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At the Shores of Transcendence

In our Introduction we identified that for the women and men of the West, Islam seems to be resistant to any idea of modernity. We read such notions in the first pages of certain American, English and French magazines when they address the rise of Islamism in titles such as Islam or Modernity, and Islam or Democracy. ¹ That is when the formulations are not more exclusivist or sentencing. The backdrop that is drawn is the expression of a kind of face to face between Islam and the West. A face to face whereby the latter is attributed a positive quality, representing the principle of openness and respect for humanist and democratic values. Inversely, Islam seems as negatively marked by archaism and tradition, of being locked up in old dogmatic categories, the denunciation of women, a barbarous penal code (rendered as Sharī‘a), and the denial of the freedom of peoples. At the threshold of the third millennium of the Christian era, the terms of the alternative are clear.

When one looks at the state of Muslim societies, it is impossible to annul by a stroke of the pen the critiques made against us. They are well-founded when they evidence certain astonishing reflections and behaviours which we justify in the name of Islam. Among these are the privilege of Kings and Presidents, expedient justice, the illiteracy of women along with a variety of discriminations, each one more painful than the other, the narrow traditionalism of some ‘ulamā’ who decide and resolve questions away from any human reality in an absoluteness which only God knows. The facts are there, one must acknowledge and take account of them. However, one must ask whether the debate on Islam has been launched on clear and sound methodological bases. To consider and take into account only the shocking daily events, or more broadly, the state of Muslim societies in order to conclude, in a definite fashion, that Islam cannot respond to contemporary problems is both erroneous and reductionist. It limits Islamic Studies (Islamology) to the social sciences; it also makes the specialists of the latter the specialists of contemporary Islam. ² More clearly, this is tantamount to making an in-depth study of the fundamentals of Islam (of which we often know nothing, but which we speak about without having anything of substance to say) which then allows us to measure whether there really exists an incompatibility between Islam and the acceptance of the principles of modernity as they are actualised in the West. Such study, nevertheless, is the means to understand the wealth and abundance of ideas which mobilise people today in Muslim societies. This in order to bring about a society which can live with its time, on economic, political, social and cultural levels, without denying or betraying its points of reference.

I. The Qur’ān and the Sunna ³

The Qur’ān is, for Muslims, the Word of God revealed in stages to the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him) during the 23 years of his mission through the intermediary of the Angel Gabriel. ⁴ In this sense, therefore, the Qur’ān represents for them an absolute word that gives and takes meaning beyond the events and contingencies of history. It is, for the believers of Islam, the last message to mankind revealed by God, Who had in the past sent innumerable Prophets and Messengers, among whom were Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. The Qur’ānic text is, before anything else, a reminder ⁵ to mankind so that they revert back to original faith in God and so that they assume an acceptable moral behaviour. More than a third of the Qur’ān is composed of the expression of “tawḥīd”: faith in the unicity of the Creator Who does not beget nor has He begotten. We also find mentioned in the Qur’ān the histories of other Prophets whose narrations convey the fact of the unique essence of the different messages and their continuity. All these passages give rise to the spirituality which should accompany the believer: their absolute dimension is logical and legitimate in itself. A number of verses in the Qur’ān speak of Creation, the universe and other verses insist on the modes of relation that men should undertake between themselves or towards nature. In fact, the Revelation deals with all spheres of human activity: of the economic order, the social project, and of political representation. It is this specificity which may, if not understood in the context of the Qur’ānic strategy for change, cause some problem. The Word of God is absolute and definitive, its application to given situations is governed by built-in rules and a mechanism that ensures the harmony, the application between the objectives and principles behind the injunctions and their specific application in given situations.

That is how the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him), his Companions and the first jurists have understood it. The Qur’ān came down by instalments and the revealed verses which addressed specific situations to which the community of believers around the Prophet (peace be upon him) had to face up to also had a universal significance. As such, on the one hand these revealed verses were relative answers to dated historical facts; they also represented the revealed absolute, the eternal meaning of the formulation, the general principle which comes out of the same answer. It is this which was held by the first jurists, after AbūḤanīfa and al-Shāfi‘ī, ⁶ as the notion of “maqāṣid al-Sharī‘a”: the objectives and principles of orientation of Islamic legislation.

