Muhammad Sa⊂id al-⊂Ashmawi and the application of the shari⊂a in Egypt

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 28, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 39-58

  Shepard, William E ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY   (New Zealand)

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EID: 0347788291     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743800062772     Document Type: Article

References (182)

1. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
2. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
3. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
4. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
5. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
6. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
7. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
8. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
9. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
10. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
11. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
12. ⊂Ashmawi twice in March-April of 1992 and once by telephone from New Zealand in 1995. He has published other works both earlier and later than these, which I have not had the opportunity to consult, but these contain the essentials of his position that are relevant to this article.
13. ⊂Ashmawi's ideas, but rather to present them as they stood at the time I did my main research as a coherent system of ideas which may be compared with other systems. In fact, I have not noticed significant changes between the earlier and later works that I used.
14. ⊂Ashmawi's ideas, but rather to present them as they stood at the time I did my main research as a coherent system of ideas which may be compared with other systems. In fact, I have not noticed significant changes between the earlier and later works that I used.
15. A good survey of the institutional aspects of this is given by Daniel Crecelius in "The Course of Secularization in Modern Egypt," in Islam and Development, ed. J. Esposito (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1980), 49-70
16. ⊂Abduh and other thinkers of his time, see Hourani, Arabic Thought.
17. This is still the best and most convenient source for many of the writers relevant to this article up to the 1940s. Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Political Thought (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1982) is another important survey which carries the account further.
18. See below, pp. 42, 51. My copy of the book (Beirut: Dar al-Maktabat al-Hayah, n.d.), purchased in Egypt about 1985, to the best of my memory, includes a criticism and commentary by one Dr. Mamduh Haqqi.
19. ⊂Abd al-Raziq and his critics, see Hourani, Arabic Thought, 183-92 and Binder, Islamic Liberalism, chap. 4, among others.
20. ⊂Abd al-Raziq and his critics, see Hourani, Arabic Thought, 183-92 and Binder, Islamic Liberalism, chap. 4, among others.
21. Such as Taha Husayn, regarding whom see Hourani, Arabic Thought, chap. XII, among other sources. Two other important studies of these intellectuals are Nadav Safran, Egypt in Search of Political Community (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961) and Charles D. Smith, Islam and the Search for Social Order in Modern Egypt, a Biography of Muhammad Husayn Haykal (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983).
22. Such as Taha Husayn, regarding whom see Hourani, Arabic Thought, chap. XII, among other sources. Two other important studies of these intellectuals are Nadav Safran, Egypt in Search of Political Community (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961) and Charles D. Smith, Islam and the Search for Social Order in Modern Egypt, a Biography of Muhammad Husayn Haykal (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983).
23. Such as Taha Husayn, regarding whom see Hourani, Arabic Thought, chap. XII, among other sources. Two other important studies of these intellectuals are Nadav Safran, Egypt in Search of Political Community (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961) and Charles D. Smith, Islam and the Search for Social Order in Modern Egypt, a Biography of Muhammad Husayn Haykal (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983).
24. See R. P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (London: Oxford University Press, 1969) for the most important study of the Brothers up to their suppression in 1954.
25. On this, see Safran, Egypt in Search and Smith, Islam and the Search for Social Order, and Charles D. Smith, "The 'Crisis of Orientation': The Shift of Egyptian Intellectuals to Islamic Subjects in the 1930's," International Journal of Middle East Studies 4 (1973): 382-410.
26. On this, see Safran, Egypt in Search and Smith, Islam and the Search for Social Order, and Charles D. Smith, "The 'Crisis of Orientation': The Shift of Egyptian Intellectuals to Islamic Subjects in the 1930's," International Journal of Middle East Studies 4 (1973): 382-410.
27. For the Sadat period and a bit later, see inter alia Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985) and Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh, trans. J. Rothschild (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986).
28. For the Sadat period and a bit later, see inter alia Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985) and Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh, trans. J. Rothschild (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986).
29. An example is the case of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, an academic accused of apostasy. His marriage was annulled in June 1995 as a result of a suit brought by Islamists (Reuters, 26 September 1995). As of this writing (October 1995), the ruling was under appeal.
30. ⊂Id al-Adha prayers in 1994 (Tehran Times, 26 May 1994) and that Islamist students held a rally against "a governmental campaign of arrests and expulsions" some months earlier (Tehran Times, 18 November 1993).
