Islam Considers Establishment of Government as Wajib
Zabihollah Naeemian made the remark in a scholarly forum titled “Islam’s Political System in View of Hanafi Sunnis”, which was held at the Islamic Proximity Studies Research Center in Qom.
He was responding to statements by Abdullah Badpa, a professor of Hadith sciences at Dar-ol-Olum religious school in Zahedan, who had said earlier at the forum that in Islam, governance is not the main objective.
Badpa’s remarks can be read here.
Naeemian agreed with Badpa that there are three views about governance in Islam, with the first one believing in the separation of religion and politics, the second stating that politics is the objective of religion, and the third view saying politics is not the objective of religion but is good and that establishing government is favorable and important according to the religion although it is not the main objective.
He stressed the importance of drawing a distinction with secularism.
Naeemian said that there was a certain view about establishment of government in the early centuries after the advent of Islam and in the contemporary era another view has appeared.
He said historical Christianity does not have much to offer in this regard and is secular essentially, that is to say, it does not have proposals for running the society, but historical Judaism believed in the establishment of government.
He added that Islam is comprehensive and has views and rules for every aspect and every incident.
Another point, Naeemian said, is the question of whether or not politics is the religion’s end.
According to Naeemian, politics is not the main objective of religion but it is an important one because when one looks at divine rules, he would realize that Islam tells Muslims to establish government or else the way to develop the religion would be impeded.
He said establishing government is Wajib (a duty), noting that there are some issues that are innately Wajib and are objectives of the religion in themselves and there are others that are Wajib because they pave the ground for realization of an objective.
Establishing government can be considered as an example of the second kind of Wajib, Naeemian went on to say.
He added that establishing government is so important that without it realization of a considerable part of Islam would not be possible.
