Resolute Rock

Muslim | Ahl al-Sunnah

I strive to follow The Quran, The Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, and the way of the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم and those who followed them.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

The Daily Routine of a Muslim — Built on the Sunnah

🌙 Last third of the night
• Qiyām al-Layl: 8 rakʿahs + 3 Witr
• Istighfār until Fajr

🌅 Fajr
• 2 rakʿahs Sunnah at home → Fajr in congregation
• Morning adhkār + Qur’an until sunrise
• The most blessed hours of your day — start your work here

☀️ After sunrise
• Ḍuḥā: 2–8 rakʿahs
• Free time

🕌 Ẓuhr
• 4 rakʿahs Sunnah at home → Ẓuhr in congregation → 2 rakʿahs at home
• Free time

🕌 ʿAṣr
• 4 rakʿahs before → ʿAṣr in congregation
• Evening adhkār + Qur’an
• Free time

🌇 Maghrib
• Maghrib in congregation → 2 rakʿahs at home
• Free time

🌃 ʿIshā’
• ʿIshā’ in congregation → 2 rakʿahs at home
• Sūrat al-Mulk + adhkār before sleep, family time
• Sleep early — so the night can wake you

📅 Fast Mondays & Thursdays. Fast the white days (13, 14, 15).

The “free time” is not filler. Fill it with:
— Seeking knowledge & memorising Qur’an
— Earning a ḥalāl living
— Your health and your body
— Family, daʿwah, serving others
— Rest, hobbies, permissible enjoyment

The Sunnah is not exhaustion. It is balance, repeated daily.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

@Malcolm_Pal9 This dude is the hero. He was so ahead of everyone else. And we start to realize this only now, thanks to Predictive History.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

“The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.”

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

@landpalestine Muslims arent supposed to even take part in elections. What are they even doing there serving a secular state?

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

No. It is rather you who fail to grasp the complete picture:

In the US, Flock Safety’s automated license-plate cameras — over 40,000 of them, feeding a network that spans more than 5,000 communities nationwide — quietly log where your car goes and store it in a searchable database. In 2025, 404 Media revealed ICE was tapping that network through local police, who ran searches on its behalf — typically without a warrant or court order.

In the UK, police now make more than 30 arrests a day for online messages — an increase of 121% since 2017. Most never lead to conviction, but the chilling effect is the point. High-profile arrests like those of Lucy Connolly and Graham Linehan show how fast “offensive” words can become a police matter.

For non-citizens in the US, criticizing Israel now carries a real cost: the administration estimates at least 300 international students have had their visas revoked over alleged pro-Palestinian activism. Activists like Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk were detained — Öztürk after co-signing an op-ed critical of Israel.

Across Europe, sweeping new laws hand governments and platforms broad power to define and delete “harmful” speech.

And China shows where the road ends: defy a court order and you land on a blacklist that can bar you from flights, high-speed trains, and enrolling your kids in private schools.

Now layer AI on top. As it automates whole categories of work, we drift toward a population dependent on the state to survive — and a dependent population is an easier one to control.

When the system runs on surveillance, censorship, and a paycheck the government can switch off, only two kinds of people stay truly free: those who own land and feed themselves, and those rich enough to buy their way out. Everyone else rents their freedom — and rent can always be raised.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

@VideoCardz @grok does it often means the card itself is unusable and broken or can it easily be repaired?

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

@HealthyAlfred @grok whars the remedy to never develop that

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

In Short:

Legislating something that goes against the Sharia is Major Kufr.

Following the Legislation that goes against the Sharia believing it to be correct is Major Kufr.

Following the Legislation that goes against the Sharia believing it to be wrong, such person is Fasiq and Zalim, not Major Kufr.

Ruling on specific individuals is reserved for Salafi/Ahlu Sunnah Scholars.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

Summary of my view:

I understand Wali Al-Amr in the full Shar‘i political sense to mean a Muslim ruler whose authority is established over Muslims and whose state recognizes Sharia as its supreme governing law.

