Voting & Elections - Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

Introduction: The Principle of Weighing Benefits and Harms

I seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He sends astray, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. May Allah's peace, mercy and blessings be upon him and his family and companions.

Muslims, me and you as individuals, we have to make decisions on a daily basis. As a husband and a father, or a mother and a wife, we have decisions that we make. Some of them are for me personally, for my benefit. Others will affect me and my family and my children. And some others will affect all of us together because they are decisions that impact each one of us. We have decisions to make.

So Allah gives to us a principle in the Qur'an, a principle that I want to share with you because not only is it relevant to the current discussion that we are having, but it is something which transcends that discussion alone. It is one of the foundations of the religion and a principle that underpins the Shari'ah. And that principle is to look at the benefits and the harms, to weigh the pros and the cons, and to make your decisions based upon looking at what pleases Allah or what may displease Him.

This is a principle that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is taught in the Qur'an, and we are taught in the Qur'an on many occasions in many different ways and forms.

The Story of Musa and Khadir: Three Lessons in Weighing Decisions

Allah in Surah Al-Kahf mentions in the story of Musa and Khadir, peace be upon them, when the two of them go on a journey together — three incidents that Allah relays to us in the Qur'an. A condition that Musa, peace be upon him, is placed under at the beginning of this journey is that he won't question Khadir, peace be upon him, won't speak up and won't question his decision-making. But three incidents take place and on each occasion Musa, peace be upon him, feels the need to speak up. He feels the urgency of the situation, and that requires him to make manifest his feelings.

On the first occasion, they embark upon a ship, and as they sail the ship out at sea, Khadir, peace be upon him, begins to scuttle the ship — pull up the wooden planks of the ship so water seeps into the vessel. Musa, peace be upon him, sees that the people of the ship are masakeen — poor people, people who are in need — and this is how they are repaid. So he speaks up.

On the second occasion, as the both of them are walking, they come across a group of children and Khadir, peace be upon him, seemingly randomly picks out one of them, a boy, and he kills him. So Musa, peace be upon him, speaks up.

And on the third occasion the two of them come across a village whose people are inhospitable — they don't offer them food nor shelter nor any form of welcome. But when Khadir, peace be upon him, finds a wall that is in disrepair, he rebuilds it. So Musa, peace be upon him, speaks up for the third time.

Khadir, peace be upon him, says, "This is the parting between me and you, but I will explain to you what you asked concerning." And what he gives to Musa, peace be upon him, and by extension to our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and to each one of us, is this principle in the Qur'an — weighing the pros and the cons, the benefits and the harms.

Yes, he scuttled the ship, but he scuttled the ship because there was a king who was coming and was going to take that vessel by force anyway. By making minor damage to it, the ship would remain within the possession of those people who could repair it easily and it continues with them.

And yes, he may have killed that boy, but he knew — because of the revelation that Allah gave to him, because of the knowledge that Allah gave to him — that that child would grow up and he would do much evil and corruption and lead his parents towards disbelief. So there was a greater benefit from the knowledge that Allah gave to him.

And yes, he rebuilt a wall for a people who are inhospitable and ungrateful, but the wall belonged to two orphan boys, underneath which there was treasure for them, that if it had been discovered by those same people would have been snatched by them. So he rebuilt the wall so that those two orphan boys would grow up to be adults and benefit from that wealth themselves.

That is from the knowledge that Allah gave to him. But what he gave to us was a principle: the decisions that we make, we have to look at the pros and the cons, the benefits and the harms, and then we make our decisions accordingly — because when you do that, you do it in a way that is pleasing to Allah. My decisions are not based on my desires. We have a Shari'ah that establishes for us a foundation upon which we make our decisions. That's not just about voting and elections. That's about me as a father. It's about you as a neighbor. It's about me as an employer and employee — looking at those benefits and those harms.

