The development of the institution of State and the evolution of Kingship is a matter of historical interest. The nomadic tribes were succeeded by villages, and they in turn were replaced by cities and finally by States and Empires.

The state was really an association of human beings established primarily for defence against external enemies and for the maintenance of peace, law and order.

Men who commanded and those who obeyed their command made up the substance of the State. The people were ruled by a sovereign power.

This power presented itself under different guises. Sometimes, it appeared as a material force or as a religious force and again as an intellectual or economic force etc.

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Cicero gives the Roman idea of the State as the highest pro­duct of human virtue (virtus); as the nearest approach to the will of gods. To him, the will of the people reflected the source of law.

The Jewish idea of State is a divine institution. This is the basis of the Jewish theocracy. In other words, God himself founded the State and hence divine government is essential. Christianity also does not conceive the state as outside the divine order.

The Muslim conception of the State is also that of universal dominion. It is a kin to theocracy, but the Prophet of Islam (peace is upon Him) did not restore the absolute Theocracy of Moses.

The Islamic state is a homogeneous religious and political insti­tution of the Muslim brotherhood. It is a commonwealth of all the Muslims living under the control and guidance of a supreme executive.

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In the institution of Khilafat, ideals of the political system of Islam are combined. In Islam, sovereignty primarily belongs to God and next to God; the soveriegn power resides in the people.

“Church and State” are indissoluable, according to Islamic injunctions. (More on the subject in subsequent paragraphs.)