31. ⊂Id al-Adha prayers in 1994 (Tehran Times, 26 May 1994) and that Islamist students held a rally against "a governmental campaign of arrests and expulsions" some months earlier (Tehran Times, 18 November 1993).
32. have presented this approach in greater detail in "Islam and Ideology: Towards a Typology," International Journal of Middle East Studies 19 (1987): 307-36. Here I am ignoring the "traditionalist" dimension, which is presented there.
33. ⊂a are primary sources of legislation."
34. Among popular spokespersons, I would be inclined to include the well-known physician and writer Mustafa Mahmud and the journalist Ahmad Bahgat (see Shepard, "Islam and Ideology").
35. ⊂la li-l-shu⊃un al-islamiyya, 1964), 212; cf. the English translation by C. Farah, The Eternal Message of Muhammad (New York: New American Library, 1964), 105. The book as a whole is more firmly in the Islamic modernist category, in my view, than this passage suggests.
36. ⊂la li-l-shu⊃un al-islamiyya, 1964), 212; cf. the English translation by C. Farah, The Eternal Message of Muhammad (New York: New American Library, 1964), 105. The book as a whole is more firmly in the Islamic modernist category, in my view, than this passage suggests.
37. ⊂, 1992), 14.
38. ⊂, 1992), 14.
39. ⊂a al-islāmiyya puts it in the same category, but I do not have enough information on the group's views to judge for myself.
40. Such as Khalid Muhammad Khalid, a well-known secularist writer who in 1981 declared himself for the Islamist position (W. E. Shepard, "Khalid, Khalid Muhammad," in The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World [New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995], 2:412-13), and more recently Tariq al-Bisri (chap. 7 of Binder, Islamic Liberalism, represents his pre-Islamist thought; my information on his shift to Islam is derived from press reports and conversations with fellow scholars).
41. ⊂Ashmawi has described the 1992 event as "a first and a last.") A somewhat similar debate was held by the Egyptian Medical Syndicate in 1986 and is described by Nancy E. Gallagher in "Islam v. Secularism in Cairo: An Account of the Dar al-Hikma Debate," Middle Eastern Studies 25 (April 1989): 208-15. Sheikh al-Ghazali also participated in this debate.
42. Mis + (Combining dot below sign)r bayna al-dawlah al-dīniyya, 17, 31; Egypt between the Religious and Civil State, 6, 13. In personal conversations Islamists have also described an Islamic state as madanī.
43. Mis + (Combining dot below sign)r bayna al-dawlah al-dīniyya, 17, 31; Egypt between the Religious and Civil State, 6, 13. In personal conversations Islamists have also described an Islamic state as madanī.
44. Media reports also have tended to confirm a combative image of him (e.g., Reuters, 9 June 1992 and The Economist, 13 June 1992).
45. ⊂z + (Combining dot below sign)am fi tārikh al-islām [Cairo: Maktabat Madbouli, 1991], 299-301).
46. ⊂z + (Combining dot below sign)am fi tārikh al-islām [Cairo: Maktabat Madbouli, 1991], 299-301).
47. ⊂Imara: Egypt between the Religious and Civil State, 14; Mis + (Combining dot below sign)r bayna al-dawlah al-diniyya, 32.
48. ⊂Imara: Egypt between the Religious and Civil State, 14; Mis + (Combining dot below sign)r bayna al-dawlah al-diniyya, 32.
49. ⊃an and Our Contemporary Problems) (Cairo: Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop, 1967).
50. ⊃an and Our Contemporary Problems) (Cairo: Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop, 1967).
51. ⊃an and Our Contemporary Problems) (Cairo: Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop, 1967).
52. ⊃an and Our Contemporary Problems) (Cairo: Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop, 1967).
53. ⊃ ida fi al-islām.
54. See note 1.
55. Christian Science Monitor, world ed., 2 February-3 March 1993, 10 B.
56. He makes this point specifically in the introduction to the 1992 edition of al-Islām al-siyāsī, 5.
57. ⊂a, 30).
58. ⊂a, 30).
59. ⊂a, 30).
60. ⊂a, 30).
61. ⊂a, 30).
62. ⊂Ashmawi does not distinguish between minhāj and manhaj, although the latter is far more frequent.
