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An Islamic state has a form of government based on sharia. As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity and theories of governance in the Muslim world. As a translation of the Arabic term dawlah islāmiyyah () it refers to a modern notion associated with political Islam (Islamism). Notable historical examples include the first Islamic state in Medina, established by the prophet Muhammad, and the Arabs Caliphate which continued under his successors, such as the Rashidun and Umayyads.
The concept of the modern Islamic state has been articulated and promoted by ideologues such as Rashid Rida, Mullah Omar, Abul A'la Maududi, Ruhollah Khomeini, Israr Ahmed, Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna. Implementation of Islamic law plays an important role in modern theories of the Islamic state, as it did in classical Islamic political theories. However, most of the modern theories also make use of notions that did not exist before the modern era.
Today, many Islamic world have incorporated Islamic law, wholly or in part, into their legal systems. Certain Muslim states have declared Islam to be their state religion in their , but do not apply Islamic law in their courts. Islamic states that are not Islamic monarchies are mostly .
Muhammad himself respected the decision of the shura members. He is the champion of the notion of al-Shura, and this was illustrated in one of the many historical events, such as in the Battle of Khandaq (Battle of the Trench), where Muhammad was faced with two decisions, i.e. to fight the invading non-Muslim Arab armies outside of Medina or wait until they enter the city. After consultation with the sahabah (companions), it was suggested by Salman al-Farsi that it would be better if the Muslims fought the non-Muslim Arabs within Medina by building a big ditch on the northern periphery of Medina to prevent the enemies from entering Medina. This idea was later supported by the majority of the sahabah, and thereafter Muhammad also approved it.
Muhammad placed great emphasis on agreement about the decision of the shura because the majority opinion (by the sahabah) is better than a decision made by one individual.
The Ottoman Caliphate as an office of the Ottoman Empire was abolished under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1924 as part of Atatürk's Reforms. This move was most vigorously protested in India, as Mahatma Gandhi and Indian Muslims united behind the symbolism of the Ottoman Caliph in the Khilafat Movement which sought to reinstate the caliph deposed by Atatürk. The movement leveraged the Ottoman resistance against political pressure from United Kingdom to abolish the caliphate, connecting it with Indian nationalism and the movement for independence from British rule. However, the Khilafat found little support from the Muslims of the Middle East themselves who preferred to be independent nation states rather than being under the Ottoman Turkish rule. In the Indian sub-continent, although Gandhi tried to co-opt the Khilafat as a national movement, it soon degenerated into a jihad against non-Muslims, also known as Moplah riots, with thousands being killed in the Malabar Coast region of Kerala.Gail Minault, The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India (1982).
Like their Christian contemporaries, pre-modern Muslims did not generally conceive of the state as an abstract entity distinct from the individual or group who held political power. The word dawla and its derivatives began to acquire modern connotations in the Ottoman Empire and Iran in the 16th and 17th centuries in the course of diplomatic and commercial exchanges with Europe. During the 19th century, the Arabic dawla and Turkish devlet took on all the aspects of the modern notion of state while the Persian davlat can mean either state or government.
The modern conception of Islamic state was first articulated by the Syrian-Egyptian Islamic theologian Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā (1865–1935). Rashid Rida condemned the 1922 Turkish Abolition of Sultanate which reduced the Caliphate into a purely spiritual authority; soon after the First World War. In his book al-Khilafa aw al-Imama al-Uzma (The Caliphate or the Grand Imamate) published in 1922, Rida asserted that the Caliphate should have the combined powers of both spiritual and temporal authority. He called for the establishment of an Islamic state led by Arabs, functioning as a khilāfat ḍurūrah (caliphate of necessity) that upholds Sharia, and defend its Muslim and non-Muslim subjects.
Another important modern conceptualization of the Islamic state is attributed to Abul A'la Maududi (1903–1979), a Pakistani Muslim theologian who founded the political party Jamaat-e-Islami and inspired other Islamic revolutionaries such as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.Nasr, S. V. R. (1996). Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism. Chapter 4. New York: Oxford University Press. Abul A'la Maududi's early political career was influenced greatly by anti-colonial agitation in India, especially after the tumultuous abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 stoked anti-British sentiment.Minault, G. (1982). The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India. New York: Columbia University Press.
