This excerpt is taken from the book Aḥkām wa Masāʾil in the Light of the Qur’an and Sunnah by Shaykh Mubashshir Aḥmad Rabbānī.
﴿ وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ ﴾
“And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed—then they are the disbelievers.”
① Whoever enforces non-Islamic laws while believing that they are better than Allah’s Sharīʿah is, by unanimous agreement (ijmāʿ), a disbeliever.
② Likewise, the one who replaces Islamic laws with non-Islamic laws while knowing that he is disobeying Allah, and that enforcing Islamic law was obligatory upon him, then such a person is a perpetrator of a major sin and is disobedient. It will be said about him that he has committed minor disbelief (kufr aṣghar), minor injustice (ẓulm aṣghar), and sinfulness (fisq).
This understanding has been reported from ʿAbdullāh bin ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما, from Ṭāwūs, and from a group of the Salaf, and this interpretation is well-known among the people of knowledge.
And Allah is the One who grants success.
Question
Are rulers who enforce non-Islamic laws disbelievers? And if we say that they are Muslims, then what is the meaning of Allah Almighty’s statement:﴿ وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ ﴾
“And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed—then they are the disbelievers.”
Reference: al-Mā’idah: 44
Answer
Rulers who enforce non-Islamic laws are of different types, and their rulings differ according to their actions and beliefs.① Whoever enforces non-Islamic laws while believing that they are better than Allah’s Sharīʿah is, by unanimous agreement (ijmāʿ), a disbeliever.
② Likewise, the one who replaces Islamic laws with non-Islamic laws while knowing that he is disobeying Allah, and that enforcing Islamic law was obligatory upon him, then such a person is a perpetrator of a major sin and is disobedient. It will be said about him that he has committed minor disbelief (kufr aṣghar), minor injustice (ẓulm aṣghar), and sinfulness (fisq).
This understanding has been reported from ʿAbdullāh bin ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما, from Ṭāwūs, and from a group of the Salaf, and this interpretation is well-known among the people of knowledge.
And Allah is the One who grants success.