His implementation need not be perfect: personal sins, oppression, and particular judgments contrary to Sharia do not automatically remove that status, provided he continues to recognize Sharia as binding and does not replace it as the state’s governing authority. Obedience to such a ruler is only in what is lawful, never in sin.

By contrast, I do not regard the president of a constitutionally secular democratic republic as a fully legitimate Shar‘i wali al-amr, because the system grants legislative authority independently of Sharia. I describe him instead as the de facto president or political authority of that secular state. This means that, in my terminology, he is not owed the specific religious obedience arising from Islamic wilāyah.

I nevertheless comply with lawful regulations that protect life, rights, and public order. Such compliance does not necessarily signify recognition of the president as a Shar‘i ruler; it may rest on independent obligations such as preventing harm and observing lawful agreements.

I also do not declare the president personally to be a disbeliever merely because he holds office within that system.

Judgment upon a particular individual remains a separate matter requiring knowledge of his beliefs, intentions, conduct, and circumstances.

And Allah knows best.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

# Who Is Walī al-Amr? — A Clarification

*All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, his family, his Companions, and those who follow them in truth until the Day of Judgment.*

The question of **Walī al-Amr** (the one in authority) is among the most consequential issues of manhaj and ʿaqīdah in our time. Confusion about it has driven some to the extreme of the Khawārij and the takfīrīs — rushing to declare rulers apostate and to spill blood — and driven others to a blind loyalty that sanctifies oppression and the abandonment of the Sharīʿah, and uses the honorific "Walī al-Amr" to silence every truthful criticism. What follows is an attempt to walk the straight path between the two, upon the Qur'an, the authentic Sunnah, and the understanding of the Salaf.

## The scholars this position rests upon

On the specific question of ruling by man-made law, this article follows the camp of:

- **Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh** (former Grand Muftī of the Kingdom, d. 1389 AH) in his treatise *Taḥkīm al-Qawānīn* ("Ruling by Man-Made Laws");
- **Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn** (d. 1421 AH), in *Sharḥ Kitāb al-Tawḥīd*, *Sharḥ al-Uṣūl al-Thalātha*, and his published fatāwā;
- **Shaykh Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir** (the muḥaddith, d. 1377 AH), in *ʿUmdat al-Tafsīr*.

And behind them the classical imams: **Ibn ʿAbbās** (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhumā), **Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah**, and **al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr**.

## 1. Who Walī al-Amr is

Walī al-Amr, in the full Sharʿī sense, is the **Muslim ruler who holds authority over the Muslims and whose rule is founded upon the Sharīʿah of Allah** — even if his application is imperfect, and even if injustice occurs under him. Obedience to him is obligatory in what is permitted and not sinful. If he commands what is ḥarām, he is not obeyed *in that specific command*, for "there is no obedience to the creation in disobedience to the Creator" — yet this does not licence rebellion against him.

The Prophet ﷺ said: *"Listen and obey, even if an Abyssinian slave is appointed over you"* (al-Bukhārī). And: *"Whoever sees from his ruler something he dislikes, let him be patient; for whoever separates from the Jamāʿah by a handspan and dies, dies a death of Jāhiliyyah"* (al-Bukhārī and Muslim). The Salaf obeyed even harsh and unjust rulers such as al-Ḥajjāj, because the harm of rebellion — bloodshed and chaos — outweighs the harm of enduring oppression.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

My aim here isn’t to win an argument. As a Muslim, my goal is to guide people to the truth, to Paradise, and away from the Fire — and that includes you. So I’ll answer plainly.

On the Bible: I don’t take it as my authority. I don’t affirm it wholesale and I don’t reject it wholesale — because I can’t. I believe Allah revealed the Tawrah to Musa and the Injil to ‘Isa as true revelation. But what you hold today is not that text intact. So when I read a passage I can’t say “this is 100% Allah’s word” or “this is 100% false” — some may be remnants of truth, some is human addition and error. That’s not a modern invention. The Qur’an itself says some of them “write the Scripture with their own hands, then say, this is from Allah” (2:79) and “distort words from their places” (4:46). Ibn Hazm catalogued the Bible’s contradictions a thousand years ago.

