Islam and Politics

What does an authentic Islamic government look like and how does it operate? In this concise but wide-ranging book the renowned scholar Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani provides an authoritative survey of the guidance given by the canonical Islamic sources in matters of politics. In six chapters he examines the role and conduct of politics and political activity in Islam in the light of the Qur’ān and the Prophetic Sunnah; guidelines for the process of forming a government; rules and procedures for running a government; the Islamic injunctions concerning defence and foreign policy; and the circumstances in which it may become permissible to remove a ruler or government from office. The book is rounded off with two articles by the same author, on political affairs with specific reference to Pakistan. Islam and Politics is essential reading for those seeking a readable and reliable account of the basic teachings of Islam concerning politics and government.


Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani is one of the world’s most prominent scholars of the Islamic sciences and former Justice of the High Court of Pakistan. Born at Deoband, India, in 1943, he studied with leading ‘ulamā’ in Karachi and elsewhere. His main fields of expertise are Hadith, jurisprudence, Sufism, and economics. Mufti Usmani has published numerous books and articles, in Urdu, Arabic and English, on these and other aspects of Islamic studies