Summary

In Islamic law the Islamic state is a Theocracy with God at the apex of legislation. There is no distinction between the theological and the jurisprudential in the role of the learned in the canons of the law: in Islam, theology and law are one polity. From the time that Saudi Arabia has been a state in the modern sense it has submitted itself to the Sharia as interpreted by the learned scholars, the ulema. Only recently, however, have other states declared the inclusion of the word Islamic in their official titles: Pakistan, Mauretania, Iran, the Sudan and now Afghanistan. In ...