Islam and Democratization in Asia By Shiping Hua

As Prophet of God he had sovereignty over all Muslims by divine decree. But Muhammad did not rule over the non-Muslims of Medina because he was the messenger of Allah. He ruled over them by virtue of the tripartite compact that was signed by the Muhajirun (Muslim immigrants from Mecca), the Ansar (indigenous Muslims of Medina), and the Yahud (Jews). It is interesting to note that Jews were constitutional partners in the making of the first Islamic state. ¹⁰

The compact of Medina provides an excellent historical example of two theoretical constructs—a social contract and a constitution. A social contract, an idea developed by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, is an imaginary agreement between people in the state of nature that leads to the establishment of a community or a state. In the state of nature people are free and are not obliged to follow any rules or laws. They are essentially sovereign individuals. But through the social contract they surrender their individual sovereignty to the collective and create the community or the state.

The second idea that the compact of Medina manifests is that of a constitution. In many ways the constitution is the document that enshrines the conditions of the social contract upon which any society is founded. The compact of Medina clearly served a constitutional function since it was the constitutive document for the first Islamic state. Thus we can argue that the compact of Medina serves the dual function of a social contract and a constitution. Clearly the compact of Medina by itself cannot serve as a modern constitution. It would be quite inadequate since it is a historically specific document and quite limited in its scope. However, it can serve as a guiding principle to be emulated rather than a manual to be duplicated.

In simple terms, the first Islamic state established in Medina was based on a social contract, was constitutional in character, and the ruler ruled with the explicit written consent of all the citizens of the state. Today Muslims worldwide can emulate Prophet Muhammad and draw up their own constitutions, historically and temporally specific to their conditions. Following the precedent of Prophet Muhammad any polity claiming to be an Islamic system of governance must have a constitution