The Concept of State under International Law and Islamic Law Perspective

The concept of statehood in international law is basically enumerated in the 1933 Montevideo Convention which provides four characteristics of a State in its Article 1: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other States. The Montevideo criteria are so far the most frequently quoted to be the elements of statehood. However, it remains uncertain that these criteria conclusively determine the existence of statehood since there were numerous disagreement among modern writers. Although the concept of state has been well-established by the 1933 Convention, in Islam, such concept has been practiced a long time ago by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and His Companions. Therefore, this article attempts to make comparison between the concept of state in the Montevideo Convention 1933 and Islamic law with reference to the Quranic verses, the practice of the Prophet (PBUH) and His Companions, and the writings of modern Islamic scholars. This article is a qualitative legal study where the data compiled through library research method. The article finds that, while both concepts are in harmonious to each other criteria-wise, but the discussion of each criterion indicates glaring differences between them since both concepts are based on different sources of law, values and underlying principles.