Islam and the state

Overview

Recall questions on the contractual Sunni state, ruler and ulama, rebellion, the Shi'a Imam, the occultation and wilayat al-faqih, secularism, Western legal codes and reactions to them, religion and state in pre-modern thought, and whether democracy and the nation-state are compatible with Islam.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does it mean to say that the Sunni state is contractual?

   Model answer

   Sunni political theory treats the caliphate as established by an agreement rather than by divine appointment. Those qualified to speak for the community, described as the people who loose and bind, nominate a candidate, and the community gives him bay'a, a pledge of allegiance which functions as a contract with obligations on both sides. The ruler undertakes to uphold the law, defend the territory, secure justice and administer the public treasury; the community undertakes obedience so long as he does. Because authority derives from this contract rather than from any inherited sanctity, the caliph has no power to define doctrine.

2. 2

   In Sunni thought, how do the ruler and the ulama complement one another?

   Model answer

   They are complementary because they divide different kinds of authority. The ruler holds coercive power: armies, taxation, appointments and the enforcement of judgments. The ulama hold interpretive authority: they determine what the law is, train and supply judges, issue rulings and are described in the tradition as heirs of the prophets. Each needs the other, since the ruler needs religious legitimation and the scholars need enforcement and protection, and each limits the other, since the ruler cannot declare the law and the scholars cannot command troops. The arrangement means that Sunni Islam has no church and no clergy with sacramental power, but a scholarly class with real independent standing.

3. 3

   How far does Sunni theory allow disobedience or rebellion against a ruler?

   Model answer

   In principle obedience is conditional: the tradition holds that there is no obedience to a creature in disobedience to the Creator, so an order to commit sin must be refused, and speaking truth to an unjust ruler is described as a high form of struggle. In practice classical jurists writing after the early civil wars, including al-Mawardi and Ghazali, discouraged armed rebellion, arguing that an unjust ruler is a lesser evil than the collapse of order, and some went as far as accepting whoever holds effective power. The tension between conditional obedience and fear of civil strife runs through Sunni political writing and is live again in modern debates about revolution.

4. 4

   What is the Shi'a doctrine of the Imam as supreme authority?

   Model answer

   Shi'a Islam holds that leadership of the community was designated by God through the Prophet and passed to Ali and his descendants. The Imam is understood to be protected from sin and error and to possess authoritative knowledge of revelation, so his authority is religious and political at once: he is the legitimate ruler and the definitive interpreter. This differs from the Sunni caliph in kind rather than degree, since it is not conferred by the community and cannot be transferred by agreement. It follows that for Shi'a thought all governments during the Imam's absence face a question of legitimacy that Sunni theory does not raise in the same way.

5. 5

   What happened to Shi'a political authority after the occultation of the twelfth Imam?

   Model answer

   Twelver Shi'a Muslims hold that the twelfth Imam entered concealment in 874, and that for some decades afterwards he communicated with the community through a succession of four named deputies. From 941 that channel closed as well, beginning the greater concealment in which he remains hidden until his return. That closure created the problem of authority, and it was answered gradually by the scholars, who came to be regarded as his general deputies, exercising his functions in matters such as law, religious taxes and judgement. The victory of the school permitting independent reasoning secured the position of qualified jurists, and produced the institution by which ordinary believers follow a living authority. What the deputies may not do, and how far their remit extends into government, has remained contested.

6. 6

   What is wilayat al-faqih, and how does it differ from quietist Shi'a positions?

   Model answer

   Wilayat al-faqih, the guardianship of the jurist, is the doctrine developed by Khomeini that during the Imam's absence political rule itself belongs to a qualified jurist, since the law needs an executor and only a jurist can be trusted with it; it was institutionalised in Iran after 1979. The quietist tradition, strong in the seminaries of Najaf and associated with Sistani, holds that scholars should guide, advise and if necessary restrain governments but should not rule, both because the Imam's political authority cannot be delegated and because governing corrupts religious authority. Both positions are held by trained Twelver jurists, so this is an internal Shi'a argument rather than a division between religious and secular Muslims.

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