Table Of Content00 islamic thought i-xxvi 21/7/09 17:22 Page i
The State in Contemporary
Islamic Thought
00 islamic thought i-xxvi 21/7/09 17:22 Page ii
Contemporary Arab Scholarship in the Social Sciences:
Democracy, Human Rights Law in Islamic Thought
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri
978 1 84511 749 8
Britain and Arab Unity:
A Documentary History from the Treaty of
Versailles to the End of World War II
Younan Labib Rizk
978 1 84885 059 0
The State in Contemporary Islamic Thought:
A Historical Survey of the Major Muslim Political
Thinkers of the Modern Era
Abdelilah Belkeziz / 978 1 84885 062 0
Water in the Arab World:
The Politics and Economics of Access to Water Resources
Abdul Malek Khalaf El-Tamimi
978 1 84885 058 3
The Formation of Arab Reason:
Text, Tradition and the Construction of Modernity
in the Arab World
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri
978 1 84885 061 3
Islamic Land Tax – Al-KharÆj:
From the Islamic Conquests of the Abbasid Period
Ghaida Khazna Katbi
978 1 84885 063 7
Early Islamic Institutions:
Administration and Taxation from the Caliphate
to the Umayyads and Abbasids
Abd al-Aziz Duri
978 1 84885 060 6
00 islamic thought i-xxvi 21/7/09 17:22 Page iii
Contemporary Arab Scholarship in the Social Sciences, Vol 3
The State in Contemporary
Islamic Thought
A Historical Survey of the Major Muslim Political
Thinkers of the Modern Era
By Abdelilah Belkeziz
Translated for the Centre for Arab Unity Studies
by Abdullah Richard Lux
I.B.Tauris Publishers
In Association With
The Centre for Arab Unity Studies
00 islamic thought i-xxvi 21/7/09 17:22 Page iv
Thetranslationandpublicationofthisbookwasmadepossiblebythegenerousfinancial
supportoftheMohammedBinRashidAlMaktoumFoundation.
Theopinionsandideasexpressedinthisbookarethoseoftheauthoranddonot
necessarilyreflectthoseofeitherthepublisher,theCentreforArabUnityStudiesorthe
MohammedBinRashidAlMaktoumFoundation.
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Copyright©2009CentreforArabUnityStudies
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ContemporaryArabScholarshipintheSocialSciences,Vol3
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00 islamic thought i-xxvi 21/7/09 17:22 Page v
Contents
Preface to the English Language Edition ix
Preface xix
PART ONE: From the Nation State to the State of the KhilÆfah
1 The State of the ‘Tanæ∞mÆt’ or the State of Reason and al-Shar≤ 3
(Islamic Law)
The State and Reform
The Context of the Nation State in the Islamic Reformist
Consciousness
Heralding the State
What is the Position of al-Shar≤ (Islamic Law)?
2 For the Sake of the Nation State: A Criticism of Political and 27
Religious Autocracy
Introduction
The Last Cry of Reform
On the Criticism of Autocracy
– On the Criticism of Religious Justifications for
Autocracy
– On Autocracy, the Destroyer of Civilization
3 The Conditional State: The Constitutional Question in Modern 47
Sh∞≤ite Political Fiqh
Introduction
Al-ImÆmah (the imamate) and Authority in the ‘Age of
Occultation’
00 islamic thought i-xxvi 21/7/09 17:22 Page vi
vi THE STATE IN CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC THOUGHT
From ‘Permission’ for Illegitimate Political Authority
to Theorizing Legitimate Political Authority
– On Legitimate Political Authority: From ‘Infallibility’
(al-≤i∆mah) to the Constitution
– ‘Constitutional Fiqh’
4 From the Nation State to the State of the 71
KhilÆfah: Renewal of ‘Islamic Legal Politics’
Introduction
On the Causes of the Return to the Idea of the KhilÆfah
– On the Islamic Legal Causes
– On the Political Causes
On the Renewal of ‘Islamic Legal Politics’
– On the Meaning of the KhilÆfah
– On the Concept of Ahl al-√al wa al-≤Aqd
The KhilÆfah of Necessity, the Necessity of the KhilÆfah
5 On the Theoretical Criticism of the KhilÆfah 95
The Blessed KhilÆfah: Theoretical Tragedy and Political
Impediment
A KhilÆfah Without an Islamic Legal Origin: The Thesis
of ≤Abd al-RÆziq
