I say that I believe in the haakimiyyah of Allaah alone and I believe in the comprehensiveness of this haakimiyyah and that is obligatory upon the individual and the groups and the rulers and the callers to submit to it.

An Introduction to the Fitnah:

Al-Haafidh Ibn Hajar said:

"Al-Mu'allib said: 'Desire for leadership is a cause for people fighting each other to the point that they shed blood and make wealth and private parts lawful, and therefore great corruption occurs in the land. Then the reason for regret is that he may be killed, deposed or die and then regret having entered into it in the first place. Since he will be held to account for the evil he has committed and that which he craved will be lost to him as soon as he leaves it." [1]

Shaykh Naasir al-'Umar says:

"They think that tawheed is only singling out Allaah in Kingship and the obligation of making the Rule for Him Alone. They do not prohibit from the remaining categories of tawheed things such as shirk with the dead. They do not speak about the misguided sects and their distortions in the Tawheed of Allaah's Names and Attributes."

Shaykh Abu Maalik Muhammad Ibn Ibraaheem Shaqrah said about the usage of this term:

"There cannot be any correctness in that.." [4]

He described it as a term saying:

"It is not supported in the language." [5]

He wrote in an article:

"Verily some people have attacked us with a newly invented term, 'Tawheedul-Haakimiyyah'! This is only to beautify it and to make it acceptable to oneself. It will not be long before it is destroyed and vanishes." [5]

He also went on to say:

"Verily the word Haakimiyyah in connection with the word Tawheed necessitates deviation from the ijmaa' (consensus) of the ummah which is pleased with having only three types of tawheed." [7]

The committee of Major Scholars wrote:

"To make haakimiyyah a separate category from the categories of tawheed is an innovated action. None of the imaams we know of have ever spoken of this." [8]

Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Saalih al-'Uthaymeen was asked about this concept, so he said:

"This statement is a newly-invented, innovated, evil saying, making the one who uses it repugnant…and it is indeed a misguided innovation." [9]

He also said:

"Verily the one who calls to that is an innovator. Indeed this is an innovated categorization, emanating from an ignoramus who does not understand anything from the matters of Creed and Religion." [10]

Shaykh Naasir al-'Aql said:

"Likewise is the claim that haakimiyyah is the most important characteristic from the characteristics of uloohiyyah: there is no basis for this. It is an innovated claim." [12]

Then he said:

"So al-haakimiyyah therefore, is from the problematic terms which are not founded from the Religion and which does not stem from the Creed. According to the people of our era, its understanding is not free of extreme, exaggeration, and obstinancy…and leaving it is primary." [13]

Shaykh Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaanee said to the proponents of this demented concept:

"So you use this term (al-haakimiyyah) to wage war upon those whom you suspect to be disbelievers from amongst the rulers because they do not rule by Islaamic Law. So you have forgotten yourselves, this haakimiyyah covers every Muslim." [14]

Shaykh 'Abdullaah as-Sabt said:

"Therefore, why do the revolutionists and the callers to revolution and the khawaarij utilize 'al-haakimiyyah'? I say - as the 'allaamah of shaam, shaykh Naasirud-Deen al-Albaanee explained - that they utilize this for the purpose of politics, since they make this haakimiyyah only for the rulers. For that reason, they quickly run to making takfeer of them, because they do not rule by the Revelation. Followed by this, they obligate revolting against them and carrying weapons! This in itself is from the theory of the Khawaarij of old who carried weapons against the Khaleefah (radiyallaahu 'anhu).

So haakimiyyah in our time is used as a way to revolt and revolution and haakimiyyah itself is an old approach. So haakimiyyah therefore, is used as a way to takfeer, so they use it as a justification and as a way of convincing those who follow them until they follow them in what they want! It is an easy way of convincing, especially since we know that those who follow them are those who do not give any worth to the scholars and they do not give their statements any status. Rather they say, 'We are men and they are men.' This is just like what their predecessors used to say!" [15]

Shaykh Rabee' Ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee says:

"So in conclusion I say that I believe in the haakimiyyah of Allaah alone and I believe in the comprehensiveness of this haakimiyyah and that is obligatory upon the individual and the groups and the rulers and the callers to submit to it. Whoever does not rule by what Allaah revealed in his call and his creed and his state, then these are the transgressors and they are the disbelievers and they are the disobedient just as Allaah said and as the Salafus-Saalih understood, not as is understood by those who are excessive or by those who are negligent. I renounce with consistency those who limit it to one aspect, the ones who oppose the wise and clear methodology of the Prophets ('alayhimus salaam) and who begin with the secondary matters before the foundations and who make the means the goals and who put off or detract something from the true goals which all of the Prophets followed.

I spread out my hands in humility, imploring Allaah to establish all the Muslims - common folk, rulers and callers - to rule by the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) in all their matters of Creed, manners, economics, social matters and politics and that they unify their word and ranks upon the truth and that he averts them from all desires and diseases of the soul which falsifies their ranks and divides their word. Verily my Lord hears the supplication. [16]

Shaykh 'Alee al-Halabee says:

"So in short, every rule by other than Allaah, no matter what type it is, and regardless of whether the one who does it believes in it, then it is wrong. A Muslim who is pleased with Allaah as a Lord and with Islaam as a Religion and with Muhammad as a Messenger, should not be pleased with it. Verily those who rule by other than what the Lord of all the worlds revealed, they have been threatened with the Fire and an evil end." [17]