The Islamic state was perceived as a third way between the rival political systems of democracy and socialism (see also Islamic modernism).Kurzman, Charles (2002). "Introduction". Modernist Islam 1840-1940: A Sourcebook. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Maududi's seminal writings on Islamic economics argued as early as 1941 against free-market capitalism and state intervention in the economy, similar to Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr's later Iqtisaduna written in 1961. Maududi envisioned the ideal Islamic state as combining the democratic principles of electoral politics with the socialist principles of concern for the poor.Khir, B. M. "The Islamic Quest for Sociopolitical Justice". In Cavanaugh, W. T.; Scott, P., eds. (2004). The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 503–518.
Pan-Islamism is a form of Internationalism and anti-nationalism within political Islam which advocates the unification of the Muslim world under a single Islamic state, often described as a caliphate or ummah. The most famous, powerful and aggressive modern pan-Islamic group that pursues the objective of unifying the Muslim world and establishing a worldwide caliphate is the Wahhabi/Salafi jihadist movement Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration as of 3 August 2011 declared Islam to be the official religion of Libya.
Per Supreme leader, Islamic state is the 3rd phase of Iranian Islamic Republic program and is in and of itself part of New Islamic Civilization. The Foundations and Indicators of the Islamic State from the Perspective of Majestic Ayatollah Khamenei The State Studies Quarterly
Vol 9, No. 33, 2023, pp 195-222.
Historical Islamic states
Majid Khadduri gives six stages of history for the Islamic state:
Early Islamic governments
The first Islamic state was the political entity established by Muhammad in Medina in 622 CE under the Constitution of Medina. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah (nation). It was subsequently transformed into the caliphate by Muhammad's disciples, who were known as the Rightly Guided ( Rashidun) Caliphs (632–661 CE). The Islamic State significantly expanded under the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) and consequently the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258).
Essence of Islamic governments
The essence or guiding principles of an Islamic government or Islamic state is the concept of al-Shura. Several scholars have different understandings or thoughts, with regard to the concept al-Shura. However, most Muslim scholars are of the opinion that Islamic al-Shura should consist of the following:Jeong, Chun Hai; Nawi, Nor Fadzlina. (2007). Principles of Public Administration: An Introduction. Kuala Lumpur: Karisma Publications. .
Revival and abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate
The Ottoman Sultan, Selim I (1512–1520) reclaimed the title of caliph which had been in dispute and asserted by a diversity of rulers and shadow caliphs in the centuries of the Abbasid-Mamluk Caliphate since the Mongols' sacking of Baghdad and the killing of the last Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, Iraq 1258.
Modern Islamic state
Development of the notion of dawla
The Arabic word dawla comes from the root d-w-l, meaning "to turn, come around in a cyclical fashion". In the Quran, it is used to refer to the nature of human fortunes, alternating between victory and defeat (3:140). This use led Arab writers to apply the word to succession of dynasties, particularly to the overthrow of the of Damascus by the . The first Abbasid caliphs themselves spoke of "our dawla" in the sense of "our turn/time of success". As Abbasids maintained their power, the dynastic sense of dawla became conflated with their dynastic rule, and in later times al-Dawla was used across the Islamic world as a honorific title for rulers and high officials.
Development of Modern Conception of Islamic state
According to Pakistani scholar of Islamic history Qamaruddin Khan, the term Islamic state "was never used in the theory or practice of Muslim political science, before the twentieth century". Sohail H. Hashmi characterizes dawla Islamiyya as a neologism found in contemporary Islamist writings. Islamic theories of the modern notion of state first emerged as a reaction to the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924. It was also in this context that the famous dictum that Islam is both a religion and a state ( al-Islam din wa dawla) was first popularized.
