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Second, it was years after the death of the Prophet that the theory of leadership (caliphate) was worked out by Muslim jurists, and under this theory, it has been clearly understood that the prophetic function had ended with the death of Mohammed and that his successors inherited only the political function and the duty of administrating the laws set out in the Koran and the Prophet's sayings and practice. The caliph had three functions. He was the vice regent of the Prophet as temporal head of the ummah; he was the imam of the community and upholder of the law; and finally, he was commander of the faithful for the defence and expansion of Islam.
The central issue in Islam has not been whether the state can be separated from religion but whether society can be separated from religion. It is because the answer to the second has to be firmly in the negative that the answer to the first has also to be in the negative. In posing the first question - whether the state can be separated from religion - without simultaneously posing the second - whether society can be separated from religion - scholars have, to use the old cliche, sought to put the cart before the horse.
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