“If Allah had presented Himself as a candidate in the election, He would not have gotten the high percentage of votes gotten by the eventual winner”
This is another famous kufr statement attributed to Sheikh Qaradaawi that needs to be discussed and cleared. Many a propagandist have shared the voice of Al-Qaradaawi largely without bothering to confirm the authencity of the claim and verifying further.
The allegation is that, Al-Qaradaawi had said with respect to an Israel election that, if Allah had presented Himself as a candidate in the election, He would not have gotten the high percentage of votes gotten by the eventual winner; they accused him of kufr for this statement and there is a famous fatwa of Sheikh Ibn Uthaimin which says the individual who uttered such statement has apostatized and should be beheaded if he fails to repent.
Answer to the allegation:
You should know that this statement of Al-Qaradaawi was part of a Friday khutbah he delivered on the 31st May, 1996; the propagandists did not cite the full portion of where Qaradaawi uttered this statement, rather, they chose the quotation that suits their aim and explained it out of context with a bad translation just to justify their mischievous intention.
In the Khutbah delivered by Al-Qaradaawi that day, he talked about the dangers of smoking and related it with health reasons and considered it haram. That was an important point because that particular Friday was the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD).
In the second part of Al-Qaradaawi’s khutbah, he directed his sermon to the unacceptable situation in Algeria as at that time. He as well condemned the tyrannical oppressions of the citizens by the secularist rulers who always abuse fundamental rights of the people. And he talked against how the demand of the majority of the citizens to be ruled by the shari’ah was denied by the rulers who are also Muslims when the new famous ‘Salvation Front Party’ founded in 1989 appeared poised to defeat the ruling secularist of ‘National Liberation Front’ that was canceled by the incumbent secularist due to eminent defeat. These secularists enforced the imported secularist laws from western world upon the Muslim citizens. Sheikh Qaradaawi also in the same vein condemned the activities of some acclaimed Islamic groups in Algeria who engaged in terrorism by killing innocent citizens and he stated the position of Islam on the sanctity of human lives. All Qaradaawi’s khutbahs are documented and available in e-book; you can easily verify yourself.
Then, Al-Qaradaawi in the same khutbah proceeded to draw lessons from the 29th May, 1996 just concluded election in Israel where the citizens were able to exercise freedom in voting for their preferred candidate. In which Benjamin Netanyahu emerged the winner against the incumbent Shimon Peres (who just died of recent on the 28th of September, 2016) with less than 1 percent votes.
You should know that the election was a surprise victory for Benjamin Netanyahu, because he won with a margin of 29,457 votes, less than 1% of the total number of votes cast, and much smaller than the number of spoiled votes.
So, anyone who says or explains Qaradaawi’s statement to mean “…Allah would not have gotten the high percentage of votes gotten by the eventual winner”, you should know such person is a liar or an ignorant who does not understand what he is saying. And this is because the winner did not even get high percentage of votes; he won the election with a very slim margin.
In the khutbah (which I have attached a page of the said portion to this article), Qaradaawi said Israel organized a free and fair election among themselves and they were able to choose whom they want against all the powers of incumbency. This, is totally different from what we know in the Arab world today, whereby leaders perpetrate themselves in office and hold on to it for long without considering the wants of the citizens.
Qaradaawi commended Israel for that free and fair election and directed his admonition to the Arabs and Muslim leaders who impose themselves deceitfully through fraudulent and rigged election. They deprive Muslims their civil rights and demands; and that is why you see these tyrannical rulers of Arab always allotting 94 or 96 or even 99% of total votes cast to themselves. Just like Abdul Fatai Sisi in the 2014 called election alloted 97% of total votes cast to himself.
And that is what Sheikh Qaradaawi meant in the khutbah when he said “There was no 94% or 95% (of votes) which is what we are accustomed to in our country, 99% (yes), 99%, what is this?!”
Certainly, this is a statement of fact no sincere mankind should deny. I just cited the 2014 El-Sisi called election. Also, in 1999 Algeria elections, Abdelaziz Bouteflika won by 99.4% votes; Egypt Hosni Mubaarak in the 2005 election won by 88.6% of votes cast; Bashar Asad of Syria won by 99.7% votes in 2000 and 97.6% in the year 2007; Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen won by 96.3% in 1996 and 77.2% in 2006 elections; AbdurRahman Mansuor Hadu won by 99.8% in 2012; Saddam Hussein in 1995 election won by 99.6% and 100% votes in 2002…
What is this?! ما هذا..are these high percentages not too ridiculously exaggerating their acceptability?!
And this is the reason Sheikh Qaradaawi commended Israel for the free and fair election and condemned the fraudulent acts of the Arab leaders which is practically impossible to get such huge amounts of votes and that was why Qaradaawi said Allah, who had created man and provides for him in all ways did not have an overwhelming acceptance from mankind. Muslims in the whole world today are just 24.1%. Allah and his true religion did not yet have such 99% acceptance from the mankind He created Himself.
Also, you should note that the meaning of the statement of Al-Qaradaawi is:
“If Allah manifested (presented) Himself to the people, He would not have had such percentage of acceptance”.