63. ⊂Ashmawi does not distinguish between minhāj and manhaj, although the latter is far more frequent.
64. ⊂a, 31; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 186.
65. ⊂a, 31; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 186.
66. ⊂a, 32; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 58, 186.
67. ⊂a, 32; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 58, 186.
68. ⊂a and turāth).
69. ⊂a and turāth).
70. ⊂a, 178-79.
71. Ibid., 19.
72. Ibid., 133.
73. Ibid., 153.
74. Qānūn al-Mis + (Combining dot below sign)rī, 15.
75. ⊂a, 51; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 139-40.
76. ⊂a, 51; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 139-40.
77. ⊂a, 51; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 139-40.
78. ⊂a, 60-65.
79. ⊂ālim, 199.
80. ⊂ālim, 199.
81. ⊂ālim, 199.
82. ⊃an 5:51; Qānūn al-Mis + (Combining dot below sign)rī, 100-102.
83. ⊃an 5:51; Qānūn al-Mis + (Combining dot below sign)rī, 100-102.
84. Al-Islām al-siyāsī, 138-40.
85. ⊂ālim, 165.
86. ⊂a, 70.
87. ⊂aqliyyah (rūh + (Combining dot below sign)iyyah) and usūliyyah h + (Combining dot below sign)arakiyyah (siyāsiyyah).
88. Ibid., 140.
89. ⊂ālim, 199-201.
90. ⊃anic rules (p. 8).
91. ⊃anic rules (p. 8).
92. Ibid., 195, 207-9.
93. ⊂a, 74-79.
94. ⊂a, 74-79.
95. ⊂a, 79.
96. ⊂ālim, 122.
97. Al-Islām al-siyāsī, 206-7.
98. ⊃ ida fi al-Islām, 30-31.
99. ⊃ ida fi al-Islām, 30-31.
100. ⊃ ida fi al-Islām, 30-31.
101. ⊂ālim, 183.
102. ⊂a, 70.
103. ⊂ālim, 182 ; cf. al-Islām al-siyāsi, 189).
104. ⊂ālim, 182 ; cf. al-Islām al-siyāsi, 189).
105. ⊂ālim, 184; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 194.
106. ⊂ālim, 184; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 194.
107. ⊂a, 34.
108. ⊂ālim, 118-19; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 242. Matn is the content of the hadith, as distinct from the chain of authorities (isnād or sanad) who authenticate it.
109. ⊂ālim, 118-19; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 242. Matn is the content of the hadith, as distinct from the chain of authorities (isnād or sanad) who authenticate it.
110. ⊂ālim, 118-19; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 242. Matn is the content of the hadith, as distinct from the chain of authorities (isnād or sanad) who authenticate it.
111. ⊂ālim, 137-38 on the verse about those who do not rule by what God has revealed.
112. ⊃ida fi al-Islām, 33.
113. ⊂a, 34, 51-53.
114. ⊂ālim, 117.
115. ⊂ālim, 117.
116. ⊂a, 109.
117. ⊂a, 117-29.
118. ⊂a, 117-29.
119. ⊂a, 117-29.
120. Qānūn al-mis + (Combining dot below sign)rī, 87-88.
121. ⊂āim, 251-55.
122. ⊂āim, 251-55.
123. ⊂āim, 251-55.
124. ⊂ālim, 161-74 and elsewhere.
125. ⊂ālim, 168.
126. Qānūn al-mis + (Combining dot below sign)rī, 46; in legislating, however, fiqh precedent is not to be ignored (p. 48).
127. Ibid., 49; slavery was abolished in response to "the spirit of the age" and international treaty obligations.
128. Ibid., 89.
129. ⊂ālim, 167.
130. ⊂a, 139-52.
131. Al-Islām al-siyāsī, 180.
132. Al-Khilāfa, 18, 101.
133. ⊂ālim, 136.
134. ⊂ālim, 91, cf. 73; also personal conversation.
135. ⊂ālim, 91, cf. 73; also personal conversation.
136. Al-Khilāfa, 231.
137. Ibid., 94, 104, 12ff.; al-Islām al-siyāsi, 165-71.
138. Ibid., 94, 104, 12ff.; al-Islām al-siyāsi, 165-71.
139. For example, ibid., 143-44.
140. Ibid., 19, 23.
141. Ibid., 139, 157 and passim; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 165-71.
142. Ibid., 139, 157 and passim; al-Islām al-siyāsī, 165-71.
143. Al-Khilāfa, 234-35.
144. Ibid., 93-121.
145. ⊂ālim, 17-19.
