...................continued from part 16
On the Inherent Nature of Politics in Islam
On Ideology
Political scientists squabble over the definition of ideology, ranging from Adorno(1950), Mannheim(1952), Groth(1971), Deutsch (1980) and Mc Lellan (1986). Deutsch (op.cit.) puts it simply as simplified picture of the world; a political ideology is a general picture of thinking about politics.
In this writing an ideology is one's understanding of certain matters such that it becomes a firm stand. There are two types of ideologies: (1) man-made (2) Devinely revealed. For the Muslim, it must be realized that every Muslim must have, or must adhere to an ideology, and this ideology is none other than Islam. The ideology is germinated from tauhid and must be deeply entrenched in the Muslim. The position of this ideology in a Muslim is just below the unshakeable faith, aqidah.
A position below the aqidah is ideology, but the reverse is not possible. Therefore, the Muslim's political ideology must be deeply rooted in the aqidah, buttressed by the tauhid. The Muslim's ideology is a derivative of the aqidah; it is a devinely revealed ideology, and therefore the Muslim can not adhere to any man-made ideologies. To put simply, the ideology of the Muslim is Islam, the focal point of which is aqidah. Adhering and subscribing to ideologies other than Islam by the Muslim tantamounts to having doubts about the aqidah of the Islamic faith, which is sufficient to nullify the faith and the syahadah. Nor can the Islamic ideology coexist with any other man-made or psuedo devinely-revealed ideologies within the Muslim.
Since politics is part and parcel of Islam, the Muslim's ideology must be transformed into political ideology. Every political organization must have an ideology that forms the basis of its struggle; in the case of Islam, what is aqidah to the individual Muslim is ideology to the state or politicl organization. The ideology is then the navigational map or the steer of the state where Islam is sovereign.
...............to be continued
