Siyāsah al-sharʿiyyah (islamic political science) as a discipline of knowledge in Islam

The birth and development of political institutions is largely the product of human thought and action. The creation of the ‘Madinah Society’ which is considered by the majority of Muslim scholars as the first ‘Muslim community’ was produced by Prophet Muḥammad’s (PBUH) concept of community (ummah). The concept is based onthe social and political interaction between him and his followers in the cities of Makkah and Madinah. The establishment of the Madinah Society led to the formation of the first Islamic state by Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) and constituted a formal and legal political organization. Prophet Muḥammad’s (PBUH) vision and aspiration for creating a new social and political order was realised during his lifetime due to his success in cultivating a new civilization based on the belief of the One God. Moreover, his political career was crowned by the establishment of the new state of Madinah. This article attempts to examine how the idea of the first Muslim community (ummah) and the state institution was formed, and how the school of Islamic political science (Siyāsah al-Sharʿiyyah) emerged as a separate discipline in Islamic studies, its fields of study, the different phases of it’s development and its relation to Islamic political thought.