What is the purpose of the obligation delaying hudud during battles? There are at least 2 reasons
1) To prevent defection by people bitter about having hadd carried out on them.
2) To have the maximum number of fighting men for the battle (hard to fight with one hand)
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1) To prevent defection by people bitter about having hadd carried out on them.
2) To have the maximum number of fighting men for the battle (hard to fight with one hand)
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Are both of these conditions relevant in the context of modern warfare outside of areas where direct battles are taking place?
It's reported that Baghdadi was betrayed by a friend who was motivated partly by the hadd being carried out on one of his relatives.
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It's reported that Baghdadi was betrayed by a friend who was motivated partly by the hadd being carried out on one of his relatives.
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In a situation of total war, where there is neither air defence nor political position to prevent air strikes, and spies who can call in air strikes or raids at any time are actively recruited, it can't be said that the land is in a state of stability or security.
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When a hadd punishment is implemented in Saudi-occupied Arabia, for example, there is absolutely no way the family of the criminal can get angry, go talk to a spy and call in some air strikes on government officials using information they have as local insiders.
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As for fighting strength, one of the first battles between Sunni anti-Assad factions was in Raqqa over hundreds of FSA fighters who had been imprisoned for various shari' offenses by a group which believed it was necessary to implement all hudud in spite of the war raging.
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There was actually a desperate need for manpower at that time, even though the actual front was not inside Raqqa at that moment. This was one reason for tolerating a lot of the "rebel" groups committing horrible crimes. They were still fighting the Nusayris, who are worse.
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Although we may (and must) hate national borders, they often embody political realities. Anyone who crossed the border into Syria during the war knows that the few hundred meters between Turkey and Syria make a huge difference in terms of the feeling and reality.
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Entire nations can and do turn into war zones. This has to do with an absence of consolidated political power, or power vacuums. These modern battles are fundamentally different from battles in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, so they require going back to usool.
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There's a field of knowledge for this called "usool al fiqh." It relates to applying fundamental principles of sharia to different and sometimes novel situations.
No doubt these principles can be, and are, abused to justify deviance, cowardliness, and lusting after dunya.
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No doubt these principles can be, and are, abused to justify deviance, cowardliness, and lusting after dunya.
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However, as it relates to takfir, even if fiqhi principles are being misapplied or abused, the situation is not the same as when they are not.
If one judges by the apparent, it can be difficult to distinguish a mistake in ijtihad from hypocritical abuse of principles.
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If one judges by the apparent, it can be difficult to distinguish a mistake in ijtihad from hypocritical abuse of principles.
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For example, the classic example of an "abstaining sect," or "taifah mumtani'ah," is the people of Ta'if, who accepted Islam but refused to conform to the prohibition on riba.
Muslims were not being slaughtered and raped by the thousands, and there was no desperate war.
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Muslims were not being slaughtered and raped by the thousands, and there was no desperate war.
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No one was starving. They simply didn't want to give up riba because they thought it would harm their economy.
There was not even the possibility to make a fraudulent fiqhi argument in favor of their position, or to make a misinterpretation about an exception for riba.
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There was not even the possibility to make a fraudulent fiqhi argument in favor of their position, or to make a misinterpretation about an exception for riba.
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Thus, there was no doubt that they were truly and indisputably resisting and rejecting an integral part of sharia, which according to what appears to be the stronger view, made them apostates from the deen of Islam.
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To apply this same ruling to a group which has members being killed and crippled on a daily basis, struggling for survival, and that clearly is not implementing some hudud for some purpose related to this struggle requires a severe lack of understanding, mercy, or both.
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This doesn't mean the decision is right. In fact, it may well mean that the group not implementing the hudud has a major deficiency in iman or aqeeda, because if they were to fear Allah and do more of what is in their power to implement His command, Allah would support them.
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However, having weak or imperfect faith is not the same as being a disbeliever, and to label those with weak faith (major sinners) as disbelievers is one of the main attributes of the khawarij.
