Islam’s Contribution To International Political Thought

The Islamic world today is passing through one of the most critical periods of its history. The 1000 million strong Islamic Ummah, consisting of over forty independent Muslim states and a host of Muslim communities in non-Muslim lands, finds itself in a strange situation. On the one hand, there is a growing perception of its political, economic, strategic, ideological, and manpower potential; on the other hand, there are the agonizing experiences of its powerlessness and ineffectiveness in the corridors of power politics. The Muslim world seems to be passing through a ‘creative tension’ because of dissatisfaction with the status quo, creative because this tension is releasing new energies and new aspirations to change the situation. It stands on a new threshold searching for a positive role and a better future.

The last two centuries have subjected the Muslims to a new traumatic experience: for the first time in their history they came under the military, political and cultural domination of non-Muslim powers and were subject to the rule of a law which lacked all legitimacy in the religious moral value-system. It has been only during the last few decades that the Muslim world has begun to emerge from this predicament. The language, the issues and the modes of articulation of the contemporary Islamic resurgence mirror the new forces shaping the world of Islam.

 

It is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, starting from rediscovery of faith, greater recourse to forces of worship and prayers, and re-affirmation of personal morality and character to efforts to restructure the Muslim society in accordance with the ideals and values of Islamic faith and culture. Perhaps the most important symbol of this new search is the rallying call for the establishment of the Shariah: the divine revelation code of conduct providing guidance for all aspects of human life and the sheet-anchor of Muslim life ever since the establishment of the Islamic Social Order in Madinah under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that in the last analysis the whole issue relates to the Muslim longings to re-establish an Islamic state and society: the Islamic political order.

It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that in the last analysis the whole issue relates to the Muslim longings to re-establish an Islamic state and society: the Islamic political order.

This is the Muslim context in which we are meeting today to discuss Islam’s contribution to international political thought. “International Political Thought” may appear to be a new term, and I do not propose to get enmeshed in a controversy about its exact definition and scope. To me, all political thought that has international relevance, whether that relates to the source and problems of power within a state or to questions emerging from relations between states and individuals in the world community, falls within the ambit of “International Political Thought”.

The question of Islamic contribution can also be examined in a number of ways: it could be handled at a purely theoretical level, spelling out Islam’s approach to law and politics, or primarily in the historical context of Islamic contribution over the last fourteen hundred years. Both could be valid and useful approaches to the subject. But I propose to deal with the subject slightly differently, by giving the discussion a little more contemporary Islamic resurgence and the problems of the world political order. It may not be regarded as a very sane venture, yet it may have the potential to shift the focus from past history, however glorious or tortuous, to the tensions and travails and possibilities and prospects of the present and the future.

Political theory has from time immemorial addressed itself to the tangled question of power in one form or the other, both at institutional as well as functional levels. The classical theory, which emerged in fifth-century Athens, owed largely to the contributions of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. It represented an attempt to work out a synthesis of three elements: politics, the idea of a theory, and the practice of philosophy. In the Western political tradition, despite a number of reformulations and diversions, this synthesis survived by and large until the nineteenth century, when science tried to overtake philosophy and give political science a new direction. Although the real impact of this development took

 

many decades to take shape, the emphasis shifted from traditional philosophic and moral issues to the modus operandi of political behavior, from the realm of values to the so-called universe of facts. A review of political thought over the years suggests four distinct fields of inquiry and reflection;

1. The moral theory of politics, dealing with the question of legitimacy, goals of political activity and values to guide political action and institutions.

 

1. The historical study of political ideas covering the vast spectrum of man’s reflection on issues of politics.

 

1. The linguistic analysis of political ideas, an extension of the techniques of philosophic positivism to the realm of politics.

 

1. The discovery and systematic development of generalizations about political behavior, relying mainly on application of techniques of the scientific method to the study of the political phenomenon.

