The Principles of State and Government in Islam
 | |
| Author | Muhammad Asad |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Law, Islamic Law |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | University of California Press[1] |
| Publication date | 1961 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 128 pp |
| ISBN | 9789839154092 |
The Principles of State and Government in Islam is a book written by Muhammad Asad. It was originally published in 1961 by University of California Press, and a revised edition was published in 1980 by Islamic Book Trust.
Contents
- The Issues Before Us
- Terminology and Historical Precedent
- Government by Consent and Council
- Relationship Between Executive and Legislature
- The Citizens and The Government
- Conclusion
See also
References
- "The Principles of State and Government in Islam". Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2017-09-16.
External links
The Principles of State and Government in Islam
By Muhammad Asad
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Excerpt
This book represents a development of ideas first set forth in my essay, Islamic Constitution-Making, which was published in English and Urdu under the auspices of the Government of the Panjab in March, 1948.
At that time I was Director of the Department of Islamic Reconstruction, a government institution devoted to the elaboration of the intellectual and sociolegal principles which should underlie our new society and our new state. Among the problems which preoccupied me most intensely was, naturally enough, the question of the future constitution of Pakistan. The shape which that constitution should have was then, as it is now, by no means clear to everybody. Although the people of our country were, for the most part, imbued with enthusiasm for the idea of a truly Islamic state--that is, a state based (in distinction from all other existing political groupments) not on the concepts of nationality and race but solely on the ideology of Qur˒ān and Sunnah--they had as yet no concrete vision of the methods of government and of the institutions which would give the state a distinctly Islamic character and would, at the same time, fully correspond to the exigencies of the present age. Some elements of the population naïvely took it for granted that, in order to be genuinely Islamic, the government of Pakistan must be closely modeled on the forms of the early Caliphate, with an almost dictatorial position to be accorded to the head of the state, utter conservatism in all social forms (including a more or less complete seclusion of women), and a patriarchal economy which would dispense with the complicated financial mechanism of the twentieth century and would resolve all the problems of the modern welfare state through the sole instrumentality of the tax known as zakāt. Other sectors--more realistic but perhaps less interested in . . .
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Ratings & Reviews for
The Principles of State and Government in Islam
Muhammad Asad
4.14
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Profile Image for Tariq.
Tariq
6 reviews
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June 20, 2018
This is a wonderful read. The writer does not indulge into unnecessary superlatives about the religion Islam which has become a trademark of Muslim writers, to the point where it affects their objectivity. Muhammad Asad, a renowned scholar of the last century wastes no time in getting to the point and charts out structure of a modern Islamic State. He argues that no historical precedents, nor any contemporary Islamic governance models, offer any guidance to what a modern Islamic State should look like. He also warns that thinking in terms of western political concepts will only increase the Muslim confusion as Muslim historical experience is distinct from the west. Laying the foundations with these arguments, author goes on to build, brick by brick, the structure of an Islamic State directly from the guiding principles of governance from the Quran and the Sunnah.
One of my favorite part of the book is author's definition of Shariah: A concise group of explicit ordinances of the Quran and Sunnah which clearly order or prohibit an action. These ordinances are timeless and eternal, and only these constitute the Shariah. Things which are not explicitly ordered or prohibited are for the people to decide keeping in view the requirements of a particular time, through Ijtehad. This, according to the author, provides dynamism to Islamic law and is the divine logic which prevents Islam from getting outdated.
Author condemns Muslim thinking of creating an State on the model of 7th century Arabia as times and needs of the current age are drastically different from that time.
Overall, this is a great book for anyone who wants to understand Islamic political theory, and the nature of society that Islam envisages to create through its governance model. For, creation of an Islamic State is not the end, but a means to achieve a just and egalitarian society.
islam
politics
religion
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Khaled Mehio
49 reviews
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August 8, 2018
It is indeed difficult to express or elucidate my thoughts on the work of Muhammad Asad especially when it comes to this book titled The Principles of State and Government in Islam. The story of how Asad wrote down this great work as narrated by his wife Pola Hamida Asad in Home-coming of the Heart is as follows. Asad had a bad habit of not reading neither opening the letters he receives. One day, while they were in Beirut towards the end of fifties, Pola noticed a letter from Pakistan left not opened along with the heap of not opened letters in the drawer. She insisted that Asad should open this letter, but Asad refused as usual. At last she forced him to open it, and he read in it that a group of young fellows in Pakistan are sponsoring a work, to be published by the University of California Press, on Principles of State and Government in Islam, a work that develops the basics which Asad relied on in drafting the first constitution of Pakistan in 1948. Asad has utilized this opportunity up to his best.
