An Examination of the Relationship between Islam and State and some reflections on a strategy for Islamization of Society and State

By Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmad[1]

The first issue we want to examine very briefly relates to the fact that all Muslims, whatever be their political leanings, are committed to one ideal: the establishment of the Shariah in its entire

Islam is not a religion in the limited sense of the word. Stands for total commitment to the Creator and acceptance of a role the restructure individual and social life in the light of the guidance revealed by the Lord through His prophets, last of whom the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave this guidance in its final and complete form. The uniqueness of this religion has been ably brought into sharp focus by Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, whose words given below deserted very serious reflection by all those involved in carving out a new destiny for the Muslims in the context of the contemporary world:

                        “Islam does not bifurcate the unity of man into an irreconcilable duality of spirit and matter. In Islam God and the Universe, spirit and matter, church and state, are organic to each other. Man is not the citizen of a profane world to be renounced in the interest of a world of spirit situated elsewhere. To Islam matter is spirit realizing itself in space and time.

                The nature of the Prophet’s religious experience as disclosed in the Quran is not mere experience in the sense of a prely biological event, happening inside the experiment and necessitating no reactions on its social environment. Its immediate outcome is the funda­mentals of a polity with implicit legal concepts whose civic significance cannot be belittled merely because their origin is revelation. The religious ideal of Islam, therefore, is organically related to the social order which it created. The rejection of the one will eventually involve the rejection of the other.”[2]        

This, precisely, is the reason why revival of the Islamic social order and enforcement of the Shariah, along with re-awakening of the faith and morality, have constituted the hall-mark of Islamic revivalism throughout Muslim history. The two are simply inseparable. Neglect of the social and legal dimension would amount to the very negation of the moral and the spiritual reality of Islam. In this respect the ethos of the Islamic culture is basically different from that of the contemporary Western Civilization which is based upon the principle of secularism, that of separation between religion and stat.

The Quranic paradigm is one in which the whole socio-economic order embodies and highlights the Islamic values and principles. The individual and the society move in unison, one supporting and sustaining the other, creating a system in equilibrium, with complete interdependence of its elements, constraints as well as variables.

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“Follow what has been sent to you by your Lord and do follow no Masters other than Him”.

(Al-Quran, 7:3)

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“Decide their disputes according to the revealed law of God, and do not follow their desires (in this respect).”                                                                                                                             (Al-Quran, 5:48)

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“Those who fail to judge by what Allah has revealed, they are those who disbelieve they are the transgressors…. they are the evil-doers.”                                             (Al-Quran, 5:44-45-47)

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“But no, by the Lord, they can have no faith until they make you the judge in all disputes between them and find in their souls no resistance against your decisions, but accept them with the fullest submission.”                                                                                            (Al-Quran 4:65)

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0 ye who believe: Obey Allah and obey His Prophet and the people in authority from amongst you. When there is a disputation between you (and your rulers) refers back to Allah and His Prophet.”                                                                                                           (Al-Quran, 4:59)

In view of these clear imperatives the jurists have unanimously formulated be founded  the principle that Muslim social life is to the Shariah and the individual and social conduct is in accordance with the norms, injunctions and prohibition- by Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him). Ibn Tai’miyyah says:

“In the scheme of this religion nothing is obligatory unless it has been made obligatory by the Prophet (peace be upon him), nor a thing becomes forbidden unless it has been forbidden by him, nor desirable if he has not regarded it desirable, now undesirable if he has not so upheld it and not permissible if it has not been left to be permissible by him.

 (Ibn Tai’miyyah, Qa’ida Jalila fi al-Tawassul al-Wasila, p.99)

In view of these Islamic injunctions enforcement of the Shariah has been regarded as the principal objective of the Islamic state and its leadership. According to Al-Nibras Sharh li Sarh al-Aqaid:

The Muslims ought to have a leader who should carry out the imple­mentation of injunctions prescribed by the Shariah, i.e. their general enforcement. He should also establish Hudud i.e. the various specified punishments for wrongdoers such as the punishment of Zina, drinking, false accusation of un-chastity. He should also defend their frontiers. The word Sadd means to deter. Thughur is a plural of Thaghr which means the boundaries of Par al-Islam adjacent to Par al-Harb. By deterring is meant protection of Par al-Islam by building fortifications and raising armies to deter dis-believers from aggression. He should also prepare armies. The word tajhiz used in the text literally means: providing a traveller with whatever he stand in need of. The word is also used for preparing a girl at the time of marriage. He should also collect their Sadaqat. This includes Zakat, ushr and Kharaj that are to be collected from the rich and distributed among the needy. He should also over-power those who dominate others by force, i.e. those who wrongfully dominate over people subjecting them to injustice and exploitation by usurping their rights. He should also over-power highway men, i.e. those who are on the look-out for public roads for the purpose of committing robbery. He should also organise the congregational Prayers of Friday and Id, which are among the greatest symbols of Islam.

He should also settle the dispute that arise among people and should admit evidences for the establishment of rights.

