Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 264
264 Relations between the Rulers and the Ruled. Master and Servant I now turn to the teachings of Islam regulating the relations between the ruler and the ruled, the master and the servant and the rich and the poor. By the word 'poor' in this context I do not mean those indigent people who subsist on the charity of others, but people who are not in a position to exercise any authority over or to employ any class of persons as servants. For this purpose I have used the terms rich and poor advisedly, for what I desire to say in this connection can be more clearly conveyed by the use of these terms. In dealing with this portion of the subject the first question with which we are faced is, how does Islam define the sovereign, or the State? In Islamic terminol- ogy the sovereign or Khalifah is that representative individual whom the people of a country elect for the protection and supervision of their individual and collective rights. Islam does not acknowledge any form of government other than a representative government. The Holy Quran has used the word, Am a nat (trust), in describing the Islamic conception of government, that is to say, the Khalifah exercises power that is entrusted to him by the people, and not power which is assumed by him of his own will or which is inherited by him as a birthright. This word alone is sufficient to illustrate the nature and powers of the Islamic form of government. The Holy Quran does not speak of the authority to rule as something proceeding from the sovereign to the subject, but as something proceeding from the subject to the sovereign. For a full appreciation, however, of the