Politics is a struggle to gain power, exercise power, control power, and how to use power. This is consistent with the opinion of Sidney Hilmann in Ranney (1990) that politics is the science of who gets what, when, and why.
Etymologically, politics comes from the Greek word policy which means city or city state. Then the meaning developed into “polites” which meant citizens, “politeia”, which meant everything related to the state, politics which meant state government and politic which meant citizenship. Kosasih Djahiri in the book Politics and State: “Political science that sees power as the core of politics gives birth to a number of theories about how to obtain and implement power. Actually, every individual cannot escape from power, because it affects someone or a group of people can display behavior as desired by a person or party that influences. “
In political matters there are often power struggles that color the world of politics. Power does not only have to mean the power of the king or the president, but it can also mean the power of government officials from superiors to subordinates.
The nature of politics is basically power, in other words to regulate the community so that they can obey and submit to the rules is not possible without power.
The country of Indonesia is a democratic country that adheres to a system of representation, where in regulating society, a ruler or leader is needed. When determining a leader must hold an election conducted by the community. General elections (elections) are important instruments in a democratic country that adheres to a system of representation. Elections serve as a filter tool for “politicians” who represent and bring the voice of the people in representative institutions.
Power struggles often color when elections are held. Various methods are carried out by prospective authorities to obtain the desired power or position. Starting from providing assistance in the form of goods or services, such as assistance or alms in the form of clothing, basic necessities, cash and so on. It was used to get the attention of the people to win the desired position or position.
General Election is also called “Political Market” (Dr. Indria Samego). This means that general elections are political markets where individuals / communities interact to carry out social contracts (community agreements) between general election participants (political parties) and voters (people) who have the right to vote after first carrying out a series of political activities which include campaigns, propaganda, political advertising through printed mass media, audio (Radio) and audio visual (television) and other media such as banners, pamphlets, leaflets and even inter-personal communication in the form of face to face or lobby which contains messages about programs, platforms , principles, ideology, and other political promises in order to convince voters so that voting can determine their choice of one of the political parties participating in the general election to represent them in legislative and executive bands.
As stated by Moh. Kusnardi and Harmaily Ibrahim, in terms of people’s sovereignty (democracy), it is the people who are considered as the highest holders of power in a country. It is the people who determine the style and the way the government is held. It is the people who determine the goals to be achieved by the state and its government.
Based on the above understanding, election is an activity in which the election participants or legislative candidates carry out social contracts (agreements) on voters or voters, namely the people. A series of activities carried out include campaigns, political advertisements through mass media or communication in the form of face to face containing programs that will be launched by legislative candidates.
Ahead of regional head elections, candidates often visit religious leaders to ask for their blessing. At the time of sowan (silaturahmi) to the Islamic boarding school, for example, they usually give donations while hoping to get a vote from the santri. Donations or alms from these regional head candidates, according to Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board Said Aqil Siradj, are not clear about the legal nature of Islam. “Sodaqoh, but with a political background, what is the law.
The MUI states that money politics (money politics) is haram, because the charity given is done because of expecting something, the charity is not sincere and there is a purpose. Chairperson of the MUI Fatwa Division Ma’ruf Amin said that his party would immediately issue a fatwa forbidden for money politics. It is still waiting for the right timing. “We will issue the fatwa, we wait for the right event momentum for that. Now it’s still in the design, “said Mufuf”.
Alms before the election at this time are fairly ordinary and become a culture of politics. In connection with some of the opinions above, alms based on understanding is an act of giving something to others voluntarily, either in the form of goods, assistance or actions that can be done by anyone and there is no time limit and a certain amount that solely expects the blessing of Allah SWT and expect His reward, charity is more important if done in a quiet way to keep away from the nature of riya ‘which can damage the merit of charity, but in practice the charity carried out by prospective officials before the election was done because certain motives, as well as to gain sympathy from the community in order to win the position or position desired by the candidates. If associated with the implementation of charity before the election with the understanding of alms in Islamic religion, this is not in accordance with the implementation of the charity that is recommended in Islam.