 

A careful look at contemporary political thought reveals a poignant shift from moral theory politics to the issues, forms, and rationale of political behavior and the problems of the making of public policy. The political system is now looked upon as that behavior or set of interactions through which authoritative allocations, that is, decisions of a binding nature, are made and implemented, for a society. Despite this significant shift in approach and change in methodology, the questions of “authenticity” and “Legitimacy” cannot be totally overlooked or conveniently dismissed. The role of ethical criteria comes up, again and again, all the emphasis on ‘realism’ and ‘relativism’ notwithstanding. The flow of empirical research, while breaking new ground in many important areas, has substituted. One kind of scientific product-empirical, verifiable data for the whole that used to make up the matrix of political theory. “It has done little to clarify”, asserts David Easton, “its views on the relationship between facts and values”.

 

 

As such, a primary challenge that besets political thought today relates to setting forth the moral criterion that ought to be used to judge the ethical worth of a political system and its institutions and to propose alternative political arrangement and practices likely to meet the coveted ethical standards. The issue, as posed by Aristotle, remains relevant: policies remain the striving of a society or community for the attainment of the good life. However, one may shift the focus onto the questions of conflict, power, and policy; the centrepiece remains the question of the good life and how to attain it in the context of all these conflicts and diversions. Conflict management remains the main concern of contemporary political theory, but this exercise cannot be divorced from the moral context and the people’s vision of the good life, which explicitly or otherwise constitute the axis towards which convergence is sought. Ethical norms can provide a people a set of shared values which can constitute the basis of society, overriding ethnic, linguistic or parochial identifications. Ideology provides an individual with a goal greater than himself; the goal that can weld individuals into a community and a society in which they live and towards a humanity which could be shared universally.

 

The contemporary political system owes its origin and growth to the rise and dominance of Western civilization. If it can be traced to any one event and date, it cannot but be the Westphalia convention of 1648, in the wake of the disastrous Thirty Years’ Wars. The nation-state became the new form of statecraft, secularism, and nationalism because the new arbiters of the political realm and maximizing the security of the political system within and without became the main concern of the international system. The rise and fall of colonialism, the ebb and flow of balance of power, the emergence and eclipse of political actors and change in the loci of world power, and alignments and realignments to face the challenges from shifts in power have, by and large, taken place within the context of Westphalia system.

Four features of the contemporary political system deserve to be noted:

First, the nation-state remains the dominant form of statecraft despite the emergence of a number of ‘ideologies’ based nation-states, like Soviet Russia, Communist China, Israel, etc.

Second, while colonialism has significantly declined, political and economic hegemony in one form or the other remains a potent reality. Quite a few states do not enjoy a position better than a Client state, and many regions and peoples still lack freedom and the right to self-determination.

Thirdly, deterrence continues to be the dominant regulator of the international security system, allegedly minimizing the probability of war through deliberate maintenance of equilibrium among major states.

Fourthly, contemporary political theory practices are firmly entrenched in the principle of separation of religion and politics. Secularism is the pivot on which the modern political system operates. Liberalism, nationalism, socialism and welfarism are some of the secular ideologies which have tried to influence the working of some of the modern states.

 

Finally, while a number of international institutions and organizations have emerged and many alliances and groupings have been made and re-made, the international system is conspicuous by the absence of a over­arching political order based on supra-national loyalty and capable of organizing humanity on universal principles.

The dominant political system is under heavy stress. The expansionism of the European state system and its diffusion to countries of Asia, Africa and South America has brought its nemesis. The world is today divided into over 170 nation-states of different size and strength, aggravating the complexity of diplomatic activity on the one hand and making political and economic self-sufficiency impossible for many of these ‘mini-states,’ whatever be their size. Edward Morse expresses his grave concern over the possibility of maintaining autonomous nation-states as the major political institution in the future.

 

Brzezinski surmises on the transition between two ages: between the past age of the nation-state and some unknown future.

