The Appointment of Non-Muslim Leaders

The controversy of non-Muslim leadership in the majority of Muslims is common. Historically, this issue has been long-standing and has always invited debates among experts from time to time. In response to this issue, the Ulamas split into two camps, some forbidden, but others permitted. The Indonesian state which in fact has a majority Muslim population often experience a collision related to the appointment of non-Muslim leaders. Essentially, leadership is a mandate that must be mandated to those who can afford it. Indonesian law guarantees all its citizens to emerge as both Muslim and non-Muslim leaders. Therefore, this paper attempts to analyze the appointment of non-Muslim leaders with a semantic approach to verses of the Qur'ân that textually prohibits Muslims (believers) to appoint non-Muslims as leaders because of the words waliy and auliyā'which textually has the meaning of "protector and leader". The semantic approach used in this paper refers to the basic and relational meaning so that it will feel more fair in interpreting the text. Key words: non-Muslim, waliy, auliyā', semantic, al-Qur'ân.  


Introduction
Indonesia is a pluralistic state, which has many ethnics, cultures, and cultural tribes, and it has various religions held by the inhabitants. In order to unite the nation and state, Indonesia declared "Bhineka Tunggal His skill in leading will lead his people to achieve their goals, namely the glory and prosperity with the accompaniment of Allah Swt.
One of the problems that arises in the matter of leadership is the questionsof nonmuslim leaders. The question is whether nonmuslims can be leaders in muslim-majority areas? The high level of religious plurality in Therefore, a language analysis only applies to that language and cannot be used to analyze other languages. For example, the word fish in Indonesian refers to the type of animal that lives in water and is usually eaten as a side dish. In English, the word is called fish. But the word "iwak" in Javanese does not only means fish (ikan) or fish, but also meat used as a side dish. From the definitions mentioned above, it can be concluded that translation is a process which is intended to find meaning equivalence in the target text.
The term translation itself has several meanings: it can refer to the general subject field, the product (the text that has been  It is of course true that studying the Qurʾan as a source for the lifeand thought of word 'an explicitly and implicitly as in the wallâ' 'an and 'tawallâ' 'an, then its intended meaning is to stay away or turn away. Therefore, the word"walî" thus has many meanings, i.e. close ones, friends, helpers, guardians, allies, followers, protectors, guards, leaders,the loving, the beloved, and the ruler all bound by the proximity of the red thread. 23 Like a father, he is the most important person to be the guardian (wali) of his ~ daughterbecause he is the closest to her. A person who is very obedient and devoted to worship is named "wali" because he is close to God. It is likewise the leader,because he should be close to the persons he leads. It is thus seen that all the meanings mentioned above can be covered by the word auliyâ. 24 Therefore, this word of God shows that it is not permissible to make Jews and Christians

The Ulama's View of Non-Muslim Leaders
Associated with non-muslim leaders, there are some interpretationsof some ulama , which stated as follows.

Sheikh Imām Qurṭubi
He argued that the leader must be held by muslim and it is very dangerous if the leader is occcupiedby non-muslim. In his book Tafsīr al-Qurṭubi, he declared, in this day and age the situation has been reversed and changed in such a way that many muslims entrust everything to the disbelievers much more. 29

Hasbi ash-Siddiqy
He stated that cooperation, mutual aid, and loyal friendship between two people of different religions for the benefit of the world is not prohibited as his statement in Tafsīr

Ahmad Mustafâ al-Marâgi
He argued that the appointment of non-muslim officials is not a problem, indeed many verses ofQur'an strictly prohibit muslims from appointing non-muslims to be their protectors, but there are reasons to forbid them.
In general the prohibition is about taking non-muslims as friends in any way that endanger themselves, such as unlocking special cases relating to religious affairs, conspiring to fight against other muslims. 32 Leadership is a mandate that must be surrendered by those who can afford it. 34 Thus, the appointment to carry out the mandate must be in accordance with his or her expertise so that the duty can be managed properly. The appointment of a person to carry out a position that is not correlated with his or her competence will adversely affect the government system itself. According to him, Qur'ân gives guidance either explicitly or implicitly in various aspects of human life, including an effort to answer "who is appropriate to choose". ~ be waliy as a leader or waliy as a friend. He said that the consequences will appear in the future because muslims will be led by them (non-muslim leaders) into the ṭâgût.

Conclusion
Muslims who appoint non-muslims to be leaders are legitimate or permissible as long as they are not harmful. Leadershipis an ability and readiness possessed by a person to be able to maintain, supervise and protect the people he leads. It is a trust that must be put on the people who are able to carry it out. In terms of contextuality, the law in Indonesia stated it is not prohibited rising non-muslim into one of the government officials. There is no statement of Indonesian Constitutionthat prohibits them (non-muslims) to hold a position in government. Working with nonmuslims in the social life is not prohibited as long as it does not involve the ritual religious activities of a leader.
The author keepconsidering the opinions of Ulama who do not allow muslims appoint non-muslim leaders because it is based on their caution and concern if nonmuslims become heads of government. The author also does not agree with statement"as long as he is a muslim, it is no problemalthough he is disreputable". In Islam view, both candidates of leaders are equally bad (less) so the one that should be chosen is the most minimal shortcomings. The recent argumentis choosing the disreputableperson to be a good one is easier than forcing a nonmuslim person to be a muslim. The elected leader can not do what he wishes anymore longer. In carrying out his duties and obligations he is bound by the rules (act). If he still performs his bad habits and goes against the rules, he will be subjected sanctions, even punishment.
The final conclusion is if the prospective leader of the original muslim is not good, he can be forced to follow the existing provisions to prevent him in acting arbitrarilybecause if he does that such attitude, he will be prosecuted. On the other hand, an appropriate non-muslim leader candidatemust have the distincion (goodness).
However, the belief are contrary to Qur'ân.
Then, as muslims, although it is difficultto prove that he will not have good attitude for the nation and country, but if we believe Allah and the Book of God, we must follow the provisions of Qur'ân.