The mistake we have fallen into regarding the ayah about ruling by other than what Allah has revealed is that we imagine this ayah applies exclusively to governments. It doesn’t. It is general and applies to each one of us. When you realize that, you necessarily realize that a literal interpretation of the ayah; claiming that anyone who rules by other than what Allah has revealed is a Kafir; amounts to making takfir on the basis of sins.
And you should know that none of the scholars of tafsir ever considered this to be an ayah to be taken literally, because they had enough contextual knowledge to realize that a literal interpretation would contradict our fundamental ‘Aqeedah.
Ibn Hazm stated that every person is a judge, is a ruler, in terms of his own actions. Thus, any time you commit a sin, you are ruling by other than what Allah revealed. Does this mean you are no longer a Muslim? Obviously not. It is a deviant belief to say this.
Do you use a credit card? If so, you have consented in a written contract to pay riba; even if you pay your bill on time and never actually pay riba, you have agreed in principle that you accept to do so. OK, that is agreeing to the validity of riba; you are ruling, for yourself, by other than what Allah has revealed. Is it a sin? Unquestionably. Is it kufr? Of course not.
Someone’s actions do not necessarily represent their belief. If you commit a sin, you are not declaring that the sin is not a sin, you are not making it halaal for yourself just because you allow yourself to do it. The most that can be deduced is that you do not have the character, the imaan, the discipline, the control, to prevent yourself from doing it, although you know it is wrong.
What ruler of a nation has more control over his people than an individual has over his own actions?
You may or may not know that there is a ruling in Islam that you cannot even revolt against a Kafir who rules you, if you do not have the power to succeed. Our religion is realistic and practical, and gives us guidance in all situations; thus, circumstances and conditions always play a role in the ruling in any matter.
Before the recent period, Turkey was in the grip of something more than secularism, it was an anti-religious extremism. The truth is that this radically aggressive secularism was not consistent with the character of the people or their beliefs, and, al-Hamdulillah, over the past 10-15 years, it is receding. No, Erdogan is not on the verge of imposing Shari’ah on the people, and he would be a fool if he was. And Erdogan is far from foolish.
There is no question that Erdogan is a religious man, there is no question about his Islam; and there is no question that if he were to unilaterally impose Shari’ah in Turkey, the backlash would bring an end to the entire project of the AKP and send the country flying into civil war and chaos.
The progress that has been made under his government is remarkable, politically, economically, socially, religiously, and none of that would have happened; none of it; if the AKP had taken the absurdly idealistic route championed by the jihadis and Khilafah-ists.
If you truly believe in Islamic government, and you actually have a reality-based idea of what that means, and you are yourself a rational person, you would understand that the government in Turkey deserves your support more than any group pretending it can establish an Islamic state through force and violence. It requires patience, wisdom, hard work, flexibility, and more patience. That is the real world.