94medievalism. Rather, I’m merely attempting to
demonstrate the nature of textual variance.
Let us take this texts don’t speak for themselves
approach and apply it to another fundamental
princi ple of dogma that would appear intractable,
and certainly incompatible with demo cratic so-
ciety: the Islamist (not traditional Muslim) belief
in the necessity of “ruling by Islam.” To fully dis-
sect how such a construct is partly a modern by-
product of the advent of the Eu ro pean nation state
would require an essay in itself. However, Islamists
do refer to certain plausible scriptural justifi cations
in support of this tenet, which must be addressed.
Qur’anic passages such as “the rule (hukm) is for
none but God” and “whomsoever does not rule
(yahkum) by what God has revealed, they are dis-
believers” are among the most oft quoted in this
regard.
Again, in applying a linguistic methodology, one
learns of a dispute here as to whether the Arabic
word used in these passages, hukm, means in its
original usage “to rule” or “to judge.” This subtle
distinction in language makes all the difference.
Of course, “to rule” may imply an active obliga-
tion to “implement” Islam as a “law” over society.
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