The Islamic state is a manifestation and an instrument of power, the power of the Shariah. It is a theo-nomocracy with God as king or sovereign (malik; Quran:59:23; 62:1). The Islamic state is not a clerical theocracy since classically Islam has no priesthood. (The political office of ayatollah as supreme jurist is a modern innovation and restricted to Shiite theology.) The pursuit of justice is absolute. It transcends the Shariah and reflects the character of God as just master. The Shariah is a means to an end and is judged by its ability to administer justice. As a substantive, humanitarian and universal virtue, justice transcends all legal systems and faiths. For Muslims, it is furthermore a metaphysically absolute ideal ordained by God.
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| Abu Huraira reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, everything has a zeal, and every zeal has a time limit. Whoever does so properly and moderately, then hope for his success. Whoever does so for people to point at him, do not count him among the righteous.” Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2453 |
[...] The Quran’s attempt to sanctify the political dimension of life, its decision to incorporate power into Islam’s originating ideals, explains classical Islam’s tolerant ascendancy and humanity. Rulers enforced the juridical principle of al-dhimmah (the responsibility; Quran:9:8, 10), the protection of monotheistic communities mentioned only once in the Quran along with a single reference to the protection tax (jizyah; Quran:9:29). The principle is enshrined in the Prophet’s practice. He pledged protection and honourable treatment for Jews and Christians. Being a Quranic imperative, the legal protection of Jews and Christians was, for Muslim rulers, a duty, not a merit. Hence we have the haven created by imperial Islam for communities of Jews, Eastern Christians and religious refugees fleeing from a Christian Europe steeped in violently intolerant enthusiasms. When Catholicism was re-imposed in Andalusia, Jews usually preferred migration to Muslim lands. We can imagine their alternative fate if medieval Muslims had abdicated their political obligations by pleading indifference to temporal power. Present Christian and Western unease about Islam as political religion is informed by specifically European experiences of theocratic rule. Just as the Christian experience of religious government has been invariably toxic, the Muslim experience of secular administration, imposed by Western powers, has been even worse. Under the Ottoman regime, the longest lasting dynasty in history and a genuinely Islamic order for all its defects, the Middle East experienced no major conflict for 400 years (from 1517 to 1917). That is the longest period of continuous peace for the holy land. Since 1917, however, secular colonial modernity, imposed in myriad forms, has presided over the unrest for which the region is now a byword.