Table Of Content00_Democracy_prelims-option 5 4/11/08 10:35 Page i
1
Contemporary Arab Scholarship in the Social Sciences, Vol 1 2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Democracy, Human Rights and
9
Law in Islamic Thought 10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
By Mohammed Abed al-Jabri 18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
I.B.Tauris Publishers 38
In Association With 39
The Centre for Arab Unity Studies 40
00_Democracy_prelims-option 5 31/10/08 16:45 Page ii
Thetranslationandpublicationofthisbookwasmadepossiblebythegenerousfinancial
supportoftheMohammedBinRashidAlMaktoumFoundation.
Theopinionsandideasexpressedinthisbookarethoseoftheauthoranddonot
necessarilyreflectthoseofeitherthepublisher,theCentreforArabUnityStudiesorthe
MohammedBinRashidAlMaktoumFoundation.
Publishedin2009byI.B.Tauris&CoLtd
6SalemRoad,LondonW24BU
175FifthAvenue,NewYorkNY10010
www.ibtauris.com
PublishedinassociationwiththeCentreforArabUnityStudies
IntheUnitedStatesofAmericaandCanadadistributedby
PalgraveMacmillan,adivisionofSt.Martin’sPress
175FifthAvenue,NewYorkNY10010
CentreforArabUnityStudies
‘BeitAl-Nahda’Bldg.–BasraStreet–Hamra
POBox:113-6001Hamra
Beirut20342407–LEBANON
www.caus.org.lb
Copyright©2009CentreforArabUnityStudies
TherightofMohammedAbedal-Jabritobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisworkhas
beenassertedbyhiminaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Thisbook,oranypartthereof,maynotbereproduced,storedin
orintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,
electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorwritten
permissionofthepublisher.
ContemporaryArabScholarshipintheSocialSciences,Vol1
ISBN:9781845117498
AfullCIPrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
AfullCIPrecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:available
DesignedandTypesetby4wordLtd,Bristol,UK
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyCPIAntonyRowe,Chippenham
00_Democracy_prelims-option 5 31/10/08 16:45 Page iii
1
2
3
Contents
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
VOLUME I: 12
RELIGION, STATE AND THE APPLICATION OF ISLAMIC SHARI¯≤AH 13
14
Introduction 3 15
16
17
Part One: The Question of Religion and the State
18
1 Religion and the State in the Authoritative Cultural Referent 31 19
20
2 Religion and State in the Renaissance Authoritative Referent 47
21
3 Religion, Politics and Civil War 57 22
23
24
Part Two: The Question of Applying al-Shar¯ı≤ah
25
26
4 Awakening and Renewal 63
27
5 Traditionalism (al-salaf∞yah)...or 67
28
The Historical Experience of the Nation?
29
30
6 Extremism: Right and Left 71
31
7 Extremism Between Creed and al-Shar∞≤ah 74
32
33
8 For the Procession of IjtihÆd 77
34
9 The Rationality of the Rulings of al-Shar∞≤ah 81
35
36
10 Rulings and Dependence 86
37
11 Every Age has its Special Needs 90
38
39
12 ‘Avoid the √ud∑d Penalties when in Doubt’ 94
40
13 Concerning ‘Complete Application of al-Shar∞≤ah’ 99
00_Democracy_prelims-option 5 4/11/08 15:42 Page iv
iv Contents
VOLUME II:
DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Introduction 107
Part One: Democracy: Its Historical Role in the Arab World
1 A Demand in the Arab World 119
2 Al-Sh∑rÆ and Democracy are not One and the Same 122
3 The Difficult Birth 126
4 Partnership in Human Governance 130
5 Democracy and the Right to Speak 134
6 No Way Out Except Through a Historical Bloc 138
Part Two: Democracy and the Current Arab Reality
7 The Problem of the Transition to Democracy 145
8 Objective Situations Conducive to Democracy 148
9 Contemporary Arab Ideology and its Doubts about Democracy 152
10 Dispersing the Doubts about Democracy 155
11 The State that Swallows up Society 159
12 Civil Society and the Elites in the Arab Nation 162
13 Elites Fear Democracy 166
14 Democracy, a Necessity 169
Part Three: Cultural Implantation of Human Rights in the
