Political Narrative of Islam (Part 1)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

والصلاة والسلام على خاتم النبيين

وعلى اهل بيته الطيبين الطاهرين المظلومين

والعاقبة للمتقين

Islam has three dimensions; (1) a metaphysical doctrine, (2) a legal system, and (3) a political narrative. No other major world religion can boast anything like it. For example, Christianity is merely a metaphysical doctrine, lacking the other two dimensions. Judaism, while it has the first two dimensions, is bereft of the third – a political narrative. It is precisely because Islam has a robust political narrative that it is extremely relevant in the world today, while all the other religions are irrelevant from a geopolitical and even social perspective. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out that not all of the various streams and tendencies within Islam acknowledge this otherwise quite apparent third dimension. This is especially true of quietist and conservative Salafism. Their senior most scholars generally consider any notion of Islam having its own political narrative as being a Kharijite and Shiite innovation. The outside world employs the word “Islamist” to distinguish those Muslims who derive a political ideology from their Religion as opposed to the rest of the Muslims who have generally accepted the secular order. The conclusion is that a political narrative must not be a fundamental component of Islam, otherwise the vast majority of Muslims would at the very least acknowledge it and take it as an article of faith. The fact of the matter is that in order to gain an appropriate understanding of Islam’s political narrative, one has to read between the lines, so to speak. In other words, Islam’s political narrative isn’t spelled out so clearly as a manifesto. Islam’s central sacred text, the Quran, due to its unique literary structure, does contain a political narrative, but in order for the reader to grasp it he has to be acquainted with the Quran’s setting, background and context. Perhaps more clear on the political narrative is the Sira of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Over the course of the next few days, I shall elucidate some of the details of Islam’s unique political narrative and ideology based on the Quran, the Hadith, and especially the Prophet’s Sira ان شاء الله العزيز