Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Kenneth Cragg, A Certain Sympathy 

of Scriptures: Biblical and Quranic (Brighton, U.K., and 

Portland, Ore.: Sussex Academic Press, 2004); John C. 

Reeves, ed., Bible and Quran: Essays in Scriptural Inter-

textuality (Leiden and Boston: E.J. Brill, 2004).

government, Islamic

Only about 10 percent of the q

Uran

 deals with 

government or legislative matters. Therefore, 

Muslims have relied on the words and actions of 

m

Uhammad

 (d. 632) as transmitted in the 

hadith

literature to provide much of the basis for Islamic 

law (

sharia

 and 

fiqh

) and government. Since 

Muhammad was both a religious and political 

leader, Muslims generally agree that government 

and law should be Islamic. There is a large degree 

of consensus over what constitutes Islamic law, 

but much less over what qualifies as Islamic gov-

ernment. Consequently, many governments, past 

and present, base their claim to be Islamic on the 

degree to which they support and enforce sharia.

After Muhammad’s death, the government was 

led by his key companions, who became the first 

four 

caliphs

 and were able to continue to model 

religious and political 

aUthority

 based on their 

close relationship with Muhammad. But with the 

rapid expansion of the Arab-Islamicate empire, 

the 

caliphate

 became more political and secular. 

At the same time, the first generation of Muslims 

was passing away. Both events highlighted the 

need for greater systemization of the sharia in 

order to guide the ruler and the community. In 

the process, the 

Ulama

 (religious scholars) greatly 

increased their authority as the definers of Islamic 

law but also supported the caliph for the sake of 

unity and continuity. In the medieval period, most 

people accepted that the government could claim 

to be Islamic as long as it supported and defended 

the sharia, regardless of the character of the ruler 

himself or his administration.

In order to strengthen their religious legiti-

macy, rulers have often claimed to support Islamic 

law while all the while encroaching on its author-

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