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Volume :5 Issue : 20 1985
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The "State" as an Islamic System (in Arabic)
Auther : Mohammad Dheifullah Batayenah
The Arabs were unable to establish a unified state in the Arabian Penisula in the pre-Islamic period. They achieved unity for the first time under the leadership of the Prophet Muhammad. At the time of the Prophet, the supremacy of Islam as a system of law and thought, and as the basis of social solidarity superseded the prevailing social organization based on blood ties and tribal relations. Islam provided the constitutional basis of a state, which first united Arabia and then spread to the neighboring regions.
In later periods, particularly at times when military commanders domineered the caliphs, the government sometimes had the upper hand over the community. This deviation from the principle did not represent its elimination, however. Various political factions, as well as the theologians and the jurists condemned arbitrary rule as a breach of the Islamic spirit. They might have disagreed on the evaluation of actual historical circumstances and the degree of arbitrariness involved in particular government. They agreed, however, that the legitimacy of a government depended on its ability to uphold the law, and they emphasized that the community owed its allegiance only to governments, which ruled by the law.