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If a group is extremely wrong in their interpretation or is hypocritically twisting sharia for their worldly interests, it may be permissible or even obligatory to fight them to protect the Muslims from the harm of their deviance, but it is still obligatory...
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...to help them against clear kuffar like Jews or Nusayris.
This is not the case with someone who rejects an essential part of Islam without even any attempt at an excuse - someone who turns back on their heels in the literal sense of "ridda," which means to "go back."
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This is not the case with someone who rejects an essential part of Islam without even any attempt at an excuse - someone who turns back on their heels in the literal sense of "ridda," which means to "go back."
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After the expedition of Tabuk, the Prophet ﷺ accepted the false excuses of the munafiqin for staying behind and they were not censured, though he knew they were disbelievers, while K'ab bin Malik, radhi Allahu anhu, was censured, though the Prophetﷺ knew he was a believer.
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Likewise, if the hadd for adultery is implemented based on a confession, the person who is to be executed can retract their confession even after the stoning begins. That is to say, great weight is given to apparent statements, even if they are doubtful.
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K'ab bin Malik, radhi Allahu anhu, could have chosen to give a false excuse, but he was a believer, so he preferred to be punished in dunya rather than akhira. Likewise, the sahaba who chose to submit to the hadd for adultery, radhi Allahu anhum, wished to be purified.
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An adulterer who retracts their confession has made the decision to be punished in the akhira rather than dunya.
When it comes to implementing hudud in situations of extreme hardship, an excuse may be valid, or it may be invalid, or it may be partially valid.
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When it comes to implementing hudud in situations of extreme hardship, an excuse may be valid, or it may be invalid, or it may be partially valid.
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It's extremely difficult to distinguish between a mistaken interpretation and a hypocritical excuse, or excessive availing of a genuine exception, as in the case of one who is faced with starvation but then indulges excessively in eating pig meat, beyond what is necessary.
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Because the kuffar try to punish Muslims for implementing hudud, it really is possible in some cases to escape hardship by suspending them. One who makes such a choice may be sinning, like the one who eats more pig than they need to survive, or they may be choosing a lower..
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...rank in the akhira because of love for dunya (if there is genuine ikrah), or they may be a complete disbeliever with no love for Allah's sharia.
But none of these is like one who rejects a part or all of Islam without any apparent war, starvation, need or excuse.
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But none of these is like one who rejects a part or all of Islam without any apparent war, starvation, need or excuse.
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It's a problem to conflate all of these, because it results in making the religion very difficult by closing the door to potential concessions, and at the same time makes it impossible to differentiate between different levels of deviation, instead rendering all as murtadin.
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This is a recipe for failure not only because it alienates common people and those with weak iman and turns them into enemies, but also because it leads to taking on too many enemies at the same time - again, producing an excessive burden.
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The benefit is that it prevents you from being exposed to a lot of corruption, which makes for powerful internal group cohesion since there is more uniformity in aqeeda, but it also cuts you off from the goodness in those weak believers you have labelled as murtadin.
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The Prophet ﷺ said
الْمُؤْمِنُ الْقَوِيُّ خَيْرٌ وَأَحَبُّ إِلَى اللَّهِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِ الضَّعِيفِ وَفِي كُلٍّ خَيْرٌ
"The strong believer is more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, and there is good in both."
Sahih Muslim 2664
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الْمُؤْمِنُ الْقَوِيُّ خَيْرٌ وَأَحَبُّ إِلَى اللَّهِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِ الضَّعِيفِ وَفِي كُلٍّ خَيْرٌ
"The strong believer is more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, and there is good in both."
Sahih Muslim 2664
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There are a lot of weak believers in this ummah, like the rubbish on a floodwater, but collectively we represent a lot of khair.
Cutting off completely and embracing deviants totally represent two extremes, between which a balance must be sought.
والله المستعان
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Cutting off completely and embracing deviants totally represent two extremes, between which a balance must be sought.
والله المستعان
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