You say Allah’s words are incorruptible — agreed. But Allah guaranteed to preserve only the final revelation: “Indeed We sent down the Reminder, and indeed We are its Guardian” (15:9). The earlier books were entrusted to their people to preserve (5:44), and that trust was broken.

On “ask the People of the Book” (10:94): This tells the doubter that sincere People of the Book would confirm Muhammad ﷺ — because his description was written in their scriptures (7:157). It is not an endorsement of every line of today’s Bible. The Prophet ﷺ said he neither doubted nor asked.

On the “satanic verses”: That story is fabricated. Its chains are all broken or weak; Bukhari and Muslim never recorded it; Ibn Khuzaymah said heretics invented it; al-Albani wrote a whole treatise dismantling it. The actual verses (53:19–23) mock the idols — the opposite of praising them.

On the sihr (magic): This is authentic (Bukhari, Muslim), and I won’t hide it. A man bewitched the Prophet ﷺ so that at times he imagined he’d done a personal thing he hadn’t. It never touched the revelation, the message, or his religion — Allah informed him and cured him. Prophets fall ill and are harmed; that is human, not a defect in prophethood. Even in your book, ’Isa weeps, hungers, and thirsts.

On ’Isa عليه السلام — your strongest verses cut against you:

•“Word of God”: the Qur’an calls him “a word from Him” because Allah created him by the command “Be,” with no father — exactly like Adam, who had neither father nor mother: “The likeness of ’Isa with Allah is as the likeness of Adam” (3:59). A word, not the eternal Word.
•Daniel 7: the one “like a son of man” is given dominion by the Ancient of Days. He receives authority; he is not its source. That is a servant, not God.
•His return: yes, ‘Isa returns — as a just ruler under the law of Muhammad ﷺ. He breaks the cross, kills the Dajjal, and prays as a follower. God does not return to pray behind an imam. That refutes his divinity, it doesn’t prove it.
•“Before Abraham was, I am” and “Alpha and Omega”: these are from a text I’ve already told you I can’t accept as authority. And even in your Bible he says “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), “I can do nothing of myself” (John 5:30), and calls God “my God” (John 20:17). The plainest words a God could say — “I am God, worship me” — he never says.

You ended by quoting that Allah hates mixing truth with falsehood (2:42). I agree completely. So ask yourself: who mixed truth with falsehood — the one who called ’Isa a servant and prophet of God, or the one who took that servant and made him God?

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

And this is the point most people miss: because the Prophet ﷺ lived these roles, we have actual rulings to follow. Because Isa عليه السلام did not, that guidance does not reach us through him.

Marriage — From the Prophet’s ﷺ life we have a complete law of marriage: the rights of the wife, the conduct between spouses, and the rulings of divorce — including that a man may divorce and reconcile, but after the third divorce he cannot remarry her until she has been married to another and that marriage has ended (al-Baqarah 2:229–230). A person seeking to follow Isa عليه السلام in marriage finds no such guidance in his recorded life, because he did not marry in it.

Children — Not only how to raise and show mercy to children, but the laws that surround them: the just division of inheritance among heirs (Surah al-Nisa lays it out precisely), the sunnahs of the newborn — the ʿaqiqah, the naming. A whole framework for family life, absent from what reaches us through Isa عليه السلام.

Governance — He ﷺ showed how a state is run by revelation: appointing leaders by virtue and righteousness, not wealth or lineage, judging between people justly, establishing law and applying it. Every ruler and judge has a model. Isa عليه السلام was never given rule, so those in power find no example to follow in his recorded life.

War and peace — People criticize the Prophet ﷺ for waging war, but forget the nations of his time waged war on him. He defended his people — and set the ethics: when to fight, when to accept peace, the terms of treaties, the limits in battle. A general can study his campaigns for tactics; a statesman can study his treaties. This entire dimension of leadership is simply not present in the life of Isa عليه السلام.

