Characteristics of Islamic Governance: The Scholars’ Consensus

Abstract

As we approached the task of defining the features of a present day Islamic state, it quickly became evident that while there are principles that represent the core elements of Islamic governance, there is more than one approach to constructing an Islamic state. Our group of scholars, hailing from different corners of Islamic legal and political thought, was itself representative of that multiplicity of perspectives. As Ghazi shared with the group, among the ``various efforts to reinvigorate the role of Islam in communities and nations'' are perspectives that emphasize the cultural or civilizational aspects of the Muslim ummah (such as Prime Minister Badawi's Islam Hadhari in Malaysia), perspectives that emphasize jurisprudence under the leadership of a scholarly class ( wilayat al-faqih — rule of the jurisprudent — in Iran), and those that emphasize the implementation of the Hudud (corporal punishments) as the barometer for instituting Islamic law. There are even perspectives, such as in Ghazi's native Pakistan, which emphasize economic development over jurisprudence or instituting Hudud punishments — much to the chagrin of some elements of Pakistani society that would rather see the latter.