The Islamic Concept of Party
Organization
In
order to facilitate our understanding of the nature of revivalist party’s
organization in Islam, we should
have before us
an outline of
how this issue
is being dealt with in the
contemporary world. The modern world has all sorts of associations,
institutions, institutes, corporations, leagues, social and business
organizations, political parties, and special interest groups. All these are
different forms of organization. In each one of them there are two items of
primary significance: the memorandum, which describes the purpose, aims, and
objectives of the proposed organization, and the constitution.
In
view of the universal methods that are employed in this respect, we find that
there are a number of features common to all such constitutions. For instance,
there are provisions for membership, so that a person who accepts the
memorandum and the constitution or the articles of association, and agrees to
fulfill the conditions of membership, is admitted as a member. In this way, the
organization grows from below. The members would then elect their president or
chairman or director, whatever you may call him. Then elections are to be held
for a managing committee or an advisory board or some other forum of shura.
Finally, the issue of division of authority and responsibilities has to be
settled and a system of checks and balances has to be evolved in order to
monitor those with authority.
Thus,
we see that all these provisions are found, in one form or another, whenever an
attempt is made to establish some sort of an organization. All these different
forms of organization are permissible and perfectly mubah in Islam. There is nothing
in either the Holy Qur’an or the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) that can
repudiate the legitimacy of all these different types of organization.
What,
then, is my point? While the various forms of organizations for group activity
prevalent in the world today are permissible in Islam, I would like to make it
very clear that no reference about any of these can be found anywhere in the
Holy Qur’an or in the life and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). In spite
of this, I still believe that none of these are haram or prohibited in Islam.
This opinion is based upon one of the fundamental principles of Islamic
jurisprudence: everything and every practice is to be considered lawful and
permissible unless proved otherwise.
On
the other hand, the type of organization that we come across repeatedly in the
Holy Qur’an, in the life and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) — as well as
in the whole of the thirteen hundred year’s history of the Muslim Ummah — is
based upon a pattern which is unlike that usually found in today’s world. I
will discuss this pattern in a short while.
To be continued....
