Below is the position of Imam of the Prophet’s mosque Sheikh Ali Al-Hudhaifiy Al-Adaniy. Text translated by Zubair Lawal Abubakar
Following the killing of a Christian student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, for alleged blasphemy, a question was put forward to the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research, Saudi.
I think it should be translated into English in order for us all to have a better understanding of it.
The question reads as follows:
There is a question from the brothers in Nigeria in which the brothers say:
“There is a Christian lady who blasphemed the Prophet (S.A.W) – so some youths killed her, set her ablaze, and filmed It in a video. The question now is: Is this action permissible, and what is your advice to the youths?
Answer is – God bless you.
Blaspheming the Prophet (S.A.W) is a grievous sin and disbelief in Allah the Almighty, according to the generality of the Muslim Ummah, and is something for which the heart aches, and this is what Muslims do not differ about.
Approaching this action in this way – which is killing and setting ablaze the blasphemer without referring to the rulers – is a great mistake that these people have made. This action is not permissible and it is an incorrect action for many of the following reasons:
First: The establishment of the punishment is not for the general public and not for any person/individual, but it is for the rulers of the affairs of Muslims, and this is agreed upon.
Second: This act that some of these people committed of killing a Christian lady and setting her corpse ablaze has so many evils in it, such as:
- It is not part of the Prophet’s tradition.
- It will lead to the government’s animosity against the Sunnis, in a way that they will be hostile to them and oppress them.
- It opens the door for foreign countries to stir up sedition between Muslims and Christians.
- It distorts the Muslims in the eyes of the enemies and may alienate those who want to enter it from Islam.
The duty of the Muslims is to raise the matter of the alleged blasphemy to the authority of the state, and the state is the one that makes excuses for accusations of blaspheming the Prophet, and examining whether the accusation is proven or not, and examining the conditions for establishing the hadd punishment against her and looking at the impediments, then establishing the hadd against her if the conditions are met and the barriers are removed.
It is lawful for Muslims to demand that the government bans the blasphemy of the Prophet S.A.W and establish the punishment on whoever blasphems him peace and blessings be upon him.
If it is known that the government will not do the necessary, it becomes mandatory for the Muslims to be steadfast and continue calling to the way of Allah with wisdom and good instruction. The polytheists of Quraish in Mecca used to insult the Prophet and describe him with magic, poetry, soothsaying, and the likes. They described him with descriptions of harm, and they put on his back the guts (intestine) of a camel.The believers were not able to repel this on the authority of the Prophet, and Allah did not impose blame on them, and there is no blame on them because they were weak. Infact the Prophet S.A.W was commanded to be steadfast, forgive and pardon.
Numerous verses were revealed on the subject of steadfastness upon hearing harm from the people of the scripture and polytheists. Some of the scholars said these verses have been abrogated with the verses of fight, collection of jizyah, and so on. While some of them said the verses can be used in a state of weakness.
Ibn Taimiyyah said: “Among the people are those who say: “The command to forgive remains when it is needed due to the weakness of the Muslim from fighting that it is in a time or place that he is not able to, and that is not abrogated, because the abrogated is what has been raised in all future times.”
May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon His servant and Messenger, our Prophet Muhammad, his household and companions.
Ali Al-Hudhaifiy Al-Adaniy
12/Shawwal/1444 H
