If Prophethood were really at odds with government then why...

If Prophethood were really at odds with government then why would the Noble Prophet (ص) take steps towards the creation of a government? Why would he waste his time and energy in this regard? If it were asked that does this “misappropriation” of effort not show irresponsibility, it would be answered that the Noble Prophet (ص) started this work for the propagation of religion and in order to fulfil his apostleship.

This answer shows the interrelationship of religion and politics from one point of view. Of course it does not answer the question as to why he himself took the establishment of religion into his own hands, while he could easily have placed the responsibility in the hands of some other reliable friend like Imam ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (ع).

In any case, we can really only understand and criticize what ‘Abd al-Razzaq wrote over 70 years ago—something existing in its various forms in the Muslim world today—when we examine the context and culture in which this thought took shape, viz. the West. In order to understand the philosophy and culture of the West, we must have a look–though cursory–at the history of Christian thought that forms the cultural matrix of the Western world. [^1]: Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 6, pp.