Relationship between Religion and Politics in Islam — Page 8
The Relationship Between Religion & Politics 8 Legislative Body Subordinate to Religious Scholars On issues of differences of opinion, the legislative body stands subordinate to the scholastic opinion of such scholars who spe- cialise in understanding the Holy Quran, or who claim to spe- cialise in understanding the Holy Quran. What would be their mutual relationship? A body is elected to legislate. They legislate and you hear from some scholars of Islam that: ‘What you have proposed as a law is against the fundamental principles of Islam. Islam has no room for such nonsense. ’ Whose voice should be heard? On the one hand, it would apparently be God speaking behind those people, but only appar- ently. On the other hand, there will be the voice of a majority of people from the country. So the dilemma becomes almost impos- sible to be resolved. All Religions Split into Sects over Time But that is not all. Every religion, at the source, is one and single and inseparable, but as you pass along in period of time, the reli- gion begins to diverge and split within and multiply, and become more and more in number, so that the same faith which, for instance, at the time of Jesus Christ as was one single Christianity, turned into many hundreds of Christianity. Looked at from the vantage point of different sects, the one single source appears to be different in colour. Different coloured eyeglasses are used by various followers of different sects. The same is true of Islam. It’s not just a question of Sunni Islam