And here is the completion of the picture: we Muslims believe Isa عليه السلام will return, marry, live by the Sharʿiah of Islam, and lead — but that is yet to come. For now, Allah has already perfected this religion and left in His final Messenger ﷺ a complete example covering every station of life: husband, father, ruler, judge, and commander.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

Why the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the Most Complete Example to Follow

Many people claim that Jesus is a more perfect example to follow than Muhammad ﷺ. It could not be further from the truth — and here is why.

Let me be clear from the outset: Isa (Jesus) عليه السلام is a noble and mighty prophet of Allah — honoured, sinless, and worthy of love and respect. To believe in him is part of our faith, and no Muslim speaks of him except with reverence. This is not a case against Isa عليه السلام. It is a case for why the final Messenger ﷺ left the most complete example a human being can follow — because Allah decreed for him a life that passed through nearly every station a person can face, and preserved every part of it for us.

1) As a husband

He ﷺ married and lived a full family life, showing us how to treat wives with gentleness, patience, and justice. His wife Aisha رضي الله عنها became one of the greatest scholars of this Ummah, transmitting thousands of authentic narrations. Every married man has a living model to follow.

2) As a father

He ﷺ raised children and buried several of them in his own lifetime. He showed us tenderness, mercy, and how to carry grief with faith. Fatherhood itself has a Sunnah.

3) As a head of state

He ﷺ led a state: he legislated, judged disputes, appointed governors, conducted diplomacy, and chose when to make peace and when to fight. He proved that governing by revelation is not a theory but a reality that can thrive. Every ruler and judge has a template.

4) Through poverty and wealth —

He lived both extremes and mastered both. There were nights his family had nothing to cook. Yet later, as head of a state, immense wealth passed through his hands — spoils of war, tribute, charity — and he kept almost none of it for himself. He distributed it to the poor, the widows, the fighters, and those newly reconciled to Islam, often giving until nothing was left. He died with his armour pledged to a creditor for a loan of barley. So the poor man learns patience from him, and the rich man learns how to hold wealth without being owned by it. Isa عليه السلام, in his recorded life, walked mostly the road of poverty; the Prophet ﷺ walked both roads and left guidance for each.

5) In war and in victory

When his people were attacked, he ﷺ defended them, and set limits the world still struggles to match: no killing of women, children, the elderly, or monks; no destroying places of worship. And when he finally entered Mecca with the power to avenge twenty years of persecution, he forgave those who had driven him out: “Go, for you are free.” Mercy from a position of total power is rarer and harder than mercy from weakness.

And here is what makes all of it usable today: it was preserved. Every saying and action of the Prophet ﷺ was transmitted through documented chains of narration — named men and women whose reliability, memory, and biographies were examined by an entire science built for that purpose. We can trace a report back, narrator by narrator, to the Prophet ﷺ himself. His public conduct and his private life both survive in extraordinary detail. A complete example is only of use if it reaches us intact. His ﷺ did — and by it, no domain of human life was left without guidance: marriage, parenthood, governance, wealth, war, mercy, and worship.

This is no diminishing of Isa عليه السلام. Allah gave each prophet his trial and his role. But it was through the final Messenger ﷺ that the religion was completed and the example was made whole.

﴿لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ﴾
“Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example.”
— al-Ahzab 33:21

﴿الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ﴾
“This day I have perfected for you your religion.”
— al-Ma’idah 5:3

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

God does not become a man who eats food and goes to toilet.

Just like God will never become a swine, a devil etc.

Jesus did not know the hour, he didnt even know if there were figs on a tree etc.

Jesus was a Prophet of God.
He did miracles like other Prophets before him.
And Jesus was a Muslim and he called God Allah just like in Aramaic - Allaha.
Just like Muslims he circumsiced, never ate pork, prayed with forehead touching the ground like Muslims do.
Its all in front of you and u fail to see it.

God is Eternal and unchanged.

