Khilafah al-'Alam al-Islami

 

Constitutions in Islamic and Muslim State

In Islamic legal system where hierarchy and order of priority of sources are carefully maintained, Qur’an has enjoyed, and remains to enjoy the highest position from which the laws of shari’ah are extracted, and construed in the light of the purposes of the shari’ah itself. Being the words of God, Qur’an is assigned with divine functions as to serve as a God-imparted knowledge and fundamental guidance for men who are righteous for all time to come.

As such, this divine principle ought to be followed by Muslims in their life individually and socially. The state that Muslims are establishing should be erected on the basis of Islam and Qur’anic Injunction.

Constitution is legally defined as the manner in which a state or other body is organized. In narrower term it is the body of fundamental doctrines and rules of a nation from which stem the duties and powers of the government and the duties and rights of the people. In this sense, it applies to the existing constitution in the vast majority of modern state or political societies, such as the present Malaysian Federal Constitution promulgated in 1957.

It is submitted that the word “Constitution” is used in two different senses, the abstract and the concrete. The constitution of a state in the abstract sense is the system of laws, customs and conventions which define the composition and powers of organs of the state, and regulate the relations of the various state organs to one another and to the private citizen. A “constitution” in the concrete sense is the document in which the most important laws of the constitution are authoritatively ordained.

The constitution refers to ‘Mother of Legislation’ from which all the legislation in a country shall derive, and the principles of which shall be reflected by all laws enacted in that country. In this part we shall see how Islamic and Muslim countries position Islam wholly or partly in their constitutions. We will see that the degrees of Islamic provisions vary quite widely in the constitutions of those Islamic and Muslim countries.


   Assessment of the Constitution of Islamic Countries

 

THE CONSTITUTION OF ISLAMIC AND MUSLIM STATES

 

 

 

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