The Quran and the Islamic State
The concept of Islamic state has received increasing attention among Muslim societies in the last century. It has been also articulated and promoted by famous ideologues such as Sayyid Outb, Abul A 'la Maududi and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the last decades. Thus, many Islamist movements and some radical groups have struggled to establish an Islamic state based on the teachings of the Quran. However, does the Quran really command Muslims to establish a state or any specific political order?
Many contemporary and former Islamic parties, religious movements, and radical groups across the world assume that the Quran requires establishing an Islamic state based on the instructions of the Quran and the hadiths. Therefore, they are so active and vibrant in the political sphere to realize this idea. They also commonly consider Islam as an unchangeable and essentialist political framework to carry out this command. Hence, many Islamic movements by and large have emerged through the
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The Quran also emphasizes the community of believers rather than being a distinct political community or organization. In this regard, the Quran never says that Muslims should establish an Islamic state per se as a true and authentic political system and authority for Muslims to implement the teachings of Islam. But, the Quran wants from Muslims to follow the fundamental principles provide good governance at any level and form. For example, rules of law (Shura), accountability, transparency, justice, equity, religious freedom, emr bil maruf wa nahi an al-munkar, ihsan, and others. Unfortunately, the majority of contemporary Muslims have given more attention on political power and structures rather than the moral values and spiritual meaning of the
When a group uses religious ideology to control a population, the religious texts, in the case the Qur’an, are usually interpreted to suit the agenda of the group, because “they have different values and beliefs”2. The reason that the texts are used and intentionally misinterpreted is fairly obvious. Iran, where 99% of the population is Muslim, coupled with the fact that Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the word of god, one who can...
Hilāl, ʻAlī Al-Dīn. Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World. New York, NY: Praeger, 1982. Print.
Lafraie, Najibullah (2009). Revolutionary Ideology and Islamic Militancy : The Iranian Revolution and Interpretations of the Quran. Tauris Academic Studies. Retrieved March 23, 2012, from Ebook Library.
The Qur’an is believe to the ultimate source of God by many Muslim believers. It contains 114 suras for the believers as the core practices of the Islamic religion and Muslims throughout the world recites its verses (Chang, Lecture. 1/21/14). They believed the prophet of Allah was Muhammad, who received the words of Allah through Angel Gabriel, and was passed on with the Qur’an during Ramadan. Angel Gabriel one night came to Muhammad “in clear human form” (“Scripture and Tradition in Islam- The Qur’an and Hadith” 104), and gave the messages from Allah to him. From the establishment of the Qur’an, Muslims have viewed the book as the last revelation of their god Allah, and thus are the true words from God for their ways of life and in reaching Allah in their afterlife. The book also teaches “mankind’s responsibility assigned by God” (Gordon 115). Therefore, Muslims practices in ways to prove their devotion towards the new religion of Islam by being faithful, and performing religious practices.
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Muslim society is ideological in that the followers of the faith are making a commitment to follow God and to accept the word of God as the truth, basing their concept of good and evil on these teachings. In this way the Qur'an becomes the source of law within Muslim society rather than the laws which are developed by man.
Does the Quran command Muslims to establish a state or any specific political order? Many past and modern Islamic parties, religious movements, political actors and radical groups across the world assume that the Quran requires establishing the Islamic state based on the teachings of the Quran. Therefore, they are struggling in the political sphere to realize this idea. They also considered Islam as unified political framework to oppose foreign treats. Hence, many Islamic movements have emerged through the promoting an Islamic state as an ultimate concern rather than an agenda of reform in social and ethical regeneration of Muslim societies. However, the concept of the Islamic state is a recent development, rooted in the socio-political and economic transformations of post enlightenment period in modern age. The idea of an Islamic state differed from early ideas of Muslims about governance. Early scholars and Ulama haven’t used the concept of an Islamic state as the requirement of the
The Government in order to make Pakistan a real Islamic State strived hard to introduce Islamic System in the country.
