News:

On 19th March 2015, the State Legislative Assembly of the State of Kelantan had unanimously approved the amendments to the Kelantan Sharia Criminal Code (II) (1993). This is the second approval by the government of PAS (Islamic Party of Malaysia) of the ‘Hudud Bill' in Kelantan. The next step in realizing the implementation of the bill in Kelantan is for it to be unanimously agreed upon in the Federal Parliament. The tabling of this Hudud Bill has stirred much response from Malaysians of all walks of life. Recently, a video produced by a local radio station criticising the implementation of the Hudud Bill in a condescending way, which went viral over the social media, has raised anger amongst Muslims in Malaysia. Criticism have also been levelled at PAS's intentions by its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition member, DAP, which has always been critical of PAS's intentions of establishing an ‘Islamic State'. Its advisor, Lim Kit Siang iterated that with the Hudud Bill, PAS has lost support from its non-Muslim voting bloc. The first ruling UMNO member to have publicly declared his position on the Hudud Bill is the former de facto law minister, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz when he boldly said that hudud is unsuitable for Malaysia and those who discuss it are fools. The Hudud Bill is expected to be tabled at the parliament in May 2015.

Comment:

Hudud constitutes only a part of the Sharia Law under the punishment system of Islam (uqubat) which comprises four categories - hudud, qisas/jinayat, ta'zir and mukhalafat. This system must be implemented in its entirety. Besides uqubat, the Islamic system also encompasses, among others, the ruling, economic, social, educational and political systems; all of which must be implemented concurrently, without exception. Focusing only on the implementation of hudud is clearly misleading. It should be understood by PAS and by Muslims in general that the Sharia Law must be implemented comprehensively (kaffah) by the state. Allah (swt) has placed the takalif (responsibility) and amanah (trust) on the leader of a country to implement His Laws in its entirety. Therefore, in truth, the Malaysian government is obliged to implement the laws of Allah comprehensively in every inch of the land under her authority and not relieving herself from the responsibility.

As an Islamic party that adopts democracy as its methodology, PAS has clearly been misguided when it places the Law of Allah under the scrutiny of man. Approving hudud by way of tabling, debating, discussing and voting, as had been carried out by the State Legislative Assembly of Kelantan (or the Federal Parliament for that matter) signifies placing the laws of Allah under the democratic process and subjecting it to the approval of man. This is categorically haram because the authority to make laws is vested only upon Allah (swt) and man is ordered to implement them, not vote to decide on their implementation. Furthermore, by attempting to implement hudud under the democratic system opens up a wide opportunity for non-Muslims, liberalists and secularists to oppose and degrade the law of Allah to the point of ridiculing and insulting the divine instruction.

As Muslims it should be clear to us that the implementation of Sharia Law in its entirety is obligatory and it must be carried out by mechanisms that are in line with the Sharia - not via the deceptive democratic instruments. Its implementation is not open to choice. And its implementation, in line with the spirit of taqwa, will, by Allah's promise, bring about justice and prosperity. It has now been more than 50 years that Malaysia have gained her independence but the government keeps on furnishing countless reasons for not implementing the laws of Allah despite the realization that the desire of Muslims to be re-governed by Sharia is getting stronger and stronger. It should also be clear to Muslims that the only guarantee that Islam will be implemented in its entirety is when it is under the political dominion of the Khilafah "Caliphate", hence, it is about time that Muslims in Malaysia and in all parts of the world to unite and intensify our efforts to re-establish the Khilafah "Caliphate" upon the way of the Prophethood which shall implement not only hudud, but the Sharia in its entirety and bring about justice, peace and prosperity to this temporary abode of man.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Dr. Muhammad - Malaysia