On Thursday Ausgust 6th, participants of the Law and Leadership Summer program 2015 gained valuable insight into the nature of Islamic constitutionalism. Dr. al-Hibri examined the relationship between the U.S. Constitution and the Qur’an and worked with students to dismantle misconceptions about the principles of Islamic constitutionalism. Dr. al-Hibri discussed the similarities between the U.S. Constitution and the Qur’an saying, “the early Muslims chose the Qur’an just as the founding fathers chose the Constitution.” She then walked through the history of the Prophet PBUH upon his arrival in Madina, using the story as confirmation of the democratic nature of the first Islamic State. Dr. al-Hibri described how the people of Madina accepted the Qur’an as their constitutional document, the Prophet as their head of state, and the Sahabah as the Prophet’s consultants. She then discussed the message of religious acceptance that was given by the Qur’an, saying about the perpetrators of modern-day conflicts: “where they are getting [false ideas] from I don’t know, but this is diametrically opposed to what Islam stands for.” Dr. al-Hibri ended her class by encouraging students to devote time to studying Islam further, and to devote even more time to fighting misperceptions and false claims about Islam back home.
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