Islam & the Modern World · Islam as a Working System
Islam does not need a perfect Muslim state
In short
- 1.No contemporary state implements the system being described, and several are unjust by any measure.
- 2.Corruption, torture and mistreatment of workers are violations of explicit texts, not applications of them.
- 3.Conceding this first is what makes the rest of the argument credible.
The claim being examined
The condition of Muslim-majority countries is presented as a refutation of Islam.
The Islamic position
Islam is judged by its texts and by the standard it sets, and that standard condemns those governments before any critic does.
Analysis
This is the credibility card for the whole section and should be used early rather than defensively. The honest position has three parts. First, concede specifics rather than generalities: authoritarian rule, torture, the treatment of migrant labour under exploitative sponsorship systems, corruption and the suppression of scholars are real and are condemned by the very texts already cited — the wage hadith, the justice verses, the prohibition on oppression in the hadith qudsi that God has forbidden oppression to Himself and made it forbidden between people (Sahih Muslim 2577). Second, distinguish claim from record: the argument for Islam rests on its truth and its texts, not on the performance of governments, and no Christian is required to defend every European state. Third, resist the opposite error of blaming everything on colonialism; the history is real and relevant, and so is internal failure, and saying both is more honest. What should never be done is defending an indefensible government to protect the religion, which damages both. Q 4:135 already requires testimony against one's own side.
From the Qur'an
وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِكُمْ
Even if it be against yourselves.
إِنَّمَا السَّبِيلُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ يَظْلِمُونَ النَّاسَ
The blame is only upon those who wrong people.
From the Sunnah
O My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden among you, so do not oppress one another.
Sources
Sahih Muslim 2577 · Qur'an 4:135 · Sahih Muslim 2577
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