With the Qur’an’s political-moral vision, Islam once dismantled corrupt socioeconomic systems and united monotheism with human egalitarianism. This was the realisation of the primordial covenant between man and God at the moment of creation. Islam gave the world an ethical orientation and laid the foundation for a unique civilisation based on justice and spiritual integrity.
However, over time, internal forces such as authoritarian rule, excessive mysticism, and rigid orthodoxy impeded progress. During the medieval period, speculative theology, mystic abstraction, and political disillusionment prevailed just as imperial Western powers confronted a stagnating Muslim world.
This encounter marked the beginning of a “dark age” in Muslim history an era of surrender and collaboration. Since then, Islam has often been reinterpreted through the lens of Western modernity, with secularism and nationalism becoming dominant frameworks. Genuine Muslim voices who saw nationalism as a destructive ideology and secularism as a crisis of modernity have been largely drowned out by secular Muslim elites.
Western Orientalists further distorted the picture by dividing Islam into two “phases”: Makkah and Madinah. Applying the Christian dichotomy of “render unto Caesar” to Islam, they falsely portrayed the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) political role as secular in nature. This interpretation ignores the continuity between the Prophet’s spiritual message and his governance in Madinah.
In reality, Islam emerged when Abrahamic monotheism was poised to enter the global stage, shedding racial and territorial boundaries. Monotheism, expressed through social justice, was the cure for the dual diseases of socioeconomic inequality and polytheism. The Prophet and his contemporaries fully understood that meaningful social reform required political authority. Thus, the political developments in Madinah were a natural extension of the revelations in the Cave of Hira.
Islam was never nationalistic. The Prophet was commanded to approach his tribe, then the Arabs, and ultimately all of humanity establishing a universal vision. Scholars like Ibn Khaldun and Shah Waliullah acknowledged that an Arab foundation was necessary for Islam’s emergence as a global force.
In Madinah, Muslims were formed into a median community a balanced ummah between the legalism of Judaism and the fluidity of Christianity. This “best of nations” was tasked with establishing an egalitarian moral order, guided by the instrument of jihad (struggle for justice). Internally, the community was radically egalitarian men and women alike participated in public life, and mutual goodwill governed social relations.
Central to this vision was shura mutual consultation ensuring that decisions were made collectively, with every voice valued equally. After the Prophet’s death, shura guided the selection of his first successor. Though its application became selective over time, it retained its moral force until autocratic regimes diluted it into a mere formality, ultimately excluding the masses from governance.
In the colonial era, reformers like Jamal al-Din Afghani and Namik Kamal advocated democratic structures not as Western imports but as tools to revive the Qur’anic political ethos. Their call was rooted in their own tradition, not Western mimicry.
Muhammad Iqbal, a thinker deeply committed to democratic ideals, criticised Western democracy for its secularism not for its processes. He envisioned a spiritual democracy grounded in Islamic ethics. Pakistan, in his view, was to embody this vision but instead adopted a Western-style secular democracy.
Unless we reconnect with the Qur’an’s political-moral vision the one Iqbal articulated and Jinnah aspired to realise we risk remaining pawns in other people’s games, unable to chart our own destiny.
Published in Dawn,
The writer is an academic.
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