An Islamic Alternative for the Selection of Ruler ... Intro to: Ahl al-hall wa-al-'aqd Between Classic Islamic Thought and Contemporary Application

Religion's role is increasingly coming back after decades of marginalization and attempts to eliminate it from the public sphere. Several incidents have taken place throughout the 20th century that were seen as indicators of the rising role of religion in the Middle East. Since the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, several Islamic movements have been forming and developing. The decline of Arab nationalism, the Iranian revolution, and the Afghani war were some of the main catalysts that led to the fast development and increasing popularity of the Islamic social and political movements.

In several elections that have taken place in the last decade in the Middle East, Islamic movements have been able to secure notable successes; Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in the Palestinian Territories, AKP in Turkey, Justice and Development party in Morocco, Islamic Action Front in Jordan and Islamic parties in Kuwait and Bahrain are among the examples. One major criticism directed against most of the Islamic movements is the absence of a clear political program that reflects the ideological background of such movements.

In principle, although spectrum of movements ranging from AKP to Al-Qaeda share a common general ideological reference to Islam, there is a wide variation in the implementation of their understanding of the Islamic prime texts of the Quran and the Sunnah of Prophet Mohamed (peace be upon him). On one side, some movements got overly engaged in the contemporary secular political process and applied the minimum out of their Islamic ideological principles. Another group was increasingly engaged with the Islamic classic text and detached themselves from the political realities leading them to develop revolutionary anarchic attitude.

One of the key debates that has been going on among theorists of Islamic politics especially after the fall of the last Caliphate in the 1920s was revolving around the mechanism of choosing a ruler in an Islamic political system. Plenty of literature has been written to compare and contrast contemporary democratic western system to Islamic political theory, yet I would argue that through looking deeply in the flaws of the democratic system Islam does offer an alternative that help much improve the political process for choosing the ruler.

"Ahl al-hall wa-al-'aqd" (Arabic term that literally means those who loose and bind) is a concept that was introduced in the classic Islamic political literature and is increasingly referred to in the recent times. Such group of notables in the Muslim society are obliged to carry on several roles, the most important of which is to choose the Muslim ruler. Al-Mawardi and Ibn Taymiyah along with other classic scholars of political theory in Islam admit the importance of the notables and their role in choosing the ruler. However, there is a propounded argument based on interpretation of Islamic text that is calling for the selection of the ruler through a direct public vote. An investigation of the arguments of several Islamic scholars about the nature of the group of notables and their duties makes it clear that elections of the Muslim ruler through Ahl al-hall wa-al-'aqd is a system that abides by the conditions and guidelines laid down in Quran and Sunnah and overcomes several of the flaws that will be presented to be found in the traditional democratic mechanism.

In-shaa' Allah I will try to lay down some main points about this topic in some upcoming posts.

I would like to hear your suggestions, thoughts or ideas about what points you think is important to tackle in this respect...