Islam and Secularism

Islam and Secularism

Democracy is a system of government where political power is said to be held by the people
and exercised by citizens through their elected representatives. As humans make mistakes, it is
considered that no one person should be trusted with too much power, therefore authority is
divided.
Secularism was born out of the relationship between the Church and enlightened philosophy in
Europe from the seventeenth century, and persists until present times. Kings, princes and the
aristocracy had had enough of the clergy, wanting to restrict the power of the Church, so that
they could hold more control themselves. Philosophers and reformers also wanted to limit the
Church’s authority, hence devised new ideas which focused more on the individuals’ rights in
society and less on the rights of God.
Eventually the clergy lost all political power and are now restricted to moral preaching on
Sundays, at most. People came to lose their belief in God’s importance in their lives, and started
worshipping at the alter of man, his mind, his philosophies, his secularism. Now, a person may
believe in God, and may adhere to some personal ethical religious code, but that is where the
relationship with God ends. Their belief in God is not allowed to influence their role in public life.
In fact, they are more likely to be influenced by the society’s secular values than the other way
around, as these are more dominant, whereas religion is always a personal matter. Hence, the
people have become secular. Secularism, therefore, is where religion has been separated from
the society, its values, institutions and government.
Islam is not secular, as it does not separate religion from life or political power. Allah says in the
Quran:
"Do they then seek the judgement of Ignorance? And who is better in judgement than Allah for
a people who have firm belief" (Quran chapter 5, verse 50)
The Messenger Muhammad exemplified the way in which Islam has come to solve problems for
the individual, the family, the community and the State. As the Messenger of Allah with authority
established upon a pledge of support from the people, he was also the temporal ruler over
them after his migration to Madinah, showing Muslims how Islam and state are intertwined. This
continued after his death, as he had told the Muslims to continue this practice. The Messenger
Muhammad said:
"The children of Israel used to be ruled by their prophets. Whenever a prophet died another
prophet succeeded him, but there will be no prophet after me. There will be Khulafa (Caliphs)
and they will number many. They asked: What then do you order us? He said: Fulfil the pledge of
allegiance to them one after the other and give them their due. Surely Allah will ask them about
what He entrusted them with."
Islam requires Muslims to implement the rules and laws of Islam in society by its institutions, and
departments of government at a state level. Such a state would also encourage the Islamic
values and morals in the people; however, it does not spy on the private matters of each citizen,
to check whether or not they were abiding by the personal Shariah rules. Rather, the state
concerns itself with providing a good education, facilitating the spread of Islamic values and
ideas and preventing corruption, whether that is from the media or crime.
How is it that Allah only tells people about spiritual, but not worldly matters? In effect Secularism
is the belief that people think they know better than Allah, their Creator, regarding life's affairs,
whilst Muslims reject this idea completely.