• How can we today, as modern people committed to both our religious heritage and to a vision of progress for its inheritors, interpret the essentials of the Medinan model?
• How are we to understand and realise the Qur'anic ideals of equality, justice and political sovereignty of the umma?

Preface to the book

Since the hijra Muslims have been concerned with the social and political organisation of their societies. The first Islamic community, under the close and careful guidance of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), was a politically dynamic one, incorporating effective structures for the interaction of Muslims and non-Muslims, and between muhajirun (the later Muslim emigrants to Medina) and the ansar ("helpers", or close associates of the Prophet already resident there).

As the architect of the Medinan Charter, the Prophet (peace be upon him) drew upon the various ethical codes and the social framework of his time. This Charter, later to be known as the "Constitution of Medina", was open and flexible. It provided for the democratic existence and peaceful co-existence of different ethnic and religious communities. Over time it became for Muslims a beacon - a reference point for deriving methods of governence.

The state founded by the Prophet (peace be upon him) was essentially a city-state and, as such, it had to work within the limitations imposed by its initially restricted size and scope. Nevertheless, it did provide the basic structure on which the Prophet's (peace be upon him) immediate successors - the first four rightly-guided caliphs - built the Islamic empire, eventually embracing within its fold diverse lands and heterogenous peoples.

The organisation of many Muslim nations over the last 50 years since the end of colonialism has been based, however, on the "Western" state model. The postcolonial development of most Muslim countries saw increasing tension between this adopted political order and the renewed efforts of many of their citizens to define and strengthen their Islamic identity.

In their attempt to find an alternative to that derivatively Western political framework, many Muslims have looked for guidance towards the Medinan model. Yet the vast historical and social changes which span the time between the establishment of the first Islamic community and the contemporary world order require creative and historically sensitive interpretation of that model.

How should an Islamic state be run? How can we today, as modern people committed to both religious heritage and to a vision of progress for its inheritors, interpret the essentials of the Medinan model? How are we now to understand and realise the Qur'anic ideals of equality, justice and political sovereignty of the umma?

These questions have been the focus of serious and searching concern to Sisters in Islam, as they are to many contemporary Muslims. It was a recognition of the urgent need to address those questions which prompted us to organise a symposium on "The Modern Nation State and Islam" in Kuala Lumpur in October 1992. The occasion proved an exciting one, both challenging and productive, and the book which we now offer here to a wider readership than the symposium participants is not simply a record of its proceedings. It is also evidence of the continuing relevance to contemporary Malaysia of the issues that were debated at the symposium.

As the symposium organiser, we were convinced that it is the religious and social duty of today's and tomorrow's Muslims not simply to receive, in a passive and unenquiring manner, the religious heritage which comes to us from the life and revelations of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) but to engage actively with it, in an effort to understand and deepen its contemporary relevance. Looking back upon it, we remain convinced that our symposium was one of the more rewarding Malaysian endeavours of recent times to probe the hidden treasures of our faith. In particular, we were encouraged that, consistent with our hopes expressed at the outset, the discussion generated by the various symposium presentations addressed these issues in the noble spirit of enquiry and learning that is enjoined by Islam.

We publish this book in the hope and confidence that the arguements presented and the issues raised in it will receive serious consideration: in particular, from a readership of thinking Muslims who value their religious heritage and recognise the need to shape intelligently a sustainable future for its inheritors. In Malaysia as elsewhere, we believe, the shaping of the future is not something to left solely to those conventionally recognised as "religiously learned" or to any special section of the umma. Rather, the development - consistent with Qur'anic understandings of social responsibility and action - of a modern tradition of active, participatory citizenship transending all sectional divisions within the worldwide umma seems to us to be indispensable if contemporary Muslims are to find ways of effectively addressing the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Our reading about and contacts with developments in other Muslim countries convince us that our diagnosis and prescription are both appropriate and necessary elsewhere in the umma; but certainly, the main focus of our concern is Malaysia itself. As pressures mount in our own country for the anachronistic implementation, as the 20th century closes, of forms and understanding of Islamic law (including the hudud punishments of mutilation by amputation, stoning, crucifixion) that date back to the early centuries of Islamic civilisation, the need to foster an enlightened and contemporary understanding of enduring Qur'anic imperatives seems both necessary and urgent.

This book and the response that it evokes in the minds of its readers will, we hope, prove a significant contribution to the emergence of such an approach: one that is both authentically grounded in the Qur'anic worldview and at the same time based upon a discerning appreciation of the challenges of ever advancing modernity, upon which today's Muslims cannot, and should not, turn their backs.

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