men are equal, and that God alone has the right to rule over them
(12:40) and none has the right to any share in it (18:26). These
principles make the frame work of the Islamic society.
God, however, is the Absolute, the transcendental Reality. How
can we obey Him if we cannot contact Him? The answer is, by
observing His Laws as given in the Qur'an. This is why the Rasool
was asked to declare:
Shall I seek other than Allah for Judge, when He it is Who hath
revealed unto you this Book fully explained (6:115).
The social part of the Divine Revelation provides us with laws
intended to guide the course of social evolution. Islam has
developed a political organisation based on eternal principles of the
Qur'an. Since these principles have their source not in the human
intellect but in Divine Wisdom, men, when they obey them, are
obeying God and not any mortal man or group of men. In the
Islamic society all men are equal in the eyes of the law. It is a
community of free and equal persons, owing allegiance to God and
obeying His laws.
Here is another angle. We have seen that man has two selves, the
real self and the physical self or body. The relationship between the
two selves is close and intimate. But while the body is incessantly
changing, permanence characterises the real self. The real self
remains unchanged while the body changes. Since Islam is
concerned with the entire person, it seeks to reconcile the two facts.
Iqbal has clarified this point:
The ultimate spiritual basis of all life, as conceived by Islam, is eternal
and reveals itself in variety and change. A society based on such a
conception of Reality, must reconcile in its life, the categories of
permanence and change. It must possess eternal principles to regulate
its collective life; for the eternal gives us a foothold in the world of
perpetual change. But eternal principles, when they are understood to
exclude all possibilities of change which, according to the Qur'an, is
one of the greatest signs of God, tend to immobilise what is essentially
mobile in its nature.(1)
The law laid down in the Qur'an, though immutable, is dynamic
in nature to cater both permanence and change:
Perfected is the Word of thy Rabb in truth and justice. There is naught
that can change His words (6:116).
What this unalterable and eternal Law does is, it demarcates the
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 231