"The Caliphate and the Imamate in Islamic Thought" Series
By the writer and thinker Thaer Salama – Abu Malik
Part Fifteen: Examples of the Rulings Entrusted to the State to Demonstrate That Most of Islam Depends on It
Among the rulings entrusted to the state are the rulings of the state's internal policy:
Internal policy is taking care of the affairs of the nation and the state's subjects, whether in their relationship with the state and the state's relationship with them, from accountability, a national assembly, grievances, people's interests departments, and appointing governors, employees, assistants, and ombudsmen, or in their relationships with each other, from advice, enjoining good, forbidding evil, preserving the creed, preserving the religion by spreading knowledge, combating ignorance and innovation, media policy, resolving disputes, and what is required of deriving rulings related to transactions and the judiciary, achieving equality in treatment and rights according to Sharia, enabling subjects, both Muslims and Dhimmis, to enjoy all rights and benefit from wealth, and from public state facilities, guaranteeing their basic needs, establishing society on the foundations of cooperation, fraternity, solidarity, and altruism, establishing security, establishing markets, mosques, hospitals, research centers, facilities, dams, and so on, and displaying the Islamic way of life in its finest form to be a clear example dominated by virtue, a supreme value, and a fundamental tool for carrying the Islamic call to others. All of this is carried out by the state, and in the absence of the state, some of it may be carried out in a fragmented manner, but it does not achieve the goal, and does not go beyond being individual efforts, such as enjoining good and forbidding evil. If the evils - as they are today - are state evils, then individual efforts to forbid them will only result in a few abstaining from them. As for changing evils protected by the state, this will not result from individual efforts except by turning those efforts into a sweeping public opinion! Therefore, it is necessary to give the bow to its maker, by making all these rulings for the state to take care of, implement, and establish among Muslims in their lives, so that it bears fruit and achieves its goal, and Muslims live an Islamic life, and some of it is entrusted to parties, such as changing state evils.
Among the rulings entrusted to the state are the rulings of foreign policy:
From establishing a body that is based on making and implementing policies and decisions related to foreign policy, whether the governmental body or the non-governmental body represented by political parties and the political center, and from treaties, carrying the call, jihad, warfare, and what follows from establishing heavy industries, building factories, extracting natural resources, and international relations with countries and other international parties to implement the goals of the Islamic state on the international arena, spread Islam, and make decisions that guide the state's relations internationally, and monitoring the affairs of the state by keeping pace with events and interactions witnessed by the global system at the political, strategic, economic, social, and cultural levels, studying the impact of this on the nation, and taking the necessary measures to protect the interests of the nation, and developing the necessary plans to carry the call, spread Islam, and protect the interests of subjects outside the state, and so on.
Among the rulings entrusted to the state are the financial rulings and the economic system
And what it contains of public and private properties, and state property, and verifying the economic establishment of the state and achieving the goals of that system, and the rulings related to how to acquire money, develop it, how to spend it and dispose of it, how to distribute wealth among members of society, and how to create balance in it, and from the rulings of Kharaj, Zakat, and lands, money and monetary policies, domestic and foreign trade, industries, and so on.
Among the rulings related to the state are the rulings related to the penal system,
From Hudud, Ta'zir, Qisas, felonies, evidence, judiciary, violations, and establishing the guarding force for the proper application of rulings, and so on,
Wherever you look, you will find that most of the rulings of Islam are based on the premise that they are applied through the Islamic state, and the individuals' share of the application is: ensuring advice to the state and holding it accountable, and implementing the command of God that the ruler established to establish it, and that the nation, with its individuals, is the owner of the authority, delegating the ruler to implement the commands and prohibitions that God commanded it with, in addition to carrying out the actions entrusted to individuals of prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, enjoining good, forbidding evil, charity, and similar rulings.
