Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, Social and Strategic Challenges for the 21st Century

14. THE ISLAMIC STATE: ORIGINS, DEFINITION AND SALIENT ATTRIBUTES

278 278 Mohammad Hashim Kamali 14 THE ISLAMIC STATE: ORIGINS, DEFINITION AND SALIENT ATTRIBUTES Mohammad Hashim Kamali INTRODUCTION This chapter begins with an introductory section which sets out some of the uncertainties concerning the concept and definition of an Islamic state, a brief history of developments, and a literature review. The remaining part of the discussion focuses on the salient attributes of an Islamic state: whether the Islamic state proposes a limited as opposed to a totalitarian government, whether it can be characterized as a civilian state as opposed to a theocracy, and whether it would be justified to characterize the Islamic state as a qualified democracy. The last section of this paper briefly addresses the Islamist demand for the establishment of Islamic state, and some comments on recent developments in Malaysia. What is attempted here is a selective account of some of the characteristic features of an Islamic state and does not claim to be exhaustive. PREVAILING UNCERTAINTIES Much of the ambiguity concerning the basic concept of an Islamic state is due to the under-developed state of Islamic constitutional law when it is compared to the private and personal law branches of the shari’a. This was 278 14 Islam Pt III_Ch 14 4/2/05, 10:46 AM 278 279 The Islamic State 279 in turn a result of the prevalence of dictatorship and dynastic rule in much of the Islamic history which stifled the natural development of ideas on politics and government. Scholarly attention was consequently focused on matters of worship, matrimonial law, property and inheritance, etc., which are far more developed when compared to constitutional law and government. What is more is that most of what happened in the centuries following the fall of the Righteous Caliphate represented a departure from the normative principles of Islam. A former Mufti of Egypt, Shaykh Ahmad Huraydi wrote that the political order that prevailed in the Muslim lands from the Umayyad rule down to the end of the Ottomans did not, on the whole, comply with the principles and teachings of Islam.Those who wrote on Islamic government and administration often focused their attention on dynastic practices which did not reflect the Islamic principles of government but mainly expounded the history of government in those times and “there is a huge difference between the two”.1 This was due partly to a continuing rift between the ulama and government which had started with the replacement of the Righteous Caliphate with monarchy by the founder of the Umayyad dynasty, Mu’awiya (d. 680 CE). Mu’awiya’s coercive methods to obtain the pledge of allegiance (bay’a) for his son Yazid by threat of force marked the onset of political distortion and disenchantment of the ulama with the Umayyad rulers. The situation deteriorated when the Prophet’s grandson, Husayn, challenged Yazid’s leadership and was brutally killed together with his followers in the tragic incident of Karbala. The ulama questioned the legitimacy of these rulers and insisted on the enforcement of shari’a, which was increasingly being replaced by administrative decrees, resembling those of the Roman and Persian empires. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s (d. 1111 CE) magnum opus, Ihya’ Ulum al-Din (Revivification of the Religious Sciences) was an attempt to revive the shari’a and make a fresh start in that direction. A similar attempt was made two centuries later by Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328 CE), the author of al-siyasa al-shar’iyya, to revive the increasingly isolated shari’a into the practice of government. The question over legitimacy remained unresolved and so was the rift between the ulama and government. The ulama were for the most part isolated from government hierarchy and remained uninvolved in the day-to-day management of affairs.They wrote little on politics and government and much of what they wrote was viewed with reservations by the rulers. Two different models of Islamic government featured in this narrative of disequilibrium and discord, and both remained somewhat inconclusive. The early caliphate captured the imagination of Muslims as the valid precedent and has retained its appeal to this day. The second of these was hereditary 14 Islam Pt III_Ch 14 4/2/05, 10:46 AM 279 280 280 Mohammad Hashim Kamali monarchy that prevailed over the centuries after the collapse of the Righteous Caliphate, until it was abolished by the Ottoman Turks in 1924. The early caliphate...