Qur’anic Constitutionalism and Moral Governmentality

Further Notes on the Founding Principles of Islamic Society and Polity

Authors

  • Wael B Hallaq Columbia University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v8i1-2.1

Keywords:

Qur’ān, ethics, Islamic Law, Orientalism, constitutional law, separation of powers, technologies of self, moral governmentality

Abstract

A sequel to earlier publications on the subject, this article argues that the Qur’an not only saw itself and was seen as exclusively authorized to adjudicate matters in the social realm but also that it was directly responsible for the origination of constitutive epistemic and political structures in the Shari‘a. Specifically, through a study of certain paradigmatic concepts, it attempts to show that the Qur’an laid the foundations for three constitutive features of the Shari‘a, namely, (1) its constitutional organization and the practice of the rule of law; (2) its landmark features of jurists’ law and ijtihadic apparatus; and (3) its moral governmentality.

References

Abou El Fadl, Khaled. 2003. “Islam and the Challenge of Democratic Commitment.” Fordham International Journal 27: 4–71.

Abu al-Su‘ud, Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-‘Imadi. 1347/1928. Tafsir Abi al- Su‘ud al-Musamma Irshad al-‘Aql al-Salim ila Mazaya al-Qur’an al-Karim. Edited by Hasan Muhammad al-Mas‘udi et al. 4 vols. Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Husayniyya.

Ahmed, Asad Q. 2011. The Religious Elite of the Early Hijaz. Oxford: Prosopographica et Genealogica.

al-Alusi, Shihab al-Din. n.d. Ruh al-Ma‘ani fi Tafsir al-Qur’an al-‘Azim wal-Sab‘ al- Mathani. Edited by Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi. 30 vols. Beirut: Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-‘Arabi.

al-Azami, M. M. 2003. The History of the Qur’anic Text. Riyadh: Azami Publishing House.

al-Baydawi, ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Umar. 1990. Tafsir. 4 vols. Beirut: Mu’assasat al-A‘lami lil-Matbu‘at.

al-Bukhari, ‘Ala’ al-Din ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. 1997. Kashf al-Asrar. 4 vols. Beirut: Dar al- Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

Crone, Patricia and Martin Hinds. 1986. God’s Caliph. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Foucault, Michel. 1973. “Governmentality.” In Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984. Ed. James Faubion. New York: The New Press.

———. 1994. “Technologies of the Self.” In Ethics, Subjectivity, and Truth, edited by Paul Rabinow, 223–251. New York: The New Press.

al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad. 2004. Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Dan. 5 vols. Aleppo: Dar al-Wa‘y.

Gibb, H. A. R. 1955. “Constitutional Organization.” In Law in the Middle East, edited by M. Khadduri and H. Liebesny, 3–27. Washington: Middle East Institute.

Goitein, S. D. 1960. “The Birth-Hour of Muslim Law? An Essay in Exegesis.” Muslim World 50: 23–29. Repr. in Wael Hallaq, The Formation of Islamic Law, in Lawrence Conrad, general editor, The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, vol. 27 (Ashgate: Variorum, 2004), 69–75.

Frier, Bruce W. 1985. The Rise of the Roman Jurists. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

“Hakam.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed. 12 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1960–2004.

Hallaq, Wael. 1989. “The Use and Abuse of Evidence: The Question of Provincial and Roman Influences on Early Islam.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 110: 79–91. Reprinted in Wael Hallaq, Law and Legal Theory in Classical and Medieval Islam (Aldershot: Variorum, 1994), IX.

———. 2001. Authority, Continuity and Change in Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511495557

———. 2002–2003. “The Quest for Origins or Doctrine? Islamic Legal Studies as Colonialist Discourse.” UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law 2(1): 1–31.

———. 2005. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

———. 2009. “Groundwork of the Moral Law: A New Look at the Qur’an and the Genesis of Shari‘a.” Islamic Law and Society 16(3–4): 239–279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/092893809X12547479392108

———. 2009. Introduction to Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511801044

———. 2009. Shari‘a: Theory, Practice, Transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815300

———. 2011. “On Orientalism, Self-Consciousness and History.” Islamic Law and Society 18(3–4): 387–439. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156851910X543183

———. 2013. The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hamid, Tajani ‘Abd al-Qadir. 1995. Usul al-Fikr al-Siyasi fi al-Qur’an al-Makki. Khartoum: Ma‘had al-Buhuth wal-Dirasat al-Ijtima‘iyya.

al-Hurr al-‘Amili, Muhammad Amin. 2007. Wasa’il al-Shi ‘a ila Tahsil Masa’il al- Shari‘a. 20 vols. Beirut: Mu’assasat al-A‘lami lil-Matbu‘at.

Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, Yusuf. n.d. Jami‘ Bayan al-‘Ilm wa-Fadlihi. 2 vols. Beirut: Dar al- Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

Ibn Kathir, Abu al-Fida’. n.d. Tafsir al-Qur’an al-‘Azim. Ed. Husayn Zahran. 4 vols. Cairo: Babi al-Halabi.

Ibn Manzur, Jamal al-Din Muhammad. 2009. Lisan al-‘Arab. 15 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

Ibn Muflih, Shams al-Din Muhammad. 1977. al-Adab al-Shar‘iyya. Edited by Shu‘ayb al-Arna’ut and ‘Umar al-Qayyam. 4 vols. Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. 1987. I‘lam al-Muwaqqi‘in ‘an Rabb al-‘Alamin. Edited by Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hamid. 4 vols. Beirut: al-Matba‘a al-‘Asriyya.