 

Industrial Revolution, expansion of markets, and increasing use of science and technology have created levels of interdependence in the relationship between nations and countries. Similarly, effective decision-making matters both for domestic and international affairs, requiring centralization or collaboration between states in an increasing number of areas. Cumulative knowledge is becoming more transnational, and technology is integrating nations divided by political barriers. The emergence of ideologies in different centers of the world influences the political climate and produces a new system of reliance. The new emphasis on economic justice, on equitable share of world resources, on rectification of inequities produced by the colonial concept of international division on international resource transfers to ensure minimum welfare of all nations and peoples has raised new issues and new challenges for the world political order.

 

The paradigm which has reigned for the last three centuries is beginning to look obsolete and wanting. Perhaps what is needed is not a change within the paradigm, but is the change of the paradigm itself. Joseph A. Camilleri succinctly describes the crisis of civilization from which a man is seeking a way out: “The contemporary human crisis is so profound and pervasive that the very attempt to analyze it, let alone resolve it, seems to defy the power of human reason and imagination. The battle for survival is currently being waged by millions of men whose precarious existence is one of poverty, squalor and even hunger.

 

Man’s predicament impinges on the future of entire nations that are threatened by external attack or internal disintegration; it dominates the vast network of international relations so delicately poised on the dangerous and ultimately unstable “balance of terror”. Traditional conceptions of time, space and movement have been overthrown by the technological revolution and the shift to an exploitative, power-centered culture. The ensuing social and psychological discontinuity and moral vacuum have produced a severe crisis of conscience and a large-scale flight from reality.

 

The crisis which confronts twentieth-century man is truly global, not simply by virtue of countless men and women, but in the more far-reaching sense that it permeates and vitiates the whole fabric of human relations and human institutions, and is now distorting man’s relationship with the natural order. No human community, no individual, no corner of the globe, however remote, however powerful or well endowed, can now escape from the disorder which affects the entire planet. Perhaps we can best describe the global crisis in terms of a fundamental disequilibrium which severely limits and may ultimately destroy man’s capacity for biological and cultural adaptation to his environment.

 

Among the most common forms of pathological behavior in modern industrial society, one would include the pre­occupation with having and acquiring, rather than with being or becoming; the obsession with the power to dominate rather than liberate; the profound sense of alienation rather than participation in the wider social reality: attitude towards work and leisure as means of killing rather than creatively living in time, the pre despotic to an in-group rather than an out-group psychology which discriminates on the basis of sex, race, creed or nation the tendency to resolve conflicts through the use or through force.

 

What distinguishes the super-industrial system and the global spread of its empire is the high degree to which social pathology has been institutionalized through the pyramidal stratification of wealth, power and knowledge, but above all through the growing monopoly of industrial production over the satisfaction of human wants. The institutional integration of pathological behavior has now reached such proportions that it is not merely the quality but very survival of human life which is at risk. If this is an accurate diagnosis of the serious and deteriorating condition of our civilization, then no piecemeal, provisional, or parochial remedy is likely to be efficacious.

 

It would appear that in order to sustain the organic evolution of the human species it will be necessary to develop perspectives and responses that are both radical and global in inspiration.

 

Islam offers a new paradigm, not merely a political system but for the entire world order based on a new concept of human person and a different vision of society and state. Islam challenges the basic premise on which the secular political order is based: that of sufficiency of man and non-relevance of divine guidance in matters of the world. “Give unto God what is God’s and unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” is foreign to the Islamic approach to life and its problems.

 

The basic problems that confront man today are very similar, whether he lives in the nation-state of the East or the West, under the umbrella of secular democracy or atheistic communism, under capitalism or socialism or mixed economy, all of which represent sub-sets of the same cultural system, Western civilization. If we want to understand the Islamic approach to the issues of political theory, we would have to examine Islam on its own terms: as a Deen, a complete way of life, faith and culture, prayer and progress, society and civilization, law and ethics, economy and politics, community and world order are but aspects of the organic whole that is Islam.

