He did this at a time when Kamal Ataturk rejected the...

He did this at a time when Kamal Ataturk rejected the government of the Ottomans and laid the foundations of his secular government. At the same time in Egypt, the followers of the caliphate chose Sultan Fuad as the leader of the Muslims and placed him in the seat of power.

The fact that these events occurred concurrently shows that ‘Abd al-Razzaq was influenced by the secular thoughts of the West and wrote these matters by taking inspiration from the writings of secular philosophers and political scientists. ‘Abd al-Razzaq claimed two things: What the Noble Prophet (ص) established in Medina was not a government. What was set up in Medina was not religious.

In order to prove the first point he places emphasis on the fact that what the Noble Prophet (ص) created in Medina did not have any of the qualities of a government. In order to prove the second point he says that the degree and stature of Prophethood spurns politics and government.

In order to answer the first point we must pay attention to the fact that the consequence of holding that a specific form of government should be the standard by which we judge if something is a government or not would be that none of the nations of the past have ever had any governments. Therefore a more general definition of government must be given so that it can be true for various forms of government.

Such a definition can be put in the following way: Government is a collection of organized powers that has as its duty the management of the affairs of society. In this definition, government is comprised of various governmental structures like the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government.

According to this definition of government then, that which the Noble Prophet (ص) created in Medina was a government in the real sense of the word since he created an organized power structure that had as its responsibility the management of the affairs of society. From the time of the Prophet until now, many books have been written regarding the management system of his government.

Now when we pay attention to the following points, the religious nature of the Prophet’s government will become clear: The rules and regulations of Islam are such that without a government, they cannot be implemented; for example rulings pertaining to the executive, judicial, or monetary systems of Islam. We have proofs to show that the rule and running of the affairs of society are the prerogative of the Noble Prophet (ص).