It is a question of a later conceptualisation of what Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and his Companions naturally understood and applied. When ‘Umar, upon succeeding Abū Bakr as the head of the Muslim community, decided, during the year known as the year of famine, to suspend the punishment of cutting off the hands of thieves, he was following exactly the principle enunciated above. To maintain the application of this punishment would have meant a betrayal of the objective of the Revelation which alone is absolute (even if this could be seen as falling short of the letter of the Qur’ān). ⁷

There are in the Qur’ān nearly 228 verses (out of 6,238) which deal with general legislation (constitutional law, penal and civil codes, international relations, economic order, etc.). ⁸ These injunctions lay the fundamental norms of behaviour and define the four corners within which legislation takes place. Built in is a mechanism for change and evolutionary guidance. General and absolute principles ⁹ which were hidden behind the specific answers given to the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century. The Qur’ān, therefore, offers directing principles, principles of orientation. The latter are, in essence, absolute, since for the Muslim, they have come from the Creator Who indicates to man the way (the Sharī‘a) ¹⁰ is to be followed in order to respect His injunctions. These principles are the point of reference for jurists who have the responsibility, in all places and at all times, of providing answers in tune with their environment without betraying the initial orientation. Thus, it is not a question of rejecting the evolution of societies, the change of modes and mentalities or cultural diversities. On the contrary, the Muslim is obligated to respect the Divine Order which has willed time, history and diversity.

He brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living, and He revives the earth after it is dead; even so you shall be brought forth. And of His signs is that He created you of dust; then lo, you are mortals, all scattered abroad. And of His signs is that He created for you, of yourselves, spouses, that you might repose in them, and He has set between you love and mercy. Surely in that are signs for a people who consider. And of His signs is the creation of the heaven and earth and the variety of your tongues and hues. Surely in that are signs for all living beings. (Qur’ān, 30:19–22)

The stages of creation of the heavens, earth and human beings and the diversity of idioms and colours are signs of the divine Presence and should therefore be respected. The interpolation of all human beings follows the same sense:

O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female, and appointed you races and tribes, that you may know one another. (Qur’ān, 49:13)

Thus, man who has faith, has to acknowledge, at the very moment when he is busy with the affairs of humans, the facts of historical evolution as well as the diversity of cultures and worship. To face up to his responsibilities as a believer is to comprehend the horizon of this complexity, and to activate himself to find, for his time and country, the best way of establishing harmony between absolute principles and daily life. The Sunna of the Prophet (peace be upon him), the second source of Islamic law, allows one to approach the objective of the Revelation. In fact, by analysing what Muḥammad (peace be upon him) said on such or such an occasion, or how he acted, or again what he approved, we are in a better position to understand the meaning as well as the extent of the Divine injunctions. ¹¹ In the same vein, jurists have exerted themselves to extract from the sayings, deeds and decisions of the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him) the principles which allow Muslims to live with their time and environment while still remaining faithful to his teaching.

At first sight, the constant reference to the Qur’ān and the Prophet (peace be upon him) might seem as an obstacle and as a negation to change, and this is manifested by the will to see applied today a legislation which is 14 centuries old. What we have just said, however, is proof that this understanding is too reductionist and corresponds neither to the teachings of Muḥammad (peace be upon him) nor to the attitude of the ‘ulamā’ (scholars) of the first era. The establishment of general principles is a fact which is proved in the modalities of juridical readings of the Qur’ān and the traditions, and confirms, if there was need for confirmation, the requirement of “the effort of personal reflection” (ijtihād) in situations which neither the Qur’ ā n nor the Sunna mention. ¹²

II. Ijtihād: Between the Absoluteness of Sources and the Relativity of History

When he had to pronounce a ruling, the first Caliph, Abū Bakr, referred firstly to the Qur’ān, trying to find whether there was an applicable text. If he did not find one there, he would take into consideration the life of the Prophet – according to his memory or that of his Companions – in order to discover a similar situation for which the Prophet (peace be upon him) might have pronounced a specific ruling. If at the end of his enquiry the two sources remained silent on the case in question, he would gather for consultation the representatives of the people and agree with them on a new decision. One which was rationally independent but respectful of the spirit of the first two sources.