 

Islam represents a new and unique approach to life and its problems. Islam stands for total change and not merely a set of certain political reforms or economic adjustments. The objective is the establishment of a new world order with its own framework of ideals, values and foundations. Its approach to problems and processes of socio-political change is unique.

This approach has failed to produce proper results. It has ignored the need to bring about change within men and women themselves and has concentrated on change in the outside world. What is needed, however, is a total change within people themselves as well as in their social environment. The problem is not merely structural, although structural arrangements would also have to be remodeled. But the starting point must be the hearts and souls of men and women, their perception of reality and of their own place and mission in life.

 

The Islamic approach to social change may be summed up as follows:

1. Social change is not a result of totally predetermined historical forces. The existence of a number of obstacles and constraints is a fact of life and history, but there is no historical determinism. Change has to be planned and engineered. And this change should be purposeful, that is, a movement toward the

 

1. Man is the active agent of change. All other forces have been subordinated to him in his capacity as God’s vicegerent and deputy (Khalifa) on the earth. Within the framework of the divine arrangement for this universe and its laws, it is man himself who is responsible for making or marring his destiny.

 

1. Change consists in environmental change, and change within the hearts and souls of men and women—their attitudes, motivation, commitment, their resolve to mobilize all that is within them and around them for the fulfillment of their objectives.

 

1. Life is a network of inter-relationships. Change means some disruption in some relationships somewhere. So there is a danger of change becoming an instrument of disequilibrium within men and women, and in social lslamically-oriented social change would involve the friction and disequilibria, with planned and co-ordinated movement from one state of equilibrium to a higher one, from a state of disequilibrium toward equilibrium. Hence change has to be balanced, gradual and evolutionary. Innovation is to be coupled with integration. It is this unique Islamic approach which leads to revolutionary change through an evolutionary trajectory.

These basic changes, if implemented, will revolutionize our approach to the problems of a new world order. I would now like to briefly explain what Islam is and how it proposes to establish a new order, including a new political order.

 

• Islam is an Arabic word. It is derived from two roots, one ‘salam’, meaning peace, and the other ‘silm’, meaning submission. Islam stands for “a commitment to surrender one’s will to the Will of God” and, as such, to be at peace with the Creator and with all that has been created by Him. It is through submission to the Will of God that peace is produced. Harmonization of our will ill of God brings about harmonization of different spheres of life under an all-embracing ideal. Departmentalization of life into different watertight compartments, religious and secular, sacred and profane, and material, is ruled out. There is unity of life and unity of the source of guidance. As God is One and Indivisible, so is life and our human personality. Each aspect of life is inseparable from the other. Religious and secular are not two autonomous categories; they represent two sides of the same coin. Each and every act becomes related to God and His guidance. Every human activity is given a transcendent dimension; it becomes sacred and meaningful and goal-centred.

 

• Islam is a worldview and an outlook on life. It is based on the recognition of the unity of the Creator and of our submission to His will. Everything originates from the One God, and everyone is ultimately responsible to Him. Distinctions of race, color, caste, wealth, and power disappear; our relation with other persons assumes total equality by virtue of the common Creator. Henceforth, our mission becomes a dedication to our Creator; worship and obedience of the Creator becomes our purpose in life.

 

• The Creator has not left us without guidance for the conduct of our life. Ever since the beginning of Creation, He has sent down Prophets who conveyed His message to humankind. They are the source for finding God’s Will. Thus we have the chain of Prophets beginning with Adam (peace be upon him) and ending with Muhammad (peace be upon him). Abraham, Moses, Noah, John, Zechariah and Jesus (peace be upon them) all belong to this golden chain of Prophets. Prophets David, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (May peace be upon them all) brought revealed books of guidance with them. The Qur’an, the Book revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, is the last and final of these books of guidance.

