Islam, Democracy, and Good Governance:

Vivid Models from Islamic History

Abstract

Recently, the terms good governance and democracy have been increasingly used by
Western academicians in different disciplines and fields of research. Poor and bad govern- ance
were viewed as the root cause of all problems and evils in Muslim-majority countries like Libya,
Yemen, Syria, etc. lnternational capital organizations, financial institutions like the
World Bank, along with a number of NGOs and think tanks, urge these countries to un- dertake
serious reforms of good governance to benefit from financial aids and loans. But a situation of
anarchy and economic instability is still prevalent throughout. The present arti- cle aims to
provide exemplary models of good governance and democracy from lslamic his- tory. The primary focus
is placed on some experiences of the Prophet of lslam {Peace and Blessings of God upon him!) and
the Right-Guided Caliphs, who were preoccupied and ob- sessed with building solid institutions that
could meet the demands of the newborn lslamic society. By deploying an expository research
methodology, the researcher emphasizes that there is no mismatch between the basic premises of good
governance and democracy in- asmuch as the two are quite mandatory for a functional and
productive society - be it Muslim, Christian, or other.