Islamic Fatwa of Sh. ‘Abd al-Azīz Ibn Bāz on Political Demonstrations & Protests [This fatwā was taken from a book called “Al-Fatāwá Ash-Shar’iyyah fī Al-Qadhāyā Al-‘Asriyyah,” a collection of various rulings by Muhammad Ibn Fahd Al-Husayn.] #India #Protests #Demonstrations
There are many reasons why scholars view protests and demonstrations to be haram:
- Free mixing between men and women,
- Brings about more harm than good e.g. violence (between police and protesters) and killing.
- Harming the country’s economy (shops close and tourists may leave for example).
- Imitating the kuffaar (as Muslims copied demonstrations from them as there is no mention of demonstrations in Islam),
- Bidah (innovation as the prophet nor the sahaba demonstrated),
- Not following the way of the salaf (the early and best generations of Muslims) who never protested.
- Cooperating upon sin and misguidance (Muslims calling to, support, and join demonstrations which are haram so they are all cooperating upon a sin and misguidance)
- Wasting time and money on this sinful innovated act,
- Inconveniencing others (blocking the road or preventing people from passing by for example);
- Chanting silly slogans and false speeches.
- Playing instruments and singing to pass the time, provides a platform for those with little knowledge of the Shariah to speak and gain followers
- Missing the five prayers (is Kufr itself).
- Enmity (hatred) towards some people without due right just because they did not attend the demonstration or are against it,
- Wasting other’s time with no shariah rights (the paramedics on stand-by in case there is a violent incident, police and army monitoring the crowd could be doing better things with their time like arresting criminals and protecting the country),
- Women going out wearing adornment and make-up;
- Shouting slogans that are sinful;
- Begging the kuffar for help outside their embassies etc or through the use of slogans and placards,
- Holding up pictures or effigies of people
- Using slanderous and insulting words that are not permitted in Shariah;
- Backbiting, cursing, slandering, and exposing the sins of the people you protest against or those who do not support your protest (I am talking about when those who you are protesting against are Muslim or those who oppose the protest are Muslim)
- Committing acts of aggression against the property of innocent people (destroying their shops or breaking their windows, or starting fires in public facilities).
No protest ever witnessed is free from all these at least a few will be always present.
The salaf have agreed upon that leaving one sin is more beloved than committing many (seemingly) good deeds .
Secondly, all protests are Haram as they involve imitating the kuffaar the prophet said, “Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” Narrated by Abu Dawood, 3512; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani. Ibn Taymiyyah said about this hadeeth, “This at the very least indicates that it is haraam to imitate them, although the apparent meaning is that the one who imitates them is a kaafir (disbeliever). Iqtidaa al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem, 1/237.