Alsiraj Official Website
Controversial miscellaneous issues related to Islam
Government Services
Non Muslims have the right to serve in any governmental positions which do not have a direct impact on the religious life of Muslims. For example, non Muslims may not serve as Imams (head of state), head of army, arbiters in inter-Muslim disputes or as Zakah (Islamic tax) collectors.
The appointment of Judges in the Islamic state must be from among Muslims since an Islamic state is meant to administer justice according to Islamic jurisprudence. Even if a non-Muslim is well versed in the Shariah he cannot be made judge since all decisions will require both his fundamental belief in Islam and his enthusiasm to maintain the spirit of Islam in all his pronouncements. In affairs concerning Jews, Christians or any other religion their co-religionists will be appointed to administer justice according to their personal laws.
The Imam (Caliph) is responsible for both religious and secular authorities since they are the successors of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. The leader of Muslims is both a temporal and a religious leader. He is the Imam, leading their prayer-service in the mosque and the highest administrator of the Islamic state. This is the reason why the Muslims are required to preserve the post of the Imam and the Caliph exclusively for the co-religionists, since the head of the state must be a Muslim.
The leadership of the army is not a secular post, for Islam regards Jihad as the greatest act of worship. This also applies to the Islamic Judiciary system, as it is rooted on the Islamic Jurisprudence (shariah). The same is true for the position of Zakat collectors and officials entrusted with other posts of religious nature.
Non-Muslims living in the Islamic state can be appointed as ambassadors of his country in the foreign land and this was done during the life of our Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. In the second year of Hijra the pagan Arabs of Mecca sent a delegation to Abyssinia to demand the extradition of Meccan Muslims who had migrated to Abyssinia in 618A.D. to escape severe torture in Mecca and seek refugee in Abyssinia's just king Negus, who was a Christian. The envoy sent by our Noble prophet to plead in behalf of the Muslims was Amr Bin Umayyah al-Damri, who belonged to one of the allied tribes in the neighbourhood of Medina.
As for other administrative services, non-Muslims can be employed without any difficulty. There is no distinction of any ethnic origin, racial identity or linguistic belonging which bring them under one umbrella in a Muslim state. All citizens are equal under the law but the only difference is that the non-Muslim minority does not subscribe to the religious ideology of the Muslim majority of the population as well as the basic principles of the Muslim state. This is the reason why a non-Muslim cannot be expected to become a head of state. This distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims does on no account imply the exclusion of non-Muslim subjects from the political and administrative life of the Islamic state.
Examples:
1. During the Abbasid era, Christians undertook the ministry more than once; for example, Nasr ibn Haroun in AH 369 and Eissa ibn Nastorus in AH 380. Mu`awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan had also appointed a Christian clerk named Sarjoun.
2. Western historian Adam Mitz says in his book Islamic Civilization in the Fourth Hijri Century, “We find it very surprising the abundance of non-Muslim laborers and senior staff within the Muslim state; where Christians governed Muslims in Muslim provinces, and complaints against non-Muslims’ seniority in these provinces dates far back" (part 1, p. 105).
|
|
|