Wael B. Hallaq: The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity's Moral Predicament, Columbia UP
Risvolto
Wael B. Hallaq boldly argues that the “Islamic state,” judged by any
standard definition of what the modern state represents, is both
impossible and inherently self-contradictory. Comparing the legal,
political, moral, and constitutional histories of premodern Islam and
Euro-America, he finds the adoption and practice of the modern state to
be highly problematic for modern Muslims. He also critiques more
expansively modernity’s moral predicament, which renders impossible any
project resting solely on ethical foundations.
The modern state
not only suffers from serious legal, political, and constitutional
issues, Hallaq argues, but also, by its very nature, fashions a subject
inconsistent with what it means to be, or to live as, a Muslim. By
Islamic standards, the state’s technologies of the self are severely
lacking in moral substance, and today’s Islamic state, as Hallaq shows,
has done little to advance an acceptable form of genuine Shari’a
governance. The Islamists’ constitutional battles in Egypt and Pakistan,
the Islamic legal and political failures of the Iranian Revolution, and
similar disappointments underscore this fact. Nevertheless, the state
remains the favored template of the Islamists and the ulama (Muslim
clergymen).
Providing Muslims with a path toward realizing the
good life, Hallaq turns to the rich moral resources of Islamic history.
Along the way, he proves political and other “crises of Islam” are not
unique to the Islamic world nor to the Muslim religion. These crises are
integral to the modern condition of both East and West, and by
acknowledging these parallels, Muslims can engage more productively with
their Western counterparts.
Wael Hallaq is the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at
Columbia University and has previously taught at McGill University,
where he was named a James McGill Professor in Islamic Studies. Hallaq’s
research spans several fields, including law, legal theory, philosophy,
political theory, and logic, and his publications include Shari’a: Theory, Practice, Transformations; An Introduction to Islamic Law; and Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islamic Law.
His works have been translated into several languages, including
Arabic, Indonesian, Hebrew, Japanese, Persian, Turkish, and Russian.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento