In 622 A.D, the Prophet migrated from Makkah to Medina and settled there for ten years. This period is divided into two phases. In the first phase, Muslims and non-Muslims in Medina were almost equal in number so it was a mixed society. He accepted a mixed type of politics.
At that time there were two centres of power. One was the Prophet himself, the second was a Jewish leader, Kab bin Ashraf. So, it was a bi-polar state. The Prophet accepted it as it is without trying to bring a change in the political status quo of Medina. Then, in the second phase of the Medina period the whole city had accepted Islam. Medina became completely a Muslim society. At that time the Prophet of Islam implemented Islamic Shariah in Medina.
Due to this nature of politics in Islam, there is no political structure in the Islamic system. For example in the early period there were six heads of the Islamic political system — the Prophet himself, Abu Bakr, Omar bin Khatab, Uthman bin Affan, Ali bin Abi Talib, and Umar bin Abdul Aziz. All six were heads of the state in the early period of Islamic history, but every one of them was appointed political head in a different manner. The most fundamental component of a political system is the appointment of the head of state and without a common method of their appointment there could have been no single political structure of Islam.
The Quran says: Copy Arabic text (51:56)
God says: I created the jinn and mankind only so that they might worship Me. People have taken ibadat to mean marifat. Worship of God means realization of God.
A person's greatest task is to discover God and realize God. This discovery moulds his life, impacts his thinking and reforms his behaviour. After realization of God, the thinking, life pattern and moral values that develop in a person are real Islam. As for political system, it is dependent on the situation.
According to a hadith: Copy Arabic text (Kanzul Ummal 14972)
As you are so shall be your rulers. Rulers emerge from the people. In a society, it is people who decide their rulers. Democracy is the best pattern of government. A society must hold free and fair elections. The system that forms as a result will be Islamic. You need to educate people and develop the divine spirit in them. You must change people's minds instead of focusing on changing the political system. Our target should not be the political system. Our target should be to change people's minds. You need to correct people's thinking. Then these people will also elect right rulers. Our target is to reform the society through reform of the individual, and not to capture the political seat.
