Is it haram to vote in a democracy?

The creed of ISLAM is not only spiritual

Islam is incorrectly understood and portrayed as a religion that deals only with belief in a "God", life after death, rituals and moral issues. However, many are aware that Islam is a complete way of life that provides solutions for life’s affairs. There are laws dealing with economics, politics, judiciary, war and international relations. These all stem from the same source as do the laws governing rituals and morals. Even though Muslims still pray and fast in the same manner as did their predecessors - according to the Divine Law revealed to the Last Prophet Muhammad (saw) - they are not referring nowadays to the same source when it comes to ruling and politics.

If the creed of Islam is correctly understood then it will result in unique behaviour, having shaped those who have both understood and believed in it. Not only will such people pray and fast according to what Allah has revealed, they will also refer to the Divine revelation to solve problems politically. The Qur’an, which mentions prayer and fasting, also mentions ruling by Islam. The Messenger (saw) of Allah (swt) not only prayed and fasted; he (saw) was also the head of the Islamic State in Medina. He (saw) sent envoys to other countries, battles were fought and the society was governed according to Islam alone under his (saw) authority. Those who led the Muslims after the death of the Messenger of Allah (swt) were known by the title of Khalifah or Imam or Sultan. They ruled over the Muslims, all of whom had at least a pledge of allegiance on their necks to them.

The existence of kings, presidents and prime ministers ruling over Muslims in the Islamic lands has absolutely no validity whatsoever. Also, countries with those rulers with titles such as "Sheikh", "Emir" and "Sultan" are equally invalid. These counties have fixed borders and are considered "sovereign states" by the so-called international community. In reality Muslim lands were, and should be, one state (under one leader) whose frontiers are temporary, not permanent. This is because the Islamic State should expand, liberating people from living under systems of disbelief.

Monarchies and republics are products of the human mind and are therefore a source of the misery the world is experiencing today. Enslavement occurs in the name of freedom and democracy. These supposedly sanitised terms are used to cover up the corruption inherent in Capitalism. Communism itself claimed to provide justice but proved to be just as deceptive as Capitalism.

The creed of Islam is unique in that it is both a spiritual and a political creed. It is the correct creed that agrees with human nature and convinces the mind. The unique systems emanating from this creed are not from man - they are from Allah (swt), the Creator of humanity and the universe. The creed of Islam does not allow itself to be mixed with any other way of life. Simply, there is Islam and Kufr (i.e. non-Islam). This incompatibility with all other ways should leave the Muslim nation standing firm and proud.

Democracy

Democracy is the political framework of the Capitalist thought, i.e. the ruling system that the Capitalist states and their like implement. Democracy, for those who embrace it, means that people rule themselves by themselves with the systems that they choose. Oftentimes, Capitalists refer to their system as “The Democratic System”, but such a connotation is incorrect for more than one reason: Democracy was not innovated by the Capitalists but had been preceded by the Greeks. Moreover, they were not the only ones who implemented it; the Marxist-Socialists claimed that they were democrats and they consistently pretended that they implemented democracy.

The most important element of democracy is that it makes the human being and not the Creator as the legislator, which is logical for those who call for the detachment of religion from life because this detachment means to transfer the right to legislate from the Creator to the human being. The Capitalists, in this issue did not discuss whether the Creator has obliged man to follow a certain law and implement it in his life, nor did they even examine this issue at all, rather they appointed man as the legislator without any discussion.

For Muslims to adopt democracy means to disbelieve in all - may Allah forbid - the decisive and conclusive evidences, among which are many Qur’anic verses which oblige them to follow the law of Allah and to reject any other law. Moreover, these verses consider any one of them who does not follow or implement the law of Allah as either a Kafir, a zalim, or a fasiq:

"And those who do not rule by whatever Allah has revealed are non-believers (kafiroon)." [TMQ 5:44]
"And those who do not rule by whatever Allah has revealed are oppressors (zalimoon)." [TMQ 5:45]
"And those who do not rule by whatever Allah has revealed are transgressors (fasiqoon)." [TMQ 5:47]

Thus, whoever does not rule by whatever Allah has revealed, denying Allah’s right to legislate, as is the case with those who believe in democracy, is a Kafir according to the explicit words of the Qur’an, because by doing so he is rejecting those decisive verses, and denying a conclusive text makes a person a Kafir as the Muslim Fuqaha’ agreed unanimously.

