Yasir Qadhi – Trump Or Kamala Should Muslims Participate In Politics
AI: Summary ©
The American presidential election is causing mixed results and mixed messages, including mixed messages about Europe and the European Union. The speakers also touch on issues like shrooming groups and the use of "monster" in political and media spaces. The upcoming election is discussed, with political parties expressing their desire to bring the agenda to the fore and the importance of politics in society being emphasized. The importance of politics in society is emphasized, along with the need for civil and constitutional reform. The upcoming election is also discussed, with some political parties expressing their desire to bring the agenda to the fore and the importance of politics in society being emphasized. The segment ends with a brief advertisement for the upcoming election 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 East.
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. Yasir Qadhi.
I contacted him to interview him and ask
him all these questions and he welcomed and
now we are with Dr. Yasir Qadhi here
in his masjid, Epic Masjid in Dallas.
Welcome Sheikh Yasir Qadhi.
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.
Third or fourth time.
The fourth time and it's my honor.
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 and he is himself
a bahith 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 Alhamdulillah we agreed
to this date a few weeks ago and
Alhamdulillah he came down and here we are
for the interview Alhamdulillah.
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.
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 no nothing but love
Alhamdulillah 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 be the third
question which candidate that Dr. Yasser gonna vote
for Kamala Harris or Trump for 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 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 kufr 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
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
it's 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 yaani 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 saraha we feel
I feel a shafaqah a rahmah a compassion
I feel a genuine sense of yaani even
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 shaykh 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 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 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
takfeer of the sahaba and they broke away
from ali radiyallahu an and they said that
ya ali radiyallahu an ya ameerul mu'mineen and
they didn't call him ameerul 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 and others the famous scholar actually many
of the sahaba 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
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 musharri 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 kuffar
doona kuffar it is not that type of
kuffar laisa kama yadhibuna ilahi 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 ibn 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 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
how about then the one who is not
following his desires but rather is forced by
circumstance rather he 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 muamalat and
we follow something that is a sin and
then technically if you want to be a
lawhead 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 al-musharra is allah and therefore
to participate in a system that seems to
suggest that there are other musharra 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
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
for the schools this has nothing to do
with you know the federal issues fund foreign
wars uh invasion it has nothing to do
with morality lgbt all of this stuff 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 days 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
uh 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 the average muslim is
not qualified what is 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 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 the 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 and sunnah 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
darura or haja right then that which is
mahzoor that which is prohibited or that which
is makroo 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 in al hukm
illa lillah you know that allah has the
ultimate right to legislate but now there are
people dying 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
fiqh what is the dalil about it sheikh
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 so they
had to yeah 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 that demonstrates when you have priorities clashing
when you have differences 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 rabubiyah 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 they had
the person in this context the scholars who
allow it their itch they had is different
than your itch and at 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 is shirk
participating is haram 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
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
they 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 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 khilafa 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 sallallahu
alaihi wasallam 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 sallallahu alaihi wasallam
idealistic and vision 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 it's just slogans and problems are not
solved by slogans actual problems are not solved
by emotional nice quips so this is point
number four that 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 uh 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 sheikh 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
percent uh paris 20 25 right many of
them they don't participate in politics not many
the default other than the uk which is
a little bit better than every 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 gonna
get 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 predictable 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 who is 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 you're
working 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
sharia is an interesting point i don't want
to be too like the sharia of course
is infinitely more wiser than than these critics
the sharia the the fuqaha have differentiated between
direct involvement versus indirect versus the one who
is forced to the sharia makes all of
these distinctions a simple example that you don't
show we have all studied fiqh here that
the most obvious example one of the biggest
crimes in islam is is killing you and
i both know that the sharia 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 the one who doesn't know fiqh is
gonna 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 sharia 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 stuff
or 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 azawajal 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 i mean when
i went to germany they were saying our
biggest issue we cannot have any candidate that
stands up for mosques because that candidate is
threatened by our own peoples the biggest enemies
are within our own ranks literally that i
gave the khutbah 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 masjid 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 ci 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 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 with this because again and this is
a long question uh for your first question
it's good the sheikh to explain to everyone
with good argument yes we need to do
this yeah 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 mushrik 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 were 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 fashawa ibn jibreen and
we asked great ulama we asked when i
was in medina we asked the greatest scholar
of medina at the time shaykh abdul muslim
abbad our group of students okay of course
if the muslims see there is a maslaha
they must participate the muslims have to judge
masalah go back to my point number three
masalih al-mafasid and daruriyat and all that
right 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
fatwa of lajna daima of the kingdom which
is the senior most group of you know
scholars uh of that uh uh strand the
fatwa of shaykh bin baaz the fatwa of
ibn jibreen 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 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
limelight good argument who is the two main
groups that oppose number one as a default
in its entirety again hizb ut-tahrir and
for the last few months i've had to
mention them politely with love and respect wallahi
i have interacted with them as 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 hizb
ut-tahrir 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 and 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-quran
in surat al-ma'idah you explained it
then you go through the fiqh rules especially
al-mafasid which we're going to talk about
inshallah yes then you also brought the ulama
nowadays who accepted this and agree with that
uh 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
their 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 we
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 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 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 for
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
ghazal or what not 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 and his messenger it's your analysis
in the end of the day and that's
why 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 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 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 weighing and
in fact even when the arab spring happened
sheikh i have a very detailed post i
divided ulama 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
muftadi is a khariji what not you can
tell you they've lost any sense of of
of hurma 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 or his 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 we say binary either zero
one like a complete and 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 your friends 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 they're 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 actually 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 time 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 babies 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 that's coming
