To translate ‘secular’ as ‘La-Deeni’ is a distortion of the real meaning and import of this word which cannot be correctly understood out of its historical context. In Christian West there have been two rival powers, the Church and State, Pope and Emperor, who were at loggerheads for supremacy of the one over the other.
In Islam’s religious and political system there is no Church, no Pope and no Emperor. The first four Caliph’s of Islam were not kings and emperors. The word opposite of ‘secular’ is theocratic, monastic and clerical. Since in Islam there is no Church, no theocratic-monastic-clerical order, there is no opposition between the Islamic and the secular. An Islamic state and a secular state both give freedom of religion to all their citizens, guarantee equality of human rights and freedoms and equality in the eyes of law and justice.
Secular means temporal and worldly and Islam, as a comprehensive religion, fully covers man’s temporal and worldly interests, and as such it is a civil and secular religion.
PROF JAMIL WASTI SYED