Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 285
285 A principal duty of the Islamic state is to safeguard the security of the state and to maintain the defence arrangements in a proper condition (3:201; 8:61). The duty of the Islamic state to make provision for the intellectual development of the people was early emphasised by the Prophet. He was himself so anxious concerning it that after the battle of Badr he announced that any Meccan prisoner of war who was literate could earn his freedom by instructing ten Muslim children in the elements of reading and writing. This duty was so well discharged by his immediate successors that within a brief period the camel drivers of the desert, despised by Iran and Byzantium, became the teachers of the world and the torchbearers of enlightenment. Provision was made for the administration of justice at a very high level as soon as the Prophet arrived in Medina, at which time the Charter of the Republic of Medina was drawn up. Umar was appointed one of the judges, and the Prophet himself often performed that function. The Quran lays down as a condition of belief in Islam that a Muslim must accept the obligation of judicial determination of disputes, find no demur in his heart against the final judgement that may be handed down, and carry it out fully (4:66). In addition to the safeguards inherent in the orderly process of the administration of justice, a