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What manner of constitution?

Reader comment on item: The Middle East
in response to reader comment: Madina Constitution

Submitted by CHC Brown (United States), Jan 22, 2009 at 17:03

The "Constitution" of Medina may meet the most technical meaning of the word, in that it does represent a form of fundamental law for the umma, but it is utterly mute regarding the power of government except to say that such power is vested in Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW). When Lewis lumps a written constitution together with a legislative assembly and some form of elections, as he does in the cited passage, he clearly implies not merely a system setting out the ways in which members of society may interact with one another (which the Constitution of Medina clearly DOES do), but one which establishes limits on the exercise of goverment power, which the Constitution of Medina very clearly does NOT.

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Reader comments (5) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Some Milestones in Israel-Palestine dateline [2790 words]AlJul 1, 2010 12:10175038
Madina Constitution [133 words]Don C. CouchDec 6, 2005 00:0529492
Madina Constitution [39 words]Jeremy RabaniFeb 27, 2006 20:2029492
Its still relevant for today and forever [28 words]Randy IrwanSep 26, 2008 06:5929492
What manner of constitution? [122 words]CHC BrownJan 22, 2009 17:0329492

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