Relationship between Religion and Politics in Islam — Page 30
The Relationship Between Religion & Politics 30 is also the interpretation proved from the practice of the Holy Founder of Islam, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. In Medina, when he moved there after Hijra, he came into contact with the Jewish and other communities who accepted him not as their religious leader, but a polit- ical leader. They agreed—and this is called the Charter of Medina—to refer to him all disputes and trust his superior judgment to resolve all the contentions between various parties. Islamic law had already been revealed at that time. Jews came to him for guidance or for decisions. Without fail, every time he enquired from them: ‘Would you like your dispute to be settled according to the Jewish law or according to the Islamic law, or according to arbitration?’ Without fail, he never imposed Islamic law on a non-agreeing party, which did not belong to the faith. This is what I call absolute justice. So, absolute justice has to be employed by a truly Islamic government if it ever dreams of calling itself an ‘Islamic government’. And this is in other terms, a secular government! Question— If you decide to have different legislation; legislation for the Hindus, the Christians and so on, I think it would be very disturbing in the society. Answer— Exactly, that is what I am saying. I am not pro- posing that every political government should have a par- aphernalia of legislation applicable to different religions. It’s not possible. It’s not practical.