the right hates muslims but loves
many islamic values the left hates islamic values
morality decency family but they say they love
muslims the right it hates muslims publicly but
in reality many islamic values they love them
they just don't know it's islamic value but
if the one who sheikh loves islamic values
but he is racist where is the islamic
values now so he doesn't like you to
be with him we saw you so excellent
we saw in the last 10 years and
especially last five years so many on the
right became pro-muslim because of our stance
against the lgbt in schools about the trans
issue and what's happening in gaza and our
consistency and decency and dignity frankly there's a
little bit more hope with many on the
right there's a little bit more hope because
their values align with our values but they're
just ignorant and many amongst them if they
are taught to interact there is actually some
hope with another head sheikh a lot of
people in the left side because what is
happening now in the middle east they become
even muslim so that's why some diversity is
healthy that's why in this issue like i
said this is not clear cut black and
white okay and it's healthy for muslims to
be in both of these camps in this
regard okay let us go to last three
questions i know that because of the time
inshallah uh how did muslim leaders address and
resolve these uh like ideological things in the
past so which is the question number one
we come back like how they dealt with
that so and i know your father was
the one from mashallah the founders so in
american history uh obviously we never had a
large group of muslims in this country up
until relatively recently and of course you know
um the first batches that came were brought
against their will as you know the the
slaves that came obviously they were not involved
directly but ironically many of them uh were
forced to participate in the american civil war
on both sides they were on both sides
they were forced to participate but obviously uh
in the american civil war obviously can you
imagine there were muslims that participated people don't
know this muslim slaves participated if you were
to uh uh you know go over to
the other side you would have become afraid
anyway that's in the past they weren't involved
in the actual political level because they couldn't
have done so when i was raised in
this country i was born in this country
in this country in the 80s and early
90s the sentiment really was to be apolitical
some would say haram but most would say
yeah it's not really we should not get
involved because we get our hands dirty not
like haram but it's like let's just not
and we might get undue attention and so
growing up i don't recall a strong sentiment
in our masajid that we should be engaged
in the civic process and also there was
a mentality of our forefathers that came here
that because they had become american citizens they
felt they don't want to cause too much
commotion rock the boat they want to just
live their lives you know decency dignity not
bring any attention to themselves because remember many
of you know that generation they came either
for economic gain or for political freedom these
are the two main categories of people that
came to this country as muslims yeah they
wanted a better life for their children because
life was difficult back home yeah or they
are actually politically repressed governments are cracking them
down and especially the brotherhood in the 70s
and 80s they fled to these lands because
as you know in the 80s in egypt
as you know what was happening you know
mass uh any torture and jailing and whatnot
that's why so many people came to the
europe and to america because there was repression
in these countries so coming to these lands
they felt you know what hamdulillah life is
good and the notion of repression and secret
police they're so worried about it like we
don't want anything in america we just want
to live our lives so we understand that
generation they felt as guests who had permission
to stay they didn't feel this is their
home they didn't feel fully invested because they're
worried and you know i remember myself even
hearing this type sentiment be careful or else
they might take her citizenship away they don't
understand that my citizenship cannot be taken i
was born here there is no such thing
as taking my citizenship away i am an
american through and through like i've never had
any other passport and nationality there is no
concept of taking my citizenship away but the
notion is there in the minds of the
elders be careful huh because if you do
something this and that huh they're gonna send
you back home so that mentality of being
apolitical just not rocking the boat i don't
criticize them maybe i would have done the
same so that generation we give them the
next generation my generation coming of age there
is a level of confidence we have there
is a level of pushback that we have
that especially after 9-11 for me and
everybody knows this 9-11 for me was
one of my own catalysts that i changed
from being a simple-minded you know fundamentalist
type of person right to start realizing the
world is not that simplistic i can't live
like this this is not you know and
9-11 because i was in my 20s
and i was a graduate student in medina
and i began to realize that you know
because i would also think at the time
i'd never said voting is haram but i
would think that muslims should not be involved
it's bad it's corrupting to the soul and
i still say politics is corrupting to the
soul but somebody has to do it that's
the difference now you know it's it's not
good and the one who truly values purity
and and and highest levels of jannah it's
going to be very difficult to maintain it
as a because politicians are always having to
compromise but to have somebody who has some
love of allah and his messenger as a
politician is better than somebody who doesn't right
so after 9-11 shaykh you were not
here after 9-11 the government went crazy
against the muslims they didn't know what islam
was hundreds of masajid shut down dozens of
famous shuyukh exported deported sorry deported many famous
institutions the fbi came raided shut down care
itself became a massive massive target even though
care is a civil rights organization you know
but care was under a lot of attack
it still is under a lot of attack
for just trying to be so the level
