Political aspects of Islam

Political aspects of Islam are derived from the Quran, hadith literature, and sunnah (the sayings and living habits of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), history of Islam, and elements of political movements outside Islam. Traditional political concepts in Islam include leadership by elected or selected successors to Muhammad known as Caliphs (Imamate for Shia); the importance of following Islamic law or Sharia; the duty of rulers to seek Shura or consultation from their subjects; and the importance of rebuking unjust rulers.

Quotes

• Bolshevism combines the characteristics of the French Revolution with those of the rise of Islam. … Among religions, Bolshevism is to be reckoned with Mohammedanism rather than with Christianity and Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism are primarily personal religions, with mystical doctrines and a love of contemplation. Mohammedanism and Bolshevism are practical, social, unspiritual, concerned to win the empire of the world.
  • Bertrand Russell, "The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism", (London, 1920), pp. 5, 114-115

• One is that, even before the rise of Islamism, there were indications that leftism did not in general fare as well in the Islamic world as it did in other Third World regions. There was a sense at the time that the presence of Islam displaced the political spectrum to the right. One effect of this was a certain opportunistic reticence on the part of leftists in the Islamic world when it came to the manifestation of antireligious sentiments.
  • Cook, Michael - Ancient religions, modern politics _ the Islamic case in comparative perspective-Princeton University Press (2014)

• Islam did not speak from catacombs ... it saw the way of truth as passing always through thrones.
  • K. Cragg, House of Islam quoted from Francis Robinson - Islam and Muslim history in South Asia-Oxford University Press (2000)

• So history and belief encouraged men to feel that Islam could be Islam properly only in conjunction with political power.
  • Francis Robinson - Islam and Muslim history in South Asia-Oxford University Press (2000),184-185, also partially quoted in Parallel pathways, M. Jain. 2

• [Iqbal elaborated that nationalism came into conflict with Islam] only when it begins to play the role of a political concept and claims to be a principle of human solidarity demanding that Islam should recede to the background of a mere private opinion and cease to be a living factor in the national life. ... In majority countries, Islam accomodates nationalism, for there Islam and nationalism are practically identical, in minority countries it is justified in seeking self-determination as a cultural unit.
  • Muhammad Iqbal quoted in R. Hassan 1971, 146, in Iqbal Poet Philospher of Pakistan, also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857. [1]