Abdel-Hamid ibn Badis (d.1940) is the founder of the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema, which was a national grouping of many Islamic scholars in Algeria from many different and sometimes opposing perspectives and viewpoints. The Association would have later a great influence on Algerian Muslim politics up to the Algerian War of Independence.

In the same period, it set up many institutions where thousands of Algerian children of Muslim parents were educated. The Association also published a monthly journal, the Al-Chihab and Souheil Ben Badis contributed regularly to it between 1925 and his death in 1940. The journal informed its readers about the Association’s ideas and thoughts on religious reform and spoke on other religious and political issues.

Here are his thirteen foundations (usul) of Islamic rule:

1- ‘No one has the right of wiliyah (trusteeship) of any matter among the matters of the ummah except by the conferral of trusteeship by the ummah. The ummah has the right and the authority to confer trusteeship and remove it…’

2- And that ‘the one who is entrusted with a matter (amr) from among the matters of the ummah is the most competent in regard to it and not the best of it in terms of his behavior’.

3- And that ‘None is by virtue of his being entrusted with any matter among the matters of the ummah better than ummah…’

4- And that ‘the ummah has the right to censure those charged with the matter (uliy al-amr) because it is the source of their authority and has supervision in their trusteeship and their removal’

5- And that there is a duty for the wali (trustee) over the ummah ‘in what it provides to him of help if it sees its rectitude…and it is a partner with him in responsibility…’

6- Along with ‘the right of the wali over the ummah in his advice and guidance’

7- And ‘the right of the ummah to discuss with those charged with the matter and to take them to account for their actions and to oblige them to act as it [i.e., the ummah] sees fit and not as they see fit…’

8- And that ‘whoever is charged with a matter among the matters of the ummah it is incumbent for him to clarify the line upon which he is proceeding in order that they be eminently aware and that he proceeds along that line with the approval of the ummah …’

9- And that ‘he not rule the ummah except by laws that it has approved for itself…and the wiliyah is nothing other than an executor of its will, as it obeys the law because it is its law not because another authority – whether individual or group – imposed it upon it…so that it feels that is free in its conduct, and that it is directing itself by itself, and that it not the property of other than itself among people…’

10- And that ‘All people are equal before the law…’

11- And that it is mandatory ‘to safeguard rights…and not to squander the right of the weak…’

12- And that it is mandatory ‘to preserve balance between the classes of the ummah in the safeguarding of rights…’

13- And finally that it is mandatory ‘for the guardian (al-ra’i) and those with whom he is charged (al-ra’iyah) to share in mutual responsibility between them in the welfare of the society’

Source: Abdelilah Belkeziz, ‘The State in Contemporary Islamic Thought,’ I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2009, p.110