ABSTRACT
The term "state" has been used in many different ways depending upon historical and geographical contexts. The way the term "modern state" is used today is of recent origin and largely Western in derivation. For the state to work, no matter how rudimentary or imperfect, requires the articulation of two constructs: authority and legitimacy. In Islam, the concept "Allah is sovereign in all things" is inconsistent with the modern doctrine of state sovereignty. Upon the philosophical foundation rationalizing authority, must be built a "regime". As used here the term "regime" refers to the configuration of political institutions within a state that exists at a given time. Government means the people who actually exercise the authority of the state at given time. They are the ones who perform the activities that are required by the institutions of the regime. There are numerous examples of pluralistic societies being held together as states by force. Once this "force field" fails, the state disintegrates.