Your Church and ur bible are corrupted, while the Quran is a truth from God, unchanged, perfect and miraculous.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

@dcheeseater @AlpacaAurelius Jesus is a Prophet not a Creator. He was born from a woman. Ate food and went to toilet.
God doesnt do those things.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

Why the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the Most Complete Example to Follow

Many people claim that Jesus is a more perfect example to follow than Muhammad ﷺ. It could not be further from the truth — and here is why.

Let me be clear from the outset: Isa (Jesus) عليه السلام is a noble and mighty prophet of Allah — honoured, sinless, and worthy of love and respect. To believe in him is part of our faith, and no Muslim speaks of him except with reverence. This is not a case against Isa عليه السلام. It is a case for why the final Messenger ﷺ left the most complete example a human being can follow — because Allah decreed for him a life that passed through nearly every station a person can face, and preserved every part of it for us.

1) As a husband

He ﷺ married and lived a full family life, showing us how to treat wives with gentleness, patience, and justice. His wife Aisha رضي الله عنها became one of the greatest scholars of this Ummah, transmitting thousands of authentic narrations. Every married man has a living model to follow.

2) As a father

He ﷺ raised children and buried several of them in his own lifetime. He showed us tenderness, mercy, and how to carry grief with faith. Fatherhood itself has a Sunnah.

3) As a head of state

He ﷺ led a state: he legislated, judged disputes, appointed governors, conducted diplomacy, and chose when to make peace and when to fight. He proved that governing by revelation is not a theory but a reality that can thrive. Every ruler and judge has a template.

4) Through poverty and wealth —

He lived both extremes and mastered both. There were nights his family had nothing to cook. Yet later, as head of a state, immense wealth passed through his hands — spoils of war, tribute, charity — and he kept almost none of it for himself. He distributed it to the poor, the widows, the fighters, and those newly reconciled to Islam, often giving until nothing was left. He died with his armour pledged to a creditor for a loan of barley. So the poor man learns patience from him, and the rich man learns how to hold wealth without being owned by it. Isa عليه السلام, in his recorded life, walked mostly the road of poverty; the Prophet ﷺ walked both roads and left guidance for each.

5) In war and in victory

When his people were attacked, he ﷺ defended them, and set limits the world still struggles to match: no killing of women, children, the elderly, or monks; no destroying places of worship. And when he finally entered Mecca with the power to avenge twenty years of persecution, he forgave those who had driven him out: “Go, for you are free.” Mercy from a position of total power is rarer and harder than mercy from weakness.

And here is what makes all of it usable today: it was preserved. Every saying and action of the Prophet ﷺ was transmitted through documented chains of narration — named men and women whose reliability, memory, and biographies were examined by an entire science built for that purpose. We can trace a report back, narrator by narrator, to the Prophet ﷺ himself. His public conduct and his private life both survive in extraordinary detail. A complete example is only of use if it reaches us intact. His ﷺ did — and by it, no domain of human life was left without guidance: marriage, parenthood, governance, wealth, war, mercy, and worship.

This is no diminishing of Isa عليه السلام. Allah gave each prophet his trial and his role. But it was through the final Messenger ﷺ that the religion was completed and the example was made whole.

﴿لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ﴾
“Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example.”
— al-Ahzab 33:21

﴿الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ﴾
“This day I have perfected for you your religion.”
— al-Ma’idah 5:3

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

@Trollkickoff @grok was he right in the end?

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

The distinction that must not be lost

Whichever view a person takes, this must be held firmly:

Ruling on the act is not the same as ruling on a person.

To say “instituting man-made law in place of the Sharīʿah is major kufr” is a statement about an act. To say “this named ruler is an apostate” is takfīr al-muʿayyan — an entirely separate judgment requiring that the conditions be met and the preventives (mawāniʿ) be absent: ignorance, plausible misinterpretation, coercion, and lack of real power.

A head of state who inherited a system he did not build, bound by a constitution and a parliament he does not control, may fall under those very preventives.

