Hizbut Tahrir’s Address to the Muslim Ummah at the National Mosque
The address began with Ustaz Omar Hussein who explained the reality of the Cabinet Ministers’ meeting last 22nd of April 2009. He explained four points concerning the contradiction of the Cabinet Ministers’ decision with Islam which are:
- The Cabinet Ministers in their meeting, had decided that the children shall remain in their original faith even if one of the spouses had converted to another faith.
- The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz had said that, the meeting had decided that their marriage cannot be dissolved immediately even if one of the spouses had converted to Islam.
- The Cabinet Ministers also decided that the custody and guardianship of children shall be judged in the Civil courts and not in the Syariah courts.
The national legal representatives were asked to notify these decisions to all state legal representatives to enable them to amend the existing Syariah Laws in all states.
- The children’s faith will be Islam (deen of fitrah) when one of the spouses has converted to Islam. This is based on the opinion of the majority of scholars which refers to the Quran [an-Nisa’(4):141] in which the Translated Meaning is: “And never will Allah grant to the unbelievers a way over the believers”, and the hadith of Rasulullah SAW from riwayat ad-Daruqutni, “Islam is the highest and none is higher”.
- The marriage (between a muslim and mushrik) is annulled based on the verse number 10 in Surah Al-Mumtahanah, “And do not (O believers) hold on to the ties of marriage with unbelieving women”. The majority of scholars are in agreement that the marriage bond of a person with a kafir mushrik will dissolve immediately if the person converts to Islam.
- The decision that cases of this sort are to be referred to the Civil courts and not the Syariah courts shows that the Ahkam Syariah shall not be used (in issues of marriage and divorce). Hizbut Tahrir requests that the judges who will preside over similar cases are muslim judges (Qadhi) and Ahkam Syariah must be used in issues of marriage and divorce.
- Ahkam Syariah cannot be amended by the desires of a special committee meeting, whether it is in the form of Cabinet Ministers meeting or the likes. The Ahkam Syariah is from Allah SWT and His Messenger (SAW) and cannot at all be changed by anyone.
Wassalam