– The Absolute Sultanate or ‘Sublimity in Politics’
(al-Ta≤Æl∞ bi-l-S∞yÆsah)
– The KhilÆfah in the Measure of Islamic Law
– Brute Force is the Basis of the KhilÆfah
– Government in Islam is Political
Criticism of the KhilÆfah…from Afar
PART TWO: From the Islamic State to the Religious State
6 On the ‘Islamic State’ – Religious and Political Aspects 119
The Birth of the Problematic of the ‘Islamic State’
– On the Need for a State
– The Islamic State and the Religious State
The Islamic State in the Discourse of √asan al-BannÆ:
– Divergences in Understanding
– The State and the Constitution
– The Multiplicity of Political Parties or the Specter of
Civic Strife (al-Fitnah)
7 The State and al-Shar∞≤ah in the Criticism of the Secular Idea 143
The Shar∞≤ah of the State
A Debate Against the Secular Idea
00 islamic thought i-xxvi 21/7/09 17:22 Page vii
Contents vii
On the Subject of ‘Implementation of the Shar∞≤ah’
– Shar∞≤ah and IjtihÆd
– The Rulings of the Shar∞≤ah: Descent and Gradual
Implementation
8 Al-Sh∑rÆ and Democracy – Connection and Disjuncture 171
On the Meaning of al-Sh∑rÆ
The System of al-Sh∑rÆ
Al-Sh∑rÆ and Democracy: on Relations of Proximity
Al-Sh∑rÆ is Religious and Democracy is Secular
9 Pseudo-Theocracy in the Rule of Allah – ‘al-√Ækim∞yah’ 195
On the Destinies of the Expression ‘Islamic State’
The JÆhil∞ Society and the Muslim Society
On the Concept of ‘al-√Ækim∞yah’
10 Pseudo-Theocracy: On the ‘WilÆyat al-Faq∞h’ 219
From ‘Conditional’ to the ‘Imamate’: The Context of
Retreat
On the Renewal of Subjects of the Fiqh of the Imamate
– The Imamate and its Designation
– The Invalidation of al-Sh∑rÆ
On the ‘WilÆyat al-Faq∞h’
– On the Need for Government
– On the Functions of the FuqahÆ≥
– On the Model of Islamic Government
11 On the Criticism of ‘Divine Right’ 241
On the Criticism of Religious Authority
On the Criticism of ‘al-√Ækim∞yah’
On the Criticism of the ‘WilÆyat al-Faq∞h’
12 Is There a Contemporary Islamic Thought? 267
On the Application of the Term ‘Islamic’ to ‘Islamic
Thought’
On the Conceptual Affiliation to Contemporary ‘Islamic
Literature’
Epilogue 285
References 297
Index 309
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00 islamic thought i-xxvi 21/7/09 17:22 Page ix
Preface to the
English Language Edition
Betweenthetimeofpresentingthisbookforpublicationinthesummerof
2001 – after having been working on it since 1994 until I finished editing
it in late 1999 – and the time of publication of the first edition by the
Centre for Arab Unity Studies in 2002, a drastic, dramatic change
has transpired, that might have some correlation to the subject which I
have addressed: namely, the events of 11 September 2001, and their
major political and cultural repercussions and consequences – especially
those pertinent to the relation between Islam and Muslims and the
West.
ThesubjectsofthisbookneverencompassedtherelationbetweenIslam
and the West until the attacks on New York and Washington stopped me
in my tracks – imposing upon me the realization that I ought to take this
subject as central to the book, or at least attempt to fill in some gaps; or
support otherwise elucidated topics; or to reconstruct a given hypothesis;
or enrich the text with contingent amendments or addenda imposed by
current grave variables... The book embarked – in the first instance – on
an explication of various conceptual methodologies in cognizance of the
‘questionofthestate’thatareimplementedbytwocontemporaryIslamist
discourses:theIslamicReformistdiscourseandtheIslamicRevivalistone.
IthadtoobserveandanalyzethemethodsutilizedbysuchanIslamiccon-
sciousness for the issue of state in regard to the four main problematics
that were thrust upon it, or even might have been self-engendered while
contemplatingthemodelsofthenationstate,thestateofthekhilÆfah,the
Islamic state, and the religious ‘theocratic’ state. Upon such observation
and analysis, the book further had to trace this cognizance over a long
