What is meant by Sovereignty belonging to Allah?

Worship of Allah (Exalted is He) is the primary purpose for which the jinn and mankind were created, as Allah says:

And I [Allah] created not the jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me [Alone]. [Quran (51):56]

               This worship cannot be achieved in a proper sense unless sovereignty is also attributed to Allah. Allah (Exalted is He) says: 

All authority to govern rests only with Allah. He has commanded that you worship [serve] none but Him; that is the [true] straight religion, but most men know not. [Quran (12):40]

                 So there is no rule but His, no command but His, and He has commanded that none be worshipped (served) but Him. We should note the context of the verse: first it limits rule or sovereignty to Allah, then it mentions His command. It does not say He has commanded that you to none for judgement but Him, rather it says, "He has commanded that you worship none but Him". This indicates that referring to Allah (Exalted is He) for judgement is a kind of worship, and that worship means referring to the rules of Allah for judgement.

So Allah cannot be worshipped properly when one refers for rules and legislation to someone other than Him. This fact is regarded as one of the basic teachings of Islam which no Muslim has any excuse for not knowing.

              Islam takes away from mankind the right to make laws, because Allah is the Lawmaker. This is one of the most distinctive features of the Muslim society, because in a society in which the laws are made by Allah and the people are the slaves of Allah, it is impossible that this law could have any defects, shortcomings or elements of unfairness towards any class or group of people, because Allah is above favouring any group or class over others.

              But when law making is in the hands of human beings, no one can guarantee that the lawmakers will not be influenced by whims and desires, biases and greed, whether those law makers are capitalists, communists, socialists, secularists or whatever, and whether they are from the upper or middle classes.

Hence we see the highest form of justice in the Muslim society in which Allah prescribes laws of His slaves, and people do not prescribe laws of other people.

               This is what is meant by ascribing sovereignty to Allah; this refers to legislative authority and the issuing of commands and prohibitions, decreeing what is halal (permissible) and what is haram (forbidden). Allah is the Only one Who can issue commands and make them binding upon all people. This is a definitive obligation that no Muslim who understands Islam properly and whose heart is filled with faith can dispute.

Friday, February 07, 2014