Hukumat-e Islami

Undertaking the responsibilities of the State does not confer any importance or high station on the office-bearers, because the government is a means for executing rules and implementing the just Islamic system. The government loses its significance if it became an aim all in itself[41]

The Islamic government is different from the known modes of government:

It is not a system where the head of state enjoys absolute power, playing with the people's wealth and lives.... It is a constitutional government, not in the ordinary known sense but in the sense that its functionaries adhere to a set of conditions and rules explained in the Qur'an and Sunnah, which make it imperative upon them to obey the system and apply the rules and laws of Islam. Hence the Islamic State is a realm of divine law. The difference between the Islamic government and the constitutional one, be it a monarchy or republic, lies in the fact that representatives of the people or the monarch legislate, while the authority of legislation (in the Islamic State) is confined to Allah alone.

None, whosoever, is allowed to legislate and none has the right to govern with laws that do not enjoy Allah's sanction.[42]

A very important characteristic of the Islamic government is that it is a system based on voluntary cooperation, in which every Muslim willingly cooperates with the State to obey and implement Islamic laws. There is no conflict between the individual's conscience and personal interests and those of society at large. Hence an Islamic State does not need a large army of police, security and intelligence agencies. Says the Imam:

Whatever has come in the Qur'an and Sunnah is accepted and obeyed by the Muslim masses. This adherence facilitates the State's responsibilities. On the contrary, in constitutional governments, be they monarchical or republican, after a majority legislates something the government endeavours to secure the people's obedience by force if necessary.[43]

In the Islamic State, Allah alone is the legislator and the lawgiver; all, including the Prophet and his caliphs, follow the same set of rules.[44]

Concluding the lectures, the Imam enjoins his students to explain to the people Islam's programme for government. 'Explain it to the whole world. Perhaps Muslim rulers and presidents will be convinced of the validity of this and follow it. We do not compete with them for the chairs, but will keep whosoever is a follower (of Islam) and faithful in its enforcement.'[45]

The Imam foretold in these lectures that 'future generations' will establish the Islamic government with the help of Allah.[46] He did not know at the time that this will be achieved within a decade under his own leadership.

It should not be misconstrued-as is often done these days under the faked scare of Muslim 'fundamentalism'-that the Imam is calling for forcing Islam on unwilling non-Muslim societies.