An attempt to think through the book.

Table of Contents

• 1. Book Classification
• 2. Book Background
• 3. Book Structure
• 4. Book Objective
• 5. Book Thinking

1. Book Classification

• Political Science, Moral Philosophy, Law

2. Book Background

• This is a book that argues that an Islamic Modern Nation-State is Impossible and a Contradiction.
  Quote

  "The 'Islamic State' judged by any standard definition of what the modern state represents, is both an impossibility and a contradiction in terms."

• This book was published in 2013.
• It also won the Distinguished Book Award by The Columbia University Press.
• Hallaq purportedly said that this book is dedicated to Muslims (specifically, Islamic intellectuals) who believe that the solution to their problems is to "catch" up to the West.

3. Book Structure

• Hallaq lays the foundation of the book by stating his premises outright in the first chapter.
  • In particular, the concept of paradigm is defined in terms of the central domain and the peripheral domain.
    • He borrows the concept of paradigm from Carl Schmitt, Thomas Kuhn, and Michel Foucault, but appropriates it for his argument.
  • This is used to compare the moral project of the Sharī'a against the Enlightenment.
  • Hallaq wants to excavate the moral resources from the Sharī'a (just as Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and Charles Larmore sought from Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and the like) to address the moral problems of modernity.
  • A critique of progress is also present to prevent a counterargument that accuses Hallaq of nostalgia or romanticizing the past.
• Hallaq moves on to describe the fundamental properties of the modern state that are essential to it.
  • Hallaq conceptualizes the state by synthesizing the:
    1. Weberian bureaucratic,
    2. Kelsenian legal,
    3. Schmittian political,
    4. Marxian economic,
    5. Gramscian hegemonic, and
    6. Foucauldian cultural
  • Then, he lists five essential attributes of the modern state:
    • Attribute 1: The State is a Specific Historical Product that came out of Europe
    • Attribute 2: The State has an Abstract Sovereignty and Produces its own Metaphysics
    • Attribute 3: The State Expresses its Sovereignty through Law and has a Monopoly in Sanctioning Violence
    • Attribute 4: The State Possesses a Dominating Bureaucratic Structure
    • Attribute 5: The State has a Hegemony in Shaping the Culture in the Social Order that is Pivotal in Producing the National Subject
• Hallaq, then, compares the modern state with pre-modern Islamic governance in terms of how law, politics, and society interact(ed) with each other.
  • In the context of the modern state, the doctrine of separation of powers — that undergirds the rule of law — is examined in detail and its structural problems are highlighted.
  • This is then compared and contrasted with pre-modern Islamic governance to show that pre-modern Islamic governance was far more effective in achieving a "well-ordered" and "just" society.
• Expanding on the previous chapter's analysis that the rule of law in pre-modern Islamic governance was far superior to the modern nation-state's, Hallaq moves to analyze two phenomenons — the rise of the "legal" and the rise of the "political":
  • The rise of the "legal" alludes to the rise in modern Europe of the distinction (and separation) between "Is" and "Ought" in law — legal positivism.
    • A distinction between "Is" and "Ought" cannot be obtained in any form of Islamic governance, Hallaq argues.
    • There was no distinction between "legal" and "moral" in Islam.
    • Even if such a distinction is assumed, Hallaq says that the legal would be an organically derivative category of the moral, with the "moral" being the archetype.
  • The rise of the "political" — articulated by neo-Hobbesianism of Carl Schmitt — examines the "political" relationship between the state and the citizen.
    • The concept of "sacrifice" for the nation-state (conscription) vs "jihad" in the pre-modern Islamic governance is compared.
  • Hallaq argues that both the "legal" and "political" (as articulated above) are incompatible with Islam.
• Next, Hallaq analyzes the subjectivity formation of the State that produces a "citizen" vs the Islamic governance that produces the "believer"
  • Subjectivity formation refers to the process by which individuals develop a sense of self and a unique perspective on the world, shaped by social interactions, cultural influences, and personal experiences. It's the way we come to understand ourselves and our place in society, often influenced by factors like language, power dynamics, and social structures. (from Gemini).
  • Hallaq uses Foucault's concept of the Technology of the Self to illustrate the differences between the two subjective formations.
  • Hallaq contends that these two subjective formations produce two different individuals in terms of moral, political, epistemic, and psychosocial conceptions of the world — homo modernus vs homo moralis.
• Hallaq explores the phenomenon of globalization and argues that this makes an Islamic governance impossible, or even if such a governance is to arise, incapable of surviving in the long run.
  • The corporation represents the entity responsible for the phenomenon of globalization.
  • For an Islamic governance to come into existence, Hallaq contends, it must be able to deal with three challenges:
    • Challenge 1: The Militarism of Powerful Imperial States
    • Challenge 2: Exogenous Cultural Intrusions
    • Challenge 3: A Massive Liberal-Capitalist World Market

• Finally, Hallaq maintains that if Islamic governance is impossible in the modern world today, this is due to the direct result of a lack of moral environment that can meet the minimum requirement of this governance.
  • Hallaq connects this morally based impossibility within the wider context of modernity's moral difficulties.
  • This impossibility is a manifestation of a number of other problems such as:
    1. The Increasing Collapse of Organic Social Units
    2. The Rise of Oppressive Economic Forms
    3. The Havoc Wrought Against the Natural Habitat and the Environment

4. Book Objective

• The objective of the book is to critique modernity by comparing and contrasting it with Sharī'a as practiced by Muslims in the pre-modern world.
• It is also to caution Islamic intellectuals (and Muslims, in general) the consequences of adopting and thinking through the lens of the modern nation-state.
  • The biggest consequence will be that whatever version of Islamic modern nation-state is arrived at, it will no longer be "Islamic"; the form of the nation-state affecting the substance.
• Hallaq also states that:

5. Book Thinking

• To be continued.