Manifestation of Political Concepts and Foundations of Governance in the Qurān and Sunnah
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58342/ghalibqj.V.14.I.3.8Keywords:
Governance, Islam, politics, Qurān, secularism, SunnahAbstract
The notion of separating religion from politics emerged as a consequence of historical conflicts between the Church and secular/academic institutions in the West, and advocates of secularism have sought to extend this idea to Islam. They claim that Islam is merely a religion of worship and ethics and lacks legislative or programmatic provisions for politics and governance. This view contradicts the convictions of Islamic thinkers, who regard Islam as a comprehensive Sharīʿa responsive to all spheres of life and who emphasize the presence of politics and governance within the Qurʾān and the Sunnah. Accordingly, examining the status of political concepts in the two primary sources of Sharīʿa is a scholarly necessity to address the claim of separation between religion and politics. This study aims to clarify the criteria for the presence of politics and governance in the Qurʾān and the Sunnah, to extract the categories and concepts related to politics, and to analyze the role of Sharīʿa in the domain of governance. The principal research questions are: Do foundations for politics and governance exist in the Qurʾān and the Sunnah? What categories do these foundations comprise? And can they be employed to construct a system for governing an Islamic society? The research is fundamental–theoretical in nature and was conducted using a descriptive–analytical, topic-centered approach based on a library study of primary exegetical, ḥadīth, and jurisprudential sources. Findings indicate that concepts of politics and governance are widely present in the Qurʾān and the Sunnah and include notions such as khilāfah (caliphate), imārah (governorship), walāyat al-amr (authority of command), hukm (rule/legislation), and social justice. The results suggest that Islamic Sharīʿa, much like its rulings on worship, contains specific programmatic and legislative guidance for politics and governance, and that the theory of separation of religion from politics is not compatible with the teachings of Islam.
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