Friday, May 25, 2007

Development of Islamic Law

Just started this book and thought this quote was very good. Muhammad is the perfect man, and the pattern for all Islamic activity. Since that is true, the idea of separating religious and civil authority (secularism) is anti-Islamic. Muhammad as the perfect man drew all power to himself, so that is the pattern to be emulated today. So we should not be surprised to see that democracy whicch spreads power out over people has been a failure in Islamdom.

Check it out:

"Similarly, Muslim history places the revelation of Islam's law in the context of a polity based in Medina and portrays Muhammad as, like Moses, both prophet and ruler. (The revelations that came to Muhammad before the migration of the Muslims from Mecca to Medina are generally regarded as having little legal content.) Although a few modern Muslim revisionists have contended that it was not part of Muhammad's mission to create a state, the weight of Muslim opinion through the ages has been of the side of the opposing view. The standard account of the life of Muhammad has him undertaking rather soon after his arrival in Medina in 622 C.E.... to set down in writing regulations governing the internal affairs of the community and the defense of the community against attack from the outside. Tradition would see this as the virtual charter of the Islamic state. Muhammad clearly held the reins of government in his hand; he was lawgiver (mediator of the divine law), judge, statesman, and head of an army."

Bernard Weiss, The Spirit of Islamic Law, Univ. of Georgia Press, 1998, p. 3

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