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Legislation
Some Muslims may argue that, since God is the Lawgiver, there should not be a legislative body in an Islamic state. In fact, the
legislature specifies and puts in detail the required laws, while the
Quran and Sunna present general principles and certain rules.
Even in the case of such particular rules in the Quran or the Sunna,
different interpretations and jurisprudential views might arise about a
certain text on the grounds of its language and its relation to other
relevant texts. It is essential that a certain interpretation or
jurisprudential view should be adopted by the state as a law, and this
has to be decided by the legislature, so that the courts may not be
left to different rules that may be applied in the same case according
to the views and discretion of different judges—a complaint the
well-known writer Ibn al-Muqaffa [d. 142H./759 C.E.] made in his time.
Besides, there is extensive
room for what is allowed by sharia "al-mubah," and such an enormous area
of allowed matters ought to be organized in a certain way, making any
of them mandatory, forbidden, or optional according to the changing
circumstances in different times and places. Public interest has its
consideration in introducing new laws, which were not specified in the
Quran and Sunna, but which are needed in a certain time or place, and
which do not contradict any other specific rule in the divine sources,
but can be supported by the general goals and principles of sharia. Many
laws are required in a modern state in various areas such as traffic,
irrigation, construction, roads, transportation, industry, business,
currency, importing and exporting, public health, education, and so on,
and they must only be provided according to the consideration of public
interest or in the light of the general goals and principles of sharia,
as there are no specific texts in the Quran and Sunna that directly deal with every emerging need in every time and place.
Compiled From:
"Islam in a Modern State: Democracy and the Concept of Shura" - Fathi Osman
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