نختار رئيساً ... ولا نختار خليفة

عبد الرحمن المراكبي

We are choosing a president not a caliphate

`Abdur-Rahman Al Marakby

After the announcement of the Shari`ah Committee For Rights and Reform its support to Dr. Muhammad Mursy in the presidential elections, insults and abuses showered the social networking from some of the supporters of Sheikh Hazim Abu Isma`il and from some of the Salafis who refuse the Muslim Brotherhood. The matter was repeated again after the announcement of the Salafi Call in Alexandria about its support to Dr. `Abdul-Mun`im Abu Al Futuh in the elections which made some people accuse them of working for the military board, selling their religion for the world, or they are scattering votes in favor of the military board.

It is well-known that the decision of the Shari`ah Committee and the Salafi Call was the result of Shura (consultation) and according to the standards which each one of them exerted to lay, and each of them has its own justifications.

There is no doubt that the agreement of the Muslim current on supporting one candidate for the presidency would have guaranteed the great success of that candidate, but as long as the matter was as happened, we have to know that the issue of choosing a president is not one of the unanimous issues nor it subjects to the matter of truth and falsehood. All the people exert efforts to choose the best from their point of view, so why do some people outbid the leaders of the Muslim current whether in the Shari`ah Committee, the Salifi Call, or the Shura Board of scholars, but rather accuse them falsely?

Indeed, each one of them chose the suitable candidate for the stage from his point of view. Yes, it was better for them to agree on one candidate but they did not commit a crime by their disagreement and Ijtihad (juristic effort to infer expert legal rulings) in choosing candidates. Therefore, the people of the Muslim currents should think well of their scholars who reared and taught them the rulings of their religion. Perhaps Allah (may He be Glorified and Exalted) willed goodness with that disagreement. "And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allâh knows but you do not know." [Surat Al Baqarah: 216].

Verily, choosing a president is a mere political issue in the first place and if our religion allows us to disagree on the issues of Fiqh; how would be the case of worldly matters?

Why does everyone walk behind his own political vision and call those who disagrees with his vision a traitor?

Why do we miss the literature of disagreement?

Why do we slander our scholars, slander the candidates for the presidency, degrade their status, catch their previous personal errors, cut their speech from its context, and spread it with the intention of slandering them?

We have to adopt good manners, take out the hatreds and rancors from our hearts, be good in the sight of Allah, and not to accuse anyone in his intention because intentions are not known except to Allah.

We have to know that slander and accusation are not the attributes of the Shari`ah students nor those who work in this field and the Callers.

O Allah! Make the best people among us rule and do not make the bad ones assume power over us.