Islam is the primordial religion and the only “religion” designed to govern this life. It is the only “religion” designed for the nature of man by the Mighty Creator Who made this religion capable of producing and sustaining a balance between man’s spiritual and physical needs. Allah, the Almighty says: “Should He not know what He created? And He is the Subtile, the Aware. (Al-Mulk:14)
Islam’s Divine nature elevates it above any man-made system. This universal religion is also eternal, thus it’s capable of fulfilling man’s needs at all times and places, at every level of community.
Its universality means that Islam is all-encompassing and thus extends beyond the boundaries of climate and across all differences in race, language and culture. The open and comprehensive character of Islam is inherent in its Divine origin as being a gift from Allah designed for human nature.
Its all-inclusiveness as a macro-system of Divine purpose for all life makes Islam relevant to address all life’s problems and calamities. The legal systems, analytic framework or paradigm of this religion, known as the Shari`ah or (Islamic law) makes it possible for scholars, using Ijtihad or personal juristic view, to apply it through Qiyas (analogical deduction) or Istihsan (Juristic Preference) and Maslaha Mursalah (Public Interest).
Its comprehensiveness distinguishes Islam from all other man-made systems, since it’s a religion revealed by Allah, Who is the Most Knowledgeable and knows everything about mankind’s changing needs, by comparison with it, any man-made system must he incomplete. No other system can equal Islam’s guidance for human governance, whether at the psychological level of the human person or at the sociological level of the human community.
Muslims must know that the man-made systems, such as capitalism, socialism, communism, and democracy are products of human philosophies and social engineering, thus they are inherently limited or incomplete in substantive scope and time-frame.
The narrow-mindedness of both left and right wings have always jeopardized humankind. These secular extremists are responsible for the disappearance of family and community ties, and for moral degradation and for the decline of eternal values. Their egoism and individualism have replaced the community values of helping, loving, and caring for each other.
Neither capitalism nor socialism can build the paradise that their proponents promise, because their narrowly focused institutions promote the concentration of wealth and ignore the incentives of broad-based ownership of the means of production and other essential characteristics of a complete system of society based on Islamic principles of economic justice. Equally inadequate are the political systems of modern secular culture, whether democracy, republic or monarchy, because for most of the people in the world they have brought on corruption and exploitation. Reliance on governance by military force to sustain unjust regimes has oppressed billions of people, including Muslim minorities in Kashmir, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Palestine.
All these man-made systems of economy, politics and security undermine the basic human responsibilities which Islamic law shed light upon, namely, the responsibility to promote the rights to life, community, freedom, dignity, knowledge, and private property. These secular systems, spawned in modern Western civilization, can be replaced by morally and spiritually based systems only when Muslims become aware that Allah has shown us the principles and strategy designed to liberate man from the clutches of Satan. Truth and justice can become governing values in the world only when the Muslims revive their own heritage and apply the Qur’an and Sunnah to change themselves as the first step to change the world. Allah Almighty says: “Verily, Allah does not change the condition of a people unless they change their inner selves.” (Ar-Ra`d: 11)