Foundations of Islamic Political Thought (Book)
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| Book Information | |
|---|---|
| Author | Abbasali Amid Zanjani |
| Style | Analytical |
| Language | Persian |
| Volumes | 1 |
| Pages | 399 |
| Publication Information | |
| Publisher | Institute for Contemporary Knowledge and Thought |
- Abstract
Foundations of Islamic Political Thought is a book by Abbasali Amid Zanjani in the field of Political Fiqh. This book was authored with an emphasis on the ijtihadi method and the use of Islamic sources. The author considers the understanding of Islamic political thought to require both descriptive and normative analyses, and rejecting empirical positivism, he emphasizes its difference from political behavior and political philosophy. In his view, the Quran provides both types of analysis, descriptive and normative, and Shia jurists have played a significant role in its normative stages.
The author considers the inseparability of religion and politics to be the foundation of Islamic thought and, while critiquing six views on the separation of religion and politics, emphasizes the political objectives of religion and the role of prophets in establishing divine sovereignty. Zanjani bases the political philosophy of Islam on the axis of Imamate and calls the separation of Imamate from the caliphate a dangerous deviation.
The author identifies the sources for research on Islamic political thought to include religious texts and authentic hadiths, the opinions of jurists, rational rules, and governmental rulings, explaining each in detail. He considers the Guardianship of the Jurist as the guarantor of the legitimacy of the Islamic system and sees its role in political and economic development as fundamental. He believes that primary and secondary rulings alone cannot guarantee the developability of the Islamic system.
In the final part of the book, human rights in the political fiqh of Islam are explained, based on dignity, freedom, and human reason, within the framework of Islamic Sharia.
Introduction and Structure of the Book
- Foundations of Islamic Political Thought* is a book in the field of Political Fiqh. The main discussions of the book are organized into eight chapters. The chapters are: 1. General Principles (Basic concepts and general principles in Islamic political thought), 2. Religion and Politics (Examining the relationship between religion and government), 3. A Journey through Political Thoughts (Reviewing different viewpoints), 4. The Political Philosophy of Islam (Analyzing the political principles of Islam), 5. Political Thought in Islamic Texts, 6. Political Power and Development (The role of political power in the progress of Islamic societies), 7. Human Rights Issues in Islamic Political Thought, and 8. Conclusion.
This book was published by the Institute for Contemporary Knowledge and Thought in 1379 SH in 399 pages.
The Author
Template:Main Abbasali Amid Zanjani (1316-1390 SH / 1937-2011 CE), the author of the book, was a mujtahid, legal scholar, university professor, and political science researcher. He studied in the seminaries of Qom and Najaf under masters such as Sayyid Hossein Borujerdi, Ruhollah Khomeini, Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, and Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim. Most of his scholarly works are in the field of Political Fiqh, with his most famous work being the ten-volume series *Political Fiqh*, which has been reprinted many times. He also had experience in the political arena as a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts. His other books in the field of political fiqh include "*Essentials of Political Fiqh*" and "*An Introduction to Political Fiqh*".
Concept and Framework of Islamic Political Thought
In the first chapter, Amid Zanjani explains Islamic political thought and its distinction from other fields. Political thought includes a set of theories, principles, and methods that analyze power, government, and social relations. He outlines various angles for studying Islamic political thought (p. 22) and examines the differences between topics related to Islamic political thought and political thought in a general sense (pp. 22-25).
Methods of Knowing and Analyzing Islamic Political Thought
The author introduces his method for presenting the topics as the ijtihadi method, derived from the scholarly and argumentative sources of Islamic political thought. In explaining the method for understanding Islamic political thought, he emphasizes the distinction between political thought, political behavior, and political philosophy (pp. 28-29). He then provides two meanings for the term "Islamic thought":
- Comparative, descriptive, and interpretive analysis to discover the existing situation, without referring to the normative aspects of the whole and the constituent parts of political phenomena and currents (pp. 29-30);
- Normative, transitional, and transformative analysis to achieve the desired situation (pp. 30-31). Amid Zanjani outlines three stages for the formation of this meaning of political thought: 1. Analysis and decomposition, 2. Review and assessment against criteria, 3. Discovering the desired state and the path to reach it (p. 32).
The author believes that in the political teachings of the Quran, both types of analysis, comparative and normative, along with the three mentioned stages, are observable. He then proceeds to examine Quranic examples to prove his claim (pp. 35-39).
According to Amid Zanjani, jurists, in their examination of the sources of ijtihad, have paid less attention to analyzing the first stage of political thought, but their jurisprudential opinions are rich with views on the second and third stages. He considers the opinions of jurists (such as Shaykh al-Tusi in *Al-Mabsut*, Allama al-Hilli in *Tadhkirat al-Fuqaha*, Allama al-Naraqi in *'Awa'id al-Ayyam*, Mir Fattah in the book *'Anawin*, Kashif al-Ghita in *Kashf al-Ghita*, Muhammad Husayn Na'ini in the book *Tanbih al-Umma*, and Imam Khomeini in the treatise *Wilayat al-Faqih* and the book *Al-Bay'*) to be a great heritage in the field of political thought and finds their views very helpful in extracting jurisprudential answers to contemporary political issues (p. 40).