Qur'anic Examples of This Principle

Our Shari'ah is based upon this. Allah mentions numerous times in the Qur'an:

"They ask you concerning intoxicants and gambling. Say to them that there is a great sin within them, but there is some benefit for mankind as well. But the sin outweighs greatly the benefit that it contains."

Allah acknowledges that there are some benefits to be taken from alcohol, and there are some benefits in gambling, but those benefits are far, far less when taken into account with the great harms that they also bring. So the Shari'ah looks at the benefits and the harms.

Allah also tells us in the Qur'an:

"They ask you concerning fighting in the Sacred Months." Allah says, "Say to them that it is a grave thing to fight in those Sacred Months, but to divert people from Allah's path, to disbelieve in Him, to stop people from coming to Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Mecca, to expel the people who are residents there — that is greater in the sight of Allah, graver in the sight of Allah. And fitna, trial, corruption and evil is greater than fighting and murder."

Allah tells us to look at the benefits and the harms. Our Shari'ah is based upon this.

The Prophets Applying This Principle

Harun and the Calf-Worshippers

The Prophets, peace be upon them, would apply those principles within their lives. Allah tells us in the story of Musa and Harun, peace be upon them — how when Musa, peace be upon him, goes to speak to Allah at the mountain of At-Tur and he leaves Harun, peace be upon him, behind as a deputy with his people, some of his people take a calf that they begin to worship besides Allah. Musa, peace be upon him, returns to find this. He shows and displays his anger towards his brother Harun and he pulls him by his beard and by his hair. And so Harun says to him in response: "O son of my mother, don't drag me by my hair and by my beard. I feared that you would say that I caused splitting and disunity amongst Bani Israel."

Yes, there was a harm in allowing them to do what they did. But Harun, peace be upon him, saw a greater harm — and that is the civil strife and disunity and war that would have occurred amongst Bani Israel. Harun, peace be upon him, knew that Musa would return with Allah's revelation and he would set right the affairs of Bani Israel. That is the Prophets of Allah looking at the benefits and the harms, and Allah tells us to do the same thing in the decisions that we make.

Cursing False Gods

Allah says to us, for example, do not curse those that people worship besides Allah, lest they should curse Allah in return. By cursing a false god, they turn back and they curse the one true God. So Allah tells us to stay away from those things. Yes, there may be within it a small benefit, but the harm is greater. Or yes, there may be a small harm within it, but the benefit is greater. And so the Shari'ah tells us to look at those issues.

The Ka'bah and the New Muslims

This is a principle which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, applied — when it came to issues concerning the whole of the Ummah, the community in general, the society in which they lived, and when it came to personal affairs. When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in the eighth year of the Hijrah conquered the city of Mecca, he came as a conqueror and he cleansed the Ka'bah from all of the idols that the Quraysh had within and around it, and he wanted to rebuild the Ka'bah upon the foundations of Ibrahim, peace be upon him.

In the hadith in Sahih Al-Bukhari, on the authority of our mother Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, she says that she asked the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, concerning the Hijr of Ismail — that semi-circle area that is just outside of the four walls of the Ka'bah as we see them today. "O Messenger of Allah, why didn't the Quraysh add that into the construction of the Ka'bah? It is part of the Ka'bah. Why isn't it built as part of the Ka'bah?" He said, "O Aisha, because your people when they rebuilt the Ka'bah didn't have enough pure wealth, halal money, with which to build that part of the Ka'bah. So they left it as it was." "O Messenger of Allah, what else did they change?" They raised the door of the Ka'bah, lifted it from the ground and made it up high so that not anyone and everyone could go and enter into the Ka'bah, and they changed the doors of the Ka'bah because the Ka'bah had two entrances, but they only gave it one.

