Islamic Practices, Ethics, and Institutions
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institutions is seen in the political turmoil that has encompassed much of the Islamic world in recent times. But whatever the crises and the forces involved in a particular situation, the nexus between Islam and political life endures and has not been severed. If Muslims were to accept in principle the separation of religion from the domain of public life (which would then become secularized, as it has in the West to an ever greater degree since the Renaissance), they would have to abandon the doctrine of Unity that lies at the heart of the Islamic message. They would have to act against the Sunnah of the Prophet and fourteen centuries of the historical unfolding of the Islamic tradition. It remains, however, for contemporary Islamic society to develop political institutions that are authentically Islamic and respond at the same time to the challenges of the day.