"The Caliphate and Imamate in Islamic Thought" Series
By the writer and thinker Thaer Salama - Abu Malik
Episode Sixty-Five: Guarantees for Achieving the Legal State Between the Islamic and Western Perspectives – Part 1
Fifth: Guarantees for Achieving the Legal State Between the Islamic and Western Perspectives:
In the Western conception of the legal state, we find the following three guarantees to achieve the state's submission to the law:
First: Separation of powers, second: Organizing judicial oversight, third: Applying the democratic system.
The truth is that the first and third guarantees, and the concepts that resulted from them, are misleading and incorrect concepts that do not exist in reality. We have elaborated on refuting them in our book: Islam, Democracy, Secularism, Liberalism, and Capitalism - A Comparison of Intellectual Foundations, which we ask God to facilitate its publication and printing. In it, we have thoroughly refuted the foundations on which the principles of democracy, liberalism, and secularism are based, and we have discussed the issue of the separation of powers and other issues in detail, so refer to it!
The Concept of Authority Between the Islamic System and the Western System:
Political authority in Western thought is defined as "a social phenomenon that has the actual ability to monopolize the means of suppression and coercion within the group in order to achieve harmony and social security for the benefit of this group."1 In another definition: "Authority is the scope of legitimate powers that an entity enjoys2 when acting on behalf of the government. These powers are granted through officially recognized channels within the government and represent part of the government's public authority." Dr. Muhammad Balrouin believes that "Although there is no single, specific, and agreed-upon definition of the meaning of the concept of authority, its meaning can be limited to (a) the total powers that the people delegate to officials in the state, (b) the people's choice of the political tool that determines the type and nature of these powers, and (c) the inclusion of these powers on the right of officials to make decisions and issue orders binding on all.3
While political authority in Islamic sources is defined as: "... established for the succession of prophecy in guarding the religion and governing the world" according to Al-Mawardi, and Ibn Khaldun defined it by saying: "Carrying the masses according to the requirements of legal consideration in their religious and worldly interests that return to it... So it is in reality a succession of the owner of the Sharia in guarding the religion and governing the world with it..."
Imam al-Juwayni defined it as "The Imamate: a complete leadership in the important matters of religion and the world... to preserve the sanctuary, care for the people, establish the call with argument and the sword, seek justice for the oppressed from the oppressors, and collect rights from those who refuse to pay and fulfill them to those who deserve them."
Thus... we note in the Islamic definitions the availability of the element of power for the political authority in order to carry out its tasks (in guarding the religion).
(Carrying the masses...) (To preserve the sanctuary... and establish the call with argument and the sword....) We also note in the Islamic definitions that the task that the political authority undertakes is dual: it is the establishment of religion and the care of worldly and livelihood matters on the basis of the provisions of religion.4
The concept of authority in the Western system differs from the concept of authority in the Islamic system. When looking closely at the concept of authority, we find that it is caring for the interests of the people in general (the system of government, and the systems of the state) with specific provisions. It has been proven beyond any doubt that authority is the disposal of the interests of the people, and the interests of the people are definitely determined according to their point of view in life, so what they see as actions and things that are in their interest, they consider it an interest, and what they do not see as an interest, they refuse to consider it an interest, so the interest is only from the point of view of it, not only from its reality, so dying in the cause of God (martyrdom) is seen by the Muslim as an interest even though it is death [i.e., death is not an interest in itself], and usury is not seen by the Muslim as an interest even though it is earning money [earning money is an interest in itself], so the point of view in life determined the nature of the thing as an interest or a detriment, so lying is a detriment, but in war it is an interest, even though its reality is that it is a lie did not differ in the two cases, but the view of it differed according to the point of view in life, so the interests are definitely according to the point of view in life, so whoever wants to take authority only means that he wants to dispose of the interests of the people, so he must take the point of view of the people and then dispose of their interests according to their point of view, or he gives them his point of view in life and convinces them of it and then disposes of their interests, or he forces them to see his vision as in the systems of despotism, and in the first and second cases, he only made the view of life the basis for taking the disposition of the interests of the people, that is, the basis for taking authority, based on the consent of both parties, and in the third case, it differed only by imposing the ruler's point of view on the people by force, and it remained the angle through which authority is taken, and therefore the view of life is the basis for taking authority, so it was necessary to work on changing the view of life if that view contradicted Islam, and to convince people to take the Islamic creed as a basis in their view of life and their interests, so wherever the Sharia is, there is the interest, and that public opinion in society turns to taking this view as a basis for ruling, so the ruling is taken from those who do not establish it on the basis of this view, from here, the resumption of Islamic life requires that the view of interests, actions, and affairs turns to the angle of Islam, so it is taken as the angle by which interests are judged and affairs are taken care of on its basis, therefore, the work of the central party was to change the concepts, convictions, and standards that society has in order to establish the state on the basis of Islamic concepts, standards, and convictions, on which the Sultan establishes it and replaces what contradicts Islam in reality.5
1- Al-Wa'i magazine, issue 28-29, on a research entitled: Political Authority in Western and Islamic Political Thought, a research submitted to a university
2- Cline n.d.))
3- From the Concept of Political Authority (1 of 2) Dr. Muhammad Balrouin
4- Cline n.d.))
5- See the Tactical Bulletins Collection, p. 137 with modifications.
