The social order of Islam is based on the principles of universality and human brotherhood. Islam strives to guarantee happiness, prosperity, and goodness for both the individual and society. In this system, there is no place for any class struggle between individuals and society. The social order of Islam is collective, favoring social life and calling for collective worship. A society in which everyone has one ultimate authority, one direction, and one center; where individuals fast for a month at the same time across the globe, and where, as one of the main duties of a Muslim, they perform Hajj simultaneously.
Moreover, Islam places great emphasis on individual responsibility and does not overlook the progress of the individual. At the same time, it organizes all individuals into a singular entity—namely, the Islamic society. A uniform law governs the affairs of life and applies to people in whatever class or country they may be.
It is within this context that we must address a view frequently expressed in Western literature: that Islam is not just a religion, but also a state. Hegel concludes, “Perhaps the essence of Islamic morality is complete. What should be an inner inclination becomes a matter for an external order. There is no need for a will to command moral actions; they are performed voluntarily, for they are commanded from within, since the external and the internal are not yet separated from the legal and moral sense. Thus they form an undivided unity. So too are religion and the state.”
In this regard, Montesquieu, in his book The Spirit of Laws, emphasizes that a society without law is not a society, and that wherever there is law, there must also be a state. He bases his view on biblical and Quranic considerations and on the laws that Allah has established: “God, the Creator and Preserver, has instituted laws; for it is related to His wisdom and power. As we see, the world persists, and its movements must have immutable laws. If another world could be imagined, that world would also be established or destroyed by laws.”
Older commentators, such as Ibn Kathir, in his commentary on verse 59 of Surah An-Nisa, state, “The Ruler is Allah. He alone is the Lawgiver.”
Al-Jassas, in his commentary on verse 65 of Surah An-Nisa, remarks, “The role of the Sharia is closely linked to Islamic beliefs, and without these rules, there is no Islamic Sharia.”
Muhammad al-Ghazali (1917-1996), a scholar from Al-Azhar, emphasizes that Allah is the only Lawgiver and that the Ummah should establish a consultative government.
