Muhammad’s closest companions, the four “rightly guided” Caliphs who succeeded him, continued to expand the state to encompass Jerusalem, Ctesiphon, and Damascus, and sending armies as far as the Sindh. The Islamic empire stretched from Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) to the Punjab under the reign of the Umayyad dynasty. An important Islamic concept concerning the structure of ruling is shura, or consultation with people regarding their affairs, which is the duty of rulers mentioned in two verses in the Quran, 3:153, and 42:36. One type of ruler not part of the Islamic ideal was the king, which was disparaged in Quran’s mentions of the Pharoah, “the prototype of the unjust and tyrannical ruler” (18:70, 79) and elsewhere. (28:34).
Political Islam Part 52