This step-by-step procedure received the approbation of Muḥammad (peace be upon him) himself when he sent Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal to the Yemen to assume the office of Judge. On the eve of his departure, the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked him: “According to what are you going to judge?” “According to the Book of Allah”, answered Mu‘ādh. “And if you don’t find the ruling therein.” “According to the tradition (Sunna) of the Prophet of God.” “And if you don’t find the ruling therein.” “Then I will exert my effort to formulate my own ruling.” Upon hearing Mu‘ādh’s answer, the Prophet (peace be upon him) concluded: “Praise be to Allah Who has guided the messenger of the Prophet to what is acceptable to the Prophet.”

In fact, things are very clear in legislative matters. Islamic law, which is so much talked about today, is in the first place all the general rules stipulated by the Qur’ān and the Sunna. Within a short space of time, as many complex issues and challenges emerged, jurists developed a method and established principles of research in the subject of law. Just as in the example of Mu‘ādh, they put “all their energies into formulating their own rulings”. This duty of reflection is known in Islamic law by the name of ijtihād, an Arabic term whose literal meaning is “exerting all one’s energy”, “making an effort”. In the absence of textual references, it is for the jurist to rationally harness a regulation in tune with the time and place but one which does not betray the teachings and spirit of the two fundamental sources. ¹³ In other words, the answers were adapted to the context. They were themselves, by the force of things, diverse and plural but always “Islamic” when they did not contradict those general principles which are unanimously accepted. Jurists ought to respond to the questions of their time by taking into account the social, economic, and political realities then pertaining. Just as did Imām al-Shāfi‘ī when he modified the content of his jurisprudence (fiqh), following a journey which led him from Baghdad to Cairo. When he was asked about the reason for such modification when Islam is but one, his reply was such that the realities of Baghdad were different to those of Cairo, and that laws which were valid in one place were not necessarily so in the other. In other words, he conveyed the fact that if the letter of the Qur’ān and the Sunna are one, their concrete application is plural and supposes an adaptation.

This job of adaptation, which is the work of jurists and is known by the name fiqh, regroups the whole of Islamic jurisprudence, as much for that which deals with aspects of worship as for that dealing with social affairs. If the rules which codify worship are never modified, it is not so when it comes to the treatment of social affairs. In the case of the latter, realities fluctuate and fiqh, when well understood, is a given answer made in a given moment of history, by a jurist who has “made an effort” to formulate an Islamic legislation. We should salute such a job, but we do not have to sanctify the jurist’s decisions or propositions. The issue of resolving the problems of modern life is one of the major problems facing Muslims today. ¹⁴ Often, they either mistake the spirit of the Qur’ānic injunctions with the sense that such or such a jurist had given to them in the first period of Islam, or find it very hard to think out a legislation which is drawn from the fundamental sources but which is at the same time really in tune with our time.

We can see explicitly, from the beginning and up to the present time, that Islam has always required its faithful to concretely and rationally think their relation with the world and with society. Many Orientalists have pointed out that one of the specificities of Islam is the priority given, from the beginning, to juridical reflection rather than to theological consideration, and this because Islam, in its essence, blended together the private and public spheres and, consequently, the search for concrete answers was imposed. This blending reveals a particular conception of man and the universe.

We have tried to show that nothing in Islam is opposed to the fact of apprehending change or to accepting progress, but it still remains that we have to put in evidence the specificities of the Islamic conception of the human being and of the universe. This is a question, in fact, of analysing some of the most general and absolute principles, which we have spoken about earlier, in order to measure how they can convey a certain idea of modernity, and which will not, nevertheless, be assimilated to its Western actualisation.