If you object by saying that settling of disputes and admission of evidence are implied in the enforcement of injunctions already referre to I would answer that in some cases these are not implied in the injunctions such as in the cases of Hudud and Qisas which require an Imam or his deputy for their implementation. Moreover, human nature is disposed to recalcitrance; therefore, if there is no coercive authority no adjudication and its acceptance in possible. He should also arrange marriage of young people who have no guardians. They are such who ha* no near relatives to manage their affairs. Obviously no one can spend on this except the one who is in charge of the exchequer. He should also supervise the distribution of booty because greed cannot be curb except by the deterrent policy of the powerful. He should also perform such other duties as cannot be performed by the individuals of the Ummah.

(Al-Nibras Sharh li Sharh al-Aqaid, pp.512-51

It has been stated in Hashia Sharh Al-‘Aqaid: that enforce­ment of the Shariah in Sine qua non of a legitimate ruler:

“Who is the rightful leader?

A true leader is he who combines in himself the five conditions of leadership namely: Islam, freedom, sanity, majority and integrity. He should be installed through Bay’ah by a Muslim collectivity who approve of his leader­ship. He should endeavor for the advancement of the cause of Islam and should support the community of Muslims. He should protect the life, property and honor of Muslims. He should organise the collection of Ushr and Kharaj in the manner prescribed by the Shariah. He should provide for the Ulama, Khutuba, Judges, Juris-Consults, teachers, students, preservers (huffaz) of the Qur’an and similar other people from the public exchequer. He should be honest, reliable and sympathetic toward Muslims. Anyone who does not fulfill the above conditions is not a rightful leader. His support is not obligatory. Rather fighting with him and rebellion against his in obligatory.”                                                                  (Hashia Sharh al-Aqaid, p. 110)

Suffice it to submit that as far as Muslims are concerned, there can be no two opinions about the indispensability of the intro­duction of the Shariah in all fields of individual and social life, particularly when they have the authority in the land, to enforce it through the instruments of the state:

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“Muslims are those who if we give them power in the establish Salat and Zakat, enforce right and forbid wrong, but with God rests the final outcome of all events.”                        (Al-Quran, 22:41)

This being the Islamic imperative the question arises what would be the best strategy to establish the Shariah in our own times?

Strategy for Islamization:

The problems that engulf the Muslims are multi-dimensional. They have recently re-emerged from about two centuries of colonial rule a period during which many an intellectual and socio-economic revolution have taken place in the world, resulting in the hegemony of a civilization diametrically different from their own. Muslim society has been weakened in a number of ways. There is widespread ignorance of Islam and its teachings. The society is torn with sectarianism and ideologi­cal, political, economic and ethnic dissentions. The moral fiber of the society has been weakened. In the fields of education, science, technology and innovation Muslims are lagging behind. There is economic poverty and backwardness, along with exploitation and submission to ves interests. By and large, there is lack of confidence and cooperation.

  1. Widespread dissemination of the teachings of Islam and a concerted effort to reconstruct the educational system to bring about a new awakening of Islam as a social system and a movement for change. As a result of these efforts an Islamic critique of the contempo­rary Western society as well as that of the status quo in the Muslim society would have to be developed. The intellectual challenge of the forces inimical to Islam would have to be met in an effort to seek reconstruction of human thought on the basis of values and principles of Islam. Education and research would have to reign prominently in these strategies.
  2. The fundamental values of Islam that have to be made focus of discussion, education and regeneration are:
  1. Tawhid                                  as the basis of Faith.
  2. Taqwa                                   as the basis of personality and character.
  3. Adalah                                  justice as the prime value for socio-economic life.
  4. Shura                                    as the process to involve active participation of the people

In decision making.

  • Hurriyyah                            to enable the individual to protect his rights and play his                                               rightful role in the society.
  • Accountability                  at all levels to act as a corrective mechanism for the society.

  • Socio-economic changes in the society to establish rule of law and equality before law, to enable the people to work hard to achieve maximization of useful production and its equitable distribution.
  • Restoration and strengthening of the institutions of family, mosque, madraseh, waqf and social solitaire law and the state.
  • Evolution of legitimate political leadership, elected by people through their free choice and responsible to them. Such a leadership can mobilize the people and harness their energies in the cause of moral regeneration and socio-economic development.
  • Systematic introduction of Islamic laws and other socio-economic reforms in a manner that would result in the fulfillment of the moral and social objectives of Islam and elimination of the causes that force or drive men towards crime and social deviance.

An effective strategy for Islamization must take care of all these dimensions, even though the weights assigned to different elements may differ from country to country and situation to situation unless all these forces and factors are mobilized to supplement each other, the total change Islam aims at may continue to elude us. That is why, to be successful such an effort has to be comprehensive and many dimensional, piece-meal or one-dimensional approaches are fore­doomed to failure.

[1]       Prof. Khurshid Ahmad, Member Senate of Pakistan, is Chairman, Institute of Policy Studies. Islamabad, and Chairman, the Islamic Foundation, Leicester, UK. He has also served as Federal Minister for Planning & Develop­ment and Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Pakistan.

[2]     Muhammad Iqbal, “Presidential Address, 1930”. All India Muslim League, Twenty Fifth Session, ALLAHABAD A Dec.1930. Sharifuddin Pirzada (ed.) Foundations of Pakistan, Vol.11, Karachi, National Publishing House, 1970, p.154 and 157.