"Building A State Using The Prophet Muhammad's System Is Haram", Mahfud MD Said After His Lecture Was Assessed As Blundering By The Imam Of A Mosque In New York

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD. (Setpres-Rusman)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD revealed that developing a country by imitating the system during the time of the Prophet Muhammad was unlawful. He said that if it is applied, it can become apostasy, leaving Islam.

"In my opinion, establishing a state like the system built by the Prophet is haram, it can lead to apostasy," said Mahfud on his Twitter account, @mohmahfudmd, Thursday 7 April.

According to Mahfud, establishing a state like the one built by the Prophet will automatically lead the head of state to the Prophet. This situation means, said Mahfud, will not happen like building a country following the way of the Prophet.

"Because it could mean that there must be a new Prophet to be the leader. Even though the Prophet Muhammad is the khatam al Nibyyiien or the last prophet. The most important thing is maqashid syar'ie not the system," he said.

Mahfud explained that what he conveyed was based on existing provisions or arguments in Islam. One of them after the Prophet Muhammad there is no more prophets and the revelation of the Qur'an so that new laws must be made by ijtihad.

"The argument is, al: 1) establishing a state is obligatory, fithrah, sunnatullah. 2) After the Prophet Muhammad there were no more prophets and the revelation of the Qur'an so that new laws had to be made by ijtihad. 3) Al'ibrah fil Islam bil jawhar laa bilmadzhar ( state in Islam, what matters is the substance, not the symbolic system)," he explained.

Mahfud's statement was in response to the Imam of the New York Islamic Center Mosque and the director of the Jamaica Muslim Center, Syamsi Ali, who considered Mahfud MD's lecture a blunder during Tarawih prayers.

During the Tarawih lecture at the UGM Yogyakarta area, Mahfud conveyed that it is unlawful to establish a state following the one that was built during the time of the Prophet.

"Establishing a state "system" like the one built is haram (apostate). Because the state built by the Prophet is the head of the country. The Prophet is the maker of laws (legislation) Allah and the Prophet, the judge is also the Prophet himself. Now, there are no prophets. Muhammad is the last prophet. There is no new prophet who can become head of state," said Mahfud MD.

"So it is forbidden to establish a state "system" like the one built by the Prophet. The system after the Prophet was built as a result of ijtihad whose results varied from era to era, and from area to area. Currently there are at least 57 state systems resulting from ijtihad of Muslims. Are you against the hadith about Ijtihad?" Mahfud asked Syamsi Ali.

Mahfud MD is known to give a lecture during the Tarawih prayer at the UGM campus mosque on Sunday, April 3. The main theme of the lecture was "Meeting Point for Nationalist-Islamic and Secular Nationalists in the Life of the Nation and State".

In his lecture, Mahfud argued that building a state as the Prophet had done was irrelevant and unlawful. This is because the law of the state that the Prophet built was directly from Allah and the Prophet.