Reconstructing the Nature of Principles and Values of Public Administration in Islam

This article examines the conception and practice of public administration from Islamic perspective. It attempts to achieve this objective through careful identification and discussion of the fundamental values and principles that guided the practice of public administration in the state of Medina under the Prophet and his four immediate successors known as the Caliphs. Further analysis of these fundamental principles and values of public administration shows that they have become, in modern time, the standard indicators of assessing the effectiveness or otherwise of a public organization. By focusing attention on the practices that obtained in the early state of Medina under the leadership of the Prophet (SAW) and the Rashidun Caliphs, it is pointed that public administration, in that period, was not only effective, efficient, and responsive, but was also cost-effective and anchored on the principles of new-managerialism which many states in modern times are presently attempting to adopt. Consequently, modern societies have a lot to learn from the lessons of that period.