III. God, Creation and Men

1. The Creator and gerency

The existence of the One, Creator God is the dogma of Islam. The principle deriving from this is that the whole universe belongs to God Who is, by essence, the Owner. We find often reported in the Qur’ān, the expression:

To God belongs all that is in the heavens and earth. (Qur’ān, 2:284)

It is indeed the idea conveyed in these verses which associates the Divine ownership of the heavens and earth, the sacred dimension of beings and the elements of Creation, and lastly, the recall of the destiny of men:

Hast thou not seen how that whatsoever is in the heavens and in the earth extols God, and the birds spreading their wings? Each – He knows its prayer and extolling; and God knows the thing they do. To God belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and earth, and to Him is the homecoming. Hast thou not seen how God drives the clouds, then composes them, then converts them into a mass, then thou seest the rain issuing out of the midst of them? And He sends down out of heaven mountains, wherein is hail, so that He smites whom He will with it, and turns it aside from whom He will; well-nigh the gleam of His lightning snatches away the sight. God turns about the day and the night; surely in that is a lesson for those who have eyes. (Qur’ān, 24:41–4)

Thus, on recalling this dimension, the believer perceives that the whole of Creation is sacred and that he should use the elements with respect and gratitude. He is, as the Qur’ān says, but the gerent who should give account of his acts:

It is He who has appointed you viceroys in the earth, and has raised some of you in rank above others, that He may try you in what He has given you. (Qur’ān, 6:165)

Thus, man lives in a universe whose entire elements are signs whenever he remembers God. The elements are sacred as soon as the memory of faith is invoked. They become profane by forgetfulness and negligence. This shows how great is man’s responsibility. In addition to the trust of faith, he should give account of his management of the world. Such is the meaning of the Qur’ānic simile:

We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and were afraid of it; and man carried it. Surely he is sinful, very foolish. (Qur’ān, 33:72)

Man is certainly free, but it is a freedom which has its requirements in the fullest sense of the word. ¹⁵

2. The original permission

The whole universe is the work of the Divine Will. In the absolute, this work is good and reveals good for man. Nature welcomes him and nature directs him. It is a fundamental rule in Islam ¹⁶ to assert the priority of permission – and thus of freedom – in our rapport with the world and with men. This original per mission (al-ibāḥa al-aṣliyya) ought to be conveyed by a particular comprehension of our being in the world. Freedom and innocence are the first states of man in an open world; more intimately, in a given world:

It is He who created for you all that is in the earth… (Qur’ān, 2:29)

Have you not seen how that God has subjected to you whatsoever is in the heavens and earth, and He has lavished on you His blessings, outward and inward? (Qur’ān, 31:20)

Man, thus, conceives of the universe, to which he belongs, as a gift and its elements as given benefits to his presence, and witnesses to his responsibility. The field of prohibition is very restrained in comparison to the horizon of what is possible. It is this that the reading of the Qur’ān confirms and what Muḥammad (peace be upon him) reminded his first Companions with:

“What God has rendered licit in His book is certainly licit; what He has rendered illicit is illicit; and regarding that which He has kept quiet about, it is a bounty from Him. Therefore accept the bounty of God because it is inconceivable that God could have forgotten anything.” Then he recited the following verse of the Qur’ān:

… And thy Lord is never forgetful… (Qur’ān, 19:64) ¹⁷

In another tradition, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “God has prescribed obligations, do not neglect them; He has set limits, do not trespass them; He prohibited certain things, do not transgress them. He kept quiet about certain things, out of bounty for you, do not try to know them.” ¹⁸ Adam and Eve, both responsible for disobeying the only prohibition set for them by God, will be forgiven, that is after their act and their life on earth be a trial which takes its source from innocence and its meaning in responsibility:

And We said, ‘Adam, dwell thou, and thy wife, in the Garden, and eat thereof easefully where you desire; but draw not nigh this tree, lest you be evildoers.’ Then Satan caused them to slip therefrom and brought them out of that they were in; and We said, ‘Get you all down, each of you an enemy of each; and in the earth a sojourn shall be yours, and enjoyment for a time.’ Thereafter Adam received certain words from his Lord. And He turned towards him; truly He turns, and is All-compassionate. (Qur’ān, 2:35–7)

