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Tawḥīd al-Ḥākimiyyah Is an Innovation

Many statements from the present-day people of knowledge concerning the new innovation of making Tawḥīd al-Ḥākimiyyah a fourth category from the categories of Tawḥīd. Included is insight from al-Hāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar concerning what causes this type of innovation to emerge within the Ummah.

I say that I believe in the ḥākimiyyah of Allāh alone and I believe in the comprehensiveness of this ḥākimiyyah 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-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar 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 Nāṣir al-ʿUmar says:

“They think that tawḥīd is only singling out Allāh in Kingship and the obligation of making the Rule for Him Alone. They do not prohibit from the remaining categories of tawḥīd things such as shirk with the dead. They do not speak about the misguided sects and their distortions in the Tawḥīd of Allāh’s Names and Attributes.”

The Position of the Scholars Concerning Tawḥīd al-Ḥākimiyyah:

Shaykh Abū Mālik Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm 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, ‘Tawḥīd al-Ḥākimiyyah’! 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 Tawḥīd necessitates deviation from the ijmāʿ’ (consensus) of the ummah which is pleased with having only three types of tawḥīd.”7

The committee of Major Scholars wrote:

“To make al-Ḥākimiyyah a separate category from the categories of tawḥīd is an innovated action. None of the imāms we know of have ever spoken of this.”8

Shaykh Muḥammad Ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn 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 Nāṣir al-ʿAql said:

“Likewise is the claim that al-Ḥākimiyyah’ is the most important characteristic from the characteristics of ʿulūhiyyah: there is no basis for this. It is an innovated claim.”12

Then he said:

“So al-Ḥākimiyyah, 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 obstinacy…and leaving it is primary.”13

Shaykh Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī said to the proponents of this demented concept:

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

Shaykh ʿAbdullāh as-Sabt said:

“Therefore, why do the revolutionists and the callers to revolution and the khawārij utilize ʿAbdullāh as-Sabt’? I say – as the ‘allāmah of Shām, shaykh Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī explained – that they utilize this for the purpose of politics since they make this ḥākimiyyah only for the rulers. For that reason, they quickly run to making takfīr 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 Khawārij of old who carried weapons against the Khaleefah (raḍī Allāhu ʿanhu).

So ḥākimiyyah in our time is used as a way to revolt and revolution and ḥākimiyyah itself is an old approach. So ḥākimiyyah therefore, is used as a way to takfīr, 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

Conclusion

Shaykh Rabīʿ Ibn Hādī al-Madkhalī says:

“So in conclusion, I say that I believe in the ḥākimiyyah of Allāh alone and I believe in the comprehensiveness of this ḥākimiyyah 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 Allāh 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 Allāh said and as the Salaf al-Ṣāliḥ 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 (ʿalayhimus salām) 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 Allāh to establish all the Muslims – common folk, rulers and callers – to rule by the Book of Allāh and the Sunnah of His Messenger 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

Endnotes:

[1] Fat‘h al Bārī (13/126)
[2] Tawḥīd Awwalan (p. 48)
[4] Sayyid Qutb (p. 54)
[5] Ibid.
[6] al-Muslimūn Newspaper (Issue no. 639)
[7] al-Muslimūn Newspaper (Issue no. 639)
[8] Fatwá no. 18870, 11/6/1417H.
[9] Liqaa`ul Maftooh (no. 150) 20th Shawwāl 1417H.
[10] al-Muslimūn Newspaper (Issue no. 639)
[12] al-Muslimūn Newspaper (Issue no. 639)
[13] al-Muslimūn Newspaper (Issue no. 639)
[14] al-Muslimūn Newspaper (Issue no. 639)
[15] al-Muslimūn Newspaper (Issue no. 635) 26th of Dhul Hijjah 1417H.
[16] Manhaj al Anbiyāʾ (p. 187)

Prepared by Maaz Qureshi

Published: June 15, 2007
Edited: August 13, 2022