That judgment belongs to the senior, established scholars — not to laymen, activists, or writers, and not to me. It requires knowledge of the man, his actual powers, his circumstances, and the clarification of any doubt or misunderstanding before any ruling is issued.

And under every view: no rebellion, no incitement, no sowing of fitnah. We obey in what is lawful, refuse obedience in sin, give sincere advice, preserve the blood of the Muslims, and call to Tawḥīd and the Sunnah.

A caution on misuse

Both positions have been misused, and honesty requires naming both.

The second view has been weaponized to silence legitimate criticism — to shield corruption, embezzlement, and oppression behind the language of “Walī al-Amr” and endless calls for patience. That is a real corruption of the religion, and it is not what its scholars intended.

The first view has been misused far more gravely — seized upon by takfīrī and jihādī movements to declare named rulers apostate and to shed Muslim blood. This is precisely why Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn issued his clarification against them.

Misuse of a position is not evidence against it.

Neither camp’s abuse settles the question, and no one should adopt or reject a scholarly view because of what others have done with it. The question is settled by evidence alone.

Closing

This has been one of the most fascinating and demanding topics I have researched. What I gained most was not a conclusion but a correction: that a legitimate difference of opinion exists here between imams of Ahl al-Sunnah, and that anyone claiming there is consensus — in either direction — is wrong.

Take these questions to the people of knowledge. I am a student writing what I have understood, and Allah knows best.

This post classifies acts and describes a scholarly disagreement. It issues no verdict on any living ruler; that is the affair of the senior scholars.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

@theMadridZone Dictator Mourinho 😂

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

## Summary

Authority in Islam is an *amānah* (trust) from Allah — not a prize claimed by holding office, sitting in a parliament, or speaking the language of "democracy" dressed with a few Islamic slogans. The Prophet ﷺ said: *"When the trust is lost, then await the Hour."* They asked, "How is it lost?" He said: *"When authority is given to those unfit for it, then await the Hour"* (al-Bukhārī) — a description of the age, teaching us to prize competence and trustworthiness in authority, not a command to withhold obedience by our own reckoning.

Therefore:

- Do not grant the full status of "Walī al-Amr" — nor the sanctity used to silence criticism — to a secular or man-made order merely because its head is a Muslim by name.

- Hold firmly that instituting and imposing man-made law as the binding law is major kufr — the position of Ibn Ibrāhīm, Aḥmad Shākir, and Ibn ʿUthaymīn.

- Do **not** pronounce takfīr upon a named ruler; that is the scholars' affair, and the preventives must be weighed.

- Do **not** rebel, and do not incite; preserve the blood of the Muslims and the stability that lets the religion be practised.

- Live peacefully, obey in what is lawful, give sincere advice with wisdom, and call to Tawḥīd and the pure Sunnah.

This is the balanced path of Ahl al-Sunnah: we do not spill blood like the Khawārij; we do not make hasty takfīr like the takfīrīs; and we do not sanctify secularism with Islamic terminology.

*And Allah knows best. May He protect this Ummah, and grant it rulers who govern by His Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ.*

---

**A note on method:** This is a summary of a considered position on a contested question, upon the camp named above. The classification of the *act* is stated here; the verdict upon any *specific* living ruler is deliberately left to the qualified scholars, as the discipline of *takfīr al-muʿayyan* requires. For anything acted upon or published, return these questions to the people of knowledge.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

# Who Is Walī al-Amr? — A Clarification

*All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, his family, his Companions, and those who follow them in truth until the Day of Judgment.*

The question of **Walī al-Amr** (the one in authority) is among the most consequential issues of manhaj and ʿaqīdah in our time. Confusion about it has driven some to the extreme of the Khawārij and the takfīrīs — rushing to declare rulers apostate and to spill blood — and driven others to a blind loyalty that sanctifies oppression and the abandonment of the Sharīʿah, and uses the honorific "Walī al-Amr" to silence every truthful criticism. What follows is an attempt to walk the straight path between the two, upon the Qur'an, the authentic Sunnah, and the understanding of the Salaf.