In this place of sojourn which is earth, man is born innocent and successive Revelations come to mark the way (Sharī‘a, in the original sense of the term) for him and specify limits. Each, according to his capacity, will be responsible for their respect and each shall account for his actions:

God charges no soul save to its capacity… (Qur’ān, 2:286)

… no soul laden bears the load of another. (Qur’ān, 17:15)

Thus is life, and this trial is the lot of all human beings from the beginning of time:

[He] who created death and life, that He might try you which of you is fairest in works; and He is the All-mighty, the All-forgiving. (Qur’ān, 67:2)

On the juridical plane, this implies an imposed rule in the modality of reading the Qur’ān and the Sunna as soon as it is stipulated that permission comes first. Everything that is not clearly prohibited by God is in fact allowed. ¹⁹ The prohibition acts both as a limitation as also an orientation. For, by the imposition of limits, the Creator reveals to man the dimension of meaning and points out to him a horizon of values whose respect will build his humanity and dignity. However, the prohibitions, when considered in their entirety, are restrained. What remains for man, in terms of field of action and engagement, is infinitely expanded. In this sense, Yusuf al-Qaradawi is right in clarifying that the original permission does not cover only the natural elements, the different meats and drinks, but also actions, habits, diverse customs, and, therefore, all social affairs. Everything is allowed except that which contradicts a stipulated or known prescription. The dignity of man tends, in its capacity, to blend the two attitudes: to respect the limits and to restore the gift of his humanity.

“That which is lawful is plain, and that which is unlawful is plain. Between the lawful and the unlawful there are matters of doubt which only a few people know. He who steers clear of them has preserved his religion and honour. But he who falls in these doubtful matters will indulge in the unlawful. He will be like the shepherd whose cattle graze around an enclosure in which they risk to fall at any time. Each sovereign possesses a reserved domain; that of God is all of His prohibitions. There is in the body a piece of flesh, which if sound, it renders all the body sound; but if it is corrupted the whole body will become corrupted; this piece of flesh is the heart.” ²⁰

The conscience that the universe is given and wherein are the paths of gift, permission and trust, must come first. There is in a man a nature which is a benediction. It allows him to attain a serenity which is at the source of God’s pardon and love. Then, the conscience of limit must act and this in the inward conviction of being responsible before God and not in that of the primacy of his culpability. ²¹

3. The rights of God and the responsibility of men

The whole conception of man that Islam offers, of his rapport with the universe and with others, derives from the three foundations that we have just presented. The principle of the Creator’s ownership, that of gerency, within which enters the idea of original permission are the substratum of the Islamic religion. “Submission” which is the literal translation of the word “Islam”, from the very moment when faith is expressed, is the acknowledgement of this essential order: to submit is to accept the freedom to be human and responsibles before the Creator; it is to make the limits one’s own:

Those are God’s bounds; keep well within them (do not transgress them). So God makes clear His signs to men; haply they will be godfearing. ²² (Qur’ān, 2:187)

The order of the universe and the sacredness of the elements which ought to be respected, the limits that ought not to be transgressed, are in the consciousness of the faithful the rights of God on the whole creation. In Islam this consciousness is marked, from the beginning and beyond any adherence to a specific religion, by the acknowledgement of transcendence. Whosoever makes his way towards the origin will find in himself this natural aspiration (fitra) towards God:

And when thy Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify touching themselves, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes, we testify’ – lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘As for us we were heedless of this.’ ²³ (Qur’ān, 7:172)

To make one’s life and freedom a daily witness of this acknowledgement is the responsibility of man. His manner, by memory and gesture, should be to sing the praises of his Creator with the same chanting that frees the flapping of a bird’s wings, the succession of days and nights, or a grain when it splits open giving life:

The seven heavens and the earth, and whosoever in them is, extol Him; nothing is, that does not proclaim His praise, but you do not understand their extolling. Surely He is All-clement, All-forgiving. (Qur’ān, 17:44); It is God who splits the grain and the date-stone, brings forth the living from the dead; He brings forth the dead too from the living. So that then is God; then how are you perverted? He splits the sky into dawn, and has made the night for a repose, and the sun and the moon for a reckoning. That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing. It is He who has appointed for you the stars, that by them you might be guided in the shadows of lands and sea. We have distinguished the signs for a people who know. It is He who produced you from one living soul, and then a lodging-place, and then a repository. We have distinguished the signs for a people who understand. (Qur’ān, 6:95–8)

To say that God has rights, is to say that the essence of man is at one and the same time free and responsible. Clearly, man has got the responsibility – the duty – to give an account of his freedom.

