From Historical Model to Contemporary Ethical Framework: A Qualitative Textual Analysis of Prophetic Principles for Modern Governance

Abstract

Modern governance is frequently assessed through institutional capacity, electoral procedure, regulatory performance, and economic delivery, yet these measures alone do not resolve the moral crises produced by corruption, arbitrary authority, social exclusion, and declining public trust. This article reconstructs an integrated ethical framework of governance from the Qur’an, authenticated Prophetic traditions, selected episodes from the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and the Constitution of Madinah. Using qualitative textual analysis, it examines five interconnected principles: justice (‘adl), consultation (shura), entrusted authority (amanah), answerability (mas’uliyyah), and human dignity (karamah). The study addresses a gap in scholarship that often treats these principles separately, describes Prophetic governance primarily as history, or transfers early Islamic institutions directly into the modern state without distinguishing enduring norms from historically contingent arrangements. The analysis finds that Prophetic governance joined moral agency to public institutions: authority was conceived as a trust; justice applied across status and affiliation; consultation disciplined unilateral power; welfare protected vulnerable persons; and covenant organized cooperation within a religiously diverse polity. The article does not claim that seventh-century administrative forms can be reproduced unchanged. It argues instead that their normative logic can inform contemporary constitutional design, public ethics, participation, anticorruption policy, minority protection, and social welfare. A Prophetic ethical framework is therefore best understood not as a substitute for modern institutions but as a moral architecture by which institutions may be judged, restrained, and directed toward the common good.