Islam: teaching, political thought and the Shariat

1. Birth of Islam

The Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca about 570 CE. Arabia was then a tribal society without a central State, divided by blood feuds. Muslims believe the revelation of the Qur’an began about 610 CE. Opposition from the Meccan elite led to the Hijra, the migration to Medina in 622 CE, which begins the Islamic calendar. In Medina the Prophet was both religious leader and head of a political community. The Constitution (Charter) of Medina organised the Muslim emigrants, the Medinan tribes and the Jewish tribes into one community with common defence and arbitration by the Prophet: often called the first written constitution in Islamic history. By his death in 632 CE most of Arabia was united under Islam.

2. Teaching

• Tawhid: the absolute oneness of God (Allah).
• Prophethood (risalat): Muhammad as the last of the prophets.
• The Qur’an as the word of God, and the Day of Judgment.
• The five pillars: declaration of faith (shahada), prayer (salat), alms (zakat), fasting in Ramadan (sawm), pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).
• Equality and brotherhood of all believers, regardless of tribe or race.
• Social justice: zakat for the poor, prohibition of interest (riba), protection of orphans and widows, rights of inheritance for women.

3. The Islamic concept of the State

1. Sovereignty belongs to God. Human rulers exercise authority as trustees (amanat) under divine law. This is the basic difference from Western popular sovereignty.
2. Khilafat: the ruler is the khalifa, successor or deputy, who governs on God’s behalf and is bound by the Shariat. He makes no law of his own on matters the Shariat covers.
3. Ummah: the community of believers, transcending tribe and territory; in theory one State for all Muslims.
4. Shura: consultation. The Qur’an commands believers to conduct their affairs by mutual consultation, and the ruler was expected to consult.
5. Justice (adl) as the purpose of government.
6. Rule of law: the caliph is subject to the same law as his subjects.
7. Non-Muslims (dhimmis) were protected, allowed their own religion and personal law, and paid a poll tax (jizya) in place of military service.

The Caliphate

The first four caliphs, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali (632–661 CE), are called the Rightly Guided Caliphs (Khulafa-e-Rashidun); they were chosen through forms of election or nomination accepted by the community. After them the Caliphate became hereditary under the Umayyads (Damascus) and the Abbasids (Baghdad). The disagreement over succession to the Prophet produced the Sunni–Shia division: Sunnis accept election from the community; Shias hold that leadership belonged to Ali and his descendants (the Imamate). The Ottoman Caliphate was abolished by Turkey in 1924; in India the Khilafat Movement (1919–24) had campaigned for it.

Thinkers (one line each is enough)

• Al-Farabi (c. 870–950): The Virtuous City, combining Plato’s philosopher-king with the prophet-lawgiver.
• Al-Mawardi (972–1058): Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya (The Ordinances of Government), the classical statement of the qualifications, election and duties of the caliph.
• Al-Ghazali (1058–1111): accepted the authority of the sultan for the sake of order.
• Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406): Muqaddimah, a theory of the rise and fall of dynasties through asabiyya (group solidarity); often called a founder of sociology.

4. Contributions to political thought

• Replaced tribal loyalty with a community of faith and a single legal order.
• Stressed equality of believers and the accountability of rulers to law.
• Developed a detailed body of public law (taxation, war, treatment of minorities) and administrative practice (Umar’s diwan or registers).
• Through Arab scholars, preserved and transmitted Greek philosophy, including Aristotle, to medieval Europe.

5. The Shariat as the basis of law: then

Shariat literally means the path to water, the way to be followed. Its four sources, in classical Sunni jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh):

1. Qur’an: the primary source.
2. Sunnah / Hadith: the practice and sayings of the Prophet.
3. Ijma: consensus of the jurists.
4. Qiyas: analogical reasoning from the above.

Four Sunni schools (madhhabs) developed: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i and Hanbali; the Shia follow the Ja‘fari school. The Shariat covered worship, family, inheritance, contracts, crimes (with fixed hudud punishments for a few offences) and government. Qazis administered it. In the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal India it was applied to Muslims, while Hindus generally followed their own law.

6. The Shariat now

• Range of models. Saudi Arabia treats the Qur’an and Sunnah as its constitution. Iran, after the 1979 revolution, is an Islamic Republic with clerical supervision (velayat-e faqih). Pakistan declares Islam the State religion and has a Federal Shariat Court. Turkey is constitutionally secular. Most Muslim-majority States apply Shariat mainly in family law, often codified and reformed.
• India. The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 applies Muslim personal law to Muslims in matters of marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, wakfs and the like. The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 gave wives grounds for divorce. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 made pronouncement of instant triple talaq void and punishable. Article 44 of the Constitution directs the State to endeavour to secure a uniform civil code; Uttarakhand enacted one for the State in 2024. These raise the debate on personal law and secularism.

How this is examined

January 2026 (100-mark): “Islamic Concept of State” (10-mark compulsory option). January 2026 (80-mark): “Write a short note on Islamic State” (6 marks). April 2023: “Write a short note on Birth of Islam” (6 marks). For the concept of State, write section 3 with the Caliphate and the Shariat’s sources; for Birth of Islam, write sections 1, 2 and 4.