This formulation, paradoxical in appearance, conveys well enough the meaning of human life. God willed the order of the world as it is, He decided the diversity of colours and religions; it is the expression of His right. Man, being free, should acknowledge this order and respect, in the other, the right of God. So here we can see the perspectives reversed. There is here no question of tolerance ²⁴ that the believer may condescendingly have towards others. The right “to be” is given to all and the duty of each towards God is to acknowledge it. To give oneself the right to tolerate, is transgressing a limit … it is violating, inwardly, the right of God:

To every one of you We have appointed a right way and an open road. If God willed, He would have made you one nation; but that He may try you in what has come to you. So be you forward in good works; unto God shall you return, all together; and He will tell you of that whereon you were at variance. (Qur’ān, 5:48)

The differences of peoples and nations, the specificities of cultures, the particularities of customs are willed by God. It is a richness, but it is also a trial, in that it is difficult for man to conceive of and to live the difference in all its aspects. It is a fact and a challenge. The Qur’ān indicates here that the best way of pointing out and addressing this aspect of terrestrial life is to vie with one another in goodness. And this in all our acts and in the depth of our thoughts; with our gestures, words and hearts. There is no need for tolerance, for there is in everything and before everyone, in all horizons and colours, a need to witness the exigency of truth, goodness and justice.

Notes

1. The Times and the French L’Express have increased this kind of title.

2. This shift in university specialisation is more and more frequent. The specialists of socio-political Islamic movements have become specialists of contemporary Islam. All this happens as if the Muslims of today do not think any more, do not rethink their sources and points of reference; from now on they are bent on reacting.

3. The Sunna, or the reported traditions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) is the whole of what the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him) said, did or approved of during his life. The inventory of these traditions and the verification of their content are, by themselves, the object of a science, the science of the traditions. Its critique today is very refined and allows a classification of texts according to their degrees of authenticity. The traditions confirm, clarify and rarely complete the Qur’ānic obligation, prohibitions and recommendations, which are the first source.

4. Approximately between the years 610 and 632 of the Christian Era, the date of Muḥammad’s death (peace be upon him).

5. According to the Qur’ānic verse It is We who have sent the remembrance, and We watch over it. (15:9)

6. Who have given both their names, after their death, to juridical schools.

7. The application of this punishment requires very strict conditions, and particularly a social environment which gives to everyone what is vitally necessary. Theft which is motivated by need is not theft in the sense meant by the Qur’ānic verse.

8. Jurists have different opinions on this question. The counting of “legislative verses” depends upon the degree of interpretation made at the time of their reading (some of these count – according to more extensive interpretations – up to 600 verses).

9. The sciences of the Qur’ān (‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān) are vast. They include a number of domains and require precise types of knowledge: the determination of Makkan and Madinan Revelations, the causes of revelation (for the majority of verses), abrogating and abrogated verses, a perfect mastery of the Arabic language, and so on.

10. In contrast to the usual usage applied in renderings made in the West, the Sharī‘a cannot be reduced to a penal code. The notion is definitely more vast and conveys, beyond even the legislative formulation, the principle of faithfulness to God, to His Prophet and to His revelation. This faithfulness does not lie in literalism, as we are here trying to show.

11. Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss, an Austrian Jew who converted to Islam in the 1920s and author of a number of books on Islam as well as a translation of the Qur’ān into English) reminds us that the best commentary (tafsīr) on the Qur’ān is the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) own life.