## The scholars this position rests upon

On the specific question of ruling by man-made law, this article follows the camp of:

- **Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh** (former Grand Muftī of the Kingdom, d. 1389 AH) in his treatise *Taḥkīm al-Qawānīn* ("Ruling by Man-Made Laws");
- **Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn** (d. 1421 AH), in *Sharḥ Kitāb al-Tawḥīd*, *Sharḥ al-Uṣūl al-Thalātha*, and his published fatāwā;
- **Shaykh Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir** (the muḥaddith, d. 1377 AH), in *ʿUmdat al-Tafsīr*.

And behind them the classical imams: **Ibn ʿAbbās** (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhumā), **Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah**, and **al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr**.

## 1. Who Walī al-Amr is

Walī al-Amr, in the full Sharʿī sense, is the **Muslim ruler who holds authority over the Muslims and whose rule is founded upon the Sharīʿah of Allah** — even if his application is imperfect, and even if injustice occurs under him. Obedience to him is obligatory in what is permitted and not sinful. If he commands what is ḥarām, he is not obeyed *in that specific command*, for "there is no obedience to the creation in disobedience to the Creator" — yet this does not licence rebellion against him.

The Prophet ﷺ said: *"Listen and obey, even if an Abyssinian slave is appointed over you"* (al-Bukhārī). And: *"Whoever sees from his ruler something he dislikes, let him be patient; for whoever separates from the Jamāʿah by a handspan and dies, dies a death of Jāhiliyyah"* (al-Bukhārī and Muslim). The Salaf obeyed even harsh and unjust rulers such as al-Ḥajjāj, because the harm of rebellion — bloodshed and chaos — outweighs the harm of enduring oppression.

[Resolute Rock @resoluterock17]

## 7. The Qur'anic and Prophetic foundation

Allah says: *"O you who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you differ over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger…"* (al-Nisāʾ 4:59).

The scholars note a fine point of the wording: Allah repeated the verb — *"obey the Messenger"* — but did **not** repeat it before *"those in authority."* He said "…and those in authority among you," not "and obey those in authority." This dropped verb signals that the ruler's obedience is **not independent** but is subsumed under, and conditioned by, obedience to Allah and His Messenger. The ruler is obeyed insofar as this is obedience to Allah; he is not obeyed in sin.

And in the hadith of Ḥudhayfah (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1847), the Prophet ﷺ foretold *"leaders who will not be guided by my guidance nor follow my Sunnah,"* and commanded, when asked, *"Listen and obey the amīr, even if he beats your back and takes your wealth."* This describes a **sinful, oppressive Muslim ruler whom one endures** — "beating the back and seizing wealth" is his *injustice*, not a lawful punishment. As Imām al-Nawawī drew from it: the obligation to cling to the Jamāʿah and to obey such a ruler though he be *fāsiq*. It is a proof for patience under an oppressive Muslim ruler — not a text to be stretched over a system that has discarded the Sharīʿah entirely.

## 8. Judging by the apparent

We judge by what is manifest, not by what is in the hearts. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) said: *"People were judged by revelation in the time of the Messenger ﷺ, and the revelation has ceased. We now judge by what is apparent of your deeds…"* (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2641). This principle protects us in two directions: we do not interrogate a ruler's heart to *grant* him faith, nor to *strip* it from him. We look to what is manifest — the apparent act — and we leave the inner reality to Allah, and the verdict upon a named individual to the scholars.

## 9. How this differs from the Khawārij and the takfīrīs

- **It is not the way of the Khawārij**, because we do not rebel over a ruler's sin, injustice, or shortcoming. The priority is daʿwah, education (*tarbiyah*), and reforming the people upon the Sunnah.

- **It is not the way of the takfīrīs**, because we do not make automatic or generalized takfīr of named rulers. We hold that the *act* of instituting man-made law is major kufr, while leaving the verdict on any *specific* ruler to the scholars, after the conditions are established and the preventives removed.