ABSTRACT
A study of the contemporary models of power in Muslim society reveals that the great majority of them opted for processes of secularization as a means achieving civil society and the establishment of the nation-state. There are many who believe that Islam, by virtue of its singularity, is the antipode of civil society and the nation-state. A more plausible and realistic approach would regard Islam as a human construction and, like all other such constructions, subject to change and evolution. Islam too will undergo changes and modification if the conditions are ripe for them. The establishment of the Islamic regime in Iran has often been cited as the example par excellence of the conceptual powers of Islam. Parallel to the development of economic autonomy, the Iranians, following the same course as the Egyptians, attempted to steer their country toward political modernization. The idea of a nation-state was adopted to provide a propitious general framework for ensuring the success of modernization.
