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The
political system of Islam is based on the three principles of Tawheed (Oneness of Allah),
risalah
(prophethood) and khilafah (humans’ moral responsibility).
Tawheed
means that Allah (God) alone is the One and Only Creator, Sustainer and Master of the universe. He
alone has the right to command or forbid. Worship and obedience are due to Him alone.
Hence,
it is not for us to set the ethical and moral codes or invent our frames of reference, though every
nation, group or individual is entitled to contextualize Allah’s commandments and guidance that
were revealed in succeeding religious messages within their own time and space; hence religious
devotion is a dynamic and not a static condition. This principle of the Oneness of Allah does not
contradict the concept of the legal and political sovereignty of the political community; hence the
different models of Islamic democratic governance through Islamic history.
The
risalah is the message of the prophets. Islam is the last revealed religion and the Qur’an is the
last testament. Muslims believe in the previous messengers and their messages and their original and
authentic Holy Books. The Qur’an lays down the broad principles on which human life should be
based universally, as it is the last revealed message from Allah, and Muhammad, the Prophet of
Allah, established a model system of Islamic life in accordance with these principles. The
combination of these two elements — Tawheed and risalah — is called the
Shari
‘ah (Law).
Khilafah
means representation. Humans — both men and women — according to Islam, are the representatives
of Allah on earth, His vicegerents.
To
illustrate what the previous notions mean, let us take the example of an estate of yours which
someone else has been appointed to administer. There are four conditions in this relation: First,
the real ownership of the estate remains vested in you and not in the administrator; second, he
administers your property directly in accordance with your instructions; third, he exercises his
authority within the limits prescribed by you; and fourth, in the administration of the trust he
executes your will and fulfills your intentions and not his own. Any representative who does not
fulfill these four conditions will be abusing his authority and breaking the covenant which was
implied in the concept of delegation.
This
is exactly what Islam means when it affirms that man is the representative (khalifah) of Allah on
earth. Hence, these four conditions are also involved in the concept of khalifah. The state that is
established in accordance with this political theory will, in fact, be a caliphate under the
sovereignty of Allah. It should rule with the power of the people in accordance with the principles
of justice and welfare. Such a society carries the responsibility of the khilafah as a whole, and
each one of its individuals shares in it.
Hence
the form of Islamic government might be called theo-democracy, a combination fully different from
the Western historical experience of the relation between church and state.
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