Physical Health Requirement For The Head of State in Islam : An Ijtihad

Previous scholars of Islamic politics discussed the prerequisites that must be fulfilled by someone to be appointed as a head of state and the number of requirements set was different from one scholar to another. It is observed that al-Mawardi put seven requirements, Ibn Khaldun with five requirements, al-Ghazali with ten requirements, al-Baghdadi with four requirements, and Ibn Hazm suggested eight requirements. These differences arose because some scholars set the requirements in more detail whereas some of them lumped up several in one requirement. There are also some requirements that they agreed and some requirements they did not agree. Physical health requirement or no defects senses is one of the disagreements among some scholars. This difference is due to the lack of clear nas (sarih) either in al-Quran or in al- Hadith, however it shall be based on ijtihad to the interpretation of certain Quranic text. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the differences in views and strength of ijtihad on health requirement during the current different application. This is a qualitative study by using the library research and data was analyzed using descriptive method. The study found out that physical health requirement for the head of state is an ijtihad to benefit the people and the current needs of a particular country.