Ali Abdel Raziq

Ali Abdel Raziq (1888-1966) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar and sharia judge. He was wrongly regarded as the intellectual father of Islamic laicism or secularism (the separation of state and religion, not the secularization of society). His main work is called "Islam and the Foundations of Governance" (Al-Islam Wa Usul Al-Hukm) and was first published in 1925. Due to its controversial standpoints regarding the necessity of the caliphate and religious government, the book triggered an intellectual and political battle in Egypt. In essence the author claims that the Muslims may agree on any kind of government, be it religious or worldly, as long as it serves the interest and common welfare of their society. Abdel Raziq's arguments:
1. The two main sources of Islamic law (sharia), the Quran and the Sunnah (Tradition of Messenger Muhammad), neither demand nor reject the rule of a caliph (caliphate) or imam (imamate).
2. There is no real ijma (consensus) on the necessity of the caliphate.
3. Experience shows that the caliphate entailed a series of disasters for the Muslim community, and there is no single rational argument for the (re-)establishment of the caliphate. As Abdel Raziq recounts the horrors of the caliphate, among other things, one can conclude that he advocated a humanist kind of governance, probably a democratic state. This assumption is supported by the fact that his father Hassan Abdel Raziq and his oldest brother, the philosopher Mustafa Abdel Raziq, were also liberal activists. In Abdel Raziq's opinion, the separation of Islam and state is supposed to protect Islam and the Muslims from the political abuse of Islam. Ali Abdel Raziq also wrote "Consensus in Islamic Law" (Al-Ijma´ Fi Ash-Shari´ah Al-Islamiyyah) which was published in 1947. He later served as Minister of Endowments (twice), one of the three highest positions in religious learning and administration (beside the Rector of al-Azhar and the Grand Mufti) before he died in December 1966.

The word ‘secular’ has come to the Arab lexicon since the turn of the twentieth century, bringing with it a host of meanings and interpretations. It was first introduced into Arab debates as the term, dariya which connoted a separation between religion and the state. This later evolved to become, la dini and now meant irreligious. In present day circles secularism is often understood as ‘ilmaniya, and has become associated with immorality or the lack of ethics. Many contemporary scholars who perhaps have confused various notions and meanings of the idea of secularism have claimed that Abdelraziq was an advocate of secularism in this most negative sense, meaning that he was amoral. This is certainly not the case. ALi Abdel Raziq argued for the separation of religion from the state, as he clearly states in his essay. He could never have advocated irreligiosity or the slackening of moral values. He was a man of the highest integrity and he raised his family with great moral uprightness and a deep and true awareness of the importance of the sacred and of belief in God. Should one wish to name or classify his practice of Islam, then we could say that his ‘tariqah’ was that of following the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammed in a simple and moderate manner. Perhaps we could even call him a sufi, although he himself would never have been so bold as to name himself one.

Abdelraziq’s book is an enlightened, scientific reading of the Qur’an – nothing less, nothing more. He has used the holy book as his main point of reference. As a matter of fact most of the chapters contain an on-going chain of versus drawn from the Qur’an but related to the main concern of the book, which is governance in Islam. Equally, he makes consistent reference to a number of solid (sahih) hadiths. In fact, Ali Abelraziq, the man and the thinker, steers far away from secularism – understood as a form of amoralism, and rather, stays very close to the teachings of the sunnah of Muhammed. And this is how he raised us, his family. We learned a moderate Islam under his guidance, one that was based on ease, mercy and asceticism or zuhd.

Another common, uncanny, accusation alleges that Ali Abdelraziq did not write Islam and the Foundations of Political Power himself. Rather, it was written by someone else, and then given to Abdelraziq to publish in his name. What the advocates of this theory have overlooked is the fact that I (Amr Hamed , grand son of the A. Abdelraziq ) possess the original handwritten manuscript of the book, with a lot of corrections, marginal notes, and footnotes made by Ali Abdelraziq himself. These manuscripts are available as a sound reference for all those interested.

In this post-globalization era, and in the midst of all this turbulence and revolution, should we advocate political reform in the modern Muslim world, we ought to start by reading and understanding Islam and the Foundations of Political Power. This book can form the backbone of a sound, logical and scholarly inquiry into the question of political power as it pertains to Muslim societies.

References

• Adams, Charles C.: Islam and Modernism in Egypt. Russell & Russell, New York, 1968 (2ndd Edition). Page: 259-68.

• Meier, Andreas: Der Politische Auftrag des Islam (The Political Mission of Islam). Wuppertal (GER), 1994. Page: 106-114.

• Abdel Raziq, Ali: Al-Islam Wa Usul Al-Hukm: Bahth Fi-l Khilafa Wa-l Hukuma Fi-l Islam (Islam and the Foundations of Governance: Research on the Caliphate and Governance in Islam). Critique and commentary by Mamdooh Haqqi (Beirut, 1978).