Law and Order According to Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya 407
of their approach. From this judicial perspective, they emphasize the
extended authority given to judges and rulers in the interpretation of
penal punishments. In this reading, siyāsa sharʿiyya is a “coercive poli-
cy” concerned primarily with criminal procedures.^29 Especially in Ibn
al-Qayyim’s work, siyāsa sharʿiyya appears to be a set of principles for
forensic evidence examination.^30 By the same token, the current of the
penal approach is counter-balanced by a “public interest” conception
of siyāsa sharʿiyya. For instance, Muhammad Khalid Masud acknowl-
edges that, for Ibn Taymiyya, “siyāsa is related to the need for disci-
pline and order and that discipline can be achieved best by assimilating
the practice of siyāsa into sharīʿa”.^31 However, Ibn Taymiyya conceives
order as a means of realizing the public interest (maṣlaḥa).^32 Emile Tyan
raised this point and clearly stated that siyāsa sharʿiyya, after all, is not
a new method or source of Islamic law. Rather, in its legal reasoning
and application, it functions the same way as public interest (istiṣlāḥ) or
juristic preference (istiḥsān). According to Tyan, siyāsa sharʿiyya con-
sists in applying rules and legal solutions that consider practical utility,
independently from strict legality.^33 Still, Tyan asserts that the laws of
siyāsa sharʿiyya are consistent with the fundamental principles of the
law, since they are intended to achieve its essential goals.^34
Baber Johansen stands out conspicuously among the Western schol-
ars who showed a particular interest in the legacy of Ibn Taymiyya and
29 Ibrahim, Saeed Hasan: Basic Principles of Criminal Procedure under Islamic
Shari’a, in: Muhammad A. Abdel Haleem, Adel Omar Sharif and Kate Daniels
(eds.): Criminal Justice in Islam. Judicial Procedure in the Sharīʾah, London
2003, pp. 17–34, here pp. 24–25.
30 Al-Sulamī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Nāfiʿ: al-Siyāsa al-sharʿiyya ʿinda al-imām Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyya, in: Majallat Jāmiʿat al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Al-Ādāb wal-
ʿUlūm al-Insāniyya 16 (2008), pp. 317–356, here p. 325. Ann Lambton expressed
this view as follows: “through al-Siyāsa al-sharʿiyya there runs like a thread the
theme of the need for coercive power to maintain discipline and enforce order”,
Lambton, Ann K. S.: State and Government in Medieval Islam. An Introduction
to the Study of Islamic Political Theory; the Jurists, Oxford and New York 1981,
p. 145.
31 Masud, Muhammad Khalid: The Doctrine of Siyāsa in Islamic Law, in: Recht
van de Islam 18 (2001), pp. 1–29, here pp. 11–12.
32 Ibid., p. 12. See also: Layish, Aharon: Saudi Arabian Legal Reform as a Mecha-
nism to Moderate Wahhabi Doctrine, in: Journal of the American Oriental Soci-
ety 107 (1987), pp. 279–292, here p. 284.
33 Tyan, Emile: Méthodologie et sources du droit en Islam (Istiḥsān, Istiṣlāḥ,
Siyāsa sharʿiyya), in: Studia Islamica 10 (1959), pp. 79–109, here p. 101.
34 Ibid., p. 104.
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