Political System in Islam

By: MR. DATUAN S. PANOLIMBA of The Bangsamoro Homeland, Philippines.

Bismillaher Rahmaner Raheem...
Asalamo Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuho:

Unlike the democratic system, which is based on the ‘people’s will’ and authority as the only source of legislation, the Islamic system is based on the concept of Tawhid, (oneness of God) and ‘adalah (justice) and the legislations of ALLAH alone. Thus, Islam altogether repudiates the philosophy of popular sovereignty and rears its polity on the foundations of sovereignty of God (ALLAH) and the vicegerency(khilafa) of man (Maududi, 1969).
Islam is a unique religio-political system in its own right. The basic tenets of the Islamic political system are justice and equality (musawah), not only for the Muslims subjects but for every individual who lives within this system regardless of what UMMAH (Muslim Ummah, Jewish/Christian Ummah, etc.) he is from. According to Faruqi (1979), the Islamic State is only a state but a World Order, with a government, court, constitution, and army. Internally, the Islamic State cannot tolerate any encroachment of one Ummah on another. Its main duties toward all are to keep the peace, to run the public services, to defend the totality, and to protect the rights and privilege of the people and their Ummahs (community) which make up the state.
Externally, the Islamic State is ideological. It aspires to extend it self to envelop the whole world. It approaches other states, tribes, nations or group for the purpose of their entering an Ummah within the state of Islam. This does not mean-the entry of a state’s people into the Islamic religion, or any change of any institution which has hitherto prevailed within it. Nor does it mean any alteration of its economic arrangement of the political sovereignty of its kings, government or governmental institutions. All these will remain absolutely intact and will be protected and guaranteed.
Its entrance into the Islamic State means only that its relations with that state will henceforth be peaceful, that neither state will wage war against the other. It also means that a state entering the Islamic State will agree not to live in isolation from the rest of humanity, (Faruqi, 1979:65)
As far as other states are concerned, and from the point of view of the Islamic State, to enter it is to decide on peaceful intercourse with one’s fellow man and to denounce war between the Ummahs once and for all. But not to enter it, it appears to the Muslims, means either intended isolation or war and aggression. “That is why Muslim theorists have called the Islamic State” The House of Peace”, a real world order. All that lies outside of it is called “The House of War”. Entrusted to carry out this world plan, the Islamic State cannot rest until it succeeds in establishing this world order, (Faruqi, 1979:65)
According to Faruqi (ibid,:67), Force is not to be in the hands o any Ummaah, not even the Muslim Ummah. It is to be in the hands of the Islamic State or ‘world order’ exclusively. The Islamic State never binds people to its citizenship against their will. They are always free to move out, together with all their people, relatives, dependents and everything they possess.
The Islamic State is thus ‘not an exclusively Muslim State, but a federation of Ummahs of different religions, cultures and traditions, committed to live harmoniously and in peace with one another.
In the final analysis, one can see the difference between western political theory and Islamic political theory. While the former defines the state in terms of four elements-territory, people with common features, government and sovereignty, the later believes it can exist without a territory, as well as devoid of definite boundaries, indeed,
Islam asserts that the territory of the Islamic State is the whole earth, or better the whole cosmos since the possibility of space travel is not too remote… Its citizenry include all those humans who agree to live under the auspices of the Islamic State because they approve of its order and policies. (Faruqi, 1979, 61-2).

Wassalamo Alaykom Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuho… Mr. Datuan S. Panolimba…….