Non-Muslim governments and their agents who rule the Muslim countries, as well as all those who call for democracy who are counted from among the Muslims, whether they are individuals or movements, realise that the basis for democracy is the rejection of the law of Allah and putting man in the place of the Creator. For this reason, they do not present democracy from this perspective, but instead claim that democracy means people ruling themselves by themselves, with equality and justice prevailing among the people, and the accountability of the ruler guaranteed. Although democracy explicitly implies the rejection of the laws of Allah and following the law of His creation, the advocates of democracy intentionally avoid addressing the issue of rejecting the law of Allah.

The remaining claims of democracy have no actual reality; the claim that people rule themselves by themselves is a major fallacy. In all Capitalist Democratic societies, people do not rule themselves by themselves. In reality, people are ruled by a certain group of influential people, such as the prominent Capitalists in the United States and the aristocrats in England, which are two of the most deeply rooted Capitalist Democratic countries. These influential groups in the Capitalist countries hold the necessary means to bring whoever they want into the government and legislative assemblies (parliaments) so that the laws that are passed and those charged with their implementation would be serving their interests.

Regarding what is claimed about equality, justice, and accountability of the rulers, these are all theoretical, without any compatibility with reality. It is enough for one to look to America, the leader of the democratic world, to find that equality, justice, and accountability are all selective, enjoyed and practised by those who have a particular colour, religion, race, or financial wealth.

The suffering faced by the blacks, Indians, those of Latin and Asian origins, those who are not Protestant, and those who are not from Western European backgrounds are evidence enough that what is claimed of democracy is - despite some exceptional cases - merely theory. Consequently, it is not allowed for a Muslim to accept democracy, because it gives man what is entitled exclusively for the Creator. It is obligatory upon every Muslim to reject it.

The correct way to organise life's affairs can only come from the creator of human life
Human beings have clearly been created - they have not always existed and have thus been brought into existence from non-existence by their Eternal Creator, Allah (swt), Who did not leave humanity without a way to satisfy it's needs, whether these be related to the instinct of religiousness, survival of the species or survival of the self. These needs are from Allah (swt), human beings themselves being totally unable to discard them.

Many people falsely claim that all religions are 'different ways to God', the implication being that each is as valid as the other. However, just because someone says that they believe in a particular creed doesn’t make that belief or set of beliefs correct. For example, beliefs such as there being more than one god or that God is 3 persons in 1 trinity are absolutely incorrect as they are not based on reason, just like the creeds of Communism and Capitalism. The common denominator is that they are all products of the fallible human intellect, claiming that they can attain nearness to God, meaning therefore that limited human beings can have knowledge of their Creator, Who has no beginning and no end – something which is absolutely false. That they worship lifeless matter which has absolutely no power to harm or benefit should indicate how declined such people are, for how you live life depends upon your concepts about it.

There is nobody or nothing worthy of worshipping except Allah (swt), The Eternal Creator. No human can know not just how to worship Allah (swt) but, also, why we exist and how to live in the life of this temporal world can only be known through Divine revelation i.e. via messengers sent by The Creator. The final messenger of Allah (swt), Muhammad (saw), was sent to show us all how to worship The Creator of everything. It was to Muhammad (saw) that the Qu'ran was revealed in the Arabic language, the Qu'ran being the speech of The Creator and His Shariah (Law); and it is the Qu'ran which provides the (continuous) proof that Muhammad (saw) is indeed sent by The Creator of the universe, for no human is capable of producing the like of the Qu'ran – a matter of irrefutable fact. It should, therefore, be very clear that humanity has not been left without the way in which to live in the life of this world, so that success may be achieved in it as well as in the Hereafter which will not end.