The book is very concise, clear and offers a sheer conceptualized view of a State governed by Islamic Divine Law (Shari'ah).
The exigency of such an Islamic State in our time is needed in order to complete what the first Four Rachideen Caliphs have begun.
This book is a must for our youth and to everyone who considers that there is no other way than immitating the western module of state and governance, or replicating the relic of the past centuries of Islamic ruling.
Indeed, there is an alternative which is getting up with the need of initiating a State governed and run by the stipulated tenets of Islam that could adhere to the socio-economic needs of our time.
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Danyal Saeed
31 reviews
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July 14, 2020
Modern Muslims are torn between the identity of nationhood as something geographical (or administrative/political) or as something ideological (values / religion). This very beautifully cuts through the confusion and gives you what Islam really asks of a state and its citizens. What an Islamic State is, is not secularism and departure from religion, but its also not a state based on Fiqhi rulings that were derived from Quran and Sunnah but were meant for a particular period, for a particular people. This lays great emphasis on the importance of ijtihad, and separating the nusoos ordinances of Quran and Sunnah, from the Fiqhi rulings of later times.
These principles should be the basis of a state if it wants to call itself Islamic.
It's roughly a 100 pages, and was a pleasure to read.
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Y
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January 21, 2021
A concise reflection on state and government in islam. A bit unfortunate to see that some of the ideas here have been available in English to the muslim community for 60 years and are not widely circulated at all such as: islamic roots of some democratic principles and pluralist society, an emphasis on limiting the foundational law to qat'iyat (issues based on explicit definitively transmitted primary sources) as opposed to the inferences of a particular school of thought and the necessity for original legal solutions suited to the times beyond this core law.
However in some respects, the author himself relies on other than qat'iyat to justify using the mechanism of the state to accomplish some functions. Nonetheless a valuable and accessible contribution to the topic.
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Mehadi
2 reviews
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March 19, 2021
This book is a must read book if you want to about Government and State system through Islamic philosophy in modern age.
It is not only theological description also a give a model.
Islamic philosophy on making a Government and build a state is differ from modern western democratic philosophy. Basic principle is we are bound to obey the boundary comes from Almighty Allah and we can make a model as our time within this boundary.
In this book writer bring all boundary condition for making a model.
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Mehadi Hassan Saki
2 reviews
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March 19, 2021
This book of Muhammad Asad is a must read book if you want to about Government and State system through Islamic philosophy in modern age.
It is not only theological description also a give a model.
Islamic philosophy on making a Government and build a state is differ from modern western democratic philosophy. Basic principle is we are bound to obey the boundary comes from Almighty Allah and we can make a model as our time within this boundary.
In this book writer bring all boundary condition for making a model.
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Profile Image for Obaid Saeed.
Obaid Saeed
3 reviews
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June 7, 2017
A great book on a problem of mingling religion and state faced by many Islamic states today. This short book gives many insights on the views of different scholars on the subject and possible solutions. As the concept of nation state is still very young, Islamic states have a long way to go to reaching harmony between leaders and subjects which may be different in some extents with adopted practices in western countries.