of paranoia and we realized we have to
do something you cannot just allow the government
to just do this this is our civil
and constitutional rights and this was like okay
we're going to fight back with the system
again those that say voting is haram utmost
respect they haven't lived through 9-11 when
we realized we have to get involved until
you were in egypt when the arab spring
happened correct i was in egypt okay yeah
you yourself remember how the mashayikh started singing
a different tune after the arab spring the
same one who said voting is shirk and
haram after the arab spring he said voting
is jihad it is wajib to do look
what happened because he real and he said
that he goes you know what i didn't
realize that actually voting you can change policies
now that i realized this how can we
just sit back and allow almaniun allow people
who hate allah and his messenger to become
political this is our country the egyptian sheikh
said this the famous egyptian it's our some
of them said this like yeah the same
one that said voting one of the famous
icons in the 90s he said this after
our spring he goes i'm sorry i was
wrong voting is wajib he literally said this
and you must go vote and voting as
a jihad literally he said this right why
did he change his mind because the context
made him understand that experience experience we went
through that experience after 9-11 that we
can't just sit back we have to and
guess what we did push back and guess
what we won our rights back i was
on that not the no-fly list but
the one underneath it where every time i
would travel without exception pulled aside extra humiliating
questioning humiliating screening multiple times this is when
i came back from medina i had armed
guards meet me inside the plane sheikh i
don't say this publicly because it's embarrassing even
to this day to think you're humiliated imagine
you're sitting in the plane and the pilot
announces happened to me multiple times the pilot
announces we have special instructions everybody remains seated
and i know this is for me why
is she because the police is going to
not the police the ts tsa is going
to come in they come to my seat
they take your bags literally in the whole
plane can you imagine how you feel when
all the passengers looking at you oh and
the bearded guy mashallah sheikh whatnot oh this
guy what is he doing in my plane
whatnot happened to me multiple times now what
am i going to do i literally contacted
my congressman my two my two senators you
know i went directly you know to the
sources like how can you be doing this
whatnot you know i challenged them this and
that i was thinking of suing them literally
i was going to take my own country
to go to court alhamdulillah another case went
and so that level which i was in
was abolished then the next level no-fly
list that went to court as well and
that too was abolished now you tell me
our critics say haram haram haram what are
you going to do what are you going
to do your livelihood has become haram you
cannot go to work many of my friends
lost their jobs because their their corporation is
saying we want to send you here when
i send you there we can't do anything
i'm sorry we can't it's not our fault
not your fault so these people sued the
government we cannot work because of you you're
not even telling us our crime and they
won they won because it is illegal it
is unconstitutional right so we won through the
democracy yeah now a new generation of youngsters
have come they haven't lived through what we
lived through these are all so foul they're
all youngsters and that's why i i'm sometimes
harsh because we love them we want these
youth to become open-minded so in my
harshness i apologize it's out of love for
you and for the ummah i'm trying to
be like the parent is harsh sometimes with
the child i am that old now you
know i'm almost going to turn 50 in
a few years that old now that i'm
actually old enough yani to be of your
parental age when you're in your 20s and
and and you know uh younger than this
my dear youngsters learn from your elders don't
think your elders are sellouts and liberals and
have some have some there are people you
include you have spent 20 30 years becoming
who you are yeah if you wanted to
be a sellout and whatnot you could easily
do this so have some respect for your
elders and if you disagree disagree with adep
know that they want what is good for
the ummah as well and they're seeing this
very difficult reality that they find themselves in
and they're trying their best to protect the
ummah and they might be wrong even in
this regard if they're wrong correct them from
within not accusing them of being cia agents
or whatever so does that answer your question
in this experience last two questions sheikh mashallah
sheikh your answer is great uh just last
two question we talk about the past what
about the question who says or even the
accusation who says okay you did a lot
in the past after 9 11 you did
great job then now we have the candidates
in in the white house and they believe
in something that many of muslim they don't
believe some values and some what is the
purpose what is the result after all this
work you brought people inside the white house
from your religion but some people they say
they believe in something that we don't believe
and we don't aston proud of that so
what is the result in the end of
the day so i would say that you
are being too narrow-minded in your judgment
of positive or negative it's not just the
politicians it's the fact that for example gaza
for example gaza what mobilizing has done is
to spread awareness amongst muslim and non-muslims
to change the hearts and minds of the
masses to energize the ummah to do something
for gaza it's not just about the end
result politician look at the hair that has
come outside of politics because of talking about
politics because of bringing politics to the center
so you are thinking only of the guy
elected oh this is evil this is evil
okay i agree with you maybe they're evil
agree with you but look for the last
10 11 12 months the ummah yaani has
mashallah it has galvanized the ummah has sifted
through the the the munafiqeen and the good
people they see them right the ummah has
now a cause that they're united behind and
so many non-muslims have embraced islam so
many non-muslims have seen the reality of