لو أن الله عرض نفسه على النّاس ما أخذ هذه النسبة
But the propagandists translated the Arabic to mean:
“If Allah had presented Himself as a candidate in the Israeli election, He would not have had such percentage as Benjamin Netanyahu in the election”.
This is a deliberate misinformation that defies reasoning and simple logic because Nentayahu did not even win with up to 1% of the votes cast; so, why would Al-Qaradaawi make such comparison? If Netanyahu had won with overwhelming score, then that comparison may make a sense.
In the same khutbah, Sheikh Qaradaawi said the Arabs, all of them were placing their hopes in the victory of Shimon Peres; and this was because Peres has been working towards peaceful resolution of Israeli – Palestinian crises. The whole campaign that time was focused on a single issue – which was security.
Peres in his campaign, had promised to bring security by forging peace agreements with Palestine while Netanyahu was saying “only a strong Israel that did not hand back captured lands to the owners who are Arabs could build peace”. Netanyahu promised to slow down the peace process by building a new Jewish settlements in the Westbank, block creation of Palestine state, and hold on to the Golan Height captured from Syria. Hence, Shimon Peres gained overwhelming support from the country’s Arabs while the Jews settlers in the West Bank and Gaza were in support of Netanyahu.
Shimon whom the Arab wanted to win eventually lost and Netanyahu won by a very thin margin over the incumbent Shimon Peres. Peres handed over the government to him without any drama, war and chaos.
Peres had 1,471,566 (49.5%) votes and Netanyahu acquired 1,501,023 votes (50.5%). Due to only a small number of people, the one who was actually ruling lost his position.
This is not obtainable in the Arab land where tyranny rules and electoral rigging prevails like what happened in Algeria where the incumbent refused to accept defeat and that led to a civil war where lives and properties were lost. Al-Qaradaawi desired for Algeria and other Arab countries Leaders to respect the choice of the people just like Israel leaders did.
The will of the people prevailed in the Israeli election but not in the land of the Arabs and Muslims. This was what Sheikh Qaradaawi applauded. And if you read the full khutbah I attached to this article, you will see Sheikh Qaradaawi said فكلاهما شر both Peres and Netanyahu are bad/evils. He said: “one of our youth said yesterday that the both of Peres and Nentayahu are eaters; one wants to eat us with his hand, and the other wants to eat us with fork and spoon; at the end, we are being eaten”.
And as for the statement that “If Allah manifested Himself to the people, He would not have had such percentage of acceptance”, this is not in anyway a statement of kufr nor does it constitutes Apostasy. It means that Allah who creates man and provides for his needs is not generally accepted by mankind, then howcome a despotic ruler would have such level of acceptance?
The propagandists who shipped in the word “A candidate” in the statement to make it seems like Al-Qaradaawi meant “If Allah had presented Himself as a candidate contesting in an election like the election against Shimon or Nentayahu, He would not have been able to get that overwhelming votes”. This is very absurd. When everyone knows that Nentayahu who won the election did not have overwhelming victory but with less than 1% of total votes cast.
Every Muslim knows the basic aqeedah is whenever Allah desires anything, He will only say “be! And it will be”.
The clause ما أخذ هذه النسبة did not mean “would not have been able to” as these propagandists translated it; the real meaning is “Would not get” and this correct meaning tells the general disbelief mankind has towards their Lord and not that if Allah contested in an election or so. And Sheikh Qaradaawi in the same Khutbah quoted verse 103 of Suratu Yuusuf, Allah says:
وَمَا أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
“And most of mankind will not believe even if you desire it eagerly”.
Note the word “أكثر most” in the verse.
Nuh alayhi Salaam preached for over 900 years, only few of his people accepted his message and believed in Allah. With all the happenings in the world today, not up to 30% beleive in Allah. In that 24% Muslims worldwide, you should know there are even many unconscious and deviated Muslims.
The Prophet solla Allahu alayhi wa sallam did not get 99% of people accepting and believing in him not to talk of a ruler who oppresses his people. How come a ruler will be unopposed in an election when the basic way of man is disbelief and rejection!
O ye with baseerah, what is the sin of Qaradaawi?
This is exactly what Sheikh Qaradaawi said and meant and his audience never had difficulty in understanding him. But these mischievous propagandists pretended they did not understand and keep distorting facts.
And as for the fatwa of Sheikh Uthaimin, Sheikh Uthaimin did not listen and wasn’t aware of the Qaradaawi’s talk when he was asked that neutral question; and the questioner did not say Qaradaawi said, because if he had said Qaradaawi said, Probably Sheikh Uthaimin would have asked him for the sermon and tell him to listen to it first, because he knew Al-Qaradaawi as a scholar per excellence who will never compare Allah to His creations.
The propagandists created an impression that Ibn Uthaimin had listened to the Qaradaawi’s sermon and joined the two audio together as one – just to satisfy their mischievious intention. Sheikh Uthaimin answered based on his perception of the question and not based on what Al-Qaradaawi had said.
The propagandists should rather find a better job than spreading mischievious distortions.
I once again advice those of you who have criticized, cursed, and slandered Al-Qaradaawi based on this issue to seek Allah’s forgiveness and desist from such henceforth.
To be continued in Shaa Allah….