The Qur’an contains the word of God. In it is preserved the divine revelation, unalloyed by human interpolation of any kind, unaffected by any change or loss to the original. In it is distilled the essence of all the messages sent down in the past. In it is embodied a framework for the conduct of the whole of human life; there are explicit criteria for judging between right and wrong; there are principles of individual and collective conduct. In it are depicted the human follies of the past. In it are warnings for humankind, and in it are assurances of continued guidance for those who seek God’s help.

 

The Qur’an has depicted a path; the Straight Path (Sirat al-Mustaqim) which, when followed, revolutionizes the whole of life. It brings about a transformation in change and galvanizes us into action. This action takes the form of purification of the self, and then unceasing effort to establish the laws of God on earth, resulting in a new order based on truth, justice, virtue and goodness.

 

• Men play a crucial role in the making of the world. They act as God’s vicegerents (Khalifa) and representatives on the They are morally prepared to play this role. Success lies in playing it properly, by enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, by freeing people from the bondage of others, by demonstrating that a sound and serene social order can only result if one harmonizes one’s will with the Will. This makes seeking the Creator’s pleasure one’s purpose in life, treating the whole of Creation as one’s partner, raising the concept of human welfare from the level of mere animal needs to seeking what is best in this world and what is best in the Hereafter.

 

Islam is not a religion in the Western understanding of the word. It is at once a faith and a way of life, a religion and a social order, a doctrine and a code of conduct, a set of values and principles and a social movement to realize them in history. There is no priesthood in Islam, not even an organized ‘church’. All men and women, who are committed to this ideal, are expected to live in accordance with principles and to strive to establish them in society and history. Those who commit themselves to Truth try to ensure that truth prevails. They strive to make a new world: the lineage of the Truth.

 

• Islam, as a system of life, prepares us to play this role and provides us with guidelines for the development of a new personality and a new society. For the purification of the self, there are prayers (Salat) performed five times a day in the confines of the home and in congregation in our mosques, strengthening our commitment to God, refreshing our loyalty to truth, reinvigorating us to work for the realization of our ideal. Prayer is supplemented by fasting (sawm) for the achievement of these objectives.

 

Prayer and fasting integrate us with God and provide us with the spiritual discipline we need to become godly in the midst of the rough and tumble of life₃ Zakat commits our wealth—our worldly resources to the achievement of divine purposes in the socio­economic realm.

Zakat is a monetary obligation. Every Muslim who possesses more than a certain minimum amount of wealth has to contribute at least a certain percentage of his or her total wealth for welfare functions within society. It is not a charity; it is a religious right which the rich owe to the needy and the poor, and to society at large. But the spirit of this compulsory contribution is that it is paid by the rich as an act of worship, not merely as a tax.

This is how all that Muslims have, soul, body, or their belongings, are harnessed for the service of divine justice and truth; it is also obligatory on Muslims to visit the Ka’ba at least once in their lifetime for Hajj (pilgrimage). This, among others, is an index of the unity of the Muslim community (Ummah), a community of faith and a symbol of the unity of humankind. A universal order can come into existence only on the basis of a universal faith and not on the basis of commitment to ‘gods’ of race, colour, region or riches. The ideal of human brotherhood seeks actualization in Islam.

 

• The elements of permanence and change co-exist in human society and culture and are bound to remain. Different Ideologies and cultural systems have erred in leaning heavily towards any one of these ends of the equation. Too much emphasis on permanence makes the Sigrid and robs it of flexibility and progress, while too much emphasis on permanent values and unchanging elements generates relativism, shapelessness and anarchy. What is needed is a balance between the two—a system that could simultaneously cater for the demands of permanence and change. An American judge, Mr. Justice Cardozo, rightly says: “that the greatest need of our time is a philosophy that will mediate between conflicting claims of stability and progress and supply a principle of growth”. Islam presents an ideology which satisfies the demands of stability as well as of change.

