What is the Islamic stand on democracy and secularism?

It should be clear that any system, which calls to secularism, is in direct opposition to Islam. There is no middle ground. Of course life has many grey areas and is not totally black and white but for some things, there is no middle route and one of this is Secularism.

Life is as Allah describes:

"Verily, my Salat (prayer), my sacrifice, my living, and my dying are for Allah, the Lord of the Alameen (mankind, jinns and all that exists).” [1]

That is the motto of the Muslim; his/her life in totality is dedicated to Allah. It is completely religious, no secular aspect at all. Some modernist Muslims argue that I pray 5 times, fast, go for Hajj, yet I have a secular approach but this is not in keeping with teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Islam teaches that every aspect of life is governed by the teachings of God. The simplest definition of worship is whatever we do is pleasing to God, whether it is actual Salah or it is earning a halal income, it all becomes a point of ibadah. It governs all aspects of life and it means that as Muslims, our life is completely governed by Islam. Any system that says that you should take Islam and restrict it only to worship in the mosque, etc, then obviously that system is in direct conflict with Islam. There is no meeting point. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to be at war with them about it, but we should be clear that this is a proposition which is unacceptable Islamically.

Reality is that, theoretically the struggle exists; it exists because the Qur’an is unchanged, because the Sunnah has been preserved and also because Muslim scholarship remains, caretaking this body of knowledge. But in the society, we have to say that we have been dominated by Western civilization. Its culture/values have become ours now in many cases. So why is that? Why have they succeeded in doing that in spite of the fact that Islam remains accessible in its purity? Because of the simple fact that Muslims as a whole have left Islam. This is the bottom line.

Our biggest problem is not winning the war in Iraq or getting back Palestine, or freeing Chechnya, or taking back Kashmir; it is getting back to Islam. Muslims today are dominated in their own societies by the cultural traditions which they have inherited from their previous generations which have nothing to do with Islam. For example, we find so many things that are attributed to Muslims, that have nothing to do with Islam, whether it is honor killing (Jordan, Pakistan, wherein if a girl is accused of anything out of the ordinary with respect to males, the family males feel it is their duty to kill her to preserve the honor of the family), female genital mutilation (Egypt, Sudan, Kenya), or a variety of other acts which the media focuses on to paint the worst images of Muslims. All this is not Islam. Most of these cases are traditions or tribal practises which were not modified by Islam but were handed down by our ancestors. We have to clear all that up before we can stand with Islam to meet the challenge of the global western culture.

What Prophet (ﷺ) said sums up our situation today in his hadeeth: “If you deal in usury (riba) and hang onto the tails of cows, being satisfied with cultivation and ceasing to take part in Jihad, Allah will inflict a humiliation upon you which will not be removed until you return to your religion.” [2]

The humiliation and degradation that Muslims face throughout the world today will not be removed until we turn to Islam. It cannot be changed militarily or economically, the only way to change it is by true Islam. We need to clean up the Muslim practices, turn back to Islam and then that will become a basis for the unification of the Ummah.

We are supposed to be one Ummah, how can we do so when we have all this cultural baggage? We do not marry our daughters to someone outside our nation, tribe or caste. How can we be one Ummah when all these things are dividing us on such basic levels? For this change to happen, we need to begin by educating ourselves on Islam.

When we look at our situation in UK, our focus should be on the education of the generation that we are raising in the UK, that we educate them Islamically too so that they would have the academic tools to deal with the world and at the same time have a consciousness of Islam.

We should be aware of our duty in life; there is a mission, a purpose to life. It is not about acquiring as much material benefits we can because in materialism there is ultimately no success. What we seek in this world cannot be achieved by materialism. So we need to educate our children accordingly. To educate them, we have to educate ourselves first to break the barriers that exist amongst us where we cannot function as a real Ummah. For example, when we gather, we gather as Somalis, or Egyptians, or Indians of Pakistanis. We don’t gather as Muslim brothers and sisters. We are dominated by these tribal influences. We need to take a step ourselves. As adults, we have to be role models for them by coming together on the basis of Eeman, by being with the believers, no matter their race, or caste.  Of course when we invite people to our home there is a tendency to invite familiar faces of our nationality, but along with them we should also invite few members of other nationalities too. By doing this, those people who normally come together based on tribal similarities and nationalities, see someone different from them and get used to it and they might start doing it themselves too.

There are big problems in the world like Iraq. But can we change Iraq? All the talking, writing and reading we do about it, but the question is can we change the situation on our own? The answer is no! But what about your home and your gatherings? Can you change that? The answer is definitely yes. On the Day of Judgement, Allah will not ask you about Iraq, but will ask you about your home, that which was in your immediate control. He would ask you whether you reinforced tribalism and nationalism, which is part of what, splits the Ummah or whether you tried to make a change.

This is what we have to focus on. And with that collective effort, we can bring about a collective change, insha' Allah.

References:

[1] [Surah Al- An’am, 6:162]

[2] [Reported by Ahmad and Abu Dawud and graded as authentic by Al-Qattan. Al-Hafiz states in Al-Bulugh that the chain of narrators is trustworthy and reliable.]