The Islamic worldview instates a complete lifestyle of servitude and faith into its followers, thus granting both purpose and meaning as a Muslim's entire life is lived with the mission to submit to Allah's divine intendment therefore providing such regulation and guidance.
Islam is the religion of the Muslims. It is a religion that constitutes the total submission of the Muslim to God. During this submission, it brings about peace, serenity, love and above all, justice. Shari’ah is “a line of conduct, a morality laid down by the accounts of the Islamic religion. It is based on the Quran and on the views of the prophet” (Jelloun 100). It is a law that governs the believer’s conducts and lifestyle. It regulates the believer on what to do and what not to do. The severity of the law in some Islamic societies, however, has drawn criticism and has made people from other religious sects wary of the religion itself. This is because we now live in a modernized society. Where people believe in liberties and human rights; where the laws of the government in some places have to be reconstructed to the appeal of the people in order to avoid conflict. In such a modern world we now live in, Shari’ah has lost its place and is subjected to oppositions from those who have adopted how laws should be established. In other words, the evolution of the modern world has made the Islamic law to be regarded as a primitive and barbaric legislature.
“Are political Islam and democracy compatible?” This question has been troubling both Muslims and non-Muslims living in East and West for a long time now. Contemporary Islamic political thought has become deeply influenced by attempts at reconciling Islam and democracy. Muslim thinkers who deal with political debates cannot disregard the significance of the democratic system, as it is the prevailing theme of modern western political thought. Hence, it is necessary for any alternative political system, whether it is religious or secular, to explore its position with regards to democratic government. In fact, a large literature and media publications have developed over the last century on this heated discourse of democracy versus Islam. While many argue that Islam has all the ingredients of modern state and democratic society, many other reject the phenomena “modernism” and “democracy” as a whole because of their “foreign nature”—alien to “Islamic values”. For Islamists and modernists, the motivation for such effort to either embrace or reject democracy often is to remove suspicion about the nature and goals of Islamic movements and Islamic revivalism or resurgence. But before diving into this discourse, one needs to understand the definition and origins of “democracy.” Although purely a Western ideology in its origin, there is no consensus on the definition of “democracy” as a political system. The Oxford English Dictionary describes democracy as: “A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives” (“democracy, n.”). In my paper, I will examine whether or not democracy and Sunni political Islam are compatible through the eyes of three revolutionary Sun...
In this book , Esposito provides a succinct, up-to-date survey of the Islamic experience, an introduction to the faith, belief, and practice of Islam from its origins to its contemporary resurgence. He traces the emergence and development of this dynamic faith and its impact on world history and politics. He discusses the formation of Islamic belief and practice (law, theology, philosophy, and mysticism), chronicling the struggle of Muslims to define and adhere to their Islamic way of life. Equally important is the essential information Esposito provides on the contemporary world of Islam, from Muslim responses to the challenges of colonialism and modernization to the reassertion of Islam in politics and society.
...ethics, and so forth. The crucial piece of information to remember about this religion is that they greatly emphasis unity and have a great amount of diversity. Even though it is a diverse religion, all of the Muslims are monotheistic and solely believe that Allah is the creator of everything, including humans. As a human being they believe that they are in debt to God or simply stated as according to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Therefore, all that we are and all that we have belongs to God for which we are indebted to Him and for whose gifts we must give thanks (shukr)” . God is the Absolute and the main point of the Islamic religion is that it is crucial to worship him and follow his commands, and that will lead to peace among everyone. This particular religion has continued to rapidly grow throughout the world and as with most religions, it will continue to grow.
As of now, we can say that the process of forming the national government identity of Muslim countries is not yet complete. It is being affected by radical religious and social changes, that doesn't allow us to speak about the Muslim world being ready to walk side by side with other civilizations. However, we cannot ignore the obvious breakthrough of some individual Arab countries.