from your pocket your jake do you have
any dalil shaykh from even sunnah history islamic
history do you have any dalil about that
yeah so it happened before so the 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 with the example i
gave of the sahabi who was forced to
eat the camel there's two evils or even
shaykh the sahabi who uh sorry peed in
the mess exactly he was uncovering there's two
evil being in the masjid exactly then the
prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said and also
there's 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 alayhi wa
sallam the killing the head of the hypocrites
he goes i don't want to do this
because what will the people say allah right
you know he's a munafiq you know he's
a leader 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 siyasa siyasa yeah so
there's other things as well now the trendy
question shaykh now the trendy question and actually
shaykh millions of people are waiting for that
because um from three sides like what i
said uh you are i know you don't
like to uh be praised but shaykh 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 sira
you know shaykh 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
everyone is me but endorsement and you have
right for that shaykh as a as a
american muslim scholar let me just everyone is
asking which uh candidate you're shaykh i have
always been consistent in one issue and that
is shuyukh people of knowledge people walking in
the path of the prophet shall should 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
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
you believe in like laser of two evils
yeah do you think that there is evil
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 shaykh 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
uh 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 at
this stage i cannot support them they're both
literally jumping over each other to see who
can somebody will be uncommitted so the third
party but here's i want to try 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 going to be voting but they
don't understand what this shows and 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 what 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 sheikh
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
going to come from some people especially who
believe in fiqh matters they're going to say
there is a very famous qaeda fiqh says
yes like to uh to avoid an evil
now is better than to have maslaha in
the future yes i'm talking 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 uh one of these
two when i say i don't have a
problem i'll disagree with you but i will
not doubt your that's what i 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 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 tell me what 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 says this is your
opinion those who feel that way they must
vote according to their conscience in the 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 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 i have the right to explain my
view yeah but i cannot force somebody to
follow yeah and in my view these two
parties are equally genocidal tendencies in my view
the big parties genocidal otherwise 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 the shuyukh have done 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 shaykh 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 very clear how
the interruption so far 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 it's 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 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
is islam for or against gun rights second
amendment somebody asked me this okay i have
a question online you could listen to the
whole answer and i said who gets to
represent islam when you say when you ask
me is islam for who am i to
make a claim on behalf of islam and
then allah subhanahu 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 then
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 khilafa and i'm
sorry they don't know the khilafa is not
like this they don't they don't understand they
haven't studied history they haven't studied fiqh 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 a visionary thing yeah
so you will be with this as a
personal yes opinion not on behalf of islam
not to giving the sharia 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 whatnot that
uh and this is a theological bias people
bring the risk with them people bring their
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
cause 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 social 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 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 bit 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 911 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 haley 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 lands 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 yes i have
to 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 communism 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 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 huh 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 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
in jail even though they lied and they
knew they lied there were no weapons of
mass destruction destruction at all uh afghanistan was
being run by ragtag people who had nothing
to do with 9-11 they were not
responsible 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're good
to be like a senate or someone the
second concept sheikh and notion you prefer to
work with the one who claim or the
one who had died 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 so 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 they interact there
is actually some hope with another hat sheikh
a lot of people in 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 like black and white okay and
it's healthy for muslims to be in both
of these camps in this regard okay sheikh
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 the first
batches that came here obviously were brought against
their will as you know the the slaves
that came obviously they were not involved directly
but ironically many of them 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 muslim
slaves participated if you were to uh uh
you know go over to the other side
you would have become a free 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 raised 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 of sentiment be careful or else
they might take your 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 going to
send you back home or whatnot 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 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 politician 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
sheikh 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 who say
voting is haram utmost respect they haven't lived
through 9-11 when we realize we have
to get involved 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 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 almaniyoon allow people who hate allah
and his messenger to become popular 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 is shirk and kufr 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
is a jihad literally he said this right
why did he change his mind because the
context made him understand that experience we went
through that experience after 9-11 that we
can't just sit back and allow 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 pull the
side 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 well i imagine you're sitting in
the plane and the pilot announces happened to
me multiple times the pilot announces we have
special instructions everybody remain seated and i know
this is for me why is he because
the police is going to not the police
the 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 what not oh this guy what is
he doing in my plane what not 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 what not
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 you
say 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 can be won through
the democracy through the democracy yeah yeah now
a new generation of youngsters have come they
haven't lived through what we live through these
are all sufis they're all youngsters and that's
why 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 going to turn
50 in a few years and that old
now that i'm actually old enough to be
of your parental age when you're in your
20s 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 there are people you included you have
spent 20 30 years becoming who you are
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 lost
two questions sheikh mashallah sheikh your answer is
great just lost 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 a candidates in in the white house
and they believe in something that many of
muslim they don't believe some values and some
fat 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 ask
them 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 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 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 yeah victory is beyond just
a candidate victory is victory is changing the
hearts and minds 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 don't see any
working happened with politics in america with the
scholars and the mashayikh 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 evil especially at
the higher levels by the way like i
said the lower levels are 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 prophet
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 are 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 it's 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 and 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 tagheed 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 akhlaaq and more
important than that even is personal spiritual change
so spiritual change is the 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 changes happen 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 is 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 shaykh yasser wallah i enjoyed a
lot every time shaykh 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 shaykh yasser
qadi when we talk about the upcoming election
inshallah i'm shaykh wallah i'm thanking you so
much 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 that i
really appreciate 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 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 jazakumullah
khair for watching us thank you so much