ABSTRACT
"The Muslims of India are content in their poverty and plight, trading on the names of their ancestors, or doing menial jobs or begging or just starving. Although recruited in large numbers into the military, Muslim units played little part in the political awakening of the community. Secular authority, which is only an extension of divine authority, rests with the "whole community of Muslims including the rank and file." Mohammed Iqbal, a poet by trade, was one of the first to formulate a concept of Muslim nationalism. Iqbal figured that the real problem facing the Muslim leadership was the poverty of the Muslim masses. The way to deal with this problem was to create a Muslim state which would achieve "the enforcement of the law of Islam." Theorists of the Islamic state draw little enrichment from other political philosophies. Despite the emphasis upon community, consensus, and rule of law, Islamic thinkers dismiss Western democracy.
