Mar 2004 - Issue 3

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Islamic Political Thought: Parallels or Anti-parallels?

Unleashing the myths and mysteries of western thought of Islam as merely a doctrine of religious beliefs, Faisal Idrees argues what he calls "Autonomous Sovereignty" within the limits of Quran and Sunnah.

Faisal Idrees

Faisal Idrees ...

Abstract

The division of spiritual and temporal in Christianity has taken a long time to be enacted into the political theory of the occidental mind. There is a long history of church rule behind today’s secular political thinking. Which recognizes religion as of no significance in the eye of the state. They have taken the sovereignty from God and put it into the hands of the people. In doing so they have declared collective human conscience as their guide and have rejected all sorts of scriptures of divine nature. This is leading these societies to moral ruin. Approval of homosexuality as a legal practice by the legislatures of some western countries is an indication of the moral collapse that awaits them.

Although Islam has no division of spirit and mundane but still does not support theocracy or any other form of autocratic rule. It has taken a middle course, which can best be explained by the word “autonomous”. Giving the absolute power and responsibility of guidance in the hands of God, Islam lets the, Muslims to exercise unlimited sovereignty within the limits of Quran and Sunnah.

Introduction

This topic seemingly look very simple and the one which can have a straightforward answer. But actually it required a great insight into the historical and the political perspective of Islamic world at large. This proposition can be tackled at a number of levels. One scheme of addressing this question could be to go to the theological injunctions, that is, to argue from Quran and Hadith.
The second approach could be of digging into the history and bringing out the relevant examples. There is yet another way of going through this riddle and that is to examine the evolution of political ideology in the world of Islam and comparing it with the political evolution of the other nations or rest of the world.
We may adopt any of the above methodology. But in order to get a better view of things and comprehensive answer to this question. We analyze it at all the three above-mentioned levels. This will certainly render us a better understanding of not only this question but also of many other aspects of related political problems confronting the modern Muslim societies. Before beginning with our discussion it is useful that we first determine what sovereignty is?
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary describes sovereignty as:

the highest power or fully independent and self-governing.

Similarly Webster’s dictionary gives the following meanings to this word:

“supreme leader or the one who exercise authority in a limited sphere”.

Quranic Interpretation

As for as simplest mind, which goes through the Quranic text, it cannot ignore the fact that the God, that is Allah, is omnipotent, all powerful and all governing. This is the first and the last impression, which Quran leaves on any mind, no matter how naļve it may be. Contrary to many doctrines, Quran declares Allah to be the sole authority on every thing that is present not only in this world but the whole of the universe. Many Quranic verses can be quoted in this context.

“Blessed is the Lord who holds control over all and is Omnipotent.” (Al-mulk)

And again:

“Exalted is the One who controls every thing and to Him you shall resurrect.” (Ya-seen)

This makes very cleat that every thing lies with Allah. It flows from thence unto His creatures. Same is the case with authority and sovereignty. Allah has send man on this earth as his vicegerent. Allah has given man sovereignty to reign on this world. As Quran says,

“(remember) When your Lord said to angels that indeed I shall appoint a vicegerent on Earth.” (Al-baqarah)

Thus, man rules earth on the behalf of his Lord. Therefore he can exercise sovereignty with in certain limits, prescribed by Allah. Once established that sovereignty is a reign were man has been given access. We find out whether men have been given some right to make decisions for themselves or not. Is a ruler selected by Allah and imposed on men or they are encouraged to exercise their sovereign right by some collective means? Now this is an arguable question. Some section may say that a king or some sort of ruler, imposed on the society by one way or the other, has the right to exercise the sovereignty that Allah has bestowed upon men. And we also find such a precedent in the Quran, from the story of Talloot and Jalloot in sura al-baqarah we come to know that kings were imposed on men without their will and consultation, what so ever.
One may cite this example from the Holy book to give weight to his argument. But one thing must be kept in minds of the people that it was the practice of Allah for the people of Israel, usually referred to as Banu-Isreal in the Quran. Who were in a stage of evolution that was to culminate at the advent of the last Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H)? For us i.e. the ummah of the last prophet, this rule has changed. And the new scheme under which the sovereignty has to be exercised is given in the following verse:

“And they conduct their affairs with mutual consultation.” (Shura)

Thus we see that Quran encourages its followers to adopt a scheme of exercising their sovereignty over themselves by a way, which hinges itself over some system of broader consultation. Of the two views, latter is the one, which seems to be accurate and closer to the rationale thinking.
From the above discussion, we have reached a conclusion that Quran does recognize the sovereignty of Muslim citizen in an Islamic state and they have to device such a methodology or system, which makes it convenient for them to achieve broader consultation. Quran, similarly, rejects a single person’s claim to sovereignty and authority. Who so ever becomes a ruler of a muslim state must take the views of the society while making decisions? Now the Quran does not let loose Muslims after giving them right to sovereignty. There are a number of responsibilities that the Quran puts on their shoulders. And Quran, in its own brief but effective manner, puts them as:

“Those to whom we give power, must establish the system of prayers and charity and they ask the people to do good and forbid from doing evil.”