their own governments supporting genocide over their own
interests and this has all happened because the
ummah has been active politically so you are
being too narrow in defining victory as just
a candidate victory is beyond just a candidate
victory is victory is changing victory is victory
is seeing the revival of the ummah that
is coming up all of this is a
type of victory so i say don't be
so narrow-minded look at the broad picture
and the khair that has come is much
more than yes some of the evil is
already there you're not going to change it
and the goal overall is we make the
khair more as much as we can we're
never going to have perfection we're never going
to have jannah is not on earth it's
in the akhirah right darussalam is up there
so our goal is to make this world
as good as possible knowing it's never going
to be perfect as we work our way
to the next world so i disagree with
this analysis okay last question sheikh uh what
do you think about the future of muslim
people uh here those who are living in
america it's clearly now you encourage people to
go and to participate and to have you
know what do you think about uh politics
in america and especially sheikh politicians i mean
i don't see any working happened with politics
in america with the scholars and the sheikh
yeah you mashallah some other sheikh they do
you do your job it's going to take
what's your advice so my advice is to
understand that politics is a necessary part of
life there are many aspects that are negative
and especially at the higher levels by the
way like i said the lower levels is
completely clean and pure nothing i mean pure
meaning at least ethically it'll be much better
you don't have to decide to invade foreign
lands or not but at the higher levels
i agree politics is corruptive to the soul
and that's why the general default is that
as the processor said that he forbade the
ulama from going to the palaces of the
rulers there's multiple hadith about this you know
because he never forbade i mean the process
didn't say rulers should not exist rulers always
going to exist but you're always going to
have levels of piety and taqwa and it
is my cynical view and i know i
have critics on all sides who strongly disagree
it's my cynical view that generally speaking people
of ihsan and piety people of genuine taqwa
they are not going to flourish in politics
because politics really is about lesser of all
evils it's always about compromise it's always about
trying to appease one with the expense of
another so if you genuinely desire the highest
levels of jannah it might be difficult to
find that in politics not impossible imam al
-adil is one of the seven that allah
azza wa jal will put under his throne
it's not impossible but it's much more difficult
because there's a lot of corruption that has
to happen in that political realm but those
who are in politics already they decide to
go in surely to have somebody who has
a love of the ummah is better than
somebody who doesn't so those that decide to
go and they're not interested in shaykh azza
ghadi's fatwa they're already in and they like
it and that's their dandana that's their their
their lifestyle that's what they want okay so
those that decide to go there surely we
should have some relationship with them surely we
should have some nasiha that those that are
interested right this is where i come in
that i am not a hard believer and
again this is going to be very blunt
the primary revival of the ummah will not
be via voting in politicians the primary revival
of the ummah is via internally it is
i might sound a bit sufi tasawwuf i
don't care if it sounds it in allah
does begin from inside so yes this whole
conversation was about politics and as you see
i am an advocate of getting involved in
politics but i say more important than politics
is social change being involved in your community
demonstrating the beauty of islam through your akhlaq
and more important than that even is personal
spiritual change so spiritual change is most important
and then social change people should see islam
through you your friends your family your your
neighbors your colleagues your workers you be a
role model of islam in your own social
sphere and then also politics i do not
put politics number one i don't i don't
put this as the number one chance of
revival that's why when somebody says oh politics
has failed i say ah but look in
the process social change has happened in the
process many of us have had to really
undergo spiritual analyses crises evaluation coming closer to
allah seeing what's happening in gaza our spirituality
has has been impacted in a positive manner
right because we were involved in the political
front so don't just look at politics as
politics rather it's a whole you know network
here and politics is i would say at
the lower end for me personally it's not
the number one politics is not the primary
change and i agree that whoever is in
the white house not much is going to
change in the end of the day it's
a little bit symbolic i agree with this
but in the process of getting involved you
will change other spheres and eventually when enough
change happens in those spheres eventually yes it
will change the political sphere as well thank
you so much sheikh yasser wallah i enjoyed
a lot every time sheikh we sit together
we have a lot of benefits especially for
those who are watching me i hope guys
you enjoyed with this interview like what i
felt now alhamdulillah and inshallah you're gonna take
you just share this video for everyone let
everyone listen and watch the views of sheikh
yasser qadi when we talk about the upcoming
election inshallah i'm just sheikh wallah i'm thanking
you so much it's always a pleasure i
really appreciate you reach out to me and
you say you want to have difficult topics
and questions every time this has been your
way of doing things and i really appreciate
it and i appreciate your presence in in
having these awkward conversations and may allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala put barakah in your life
and your efforts and inshallah keep us united
and further conversations as well for other topics
thank you guys so much inshallah i hope
inshallah everything will be great inshallah next four
years inshallah i hope that and pray for
our brothers and sisters and for everyone jazakumullahu
khair for watching us thank you so much