The author, continuing the discussions of the first chapter, refers to the two elements of time and place in shaping Islamic political thought (p. 42) and examines the empirical, philosophical, and Islamic methods for understanding Islamic political thought (pp. 45-48). He has rejected the application of the empirical method of positivism in Islamic thought (p. 51).
The Conceptual Concomitance and Inseparability of Religion and Politics
In the second chapter, Amid Zanjani first explains the historical background of secularism and the separation of religion and politics, especially in the West (pp. 55-60), and then explains his view on the relationship between religion and politics. Believing in the inseparability of religion and politics, he also considers religion and politics to be conceptually concomitant (pp. 66-69). To explain his view, he details the political objectives of religion and the mission of the prophets, describing politics in Islam as a means and man as a political being (pp. 71-81).
He has also examined six views presented regarding the separation of religion and politics:
- Complete separation of religion and politics: According to this theory, religion pertains to the affairs of the hereafter, and politics to human life in this world, and they have no common ground. The author considers this view of religion to be completely wrong, believing that religion is a collection of teachings related to human life, both in this world and the next (p. 61).
- Fundamental incompatibility of religion and politics: According to this view, religion is fixed and sacred, while politics is variable and tainted with corruption; therefore, this view considers religion and politics to be incompatible. Amid Zanjani deems this separation incorrect. He believes that neither is religion completely fixed, nor is it impossible for politics to be sound and pure, based on divine values (p. 61).
- Difference in the goals of religion and politics: According to this theory, although religion regulates some aspects of worldly life, its main goal is to cultivate wise and spiritual individuals for moral perfection and transcendence of materialism. But politics is more concerned with managing material affairs, the existing situation, and maintaining social order. The author describes this view as a distortion of the goals of religion and politics, considering religion and politics to have common goals and to be based on commendable principles and values (pp. 61-62).
- The Quran's non-engagement with politics and government: Dr. Ali Abdel Raziq in his book *Al-Islam wa Usul al-Hukm*, by proposing this theory, claims that there is no evidence in the Quran for the obligation to form a state and engage in politics. Amid Zanjani does not consider the denial of dozens of verses, hundreds of narrations, and the negation of the political culture of the Prophet (s) and Muslims in forming a state and establishing political institutions to be a claim worthy of researchers (pp. 62-65).
- Negation of human rule: According to the author, some Kharijites, by rejecting human rule, believed that no will other than God's will can rule over humans (pp. 65-66).
- Prohibition of uprising for the formation of a government in the era of occultation: In a footnote, the author refers the examination of this theory to his other book, the second volume of the book *Political Fiqh* (p. 66).
Political Thought and History in Western Thought and the Conduct of Divine Prophets
The author has structured the third chapter of the book in two parts. In the first part, he examines political thought in the West and the ideas of twelve Western thinkers (including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, John Locke, and Montesquieu). He then examines four topics: 1. The theory of the social contract, 2. Natural rights and the Declaration of Human Rights, 3. State power and freedom (p. 104), and 4. Democracy as the pinnacle of Western political thought (pp. 83-107).
In the second part, the author addresses the history of political thought in the movement of the prophets (a). In the author's belief, the political teachings of great religions like Christianity and Judaism have been practically removed from politics, and politicians have misused their spiritual influence for political purposes. From Islam's perspective, secularism is a great deviation and the result of the failure of the religious in the face of the attack by the irreligious on religious sovereignty (pp. 107-108). According to Amid Zanjani, the prophets fought against autocratic rulers using various methods, but their common goal was the negation of non-divine rule and the establishment of divine sovereignty based on the will of the people (pp. 112-115). The author then examines the Quran's perspective on the political history of the prophets (pp. 115-118).
Imamate: The Core Element of Islamic Political Philosophy
In the fourth chapter of the book, Amid Zanjani discusses the political philosophy of Islam. After outlining the history of the formation of political philosophy (pp. 119-122), he refers to the set of elements of Islamic political thought, introducing it as part of the collection of Islamic teachings. He emphasizes that the concept of Imamate, from a creedal and cultural perspective, is one of the most fundamental ideological bases of Islam, and from a political and social perspective, it is one of the revolutionary foundations of Islamic fiqh (p. 123).
He then proceeds to explain and elaborate on the Imamate in this chapter. He considers the idea of separating political leadership (caliphate) from the broader concept of Imamate as a reduction of committed and ideological leadership to the conventional meaning of statecraft and politics, and calls it a great deviation in religion and in the path of understanding the school of thought (pp. 123-135). In the author's opinion, this idea arose with the aim of unity among Islamic sects, but he believes that this justification will not only fail to produce such a result but will also lead to the division of the prophetic mission into two parts: governance and guidance. Accordingly, the caliphate becomes the heir to the governance aspect of the mission, and the Imamate becomes the heir to the guidance, spirituality, and clerical aspect of the mission. This is the same incorrect view that is referred to today as the separation of politics from the clergy (p. 135).
