406 Abdessamad Belhaj
cal demands of governance (siyāsa)”.^22 He sees a conflict between the
jurists and the rulers that siyāsa sharʿiyya takes on to solve. In brief,
the reconciliation surmised between Sharia and siyāsa would take the
shape of “a constitutional theory by which the excesses of rulers may
be curtailed and sharīʿa legitimacy extended to actual states”.^23 To put
it differently, the jurists offer rulers legitimacy “in return for a great-
er share of power”.^24 More recently, Benjamin Jokisch argued that
siyāsa sharʿiyya “indicates a state model in which political or executive
authority is clearly separated from legal authority”.^25 He added that
siyāsa sharʿiyya refers to a stage in the development of Islamic law in
which “it is no longer the ruler who creates, changes or abrogates law,
but it is the law defined and controlled by the jurists that sets limits
to the political activities of the ruler”.^26 His understanding reiterates
the supposed everlasting conflict between jurists and rulers already
emphasized by Frank Vogel. Many authors, be they Muslim jurists
or Islamic intellectuals, adopt this interpretation of siyāsa sharʿiyya as
an Islamic governance without any critical reading.^27 Not to mention
the multitude of “think tankers” who explain current ideas and activi-
ties of radical Islamism by its ideological roots in siyāsa sharʿiyya. For
example, Mohammad Hashim Kamali perceives siyāsa sharʿiyya as “a
sharīʿa-oriented policy or government in accordance with sharīʿa”.^28 For
the most part, similar uncritical interpretations assume the existence of
Muslim political governance that is defended by Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn
al-Qayyim against “non-Islamic” political systems.
The second reading of the legacy of the writings of Ibn Taymiyya
and Ibn al-Qayyim on siyāsa sharʿiyya highlights the coercive nature
22 Vogel, Frank E.: Siyasa shar’iyya [Governance in Accordance with Divine Law],
in: EI^2 , vol. 9 (1960), p. 694.
23 Ibid., p. 695.
24 Ibid.
25 Jokisch, Benjamin: Islamic Imperial Law. Harun-al-Rashid’s Codification Project,
Berlin and New York 2007, p. 396.
26 Ibid. In essence, his thesis is an attempt to establish a parallel between, if not a
direct influence of the Byzantine “society of law” on siyāsa sharʿiyya. Though
such influence is not excluded, siyāsa sharʿiyya trusts society less, instead mak-
ing the state the major agent of Sharia.
27 For an example of a Muslim jurist interpreting siyāsa sharʿiyya, see Khallāf,
ʿAbd al-Wahhāb: al-Siyāsa al-sharʿiyya aw niʿam al-dawla al-islāmiyya, Cairo
- For an example of a Muslim intellectual reflecting on the same subject, see
al-Nafīsī, ʿAbd Allāh: Fī al-Siyāsa al-sharʿiyya, Kuwayt 1984.
28 Kamali, Mohammad Hashim: Shari’ah Law. An Introduction, Oxford 2008,
pp. 225–226.
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