Islamic Political Thought

Introduction to the concept of power in Islam

Document Type : Conceptual paper (Political Thought)

Author

MA in Political Sciences, Imam Sadiq University (ISU),

Abstract

Western Scientists throughout history express various definition and goals for power; Most of political scientists believe that power is the main concept of politics and power is the goal of politics. They categorized the power into varies classifications. In this paradigm, power means Material instruments and there is no any place for the immaterial instruments. In the other hand Islam as a Monotheistic religion not only mentions the material aspects of political concepts; definitions that provided by Islamic scholars have differences and sometimes contradictory with western definitions. Power is part of politics (not purpose of politics) and it has not intrinsic value. Purpose of politics are guidance of the human to perfection, Establishment of order and justice and Prevention of cruelty. Unlike the western concept, the source of power and the source of its legitimacy is Allah. So in this paper I try to introduce the theory of power in Islam. The main question of this paper is: what is the definition of power in Islam and what are its differences with the western definitions.  

Keywords

Main Subjects

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    2. Nahjul Balagha

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Islamic Political Thought
Volume 3, Issue 2
October 2016
Pages 1-10
  • Receive Date: 30 November 2015
  • Revise Date: 21 December 2015
  • Accept Date: 17 January 2016