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The West makes a natural mistake in their understanding of Islamic tradition, assuming that religion means the same for Muslims as it has meant for most other religious adherents ever since the industrial revolution, and for some societies, even before that; that is: a section of life reserved for certain matters, and separate from other sections of life.\u00a0 This is not the Islamic world view.\u00a0 It never has been in the past, and modern attempts of making it so are seen as an aberration. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Islam is a \u201ctotal way of life.\u201d \u00a0It has provided guidance in every sphere of life, from individual cleanliness, rules of trade, to the structure and politics of the society. Islam can never be separated from social, political, or economic life, since religion provides moral guidance for every action that a person takes.\u00a0 The primary act of faith is to strive to implement God’s will in both private and public life.\u00a0 Muslims see that they, themselves, as well as the world around them, must be in total submission to God and his Will.\u00a0 Moreover, they know that this concept of His rule must be established on earth in order to create a just society.\u00a0 Like Jews and Christians before them, Muslims have been called into a covenant relationship with God, making them a community of believers who must serve as an example to other nations by creating a moral social order. \u00a0God tells the Muslim global nation:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou are the best community raised for mankind, enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong\u2026\u201d <\/span>(Quran 3:110)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Throughout history, being a Muslim has meant not only belonging to a religious community of fellow believers but also living under the Islamic Law.\u00a0 For Islamic Law is believed to be an extension of God\u2019s absolute sovereignty.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n God is the absolute sovereign in Islam, and is therefore the only Lord of heaven and earth.\u00a0 Just as He is the Lord of the physical universe, to the true Muslim believers, God is the Lawgiver for every area of human life.\u00a0 Just as He is the Master of the physical world, God is the Ruler of the affairs of men in Islamic doctrine.\u00a0 Thus God is the supreme Lawgiver[1], the Absolute Judge, and the Legislator Who distinguishes right from wrong.\u00a0 Just like the physical world inevitably submits to its Lord by following the \u2018natural\u2019 laws of the universe, human beings must submit to the moral and religious teaching of their Lord, the One Who sets right apart from wrong for them.\u00a0 In other words, God alone has the authority to make laws, determine acts of worship, decide morals, and set standards of human interaction and behavior.\u00a0 This is because,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHis is the Creation and Command.\u201d<\/span> (Quran 7:54)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As we have mentioned, in Islam God is acknowledged the sole sovereign of human affairs, so there has never been a distinction between religious and state authority.\u00a0 In Christendom, the distinction between the two authorities are said to be based upon records in the New Testament of Jesus, asking his followers to render unto Caesar what was his and unto God what was His.\u00a0 Therefore throughout Christian history until the present times, there have always been two authorities: \u2018God and Caesar\u2019, or \u2018the church and state.\u2019\u00a0 Each had its own laws and jurisdictions, each its own structure and hierarchy.\u00a0 In the pre-westernized Islamic world there were never two powers, and the question of separation never arose.\u00a0 The distinction so deeply rooted in Christendom between church and state has never existed in Islam.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The vision of an Islamic state and the purpose of its political authority is to implement the divine law.\u00a0 Thus, the ideal Islamic state is a community governed by the Law revealed by God. \u00a0This does not entail that such a state is necessarily a theocracy under direct rule of the learned men of religion, nor is it an autocracy that vests absolute power in the ruler.\u00a0 The function of the Islamic state is to provide security and order so that Muslims can carry out both their religious and worldly duties.\u00a0 The Caliph[2] is the guardian of faith and the community.\u00a0 His role is not so much checked by the ulama<\/em> (religious scholars), but enhanced by them because they provide him religious and legal counsel.\u00a0 He also appoints judges who resolve disputes in accordance with Islamic Law.\u00a0 There is a certain level of flexibility in regards to the system of governance and its establishment in Islam, however, religion must be implemented fully into state and society.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Footnotes:<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n [1] God\u2019s existence proven by the existence of a supreme Lawgiver is called the \u2018ethical\u2019 argument by Western theologians.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n [2] The word Caliph is the English term for Khaleefah, or successor, for the Caliph succeeds Prophet Muhammad as political leader of the Muslims and implementation of Divine Law in society.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Ref: www.islamreligion.com \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The West makes a natural mistake in their understanding of Islamic tradition, assuming that religion means the same for Muslims as it has meant for most… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-truth-of-islam"],"yoast_head":"\nIslam: A Total Way of Life<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
God is the Only Sovereign<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Separation of Institutional Religion & the State<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Vision of an Islamic State<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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