Massimo Campanini and Marco Di Donato - Islamic Political Theology

Islamic Political Theology

Faith and Politics: Political Theology in a New Key

Series Editor: Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame

Political Theology is a theme which straddles two major areas of inquiry: political philosophy and theology, or differently phrased: the realms of secular politics and the sacred. The relation is marked by difference, sometimes by tension or conflict. During the past century, such conflict reached a boiling point when the Nazi regime sought to co-opt or integrate the Christian population. In opposition to this attempt, a Confessing Church was formed which, under the leadership of Karl Barth, issued the Barmen Declaration (May 31, 1934) which insisted on the independence of faith from political power structures while, at the same time, guarding against the pure privatization of faith. In our time, it is important to remember this precedent because there are strong tendencies to push religion into similar dilemmas. This series will launch new investigations into the relations between faith and politics on a broad ecumenical and global level. Its guiding question will be, to what extent do different theologians or different political theologies make possible the prospect of a divinely sanctioned kingdom of peace and justice?

Recent Titles

Islamic Political Theology , Edited by Massimo Campanini and Marco Di Donato

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theology, and Political Resistance , Edited by Lori Brandt Hale & W. David Hall

The Legacy of the Barmen Declaration: Politics and the Kingdom , by Fred Dallmayr

In memory of professor Massimo Campanini

Islamic Political Theology

Edited by

Massimo Campanini and Marco Di Donato

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Lexington Books

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom

Copyright 2021 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Campanini, Massimo, 1954- editor. | Di Donato, Marco, editor.

Title: Islamic political theology / edited by Massimo Campanini and Marco Di Donato.

Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, 2021. | Series: Faith and politics: political theology in a new key | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021005524 (print) | LCCN 2021005525 (ebook) | ISBN 9781498590587 (cloth) | ISBN 9781498590594 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Islam and politics.Classification: LCC BP173.7 .I86945 2021 (print) | LCC BP173.7 (ebook) | DDC 297.2/72dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005524

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005525

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Contents

Massimo Campanini and Marco Di Donato

Catarina Belo

Leonardo Capezzone

Massimo Campanini

Oliver Leaman

Margherita Picchi

Pejman Abdolmohammadi

Driss Makboul and Mohamed Elghazi

Mohammed Hashas

Ahmad Bostani

Josep Puig Montada

Massimo Campanini and Marco Di Donato

Editing a book on political theology in Islam is a challenge. First of all because the expression political theology is ambiguous and open to diverse interpretations. Secondly, because we must oppose the widely sharedeven in the academyview that Islam is naturally theological-political since it is theocratic. The question in itself is simple: how can a religion like Islam, connecting heaven and earth, faith and society, worship and mundane action, not be political? Rather, the answer is difficult.

The concept unifying these elements is that of a religious community ( Umma ) which could be, at one and the same time, the privileged subject and the object of political theology. The idea of a religious community or Umma is pivotal in Islam, being charismatic (Watt 1980); therefore, Islam seems particularly fitted for political theology. Moreover, connecting politics and religion does mean in Islam connecting politics with jurisprudence, insofar as Islam is a normative religion (like Judaism) and, as is well known, the law ( sharia ) is of divine origin. Through the revealed basis of the law (the sharia ) and the consequent human elaboration of positive jurisprudence ( fiqh ), God made manifest His will both in social life and in politics: the law became the basis of Islamic political theology. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (ca. 10561111), for instance, who was a celebrated jurist and professor of law, grasped the possible foundation of Islamic political theology linking together the dimension of religious science with the dimension of legal acts (al-Ghazali 2010).

Our subject is not so obvious, though. The texture of religion and state ( din wa dawla ) is not so automatic in Islam, if Patricia Crone, among others (and we are in the number too [see Campanini 2019]), was right in writing that most polities in [Islamic] history have been characterized by the distinction between the political and the religious spheres (Crone 2004, p. 14). Moreover, to stress only another point, a great number of contemporary hyper-conservative Muslims are apolitical, as most of the Salafis are very traditional in ethics and behavior but not necessarily engaged in politics (Di Donato 2018). Therefore, the problem of whether a political theology exists in Islam is open. This book will try to give a provisional but critical answer exploring a wide range of issues.

We would like to suggest a number of initial considerations, beginning with a definition. Political theology is a field of study revived in contemporary times, the 1920s of the past century, by the German jurist and philosopher of politics Carl Schmitt. Political theology affirms that political concepts and theological concepts are strictly linked and, in Schmitts opinion, that the concepts of politics are derived from theology (Schmitt 1922). Giovanni Filoramo put the question as follows:

[Political theology] is the historical and political study of the way theological concepts and representations of the divine in a particular religious tradition correspond with the forms and the dynamics of a particular structure of power and political authority. All this has two basic meanings: 1) the way political structures are mirrored in the theological conceptions; 2) and vice versa the way theological conceptions must be shaped in order to provide proper representations of divinity and sovereignty. The element that mediates between these trends is the religious community which is, at one time, the privileged subject and object of political theology. (Filoramo 2004, p. 347)

Another possible definition is the following: two aspects of political theology may be distinguished... one examines the theological implications of politics...; the other the political implications of theology (Assmann 2000). An even more detailed definition could include further dimensions of political theology: first of all, that political theology is the theological legitimization of a political order. If political theology is a kind of politics going back to God in order to realize its objectives and if the concept of God as the supreme legislator is a form of political theology, surely Islam had its own political theology in that, on the one hand, (almost) all its rulers sought the legitimization of their power in religion; and that, on the other hand, God is the main source of legislation and power.