What manner of 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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