persons who hold any authority over others, placed in the same category as a servant. Just as a servant is entrusted with a certain property for which he is responsible to his master, those entrusted with authority of the state, in whatever position they may be, are entrusted with the care of the people and guarding their rights, and for the proper discharge of their duties they are responsible, in the first place, to the Real Master, Who is God, and then to the people who have entrusted him with this charge. The first necessity of a good state organization is this mentality on the part of each one of its members, and the greatest stress is, therefore, laid on this in the Islamic concept of state.
The verses and ḥadīth quoted above also show that hereditary kingship is foreign to the concept of the State in Islām. Nor is the Islamic state an autocracy, as uncontrolled authority is not vested in the head of the state. It has already been stated that the law was one for all, and all were one in the eye of the law including the man entrusted with the highest command, and including the Holy Prophet himself who was as much subject to law3 as any of his followers. Speaking of the most prominent qualities of the Muslims, the Holy Qur’ān mentions an equally prominent quality: “And whose affairs are (decided) by counsel among themselves” (42:38). The chapter in which this verse occurs is entitled shūrā or counsel on account of the great democratic principle of counsel laid down here as the basis of the future state of Islām. This is one of the early revelations, when the Holy Prophet was still leading the life of a helpless and persecuted reformer, and shows how the two ideas of democratizing and spiritualizing the state were blended: “And those who respond to their Lord and keep up prayer and whose affairs are (decided) by counsel among themselves and who spend out of what We have given them” (42:38).4 The verse gives prominence to the great acts which are needed to spiritualize man, answering the call of God, praying to God and devoting oneself to the service of humanity, while laying down the principle for conducting the affairs of state. The verses that follow also show that the Holy Prophet wanted his followers to be trained on spiritual lines while preparing them for conducting the affairs of the state: “And those who, when great wrong afflicts them, defend themselves. And the recompense of evil is punishment like it,
3 “I follow naught but what is revealed to me. Indeed I fear the chastisement of a grievous day if I disobey my Lord” (10:15).
4 In this verse the Muslims are enjoined as usual to observe prayer and to spend out of what Allāh has given them. Yet between these two injunctions, which always go together in the Holy Qur’ān and which are the basis of a true Islamic life, is placed a third: And their affairs are decided by counsel among themselves. This injunction at such an early period clearly meant to prepare Muslims for transacting the momentous affairs of state and all matters connected with national weal or woe. In fact the word amr, translated as affairs meant command, and amr Allāh, or Allāh’s command often signifies the establishment of the kingdom of God, which stands for an Islamic Kingdom. The use of the word amr, therefore, here refers to the Islamic kingdom, the affairs of which must be transacted by counsel.