So now that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had conquered Makkah, he said to his wife Aisha: "O Aisha, were it not that your people were new Muslims, had just entered into the religion, I would have commanded that the Ka'bah be taken down and I would have added to it what was taken out from it — meaning that semi-circle area — and I would have brought it down back to ground level and I would have placed within it two doors, an eastern door and a western door, and I would have gone back to the foundations of my father Ibrahim, peace be upon him." But the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, didn't do so. He didn't rebuild the Ka'bah, because he said: "I know that the harm that will come from it will be greater than any benefit. The Quraysh will have problems with it. The Arabs will be up in arms as to how can this man change a structure that we've known for decades and generations. The people wouldn't understand the greater benefit." So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, looks at what is the greater benefit, and he leaves the Ka'bah as it was.

The Bedouin in the Masjid

On one occasion, in the hadith that is in Al-Bukhari and Muslim, the hadith of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him — the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is in the masjid with his companions and a Bedouin Arab man enters into the masjid and goes to a corner and begins to relieve himself inside the masjid of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. The companions became upset. How can a man come into what is the holiest of places and begin to relieve himself as if it's any part of the desert?

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to them: "Da'u — leave him alone. Now that he has begun, don't disturb him. By disturbing him, you make the man agitated — he runs around, he spreads his filth and impurity even more. Da'u." And then when he finishes, "Take a container, a vessel of water, and cleanse what he did. Because you were sent as people who make things easy and not as people who make things hard."

That is the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, looking at the benefits and at the harms. For us, having a reaction to that situation, becoming emotional — we respond in a certain way. But the Shari'ah tells us to be calm, to look at things methodically, to look at things based on principles: benefits and harms.

Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqqas and the Limit on Sadaqah

In the farewell Hajj of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, towards the final months of his life, the famous illustrious companion Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, may Allah be pleased with him — one of the ten who was promised Paradise — became ill after the farewell Hajj, so severely that he thought his days were numbered, that he was going to pass away. So when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, came to visit him one day, he said: "O Messenger of Allah, I am extremely ill and I am a man who has wealth, and I only have one daughter who inherits from me. Allow me to take two-thirds of my wealth and give it away in sadaqah — give it away in charity, something good that he wanted to do, to help others, to give to the poor and the needy, to help the orphans and the widows of Medina." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said no. He said, "O Messenger of Allah, then half of my wealth I will give away." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said no. And then he said to him: "It is better for you to give a third, and a third is more than sufficient. It is better that you leave your heirs — the people who will inherit from you — wealthy, than you leave them poor such that they have to go and ask others."

This is the Shari'ah looking at benefits and harms. Giving your wealth away in sadaqah at that time as part of your final will and testament — it is something which is praiseworthy in and of itself, but the Shari'ah has placed upon it a limit, a maximum that you can give, because it looks at the greater benefit of what you leave behind for your family and your dependents and your loved ones. That is what the Shari'ah does.

Abdullah ibn Ubayy and the Hypocrites

There is another example: when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was returning back to Medina with the companions from a battle that had just finished, there was an altercation that took place between the Muhajireen and the Ansar. And Abdullah ibn Ubayy, the leader of the hypocrites, made a statement — as Allah mentions in the Qur'an — in which he said: "By Allah, if we return to Medina, the strong from amongst us will expel the weak" — the strong being him and his fellow hypocrites, the weak being the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and his companions.

When Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, heard this, he said: "O Messenger of Allah, allow me to take off the neck of your enemy. Allow me to kill this man. Not only is he a hypocrite, he does evil to us and to the Muslims and harms us. He is their leader." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Leave him alone — lest the people should say that Muhammad is a man who kills his own companions. They don't know the difference between a hypocrite and a Muslim. They don't know who is a companion and who is not, who is a Muslim and who is not — but they will have an impression of the way that we are. Leave him alone. Don't let the people think and say that Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is a man who kills his companions."

The Greatest of Sins: Cursing One's Own Parents

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr, may Allah be pleased with them both, collected in Sahih Al-Bukhari: "From the gravest of sins is that a man curses his own parents." The companions said: "O Messenger of Allah, and how would a man curse his own parents? Which person sits there and curses his own father and his own mother?" The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, replied: "It is because a person curses the parents of another person, and that person in return curses their parents. That is like you cursing your own parents, because you instigated, you started something and that person responds in that way."

