What made the mongols different?

[rpwelton]

In the time of the invasion of Baghdad by the Mongols, after they converted to Islam they continued to rule by an old code of laws established by their predecessor, Ghengis Khan, and did not rule by Shari'ah. Ibn Taymiyyah issued one of his most famous rulings, which said that the Mongols were not Muslims because they did not rule by Shari'ah (thus leading to the Muslim army overthrowing them).

Now, this is essentially the argument a group of Muslims use today to classify all the leaders of Muslim lands as kuffar, because they do not rule by complete Shari'ah.

I understand that this is a false notion, because they are committing kufr of actions and not kufr of belief (as long as they do not actually believe that their laws are superior to the Laws of Allah). There may be a number of reasons why a ruler does not rule by Shari'ah, and while I would not defend such rulers, we also cannot call them kuffar.

I'm also aware of the fact that scholars have never advocated for the overthrowing of a ruler based on the principle (as outlined in several ahadith) that anarchy is worse than oppression. However, Ibn Taymiyya's ruling seems to be the exception.

Can anyone tell me (or point me to a source) what makes the code the Mongols ruled by (Al-Yasiq) different than how rulers govern today in the Muslim lands, and why the Mongols could be declared kaffir and overthrown, but today's rulers we cannot do that with? Thanks.

EDIT: So far I've been finding that it combined a lot of pagan spiritual and religious elements into it, therefor if one were to rule by this, he is committing kufr of belief in that he is combining shirk into the law of the land through these other religious practices. Perhaps that's why the Mongols were considered kuffar when they ruled by other than Shari'ah, because their set of laws introduced deviant religious elements. Whereas today the rulers do not incorporate pagan religious teachings, but rather it is their laws governing everyday life that are against Shari'ah (so they only commit kufr of action, not of belief, thus not being outside the fold of Islam).

Can anyone back this up with additional explanations?

[Sampharo]

Some of the things in Yassa code that make belief in it a negation of Islamic faith:

1. Leaders of a religion, preachers, monks, persons who are dedicated to religious practice, the criers of mosques, physicians and those who bathe the bodies of the dead are to be freed from public charges. (mosque care is no longer required)
2. Forbidden to ever make peace with a monarch, a prince or a people who have not submitted. (means constant war and death even when called for peace, subjecting soldiers to becoming murderers)
3. To keep the men of the army exercised, a great hunt shall be held every winter. On this account, it is forbidden any man of the empire to kill from the month of March to October, deer, bucks, roe-bucks, hares, wild ass and some birds. (although the forbiddence is not significant, it is of an idol-worshipping nature, not governance of resources, so it shows that they believe in some power other than God and some religion other than Islam theologically)
4. Forbidden, to cut the throats of animals slain for food; they must be bound, the chest opened and the heart pulled out by the hand of the hunter. (NO COMMENT, basic pagan sacrifice rituals obviously not to Allah, and forbidding people from eating Islamically slaughtered Halal meat)
5. The law of marriage orders that every man shall purchase his wife, and that marriage between the first and second degrees of kinship is forbidden. A man may marry two sisters, or have several concubines. The women should attend to the care of property, buying and selling at their pleasure. Men should occupy themselves only with hunting and war. Children born of slaves are legitimate as the children of wives. The offspring of the first woman shall be honored above other children and shall inherit everything. (Marriage is strictly a religious union, this was a major issue of showing that Islam was not their religion anymore. It is this one that influenced Ibn Taimeyya's declaration of their apostasy the most, when they announced that the Mongol ruling class will not marry local muslims and will stick to Yassa-based marriages with mongolians from their homeland)

(Genghis Khan: The Emperor of All Men)

Such matters were not man-laws in the sense of today's secular laws, they were man-made religious and theological laws that affect the faith and are Apparent Apostasy (Ridda Thahera). There were other laws in the Yassa code that were not theological and though do not match Shariah, they do not present outright Apparent Apostasy.

And God knows Best