Abstract
Mosque has a central role in Islam. Its purpose is far beyond just a place to say prayer; including place of social gathering, place of rest, place of court etc. The role of mosque has decreased in the last few centuries, chiefly because of the introduction of the colonial system of governance. This paper investigates the role of mosque in Local Government. The insight has got from Quran, Hadith, and practices in early and modern ages of Islam. The Mosque Model of local government has been developed based on this insight. The functions of the modern system of Local Government have been compared with those of Mosque in order to identify the similarities. The results show that most of the extended functions of mosque are similar to those of local government especially union council, and mosque can play those functions much better if combined with the structure of union council. The article concludes that mosque can be a cost effective and least conflicting viable solution to most of the present problems of Local Government of an Islamic State like Pakistan. The hurdles in the implementation of this model include the waves of terrorism blaming Islam, different mindsets of politicians and religious leaders etc. The guidelines have been designed for combination of the Mosque Model and union council.
Keyword(s)
Mosque, Local Government, Union Council, Islamic State, Pakistan