 

Deeper reflection reveals that life has within it elements of permanence and change—neither is it so rigid and inflexible that it cannot admit of any change even in matters of detail nor is it so flexible and fluid that even its distinctive traits have no permanent character of their own. This becomes clear from observing the process of physiological change in the human body: every tissue of the body changes a number of times in one’s lifetime, but the person remains the same. Leaves, flowers, and fruits of a tree change, but the character of the tree remains unchanged. It is a law of life that elements of permanence and change must co-exist in a harmonious equation. Only that system of life can cater for all the cravings of human nature and all the needs of society which can provide for both these elements. The basic problems of life remain the same in all ages and climes, but the ways and means to solve them and the techniques of handling the phenomenon undergo change with the passage of time. Islam brings to focus a new perspective on this problem and tries to solve a realistic way.

 

The Qur’an and the Sunnah contain the eternal guidance given by the Lord of the universe. This guidance comes from God, who is free from the limitations of ‘space’ and ‘time ‘, and as such the principles of individual and social behavior revealed by Him are based on reality and are eternal. But God has revealed only broad principles and has endowed man with the freedom to apply j them in every age in the way suited to the spirit and conditions of that age. It is through the Ijtihad that people of every age try to implement and apply divine guidance to the problems of their times. Thus, the basic guidance is of a permanent nature, while the method of its application can change in accordance with the peculiar needs of every age. That is why Islam always remains as fresh and modern as tomorrow’s morn.

 

In our search for a new world order today, Islam emphasizes that we must aspire to a new system of life which could approach human problems from a different perspective.

 

Not merely from the perspective of limited national or regional interest, but from the perspective of what is right and wrong, and how best we can strive to evolve a just and a humane world order at different levels of our existence, Individual, national and international.

 

That the present order is characterized by injustice and exploitation is proved beyond any shadow of doubt. But Islam suggests that the present order fails because it is based upon a wrong concept of man and of his relationship with other human beings, with society, with nature, and with the world. The search for a new order brings us to “the need for a new concept of man and his role. From the viewpoint of world religions in general, and of Islam in particular, the focus of the discussion must be shifted to a new vision of man and society, to an effort to bring about change at the level of human consciousness, of value leading to new cultural transformation and establishment of an Islamic state.

 

Islamic political system is a sub-set of the Islamic way of life. Political activity is as integral an element of the Islamic scheme of life as prayer or pilgrimage. Religion and politics represent two sides of the same coin. Contemporary political scientists have failed to study the close relationship between religion and politics, particularly the interaction of political and religious factors in society. Muslims and the influence of Islam on other systems cannot be understood without developing a methodology capable of studying both realms simultaneously.

 

The state is one of the most fundamental institutions of society. Islam affirms its raison de’tere not only in the maintenance of law and order but also in the society’s need to establish justice and socio-moral well-being of the people. Establishment of a just political order, according to the Quran, has been amongst the obligations of prophet hood.

 

Like some of his predecessors, established a political society and acted as head of a state. Power is not a dirty word in Islamic terminology.

 

Muslims are projected in the Quran as people who wield power scrupulously towards the fulfillment of their moral objectives.

The Prophet is reported to have said Allah enables a people to check evil through state power, what cannot be eradicated merely by the Book.

That is why it is a principle of Islamic law that the establishment of the political authority (Wujub al-Inama) amongst the Muslims is an obligation on which there is consensus.

 

An Islamic state is characterized by the following:

 

1. Sovereignty belongs to Allah alone, and the Shariah is the chief source of legislation and policy. The supremacy of Shariah and its rules in all walks of life is the distinctive feature of an Islamic polity. This makes the Muslim society a law-based society, and every functionary of the state derives his authority from the Shariah.
2. The dignity of man as Allah’s Khalifa (vicegerent) on the earth and man’s equality: it is significant that the Quran’s promise about rule over the earth is made to the whole community of believers, and not to any individual, family, tribe, class or group of people.

