Machine summary:
The work is divided into an introductory chapter, five other chapters, a resume of the conclusions arrived at by the author, a compendious bibliography of 146 Arabic, Persian and Urdu books on Mus• lim political thought and 49 Western books, mostly English, on the s~me "n.
The basis of the State was on the contract of bai'at (which is not an "oath of allegiance", as the author calls it), and it was thus perfectly natural that the pro• gress of Muslim society should be not from Status to Contract but from Contract to Status.
The fact is that there is no such thing as a mundane "sovereign" in the Islamic State, as the Head is responsible both to man and God, and although he is perfectly free to legislate, as Dr. Kamal says in his "Conclusions", he has to do so according to the norms laid down in the Qur'an.
But a certain amount of uniformity could be brought about if the International Islamic Board, charged with examining questions afresh from the point of view of Islamic norms, were to consist of persons who would be universally respected for their erudition and their wide outlook and at the same time able to exert some influence on those in authority in Muslim countries.
Speaking about restraints on cultural freedom arising from religious causes, Mr. Philip Spratt, Editor, "Mysindia", India, referred to Islam as having ''a strong totalitarian element"-a view that was challenged by Mr. Khwaja Sarwar Hasan of Pakistan.