Human Civilization Requires Political Leadership

People in any social organization must have someone who exercises a restraining influence and rules them and to whom recoursemay be had.

His rule over them is sometimes based upon a divinely revealed religious law.

They are obliged to submit to it in view of their belief in reward and punishment in the other world, (things that were indicated) by the person who brought them (their religious law). Sometimes, (his rule is based) upon rational politics.

People are obliged to submit to it in view of the reward they expect from the ruler after he has become acquainted with what is good for them.

1. The first type of rule is useful for this world and for the other world.

This is because the lawgiver knows the ultimate interest of the people and is concerned with the salvation of man in the other world.

2. The second (type of rule) is useful only for this world.

We do not mean here that which is known as “political utopianism” (siyasah madaniyah).

By that, the philosophers mean the disposition of soul and character which each member of a social organization must have, if, eventually, people are completely to dispense with rulers.

They call the social organization that fulfills these requirements the “ideal city.” The norms observed in this connection are called “political utopias” (siyasah madaniyah). They do not mean the kind of politics (siyasah) that the members of a social organization are led to adopt through laws for the common interest. That is something different. The “ideal city” (of the philosophers) is something rare and remote. They discuss it as a hypothesis.

The aforementioned rational politics may be of two types. The first type of rational politics may concern itself with the (public) interest in general, and with the ruler’s interest in connection with the administration of his realm, in particular.

This was the politics of the Persians. It is something related to philosophy. God made this type of politics superfluous for us in Islam at the time of the caliphate.

The religious laws take its place in connection with both general and special interests, for they also include the maxims (of the philosophers) and the rules of royal authority.

The second type (of rational politics) is the one concerned with the interest of the ruler and how he can maintain his rule through the forceful use of power. The general (public) interest is, here, secondary. This is the type of politics practiced by all rulers, whether they are Muslims or unbelievers. Muslim rulers, however, practice this type of politics in accordance with the requirements of the Muslim religious law, as much as they are able to.

Therefore, the political norms here are a mixture of religious laws and ethical rules, norms that are natural in social organization together with a certain necessary concern for strength and group feeling. Examples to be followed in (the practice of) this (kind of politics) are, in the first place, the religious law, and then, the maxims of the philosophers and the way of life of rulers (of the past).

The best and most comprehensive written exposition of this subject is the letter of Tahir b. al-Husayn, al-Ma’mun’s general, to his son ‘Abdallah b. Tahir when (al-Ma’mun) appointed him governor of ar-Raqqah, Egypt, and the intervening territories.

On that occasion, his father Tahir wrote him the famous letter.

In it, he exhorted him and gave him his advice concerning all religious and ethical matters.

He discussed all important political problems as handled by the religious law and all problems of power politics that he would have to know in his government and administration.

He urged him to strive for virtue and good qualities, in a manner so exemplary that no king or commoner can do without (these exhortations). This is the text of the letter, as copied from at-Tabari’s work in the next page.