The Caliphate of Man

The Caliphate of Man PDF Author: Andrew F. March
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN: 0674987837
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
A political theorist teases out the century-old ideological transformation at the heart of contemporary discourse in Muslim nations undergoing political change. The Arab Spring precipitated a crisis in political Islam. In Egypt Islamists have been crushed. In Turkey they have descended into authoritarianism. In Tunisia they govern but without the label of “political Islam.” Andrew March explores how, before this crisis, Islamists developed a unique theory of popular sovereignty, one that promised to determine the future of democracy in the Middle East. This began with the claim of divine sovereignty, the demand to restore the sharīʿa in modern societies. But prominent theorists of political Islam also advanced another principle, the Quranic notion that God’s authority on earth rests not with sultans or with scholars’ interpretation of written law but with the entirety of the Muslim people, the umma. Drawing on this argument, utopian theorists such as Abū’l-Aʿlā Mawdūdī and Sayyid Quṭb released into the intellectual bloodstream the doctrine of the caliphate of man: while God is sovereign, He has appointed the multitude of believers as His vicegerent. The Caliphate of Man argues that the doctrine of the universal human caliphate underpins a specific democratic theory, a kind of Islamic republic of virtue in which the people have authority over the government and religious leaders. But is this an ideal regime destined to survive only as theory?

The Caliphate of Man

The Caliphate of Man PDF Author: Andrew F. March
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN: 0674987837
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
A political theorist teases out the century-old ideological transformation at the heart of contemporary discourse in Muslim nations undergoing political change. The Arab Spring precipitated a crisis in political Islam. In Egypt Islamists have been crushed. In Turkey they have descended into authoritarianism. In Tunisia they govern but without the label of “political Islam.” Andrew March explores how, before this crisis, Islamists developed a unique theory of popular sovereignty, one that promised to determine the future of democracy in the Middle East. This began with the claim of divine sovereignty, the demand to restore the sharīʿa in modern societies. But prominent theorists of political Islam also advanced another principle, the Quranic notion that God’s authority on earth rests not with sultans or with scholars’ interpretation of written law but with the entirety of the Muslim people, the umma. Drawing on this argument, utopian theorists such as Abū’l-Aʿlā Mawdūdī and Sayyid Quṭb released into the intellectual bloodstream the doctrine of the caliphate of man: while God is sovereign, He has appointed the multitude of believers as His vicegerent. The Caliphate of Man argues that the doctrine of the universal human caliphate underpins a specific democratic theory, a kind of Islamic republic of virtue in which the people have authority over the government and religious leaders. But is this an ideal regime destined to survive only as theory?

The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought

The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought PDF Author: Ibrahim Abu-Rabi'
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405178485
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 696

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Book Description
The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thoughtreflects the variety of trends, voices, and opinions in thecontemporary Muslim intellectual scene. Challenges Western misconceptions about the modern Muslim worldin general and the Arab world in particular. Consists of 36 important essays written by contemporary Muslimthinkers and scholars. Covers issues such as Islamic tradition, modernity,globalization, feminism, the West, the USA, reform, andsecularism. Helps readers to situate Islamic intellectual history in thecontext of Western intellectual trends.

The Contemporary Islamic Governed State

The Contemporary Islamic Governed State PDF Author: Joseph J. Kaminski
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319570129
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This book offers a normative reconceptualization of a modern Islamic governed state. First, Joseph Kaminski surveys the historical context of the trajectory of Islamic thought, and offers a unique discursive framework for reconceptualizing an Islamic governed state that rejects secular Enlightenment liberalism and instead is heavily grounded in Ancient Greek ideals of politics and political leadership. Despite heavily borrowing from Greek thought, the model offered remains firmly rooted in a Shari’ah-based, discursive ontological framework. The volume explores topics of bureaucracy, law, democracy, women in politics, and economic justice. Further, this volume presents case studies from Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, and Malaysia, and utilizes the presented theoretical framework as a lens for analysis.

Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought

Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought PDF Author: Roxanne L. Euben
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400833809
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
The most authoritative anthology of Islamist texts This anthology of key primary texts provides an unmatched introduction to Islamist political thought from the early twentieth century to the present, and serves as an invaluable guide through the storm of polemic, fear, and confusion that swirls around Islamism today. Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman gather a broad selection of texts from influential Islamist thinkers and place these figures and their writings in their multifaceted political and historical contexts. The selections presented here in English translation include writings of Ayatollah Khomeini, Usama bin Laden, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, and Moroccan Islamist leader Nadia Yassine, as well as the Hamas charter, an interview with a Taliban commander, and the final testament of 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Ata. Illuminating the content and political appeal of Islamist thought, this anthology brings into sharp relief the commonalities in Islamist arguments about gender, democracy, and violence, but it also reveals significant political and theological disagreements among thinkers too often grouped together and dismissed as extremists or terrorists. No other anthology better illustrates the diversity of Islamist thought, the complexity of its intellectual and political contexts, or the variety of ways in which it relates to other intellectual and religious trends in the contemporary Muslim world.

The Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Muslim Socio-Political Thought

The Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Muslim Socio-Political Thought PDF Author: Lutfi Sunar
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000425088
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
This volume unfolds the ebbs and flows of Muslim thought in different regions of the world, as well as the struggles between the different intellectual discourses that have surfaced against this backdrop. With a focus on Turkey, Egypt, Iran and the Indian subcontinent – regions that, in spite of their particular histories and forms of thought, are uniquely placed as a mosaic that illustrates the intertwined nature of the development of Muslim socio-political thought – it sheds light on the swing between right and left in different regions, the debates surrounding nationalism, the influence of socialism and liberalism, the rise of Islamism and the conflict between state bureaucracy and social movements. Exploring themes of civil society and democracy, it also considers current trends in Muslim thought and possible future directions. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the fields of sociology, anthropology, political science, history and political economy, as well as those with interests in the study of religion, the development of Muslim thought, and the transformation of Muslim societies in recent decades.

The Impossible State

The Impossible State PDF Author: Wael B. Hallaq
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231530862
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Wael B. Hallaq boldly argues that the "Islamic state," judged by any standard definition of what the modern state represents, is both impossible and inherently self-contradictory. Comparing the legal, political, moral, and constitutional histories of premodern Islam and Euro-America, he finds the adoption and practice of the modern state to be highly problematic for modern Muslims. He also critiques more expansively modernity's moral predicament, which renders impossible any project resting solely on ethical foundations. The modern state not only suffers from serious legal, political, and constitutional issues, Hallaq argues, but also, by its very nature, fashions a subject inconsistent with what it means to be, or to live as, a Muslim. By Islamic standards, the state's technologies of the self are severely lacking in moral substance, and today's Islamic state, as Hallaq shows, has done little to advance an acceptable form of genuine Shari'a governance. The Islamists' constitutional battles in Egypt and Pakistan, the Islamic legal and political failures of the Iranian Revolution, and similar disappointments underscore this fact. Nevertheless, the state remains the favored template of the Islamists and the ulama (Muslim clergymen). Providing Muslims with a path toward realizing the good life, Hallaq turns to the rich moral resources of Islamic history. Along the way, he proves political and other "crises of Islam" are not unique to the Islamic world nor to the Muslim religion. These crises are integral to the modern condition of both East and West, and by acknowledging these parallels, Muslims can engage more productively with their Western counterparts.

Contemporary Thought in the Muslim World

Contemporary Thought in the Muslim World PDF Author: Carool Kersten
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135008922
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book presents an intellectual history of today’s Muslim world, surveying contemporary Muslim thinking in its various manifestations, addressing a variety of themes that impact on the lives of present-day Muslims. Focusing on the period from roughly the late 1960s to the first decade of the twenty-first century, the book is global in its approach and offers an overview of different strands of thought and trends in the development of new ideas, distinguishing between traditional, reactionary, and progressive approaches. It presents a variety of themes and issues including: The continuing relevance of the legacy of traditional Islamic learning as well as the use of reason; the centrality of the Qur’an; the spiritual concerns of contemporary Muslims; political thought regarding secularity, statehood, and governance; legal and ethical debates; related current issues like human rights, gender equality, and religious plurality; as well as globalization, ecology and the environment, bioethics, and life sciences. An alternative account of Islam and the Muslim world today, counterbalancing narratives that emphasise politics and confrontations with the West, this book is an essential resource for students and scholars of Islam.

The State in Contemporary Islamic Thought

The State in Contemporary Islamic Thought PDF Author: Abdelilah Belkeziz
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857717065
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
The debates on 'Islam and Modernity' clearly include in their analysis notions of the State. Abdelillah Belkeziz here charts the development of the concept of 'the state' (al-dawlah) in Islamic discourse over the last two centuries. The result is a tour de force survey of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the modern era, which encompasses three successive waves: the modernist trends of the early and later reformers like Sayyed Jamal Eddin Al-Afghani; the dogmatism of ideologues like Hasan Al-Bana; and the rhetoric of revivalists like the Ayatollah Khomeini. Through this analysis, Belkeziz argues that modern Islamic political thought succeeded in producing ideologies, but ultimately failed to produce a unified theory of state. This work is an essential encyclopedic resource for all scholars and researchers of Political Islam and will become a standard work in the field.

Islamic Thought

Islamic Thought PDF Author: Abdullah Saeed
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134225644
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Islamic Thought is a fresh and contemporary introduction to the philosophies and doctrines of Islam. Abdullah Saeed, a distinguished Muslim scholar, traces the development of religious knowledge in Islam, from the pre-modern to the modern period. The book focuses on Muslim thought, as well as the development, production and transmission of religious knowledge, and the trends, schools and movements that have contributed to the production of this knowledge. Key topics in Islamic culture are explored, including the development of the Islamic intellectual tradition, the two foundation texts, the Qur’an and Hadith, legal thought, theological thought, mystical thought, Islamic Art, philosophical thought, political thought, and renewal, reform and rethinking today. Through this rich and varied discussion, Saeed presents a fascinating depiction of how Islam was lived in the past and how its adherents practise it in the present. Islamic Thought is essential reading for students beginning the study of Islam but will also interest anyone seeking to learn more about one of the world’s great religions.

Modern Islamic Political Thought

Modern Islamic Political Thought PDF Author: Hamid Enayat
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857721097
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The revival and power of religious feelings among Muslims since the Iranian revolution presents a complicated and often perplexing picture of the politics of modern Islam. What are the ideas which have influenced the direction of these trends? Here, Hamis Enayat provides an answer by describing and interpreting some of the major Islamic political ideas, especially those expressed by Iranians and Egyptians, as well as thinkers from Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. He examines the political differences between the two main schools in Islam - Shi'ism and Sunnism. Also covered in the book is: the concept of the Islamic state; and the Muslim response to the challenge of alien and modern ideologies such as nationalism, democracy and socialism - as well as notions of Shi'i modernism.