al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab wa al-Sunna fi Hifz al-Amn wa Himayat al-Arwah

al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab wa al-Sunna fi Hifz al-Amn wa Himayat al-Arwah (Recourse to the Book and the Sunna in Preserving Security and Protecting Lives) is a legal treatise and fatwa by Ibn Baz (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE) addressing the prohibition of aircraft hijacking and the imperative of resolving security crises through Islamic law al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w…+1.

Context and Purpose

Categorized under legal rulings concerning jihad and Islamic governance (al-siyasa al-shar'iyya), the work focuses on the phenomenon of airplane hijacking (khatf al-ta'irat) and transnational kidnapping al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w…. The author frames these acts as major global offenses whose harm, intimidation, and terrorization of innocent people transcend specific countries or factions al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w…. Ibn Baz composed the treatise as counsel to the Muslim community, a discharge of religious responsibility, and an initiative of cooperation with governing authorities in promoting righteousness and public security al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w…+1.

Legal Arguments and Proposed Procedures

The treatise establishes that recourse to divine revelation is obligatory in all disputes, with heightened urgency in widespread harms such as hijacking al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w…+1. Ibn Baz notes scholarly consensus that returning matters to God and His Messenger denotes referring directly to the Quran and the authentic Sunna al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w….

For jurisdictions dealing with apprehended hijackers, the work outlines a specific administrative and judicial procedure:

• The host government must establish a specialized committee of Islamic legal scholars to examine the case from all angles al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w….
• The committee must formulate its ruling on the basis of scriptural evidence, consulting traditional Quranic exegeses on the verse of muharaba (banditry and terrorism) in Surat al-Ma'ida alongside the rulings codified by jurists across the Islamic schools of law (madhahib) under the chapter of highway robbers (qutta' al-tariq) al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w…+1.
• The governing authority is obligated to enforce the resulting Islamic legal ruling to ensure justice for the victims and to restore public security al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w….

Critique of Positive Law

The text rejects adjudicating such incidents through secular or man-made legislation (al-qawanin al-wad'iyya), categorizing governance outside divine revelation as arbitrary pre-Islamic judgment (hukm al-jahiliyya) and tyranny (taghut) al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w…+1. Ibn Baz argues that the widespread adoption of positive legal systems across modern Muslim-majority societies does not grant them religious legitimacy, affirming that the Islamic legal tradition contains sufficient and conclusive remedies for modern security crimes al-Tahakum ila al-Kitab w…+1.