QUESTION: ISIS have declared A Caliphate in Iraq and are asking the global Muslims to accept and unify under Caliph Al-Baghdadi. However, Muslims and non-Muslims alike refer to them as terrorists. I personally yearn for the day for the Islamic Khilafah to return so that Muslims can be under one Islamic leadership. What is the advice of the Scholars of the ahle sunnah wal jamaat? ANSWER: The Caliphate declared by ISIS will only be valid if they rule predominantly according to Quran and Sunnah. So far, there are signs that the Islamic State’s leader and followers are doing this, even though this news only comes from its own websites and is not fully corroborated by other networks and media. In spite of this, when considering the matter strictly from a Fiqh perspective, the Caliphate is valid on the following grounds: a) They have a unanimously elected Leader; b) They have a fully fledged army; c) They have captured large areas of land and have a base and a headquarters; d) They implement to a large extent Shariah Law and act in the Name of Islam On the basis of these main components the jihad they are waging is valid and the Caliphate that they have established is also valid and correct. We have no signs of anything to the contrary, so we are bound to believe what has so far reached our knowledge. However it is not compulsory upon Muslims in other parts of the world to join them or to take the Bay’ah at the hands of their leader. Those who wish to do so will be permitted according to Shariah. But no one can be forced. If the IS group is sincere and have no hidden agendas or ulterior motives, and if they do not profess beliefs that are outside the pale of Ahlus-sunnah wal Jama’ah, then we should support them and make dua for their success. The one worrying factor about this group is that so far all their fighting has been waged against our own Muslims in Syria and Iraq. Whether they will have the strength to achieve similar military success against the kuffar, still remains to be seen. As for the media labelling them as terrorists, that should just be ignored. This is an on-going phenomenon with the West. The Western media has gone to great lengths to vilify and criticise the Islamic State, and has used false reporting and poor journalism in the process. Many of their reports are either blatantly false or deliberately neglectful of investigative journalism to get to the truth of certain issues. Meanwhile we watch and monitor the progress of IS with keen interest, and as events unfold in the Middle East we will be more informed as to the reality of IS. Allah Ta’ala knows best Mufti Siraj Desai
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:17:30 +0000
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