 

Maududi spells out the implications of this concept as follows:

 

“The Caliphate granted by God to the faithful is the popular vicegerency and not a limited one. There is no reservation in favour of any family, class or race. Every believer is a Caliph of God in his individual capacity. By virtue of this position, he is individually responsible to God. The Holy Prophet has said: “Every one of you is a ruler, and everyone is answerable for his subjects^”. Thus, one Caliph is in no way inferior to another.

This is the real foundation of democracy in Islam. The following points emerge from an analysis of the conception of popular vicegerency.

 

1. A society in which everyone is a Khalifa of God and an equal participant in this caliphate cannot tolerate any class divisions based on distinctions of birth and social position. All men enjoy equal status and position in such a society. The only criterion of superiority in this social order is personal ability and character. This is what has been repeatedly and explicitly asserted by the Holy Prophet:

 

“No one is superior to another except in point of faith and piety. All men are descended from Adam and Adam was made of clay”. “An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab over an Arab; neither does a white man possess any superiority over a black man nor a black man over a white one, except in point of piety”.

 

1. In such a society no individual or group of individuals will suffer any disability on account of birth, social status, or profession that may in any way impede the growth of his faculties or hamper the development of his personality. Everyone would enjoy equal opportunities of progress. The way would be left open for him to make as much progress as possible, due to his inborn capacity and personal merits without prejudice to similar rights of other people. Thus, unrestricted scope for personal achievement has always been the hallmark of Islamic society.

 

1. There is no room in such a society for the dictatorship of any person or group of persons since everyone is a caliph of God herein. No person or group of persons is entitled to become an absolute ruler by depriving the rank and file of their inherent right of caliphate. The position of a man who is selected to conduct the affairs of the state is no more than this: that all Muslims (or, technically speaking, all caliphs of God) delegate their caliphate to him for administrative purposes. He is answerable to God on the one hand and on the other to his fellow ‘caliphs’ who have delegated their authority to him. Now, if he raises himself to the position of an irresponsible absolute ruler, that is to say, a dictator, he assumes the character of a usurper rather than a caliph, because dictatorship is the negation of popular vicegerency. No doubt the Islamic State is an all-embracing state and comprises within its sphere all departments of life, but this all-inclusiveness and universality are based upon the universality of Divine Law which an Islamic ruler has to observe and enforce. The guidance given by God about every aspect of life will certainly be enforced in its entirety. But an Islamic ruler cannot depart from these instructions and adopt a policy of regimentation of his own. He cannot force people to follow or not to follow a particular profession; to learn or not to learn a special art; to use or not to use a certain script; to wear or not to wear a certain dress and to educate or not to educate their children in a certain manner.

 

1. Besides this, another important point is that in Islam every individual is held personally answerable to God. This personal responsibility enjoys full liberty to choose whichever path he likes and to develop his faculties in any direction that suits his natural gifts. If the leader obstructs him or obstructs the growth of his personality, he will himself be punished by God for this tyranny. That is precisely the reason why there is not the slightest trace of regimen action in the rule of the Holy Prophet and of his rightly-guided Caliphs; and

 

1. In such a society every sane and adult Muslim, male or female, is entitled to express his or her opinion, for each one of them is the condition, not upon any particular standard of wealth or competence but only upon faith and good conduct. Therefore, all Muslims have equal freedom to express their opinions.

 

3. Shura is the divinely ordained method of governance and as the process for policy formulation, decision making, election of leadership and exercise of The Quran affirms: “And their affairs are conducted through mutual consultation”. The Prophet was advised by Allah to consult the people in the affairs of the state. And Abu Huraira bears witness that he did not come across anyone who used to consult his companions more than the Prophet himself.

 

Shura means that those entrusted with authority must be appointed through consultation, and once appointed, they should run the affairs of the state through consultation.