Contemporary Arab Conscience
15 Human Rights: Particularity and Universality 175
16 Universality of Human Rights in the European Point 178
of Reference
00_Democracy_prelims-option 5 4/11/08 15:42 Page v
Contents v
17 Universality of Human Rights in the Islamic Authoritative 183 1
Point of Reference: Reason and Innate Nature 2
3
18 The Universality of Human Rights in the Islamic Authoritative 188
4
Point of Reference: Covenant and al-Sh∑rÆ
5
19 Philosophy of Human Rights and Religion 192 6
7
20 Freedom is One Thing, Apostasy Another 196
8
21 Women’s Rights in Islam: Between the Fundamental Principles 201 9
of al-Shar∞≤ah and its Particular Rulings 10
11
12
Part Four: Enhancing Awareness of Human Rights in Islam
13
14
22 The Concept of the Human Being in Modern Thought 209
15
23 The Concept of the Human Being in the Qur≥Æn 212 16
17
24 The Right to Life and its Enjoyment 217
18
25 The Right to Freedom of Belief, Knowledge and Difference 221 19
20
26 Al-Sh∑rÆ between the Qur≥Æn and the Circumstantial 226
21
Interpretations
22
27 The Right to Equality and the Question of ‘Preference’ 230 23
24
28 Slavery and the Rights of Women 234
25
29 The Right to Justice: The Strength of the Qur≥Ænic 238 26
Text and the Vacillation of the ‘Advisory Discourse’ 27
28
30 The Rights of the Weak Oppressed: The Right of the 241
29
Poor to the Wealth of the Rich
30
31 Social Security in Islam: Necessity of Development 245 31
32
32 The Rights of God, the Rights of People:
33
Application of al-Shar∞≤ah 249
34
35
Index 252
36
37
38
39
40
00_Democracy_prelims-option 5 31/10/08 16:45 Page vi
01_Democracy_001-028 31/10/08 16:45 Page 1
VOLUME I
RELIGION, STATE AND THE
APPLICATION OF ISLAMIC
SHARI¯≤AH
01_Democracy_001-028 31/10/08 16:45 Page 2
01_Democracy_001-028 31/10/08 16:45 Page 3
1
2
3
Introduction
04
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
1. 12
13
There has been much discussion in recent years concerning ‘religion and
14
thestate’inIslam,andthe‘applicationofIslamicshar∞≤ah’.Inmostofthe
15
works on the subject, regardless of their authors’ different approaches,
16
motives or points of view, there has been a noticeable belligerent tone,
17
explicit in some, implicit in others. This belligerent discourse is usually
18
motivated by a desire to invalidate the rival opinion more than anything
19
else. It is a discourse of equivocation and refutation, which ultimately
20
attains no new knowledge and proves no fact. Some authors have tried to
21
avoid open controversy and have sought instead a ‘new point of view’ or
22
a ‘contemporary reading’. In so doing, they mostly start from hypotheses
23
with no basis in the religious texts or in the historical Arab-Islamic expe-
24
rience, or they resort to a far-fetched interpretation of some texts.
25
Some of these controversies and readings ignore, intentionallyor other-
26
wise,thedifferencebetweenthecognitiveandtheideological;betweenhis-
27
torical facts and mere whims or personal desires, whether in their own
28
discourse or in that of the opponent; in the discourse of creeds, sects,
29
‘intellectuals’ or mujtahid∑n (jurisprudents who derive legal rulings
30
through the interpretive process of ijtihÆd), both past and modern.1 This
31
is a serious methodological fallacy. The subject of religion and state, and
32
the application of the Islamic shar∞≤ah, is influenced by politics and its
33
relatedneedsandlogic.Itmaybesaidmostauthoritiesreferredtobycon-
34
temporary scholars have been geared, one way or another, to suit their
35
modernpoliticalsituations.Whenthescholarhascertainpoliticalpersua-
36
sions to affirm, the truth will certainly be lost in a labyrinthine political
37
wilderness of the past and the present.
38
My aim from these cursory remarks is to emphasize the necessity of
39
establishing an authority more advanced and credible than sectarian
40