146. ⊂Ashmawi refers to Ibn Khaldun's discussion of bedouins and civilization and refers to the Turks as bedouinizing Islamic civilization (ibid., 83ff.).
147. ⊂Ashmawi refers to Ibn Khaldun's discussion of bedouins and civilization and refers to the Turks as bedouinizing Islamic civilization (ibid., 83ff.).
148. ⊂ālim, 180-81.
149. Ibid., 228.
150. Ibid., 229-30.
151. Ibid., 90-91.
152. Ibid., 62-73, 90-92. He comments elsewhere that Egypt has moved in a "bedouin" direction since 1967 (ibid., 296).
153. Ibid., 62-73, 90-92. He comments elsewhere that Egypt has moved in a "bedouin" direction since 1967 (ibid., 296).
154. Ibid., 44.
155. Ibid., 44, 62-63, 70-73.
156. Ibid., 48-50.
157. That is, in the lexical meaning of muslim as one who submits to God rather than the derived but common meaning of one who is a member of the community known to history as Muslim.
158. ⊂a of mercy, a marriage of law and love.
159. ⊂a of mercy, a marriage of law and love.
160. ⊃ Allāh, gives only half a page to Idris, noting the claim to identify him with Osiris but refusing to accept or reject it for lack of evidence (Beirut and Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1977, p. 164).
161. ⊂ālim, 248.
162. Ibid., 247.
163. Al-Khilāfa, 244.
164. ⊂ālim, 94, 245-50, 285-89, 297-98.
165. Al-Khilāfa, 245.
166. ⊂Abd al-Raziq is not totally clear here, but it appears to me that his main view is that by the force of his religious mission, with the ambiguous assistance of worldly efforts such as war, taxation, and so on, the Prophet created a unity among the Arabs that looked like political unity and was shortly converted into a political kingdom by his successors (book II, chap. III, para. 5).
167. ⊂Abd al-Raziq is not totally clear here, but it appears to me that his main view is that by the force of his religious mission, with the ambiguous assistance of worldly efforts such as war, taxation, and so on, the Prophet created a unity among the Arabs that looked like political unity and was shortly converted into a political kingdom by his successors (book II, chap. III, para. 5).
168. ⊂Abd al-Raziq is not. The difference here seems to be more of symbol than substance, but of course in both religion and politics symbol is often more important than substance.
169. Al-Khilāfa, 86; al-Islām wa-us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-h + (Combining dot below sign)ukm, book II, chap. I, para. 7.
170. Al-Khilāfa, 86; al-Islām wa-us + (Combining dot below sign)ūl al-h + (Combining dot below sign)ukm, book II, chap. I, para. 7.
171. ⊂a, 150-51; cf. al-Islām al-siyāsī, 167.
172. ⊂a, 150-51; cf. al-Islām al-siyāsī, 167.
173. ⊂Abd al-Raziq's primary concern is to argue that the wars of Ridda were not, for the most part, religious, but he seems to imply that Abu Bakr erred.
174. ⊂Abd al-Raziq's primary concern is to argue that the wars of Ridda were not, for the most part, religious, but he seems to imply that Abu Bakr erred.
175. ⊂Ashmawi.
176. See note 20 and the passage to which it refers.
177. ⊂ālim fi al-t + (Combining dot below sign)ariq [Dar al-Shuruq, 1393/1973] 94-95).
178. ⊂ālim fi al-t + (Combining dot below sign)ariq [Dar al-Shuruq, 1393/1973] 94-95).
179. Al-Khilāfa, 13ff. Qutb, al-Mustaqbal li-hādhā al-Dīn (Kuwait: IIFSO, 1978), 27ff.
180. Al-Khilāfa, 13ff. Qutb, al-Mustaqbal li-hādhā al-Dīn (Kuwait: IIFSO, 1978), 27ff.
181. ⊂a; when I put this to members of the Muslim Brotherhood, they responded by asking about the rest of the laws, by stating that the intention is crucial, and by pointing out what to them are egregious current violations.
182. He does, however, remark in one place that current Egyptian law can be considered a new fiqh (al-Islām al-siyāsī, 170).