Looking at those benefits and those harms is not just looking at it right now and right here. It is looking at the long game. What is the long game? What are the greater benefits and the greater harms? How will this impact me not only today but tomorrow, and next month, and next year? What are the repercussions and the consequences of the decisions and the actions that I take?

This is the principle that Allah gives to us time and time again in the Qur'an, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, established within his Sunnah because of its importance. It is from the greatest principles in the Shari'ah because it is one principle but it transcends any one issue. It underpins everything that you need in your life when it comes to making decisions.

Applying This Principle to Voting and Elections

One of those issues that we are facing next week — one of those issues that all of us have to deal with — is the general elections, and whether we partake or we don't partake, whether we vote or we don't vote. This is an issue which requires us to look at this principle in some detail. What are the greater benefits and the greater harms? Is there a greater benefit in me engaging or disengaging? Are the greater benefits in me voting — and voting for this person or that person — or for me not to vote at all?

Our scholars — a number of them have allowed voting and said that it is good to vote, or allowed to vote rather, with the condition that there is a greater benefit in it rather than a greater harm. And in my humble opinion, in the situation that we face, in the time that we live in, in the situation that all of us have to live in, there is a greater benefit in us engaging politically. There is a greater benefit in us voting, because if we don't, then we don't have any choice as to what other people do on our behalf. We don't get a say in those issues that matter to us.

Some of them are issues that all of us face together — education, the NHS, police, fire brigade — all of those issues that all of us face. But some of them concern me and you as Muslims: the rise of Islamophobia, that debate that comes across every so often as to whether the niqab should be banned in this country, the role of same-sex education in our schools. Those are issues that all of us have to grapple with, and there are many, many more.

If I don't vote, that's my choice. That's my right. But then I don't have a say in what takes place.

We have to look at the benefits and the harms. We live in a very polarized society. And if you study history and you study the way things have happened in other countries, you will find that one of the routes through which people go to the extremes — the right extreme, those who go to extremes in the way that they deal with minorities, the way that they persecute people like us as Muslims — is through the political route. You only have to study the way that Hitler came to power in Germany, the rise of the Nazi Party. They didn't overtake that country through force. They were elected democratically through elections, because most people didn't think that it would be a problem. Most people didn't see far ahead to see the issue of the rise of those types of people. We have similar types of people in our country who would do us harm, and our religion harm, and the way that we live harm — and they will use that route of democracy and elections.

So we have a choice to make. It's not my place in this khutbah to tell you to vote or not to vote, but I want to tell you that it is your responsibility to know what is going on in your community, to know what's going on in your country, to be politically aware. It's not my place in this khutbah to tell you who to vote for. But in my humble opinion, there is a greater benefit in you voting and in you being active and knowing what it is that those decisions — the impacts that they have upon us and our families.

It is an issue of maslaha and mafsada. And just as there are scholars who allow it, there are scholars who don't allow it. Just as there are scholars who see a benefit in it, there are scholars who see a greater harm — and that is part of the amanah ilmiyyah, to be truthful in giving you both sides of that point. There are scholars who say it is haram to vote, you shouldn't vote. But there are other scholars who say it is allowed based upon this principle of the Shari'ah, and this principle is one that the scholars have ijma' — consensus — over.

On many issues we don't have a clear-cut verse of the Qur'an that tells us the answer. But what we have is principles. Those principles, when you extract them and apply them, you see what you should do, and you base your decision on what you think is pleasing to Allah and that is better for you, your family, and your community.

Du'a / Closing

We ask Allah by His most beautiful names and His most lofty attributes that He guides us to what is correct, and that Allah guides us to what is most pleasing to Him, that Allah blesses us, our families and our communities, that Allah showers His mercy and forgiveness upon us, and that Allah keeps us safe from those that would do us harm and from those that would harm us in any way. We ask Allah that He makes us from those people that He guides in this life and the next, and that Allah keeps us steadfast and firm upon the religion, the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

And peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and his companions. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.