and said: ﴿وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا أَهْوَاءَ قَوْمٍ قَدْ ضَلُّوا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَأَضَلُّوا كَثِيرًا وَضَلُّوا عَنْ سَوَاءِ السَّبِيلِ﴾[1]; “And do not follow the desires of a group who went astray before and misled many people and strayed from the right path,” and said: ﴿وَلَا تُطِعْ مَنْ أَغْفَلْنَا قَلْبَهُ عَنْ ذِكْرِنَا وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ وَكَانَ أَمْرُهُ فُرُطًا﴾[2]; “And do not obey someone whose heart We made neglectful of Our remembrance, and he followed his passions, and his affair was excess,” and said: ﴿وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ سَبِيلَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ﴾[3]; “And do not follow the way of corrupters,” and said: ﴿وَلَا تَتَّبِعَانِّ سَبِيلَ الَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ﴾[4]; “And do not follow the way of those who do not know,” and said: ﴿وَلَا تُطِعْ مِنْهُمْ آثِمًا أَوْ كَفُورًا﴾[5]; “And do not obey anyone from among them who is an evildoer or ungrateful”; but rather He has considered obeying them as an excuse worse than the sin of people of Hell and the cause of their sorrow and remorse in the Hereafter, and said: ﴿وَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّا أَطَعْنَا سَادَتَنَا وَكُبَرَاءَنَا فَأَضَلُّونَا السَّبِيلَا ۝ رَبَّنَا آتِهِمْ ضِعْفَيْنِ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ وَالْعَنْهُمْ لَعْنًا كَبِيرًا﴾[6]; “And they say: ‘O Lord! We obeyed our leaders and elders, then they misled us; O Lord! Make them suffer twice and curse them with a great curse.’”

[Obeying oppressive rulers is not obligatory]

However, it is surprising that many Muslims, since the first Islamic century, after the domination of the Umayyads and under the influence of their propaganda, have considered obeying their oppressive rulers to be obligatory and the belief of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama‘ah, and by citing a wrong conception from some ahad narrations that are contrary to the explicit meaning of the Quran they insisted that it is not permissible to strip them of power, even if their opposition to the intellect and Sharia is clear, while this entails the obligation of opposing the intellect and Sharia, which is impossible; considering that the rule of oppressors is not possible without obeying them, while they rule against the intellect and Sharia because they are oppressors, and therefore, the obligation to obey them is contrary to the obligation to obey the intellect and Sharia, and they cannot be combined.