A Critique of Turki ibn Ali's View on the Takfir of a Ruler Who Does Not Rule by What Allah Has Revealed

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor in Department of Theology and Islamic Studies, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran (Corresponding Author).

2 MA of Quranic and Hadith Studies, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Turkī bin ʿAlī (1984–2017) was one of the most prominent clerics of the takfīrī group known as the Islamic State (ISIS). He produced numerous sermons and works aimed at providing a religious veneer for ISIS and its atrocities, including a commentary on Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb’s the Ten Nullifiers of Islam (al-Nawāqiḍ al-Islāmiyya al-ʿAshara). The fourth of these ten nullifiers is "ruling by other than what God has revealed (al-ḥukm bi-ghayr mā anzala Allāh)." From al-Binʿālī’s perspective, this act possesses six distinct grades. With the exception of the first grade—mere sin—the remaining five, namely: 1) ruling by other than what God has revealed on a specific matter; 2) replacing God’s ruling with another; 3) legislating a ruling in place of God’s; 4) claiming an absolute right to legislate; and 5) suspending divine rulings by force, all necessitate the legal ruling (ḥukm fiqhī) of takfīr (excommunication) and expulsion from the fold of Islam. This article examines and critiques al-Binʿālī’s viewpoint using a "descriptive and analytical" methodology. The research findings indicate that al-Binʿālī’s claim regarding the excommunication of one who rules by other than what God has revealed is, first, fraught with internal contradiction and incoherence, as he should have consistently applied the conditions of istiḥlāl (deeming the forbidden permissible) or istikbār (arrogant refusal) for takfīr across all grades of this nullifier. Second, it contravenes the teachings of the Qurʾān and the Sunna concerning the distinction between Islām (submission) and īmān (faith), and between doctrinal unbelief (kufr iʿtiqādī) and practical unbelief (kufr ʿamalī). Third, it is predicated on an unsubstantiated hermeneutical principle that has distanced al-Binʿālī from the exegetical tradition of Ahl al-Sunna wa-l-Jamāʿa (the Sunni orthodoxy).

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References

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