Can Non-Muslims Be Appointed On Key Positions In The Islamic State

July 10, 2024

3 min read 3 min

Question

I am writing this question with regard to the article written by Brother Shehzad Saleem, Appendix: Treatment of Non-Muslims Minorities. I was reading this article and I came across a line which says: “They should be allowed to be elected to public offices except to those which may require Muslims to preserve the religious identity of the state.” This line is about the rights of non-Muslims in the Islamic State and my question was that did any of the four rightly guided Caliphs ,Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman and ‘Alī (Ra) appoint any non-Muslim in their government positions? Do we have any evidence in a hadith about this? If you have, then please do provide it in your answer because I have to discuss about it with my non-Muslim friend.

Answer

In principle, in the matters other than Ibadat (worship), we cannot say something is not allowed unless we have a clear and reliable evidence about it. We do not have any directives in the Qur’an to tell us that Non-Muslims should not be elected for the public offices (as the article under discussion says, unless such an appointment goes against the religious identity of the state).

In the absence of such divine directive, it is totally up to the Islamic rulership system to decide whether it is wise to appoint a non-Muslim for a public office or not.

I have not researched the history of the 4 first Khulafa to see whether they had appointed a non-Muslim for a public office however please note what Shehzad Salem has written in the same article:

“In this regard, however, there exists an exception regarding the Arabian peninsula. Pre-Islamic Arabia was conquered and given in the possession of Muhammad (sws) and his Companions (rta) by the Almighty in accordance with His established scheme regarding His Messengers that has been discussed earlier in detail in the main text of this article. It is the Almighty who actually took control of matters and saw to it that the Kuffār be punished through the hands of the believers. The Messengers and their Companions (rta) act as no more than the implementers of His will. So in accordance with this law, specifically meant for the Messengers, Muhammad (sws) and his Companions (rta) were told that they would have to fight the Idolaters of Arabia until the supremacy of Islam was achieved.” http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=403.

It is inline with the above concept that we read in the historical books that the general policy about non-Muslims, in particular at the time of Umar (ra), was that they should not even stay in Arabia, let alone giving them public offices.

Answered by: Farhad Shafti

Date: 2015-03-18