In the third topic of the fifth chapter of the book, the author addresses supplementary discussions related to the Imamate. These discussions are: the necessity of knowing the Imam and choosing a leader (p. 225), leadership and Imamate as responsibility (p. 256), the continuation of Imamate and leadership after the Prophet (p. 257), the depth of the institution of leadership in the system of Imamate and its necessity during the time of occultation (p. 263), and the hadiths on the theory of the Guardianship of the Jurist (p. 264). In the fourth topic of the fifth chapter, he also studies the political thoughts in Nahj al-Balagha (pp. 275-303).
Amid Zanjani has listed the sources for deriving Islamic political thought as follows: 1. Religious texts and authentic hadiths, 2. The majority opinion of jurists, 3. Rational rules, 4. Governmental rulings and the commands of the guardian of the affair (*wali al-amr*) (pp. 224-225). In completing this discussion, the author addresses the foundations of political thought in the Quran and examines it in two parts: the political vocabulary of the Quran and the political concepts of the Quran (pp. 226-252).
The Guardianship of the Jurist: Guarantor of Legitimacy and Agent of Development
In the sixth chapter, Amid Zanjani explains the position of political development in Islamic political thought. He sees the ultimate solution for economic and administrative development within the framework of the Islamic system and in the political structure of the Imamate and the Guardianship of the Jurist. He considers governmental rulings to be part of the primary rulings of Islam and assigns them a fundamental role, the same model that occurred in the Islamic Revolution and was mentioned in the fourth article of the constitution (p. 326).
In explaining the different views on political and economic development, the author has addressed the role of ijtihad and primary and secondary rulings. In the traditional view, some believe that the economic and administrative development of the country is possible through a jurisprudential review of the primary rulings of fiqh; that is, by separating the rulings from their subjects and adding expert values to the legal values of the primary rulings, a way can be found for the dynamism of the Islamic system on the path of development. But in the author's belief, this solution, in addition to its technical and practical difficulties, is also accompanied by the risk of distorting the Sharia. Moreover, this method loses its ability to adapt to changing conditions in the long run and cannot serve as a fixed rule to respond to developments (pp. 323-324).
The author then examines the role of secondary rulings in solving development problems. In situations where the implementation of primary jurisprudential rulings reaches executive dead-ends (such as hardship, harm, necessity, the conflict between the more important and the important, and threats to public order), he considers secondary rulings to be the solution. According to him, secondary rulings guarantee the continued implementation of Sharia in different conditions and are used in economic and administrative development when primary rulings do not respond to complex modern conditions. However, Amid Zanjani believes that although secondary rulings are useful in solving the religious obstacles to development, they face the following problems:
- In many cases, applying secondary titles is not possible, and in some cases, it lacks the necessary efficiency; for example, the titles of harm and hardship are very difficult to apply in religious dead-ends arising from the requirements of development and its effects.
- In some cases, the jurist may err in identifying priorities and determining the ratio of the more important to the important.
- The jurisprudential limitations on the application of secondary titles reduce the effectiveness of the rulings derived from the rules and limit their impact in solving development problems (pp. 324-325).
Human Rights in the Thought of Islamic Political Fiqh
In the seventh chapter of the book, Amid Zanjani examines the concepts of human rights within the context of Islamic political thought under six major topics: 1. The history of human rights in Islam (p. 337), 2. The dignity and honor of man (p. 350), 3. The equality of humans in acquiring and exercising rights (p. 356), 4. The enjoyment of public security (p. 362), 5. The scope of fundamental freedoms (p. 365), and 6. The position of public rights, including seeking justice, education, and social security (from p. 370).
At the beginning of the discussion, he presents some principles and presuppositions of Islamic thought regarding human rights (p. 337). Some of the points he has made from a jurisprudential perspective are:
- Freedom of action within the framework of Islamic fiqh: Based on the two jurisprudential principles of permissibility (*ibahah*) and exoneration (*bara'ah*), man is free in actions for which Islamic texts do not have an explicit ruling. This freedom includes various aspects of individual and social life and has a positive impact in the field of human rights (pp. 339-340).
- The classification of rulings and their role in individual choices: In Islamic fiqh, rulings are divided into obligatory and non-obligatory. Obligatory rulings include the mandatory (*wajib*) and the forbidden (*haram*), while non-obligatory rulings include the recommended (*mustahabb*), the disliked (*makruh*), and the permissible (*mubah*), which constitute the sphere of individual freedom. Within the realm of non-obligatory rulings, man can, based on adherence to contracts, regulate various laws and make them binding on himself and others. It is recommended that individuals in this free zone avoid being strict in seeking obligatory rulings (p. 340).
- The role of reason in the derivation of Islamic rulings: Reason is one of the jurisprudential sources that plays an important role in the derivation of Islamic rulings, both in the theoretical and practical domains. God has permitted man to benefit from this divine right and to participate in law-making, which is a sign of the dignity and respect for man in the Islamic view (p. 340).