Political Obligation Under Islamic Injunctions

Unlike the Christian tradition (the church-state controversy), in Islamic tradition, the temporal and the spiritual are not dichotomized. The state and political obligation are not outside the Quranic vision. As Karen Armstrong, who has written several books on religions, in her Islam: A Short History, says, ‘A Muslim had to redeem history, and that meant that state affairs were not distraction from spirituality but the stuff of religion itself.’¹⁹ If this is the case, religious and political obligations are the same.

However, to understand the scope of political obligation in Islamic vision, we may need to see how Islamic jurisprudence interprets different political obligations for different types of political relations based on Islamic and non-Islamic rule. The whole world is divided into Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb. While Dar al-Islam stands for the House of Islam, i.e., territory and area under Islamic rule and control, Dar al-Harb stands for the House of War signifying area or territory ruled by non-Islamic rulers. For a Muslim inhabiting Dar al-Islam, political obligation, being part of religious obligation, is unconditional and absolute. However, the problem arises in Dar al-Harb. Should a Muslim residing in a territory ruled by non-Muslims render political obligation to the state? What would be his political obligation to the Dar al-Harb when a Muslim or a non-Muslim from outside attacks it? It may be noted that in the context of the 1857 Revolt in India against the British colonial power, the issue of political obligation of the Indian Muslims to the colonial state was a matter of debate. India ruled by the British was a Dar al-Harb for the Indian Muslims. A large section of Indian Muslims applied this concept to justify their opposition to the British rule and rally against it.

Kamal Ata Turk abolished the Caliphate, the seat of Muslim politico–religious power in Turkey after the First World War and consequently, there is no central seat of power to direct the Muslims all over the world in their politico–religious obligation in a particular way. Emergence of nation-states means Muslims are residing along with followers of other religions under different political dispensations, ranging from democracy to authoritarian rule to socialist rule, etc. and are equal citizens of these nation-states.