Politics and Islam

Political aspects of the religion of Islam are derived from its religious scripture (the Quran holy book, ḥadīth literature of accounts of the sayings and living habits attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and sunnah), as well as elements of political movements and tendencies followed by Muslims or Islamic states throughout its history. Shortly after its founding, Islam's prophet Muhammad became a ruler of a state, and the intertwining of religion and state in Islam (and the idea that "politics is central" to Islam), of Christianity, its related and neighboring religion.

Traditional political concepts in Islam forming an idealized model of Islamic rule are based on the rule of Muhammad in Mecca (629–632 CE) and his elected or selected successors, known as rāshidūn ("rightly-guided") caliphs in Sunnī Islam, and the Imams in Shīʿa Islam. Concepts include obedience to the Islamic law (sharīʿa); the supremacy of unity, solidarity and community, over individual rights and diversity; the pledging of obedience by the ruled to rulers (al-Bayʿah), with a corresponding duty of rulers to rule justly and seek consultation (shūrā) before making decisions; and the ruled to rebuke unjust rulers. Classical Islamic political thought focuses on advice on how to govern well, rather than reflecting "on the nature of politics".

A sea change in the political history of the Muslim world was the rise of the West and the eventual defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922). In the modern era (19th–20th centuries), common Islamic political themes have been resistance to Western imperialism and enforcement of sharīʿa law through democratic or militant struggle.

Increasing the appeal of Islamic movements such as Islamism, Islamic democracy, Islamic fundamentalism, and Islamic revivalism, especially in the context of the global sectarian divide and conflict between Sunnīs and Shīʿītes, have been a number of

events; the defeat of Arab armies in the Six-Day War and the subsequent Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank (1967), the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979),

Pre-modern Islam

upright=1.2|thumb|Non-Islamic testimonies about Muhammad's life describe him as the leader of the [[Saracens, believed to be descendants of Ishmael, that lived in the Roman-era provinces of Arabia Petraea (West) and Arabia Deserta (North).]]

Origins of Islam

thumb|230px|right|Arabia [[Muhammad after the occupation of Mecca|united under Muhammad's rule (7th century CE) according to traditional accounts]]

thumb|200px|[[Sasanian Empire|Sasanid style coins in circulation during Rashidun, (Pahlavi scripts, crescent-star, fire altar, depictions of Khosrow II, bismillāh in margin). Unlike known historical figures such as Ibn Zubayr and Mu'awiya I, there are no coins minted in the names of caliphs titled rashidun that could be evidence of official dominancy.]]

thumb|230px|right|A [[Byzantine coinage|"Pseudo-Byzantine" coin with depictions of the Byzantine Emperor Constans II holding the cross-tipped staff and globus cruciger. There was no specific Islamic-religious identity and political stance with sharp boundaries in the early Islamic period.]]

Early Islam arose within the historical, social, political, economic, and religious context of Late Antiquity in the Middle East, in the life and times of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his successors.