Muslim world today
Today, many Muslim countries have incorporated Islamic law in part into their legal systems. Certain Muslim states have declared Islam to be their state religion in their constitutions, but do not apply Islamic law in their courts. Islamic states which are not Islamic monarchies are usually referred to as Islamic republics,Elliesie, Hatem. "Rule of Law in Islamic Modeled States" . In Koetter, Matthias; Shuppert, Gunnar Folke, eds. (2010). Understanding of the Rule of Law in Various Legal Orders of the World: Working Paper Series Nr. 13 of SFB 700: Governance in Limited Areas of Statehood. Berlin. such as the islamic republics of Iran,Moschtaghi, Ramin. "Rule of Law in Iran" . In Koetter, Matthias; Shuppert, Gunnar Folke, eds. (2010). Understanding of the Rule of Law in Various Legal Orders of the World: Working Paper Series Nr. 13 of SFB 700: Governance in Limited Areas of Statehood. Berlin. Pakistan and Mauritania. Pakistan adopted the title under the constitution of 1956; Mauritania adopted it on 28 November 1958; and Iran adopted it after the 1979 Revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty. In Iran, the form of government is known as the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists. Afghanistan was run as an Islamic state (Islamic State of Afghanistan) in the post-communist era since 1992, but then de facto by the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) in areas controlled by them since 1996 and after the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban the country was still known as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan until 15 August 2021, when the Taliban captured the country.
Brunei
Brunei is an absolute Islamic monarchy. With the constitution in 1959, Islam became the official religion of the country.
Iran
Leading up to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, many of the highest-ranking clergy in Shia Islam held to the standard doctrine of the Imamate, which allows political rule only by Muhammad or one of his true successors. They were opposed to creating an Islamic state (see Ayatollah Ha'eri Yazdi (Khomeini's own teacher), Ayatollah Borujerdi, Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari, and Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei).Chehabi, H. E. (Summer 1991). "Religion and Politics In Iran: How Theocratic is the Islamic Republic?" Daedalus. 120. (3). pp. 69-91. Contemporary theologians who were once part of the Iranian Revolution also became disenchanted and critical of the unity of religion and state in the Islamic Republic of Iran, are advocating secularization of the state to preserve the purity of the Islamic faith (see Abdolkarim Soroush and Mohsen Kadivar).Kurzman, Charles (Winter 2001). "Critics Within: Islamic Scholars' Protest Against the Islamic State in Iran" . International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. 15 (2).
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy. The Basic Law of Saudi Arabia contains many characteristics of what might be called a constitution in other countries. However, the Qur'an and the Sunnah is declared to be the official constitution of the country which is governed on the basis of Sharia. The Allegiance Council is responsible to determine the new King and the new Crown Prince. All citizens of full age have a right to attend, meet, and petition the king directly through the traditional tribal meeting known as the majlis.
Yemen
The Constitution of Yemen declares that Islam is the state religion, and that Shari'a (Islamic law) is the source of all legislation.
Mauritania
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb region of western North Africa. (2025). 9781438126760, Facts On File, Inc.. ISBN 9781438126760 Mauritania was declared an independent state as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, on November 28, 1960. The Constitutional Charter of 1985 declares Islam as the state religion and sharia the law of the land.
Pakistan
Pakistan was created as a separate state for Indian Muslims in British Raj in 1947, and followed the parliamentary form of democracy. In 1949, the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan passed the Objectives Resolution which envisaged an official role for Islam as the state religion to make sure any future law should not violate its basic teachings. On the whole, the state retained most of the laws that were inherited from the British legal code that had been enforced by the British Raj since the 19th century. In 1956, the elected parliament formally adopted the name Islamic Republic of Pakistan, declaring Islam as the official religion.
Afghanistan
After the fall of Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (Soviet occupation), Afghanistan has gone through several attempts to set up an Islamic state:
Syria
Syria was previously ruled by its Ba'athist regime from 1963 until 2024 when it collapsed. Following the fall of the Assad regime, the Islamist Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) declared Syria an Islamic state from 2025 which it will govern for five years under its temporary constitution.
See also
Further reading
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Contemporary Coexisting Civilizations. Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western''. Geneva: INUPress. pp. 5001. .
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