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Ahmed Banna
36 reviews
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November 23, 2025
كتاب خفيف نسبيا، بغض النظر عن الاتفاق أو الاختلاف في إجتهاداته فالنقاش متزن وعقلاني وواضح المعالم مقارنة بغيره. يعود هذا لتركيزه على "القالب السياسي" (مسائل السلطة التشريعية والتنفيذية، شكل الحكومة، ...الخ). ولكن لا يزال غياب المسائل المتعلقة بالمحتوى الذي سيحمله هذا القالب يجعله عرضة للإتهام ب"ضبابية الهدف" بعض الشيء
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Mohammad Fraytees
22 reviews
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November 12, 2019
يختصر هذا الكتاب القيم رحلة طويلة من البحث والجهاد فكري تتوجها درجة عالية من النضوج والاتزان بعيدا كل البعد عن اي نوع من العصبية والتبعية الا لله ورسوله صلى الله عليه وسلم. ليضعنا في مواجهة المسؤولية الواضحة اتجاه ما ندعيه وما بامكاننا عمله تجاه هذا الادعاء ان صدق.
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Abdullah Senosy
50 reviews
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August 3, 2014
ده كان تعليقي اول ما انتهيت من قراءة الكتاب
"
الكتاب غير نظرتي لحاجات كتير في دولة الإسلام والكاتب فصل في اشياء اجتهادية تفصيلات رائعة احيانا وغريبة احيانا اخرى علشان كده زي ما الكاتب قال ف البداية -هو فتح الباب والكتابة ف المجال ده لازم يخلفه فيها ناس تانيين- لان الباب ده ف الدين مش مطروق كتير رغم اهميته وكثرة المنادين بقيام دولة الاسلام من غير ما يعرفوا اسسها وقواعدها
بالنسبة للمضمون كان في تعليقات ف مسالة الجهاد والجزية والضرائب وده مش موضع مناقشة
وبالنسبة للاحاديث..بعضها والله اعلم غير صحيحة فيجب على احد الدارسين تحقيقها
"
لكن بعد ما قرأت كتاب سيد قطب "معالم في الطريق" اقتنعت بقوله ان طرح الاسلام كمنهج نظري لن يعود بالنفع عليه ولكن يجب العمل للتمكين للاسلام كمنهج حياة يحكم الحياة بكل جوانبها
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Profile Image for Adeel Hasan.
Adeel Hasan
34 reviews
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May 6, 2013
Imagine its 1947. Pakistan is a newly created state, but she lacks a constitution as yet. There is hope in the ummah, that a modern Islamic state will rise out of the struggle. What ideas and principles should drive this state? This books is the scholarly endeavour of Mohammad Asad to answer that question.
A must read for everyone thinks Democracy is un-Islamic and only Khilafat is acceptable.
Be warned though, although it examines many questions regarding the Islamic state, it does not suppose to answer all of them.
non-fiction
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Syed M. Abdullah
34 reviews
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September 4, 2015
The ultra rationalist and modern definitions of key Islamic Concept. The books impliedly advocates the case of democracy as a system of govt in Islam and pleads its case by drawing the old islamic philosophies in altogether a new colour. The author tends to be legallistic in his argument contrary to his stance in his other books i.e. radically against the Western narrative of governance. Apart from this general contradiction, it shows Islam in its pragmatic form that is not radical as is otherwise defined.
religion
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Asad
42 reviews
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January 6, 2016
What a powerful little book. I am left, at the same time, inspired by what it envisions and distressed by how far from said vision we have diverged (and not for the better). There is much work to be done before the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has a legitimate claim to its title.
non-fiction
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Profile Image for Khalid Syaifullah.
Khalid Syaifullah
5 reviews
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May 17, 2016
The very basic introduction to the construct, responsibilities, and role of an Islamic State. A much needed book in light of today's so-called "Islamic State" to clear up not so much the views of a non Muslim, but a Muslim's first and foremost.
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Profile Image for رانيا الكتاتني.
رانيا الكتاتني
49 reviews
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May 14, 2017
قرأت هذا البحث منذ ما يقرب من عامين محاولةً للوصول لبعض الإجابات وأكثر ما أعجبني فيه هو أنه قادني إلى تساؤلات أكثر فأكثر وترك للقارئ المجال للتفكير في غالبية الأمور.
بحث جيد أكد على الإطار العام للسياسة الشرعية وترك الباقي لاجتهادات علماء كل زمن.
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Rana Iqbal
17 reviews
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February 23, 2015
A must read for anyone interested in the Islamization of society.
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