 

4. This brings us to the principle in an “Islamic polity. Legitimacy in Islam is acquired through:
5. Acceptance, loyalty and adherence to Shariah. Obedience to law and law-enforcing agencies derives its sanctions from laws’ conformity with the Shariah; and
6. Trust, confidence and support of the people. The ruler should not only be following the Shariah, but should have come to power through legitimate means, enjoying the confidence of the people.

 

Both of these conditions should be fulfilled simultaneously, and if any of them is lacking or defective to any extent, legitimacy would suffer to that extent.

 

5. Establishment of Justice; along with maintenance of law and order and promotion of Islamic Dawah, are the primary objectives of the Islamic state and its leadership. Separation of judiciary from the executive; and the separation of investigation and prosecution agencies are essential elements of the Islamic judicial system. Qada (judiciary) and H1aba (ombudsman) are essential elements of the Islamic legal system.

 

6. Strict observance of the Islamic concept of human rights, which is inalienable due to its divine origin and cannot be violated by any ruler, government or authority, and which no person has the right to surrender. This also entails the obligation to support the oppressed anywhere in the world.

 

7. The political order must be based on and should help in promoting a just economic order based on the belief that everything in the universe belongs to Allah and is in the nature of a blessing from Him to mankind; that everyone is entitled to a just share in this Divine bounty; that all natural resources are a trust (Amanah) from Allah and that man is individually and collectively custodian (Mustekhlaf) of these resource that man’s economic effort and its reward are determined within the framework of this trust; that provision of opportunities of work to all able-bodied members of society and just reward for work are individual social obligation; that the provision of basic necessities of life for the disabled, the sick, the old and the needy is an individual and collective responsibility that the poor and the deprived have a right in the wealth of the rich and the well-to-do; and that the development of essential industries and trades and the socio-economic infra-structure is a social obligation.

 

8. Unity of the Islamic Ummah and development of a framework to seek greater integration amongst Muslim countries and communities, their balanced and integrated development and attainment of their collective self-reliance. Patriotism and solidarity with the ideological community of Islam are essential ingredients of political policy in Islam. Establishment of peace and amity among nations and peoples, and elimination of conflict and discord and injustice that may endanger peace have been enjoined.

 

9. Respect for agreements, treaties, pacts, guarantees, contracts and inter-personal and international obligations has been enjoined. Islam gives certain principles of international law, rules for war and peace, and spells out sets of rights and obligations of individual communities and states. These laws and rules are based on divine commands and constitute inviolable They are not based on reciprocity or expediency. While there is scope for retaliation within the Islamic framework, the Islamic injunctions prescribe Ehsan (benevolence and excellence) in human relations.

 

10. Being an ideological state, Islamic polity has to give primary importance to da’wa and education, to sharing of knowledge and faith and experience, with and without, but there is no compulsion in religion is through exchange of ideas and experiences that the message is to seek universal articulation. Islam exports revolution through subversion, use of military or other forms of intervention in domestic affairs of other states; through any form of aggressing the state is obliged to refrain from engaging or participating in wars prompted by differences in religious belief or for exploitation of other peoples’ resources to control their economies. War is, however, permitted to defend the faith, the territorial integrity of the state; to defend the honor, dignity and freedom of man, and to preserve peace in the world.

 

The ideals, approach and principles of Islam discussed in this paper have great relevance for the contemporary political situation. Islam offers an alternate model for polity and society which establishes these institutions on the foundations of faith, morality and human accountability, here and hereafter. This model has relevance for any society, but its first is for the Muslim peoples and countries. Islamic political thought has begun to influence Muslim states in a number of ways, but a truly representative Islamic state is yet to be established. Islam has given basic principles and values, but there can be more than one road to achieve these ideals.²⁰ Every Muslim country has to pursue its own Islamization and seek greater cooperation and integration amongst the countries of the Muslim Ummah. This is how a new model of ideology-based states, as against nation-states, seeks greater unity and solidarity in international relations on the basis of shared ideology and common objectives and aspirations for the establishment of a just world order.