Ibn Qudama, Muwaffaq al-Din. 1981. Rawdat al-Nazir wa-Junnat al-Munazir. Edited by Sayf al-Din al-Khatib. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi.

Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din. 2009. Dar’ Ta‘arud al-‘Aql wal-Naql. Edited by ‘Abd al- Latif ‘Abd al-Rahman. 5 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

Ibn al-Tilmisani, ‘Abd Allah b. Muhammad. 1999. Sharh al-Ma‘alim fi Usal al-Fiqh. Edited by ‘Adil ‘Abd al-Mawjud and ‘Ali Mu‘awwad. 2 vols. Beirut: ‘Alam al-Kutub.

Jackson, Sherman. 1996. Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi. Leiden: Brill.

Kahn, Paul W. 2011. Political Theology: Four New Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. New York: Columbia University Press.

Khalidi, Tarif, trans. 2008. The Qur’an. London: Penguin.

Lapidus, Ira. 1984. “Knowledge, Virtue, and Action: The Classical Muslim Conception of Adab and the Nature of Religious Fulfillment in Islam.” In Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian Islam, edited by Barbara Metcalf, 38–61. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lawson, Gary. 1994. “Rise and Rise of the Administrative State.” Harvard Law Review 107: 1231–1054. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1341842

Marmura, Michael. 1962. “Some Aspects of Avicenna’s Theory of God’s Knowledge of Particulars.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 82: 299–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/597641

al-Mawardi, Ali b. Muhammad b. Habib. n.d. al-Nukat wal-‘Uyun. Edited by Sayyid b. ‘Abd al-Maqsud b. ‘Abd al-Rahim. 6 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al ‘Ilmiyya.

Mujahid, Abu al-Hajjaj b. Jabr al-Makhzumi. 2005. Tafsir Mujahid. Edited by Abu Muhammad al-Asyuti. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

al-Nasafi, ‘Abd Allah b. Ahmad. 1939–1943. Tafsir al-Qur’an al-Jalil al-Musamma bi- Madarik al-Tanzil wa-Haqa’iq al-Ta’wil. Edited by Sharaf al-Din al-Khattab and M. al-Batrawi. 3 vols. Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Amiriyya.

al-Nisaburi, al-Hasan b. Muhammad. 1996. Tafsir al-Ghara’ib wa-Ragha‘ib al- Furqan. Edited by Zakariyya ‘Umayrat. 6 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al- ‘Ilmiyya.

Pickthall, M. M. n.d. The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. New York: Mentor Religious Classic.

Qur’an. 1997. The Qur’an: Arabic Text with Corresponding English Meanings. Riyadh: Abulqasim Publishing House.

al-Qurtubi, Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Ansari. 2005. Tafsir. Edited by Salim Mustafa al-Badri. 21 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

Qutb, Sayyid. 1968. Fi Zilal al-Qur’an. 6 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq.

al-Ramli, Shihab al-Din. 2005. Ghayat al-Ma’mul. Ed. ‘Uthman Ahmad. Beirut: Resalah Publishers.

Rawls, John. 2005. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.

al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din. 1934–1962. al-Tafsir al-Kabir. 32 vols. Cairo: al-Matba‘a al- Bahiyya al-Misriyya.

Saleh, Walid. 2010. “Ibn Taymiyya and the Rise of Radical Hermeneutics: An Analysis of An Introduction to the Foundations of Qur’anic Exegesis.” In Ibn Taymiyya and His Times, edited by Y. Rapoport and Sh. Ahmed. Karachi: Oxford University Press.

al-Sam‘ani, Abu Muzaffar. 1997. Tafsir al-Qur’an. Ed. Ghunaym b. Ghunaym. 6 vols. Riyadh: Dar al-Watan.

al-Samarqandi, Nasr b. Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Ibrahim. 1993. Bahr al-‘Ulum. Edited by ‘Ali Mu‘awwad and ‘Adil ‘Abd al-Mawjud. 3 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

Schmitt, Carl. 1985. Political Theology. Translated by G. Schwab. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

———. 2007. The Concept of the Political. Translated by G. Schwab. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chica¬go/9780226738840.001.0001

Sinai, Nicolai. 2006. “Qur’anic Self-Referentiality as a Strategy of Self-Authorization.” In Self-Referentiality in the Qur’an, edited by Stefan Wild, 103– 134. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din. 2011. al-Durr al-Manthur fi al-Tafsir bil-Ma’thur. 8 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr.

al-Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir. 2005. Tafsir al-Tabari al-Musamma Jami‘ al-Bayan fi Ta’wil al-Qur’an. 13 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

al-Wahidi al-Nisaburi, ‘Ali b. Ahmad. 1991. Asbab al-Nuzul. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

Wolff, J. 1951. Roman Law. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

al-Zamakhshari, Jar Allah Mahmud b. ‘Umar. 2006. Tafsir al-Kashshaf ‘an Haqa’iq Ghawamid al-Tanzil. Edited by Muhammad Shahin. 4 vols. Beirut: Dar al- Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya.

Published

2014-07-08

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Hallaq, W. B. (2014). Qur’anic Constitutionalism and Moral Governmentality: Further Notes on the Founding Principles of Islamic Society and Polity. Comparative Islamic Studies, 8(1-2), 1-52. https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v8i1-2.1