An Islamic state (Arabic: الدولة الإسلامية ad-dawlah al-islamīyah) is a type of government, in which the primary basis for government is the enforcement of shari’a, dispensation of justice, maintenance of law and order.[1] From the early years of Islam, numerous governments have been founded as “Islamic.”
However, the term “Islamic state” has taken on a more specific modern connotation since the 20th century. The concept of the modern Islamic state has been articulated and promoted by ideologues such as Abul A’la Maududi, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,Israr Ahmed, and Sayyid Qutb. Like the earlier notion of the caliphate, the modern Islamic state is rooted in Islamic law. It is modeled after the rule of Muhammad. However, unlike caliph-led governments which were imperial despotisms or monarchies (Arabic: malik), a modern Islamic state can incorporate modern political institutions such as elections, parliamentary rule, judicial review, and popular sovereignty.
Today, many Muslim countries have incorporated Islamic law, wholly or in part, into their legal systems. Certain Muslim states have declared Islam to be their state religion in their constitutions, but do not apply Islamic law in their courts. Islamic states which are notIslamic monarchies are usually referred to as Islamic republics.
The historical Islamic state
Early Islamic governments
Main article: Caliphate
The term caliphate refers to the first system of government established by Muhammad in 622 CE, under the Constitution of Medina. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah (nation), although it did not always incorporate the full religious community of Muslims (for example, Khawarijites and Shia). It was subsequently led by Muhammad’s disciples who were known as the Rightly Guided (Rashidun) Caliphs (632-661 CE). The Arabian Empire significantly expanded under the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) and the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258).
The Essence of Islamic governments
The essence or guiding principles of an Islamic government or Islamic state, is the concept of Al-Shura. Different scholars have different understandings or thoughts, with regard to the concept al-Shura. However, most Muslim scholars are of the opinion that Islamic al-Shura should consist of:[2]
Meeting or consultation, that follows the teachings of Islam.
Consultation following the guidelines of the Quran and Sunnah.
There is a leader elected among them to head the meeting.
The discussion should be based on mushawarah and mudhakarah.
All members are given fair opportunity to voice out their opinions.
The issue should be of maslahah ammah or public interest.
The voices of the majority are accepted, provided it does not violate the teachings of the Quran or Sunnah.
Muhammad himself respected the decision of the shura members. He is the champion of the notion of al-Shura, and this was illustrated in one of the many historical events, such as in the Battle of Khandaq (Battle of the Trench), where Muhammad was faced with two decisions, i.e. to fight the invading pagan Arab armies outside of Medina or wait until they enter the city. After consultation with the sahabah (companions), it was suggested by Salman al-Farsi that it would be better if the Muslims fought the unbelievers within Medina by building a big ditch on the northern periphery of Medina to prevent the enemies from entering Medina. This idea was later supported by the majority of the sahabah, and thereafter Muhammad also approved it.
The reason why Muhammad placed great emphasis on the agreement of the decision of the shura was because the majority of opinion (by the sahabah) is better than the decision made by one individual.
Revival and abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate
Main article: Ottoman Caliphate
The Ottoman Sultan, Selim I (1512–1520) reclaimed the title of caliph, which had been in dispute and asserted by a diversity of rulers and “shadow caliphs” in the centuries of the Abbasid-Mamluk Caliphate since the Mongols’ sacking of Baghdad and the killing of the last Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, Iraq 1258.
The Ottoman Caliphate as an office of the Ottoman Empire was abolished under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1924 as part of Atatürk’s Reforms. This move was most vigorously protested in India, as Gandhi and Indian Muslims united behind the symbolism of the Ottoman Caliph in the Khilafat (or “Caliphate”) Movement, which sought to reinstate the Caliph deposed by Atatürk. The Khilafat Movement leveraged the Ottoman political resistance to the British Empire, and this international anti-imperial connection proved to be a galvanizing force during India’s nascent nationalism movement of the early 1900s, for Hindus and Muslims alike, even though India was far from the seat of the Ottoman Caliphate in Istanbul.
The modern Islamic state
Origins in 20th-century nationalist and anti-imperialist movements
See also: Abul A’la Maududi and Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist
“The very term, ‘Islamic State’, was never used in the theory or practice of Muslim political science, before the twentieth century,” according to Pakistani scholar of Islamic history Qamaruddin Khan.
The modern conceptualization of the “Islamic state” is attributed to Abul A’la Maududi (1903–1979), a Pakistani Muslim theologian who founded the political party Jamaat-e-Islamiand inspired other Islamic revolutionaries such as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Abul A’la Maududi’s early political career was influenced greatly by anti-colonial agitation in India, especially after the tumultuous abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 stoked anti-British sentiment.
The Islamic state was perceived as a “third way” between the rival political systems of democracy and socialism (see also Islamic Modernism). Maududi’s seminal writings onIslamic economics argued as early as 1941 against free-market capitalism and socialist state intervention in the economy, similar to Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr’s later Our Economics written in 1961. Maududi envisioned the ideal Islamic state as combining the democratic principles of electoral politics with the socialist principles of concern for the poor.
Islamic States Today
Today, many Muslim countries have incorporated Islamic law in part, into their legal systems. Certain Muslim states have declared Islam to be their state religion in their constitutions, but do not apply Islamic law in their courts. Islamic states which are not Islamic monarchies are usually referred to as Islamic republics, such as the Islamic Republics of Pakistan, Mauritania, Iran and Afghanistan. Pakistan adopted the title under the constitution of 1956.Mauritania adopted it on 28 November 1958. Iran adopted it after the 1979 Revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty. In Iran, the form of government is known as “Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists”. Afghanistan was run as an Islamic state (“Islamic State of Afghanistan”) in the post-communist era since 1992 but then de facto by the Taliban(“Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”) in areas controlled by them since 1996, and after the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban the country is still known as the “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan”. Despite the similar name, the countries differ greatly in their governments and laws.
Pan-Islamism is a form of religious nationalism within political Islam which advocates the unification of the Muslim world under a single Islamic state, often described as a caliphate.
The Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration as of 3 August 2011 declared Islam to be the official religion of Libya.
Ira
Leading up to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, many of the highest-ranking clergy in Shia Islam held to the standard doctrine of the Imamate, which allows political rule only by Muhammad or one of his true successors. They were opposed to creating an Islamic state (see Ayatollah Ha’eri Yazdi (Khomeini’s own teacher), Ayatollah Borujerdi, Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari, and Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei).[12] Contemporary theologians who were once part of the Iranian Revolution also became disenchanted and critical of the unity of religion and state in the Islamic Republic of Iran, are advocating secularization of the state to preserve the purity of the Islamic faith (see Abdolkarim Soroushand Mohsen Kadivar).[13]
Pakistan
Pakistan was created as a separate state for Indian Muslims in British India in 1947, and followed the parliamentary form of democracy. In 1949, the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan passed the Objectives Resolution which envisaged an official role for Islam as the state religion to make sure any future law should not violate its basic teachings. On the whole, the state retained most of the laws that were inherited from the British legal code that had been enforced by the British Raj since the 19th century. In 1956, the elected parliament formally adopted the name “Islamic Republic of Pakistan”, declaring Islam as the official religion.