. 12How many times have I heard remarks to the effect that constant references to the Qur’ān and the sayings of the Prophet (peace be upon him) amount to a relative fundamentalism, and that there is in this a suspected imprisonment of thought, an impossible autonomy for free thinking. These remarks are sometimes made by committed Christians (Catholics or Protestants) or again by intellectuals, who defend in the most determined way, cultural diversity but find themselves vexed and annoyed by this specificity of Muslim thinkers. However, this is an essential trait of the Islamic concept of the world, history and society. Being a participant in the link which exists between God and man, the points of reference are indispensable for orienting thought (this orientation is indeed a given of faith), but it never imprisons thought. On the contrary, they give account of the necessary concern – of requirement – of the finalities which ought to reside in autonomous reason. It is without doubt one of the fundamental points of divergence between Western and Islamic conceptions of liberty, and, therefore, by extension of modernity. For the former a point of reference is a link, an obstacle and a prison; for the latter it is a link, a recognition and a liberation.

13. In the vast field of ijtihād, jurists have made a distinction between types of juridical references and have established priorities. Thus, reasoning by consensus, or ijmā‘, and reasoning by analogy, qiyās (also expressed according to the following expressions, ijtihād jamā‘ī or “effort of collective reasoning” for ijmā‘, and ijtihād fardī or effort of individual reasoning for qiyās) are considered as the most viable sources after the Qur’ān and theSunna. We also have in the domain of enquiry additional references such as consideration of public interest (istiṣlāḥ) or the integration of custom (‘urf). Jurists, if they are unanimous with regard to the priority of the Qur’ān, theSunna and the necessity of ijtihād, have, however, different opinions regarding the status and methodological soundness of other references.

14. See Appendix II: The great current problems of Islam and Muslims.

15. The desire conveyed by the philosopher Michel Serres to see nature – the world – being considered as the subject of a natural control to elaborate, finds great echo in the Islamic concept of the rapport of man with the universe and its elements. Cf. below, Le contrat naturel, 1988. We shall come back to certain of these considerations (see Part Three).

16. In the science of the principles of jurisprudence (‘ilm uṣūl al-fiqh) whose first codifier was Imām al-Shāfi‘ī (767–820).

17. Narrated by al-Ḥākim.

18. Narrated by al-Dāraqṭnī, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Māja and al-Ḥākim.

19. See on this subject the excellent introduction to these questions in the text of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, London: Shorouk International, 1985. See also Uṣūl al-Tashrī‘ al-Islāmī (The Principle of Islamic Legislation), Cairo, 1985.

20. Narrated by Bukhārī and Muslim.

21. The idea of original sin is absent in all Islamic references.

22. The added parenthesis is necessary for the translation to get close to the Arabic meaning. The idea of fearingness conveyed in the end of this verse is not a perfect rendering of “taqwā, yattaqūn”. Here, it is rather a question of intensity of faith when it is marked by humility and love.

23. This verse is the subject of a great number of commentaries. It is also of great interest to the theological discussion concerning fiṭra – the natural aspiration of man towards God or the acknowledgement of the natural essence of submission (Islām) to the Creator. The Sufis have commented upon this verse abundantly and used it. It is not possible for us to tackle here the whole problematic which is relative to this question. We shall limit ourselves to extracting the fundamental idea that, according to Islam, there is in every man an aspiration, an energy which orientates him towards the Creator. This “tendency” is par t of man and of his condition; it is a natural testimony (shah ā da). This idea joins the expression of the historian of religions, Mircea Eliade when he affirms that the sacred “is an element in the structure of human conscience”. Histoire des croyances et des idées religieuses, Bibliothèque historique Payot, 1989, Vol.1 [English translation, A History of Religious Ideas, tr. Willard R. Trask, The University of Chicago Press]. See also Part Three of this book.

24. Tolerance conveys, by essence, a relationship of strength whose balance is the fact of the free choice of the strongest – or of the majority – and this is tantamount to “suffering” with the presence of the other. It is the reference to the history of mentalities, societies and religion which may allow us to understand the origin of this concept. It was conceived by rationalist philosophy when it was a question of deter mining the reasonable attitude of the strongest or the majority. The pending of this approach as far as the weakest – or the minorities – are concerned is the elaboration of their rights. The positive dimension is obvious here if we consider things on the historical plane. But in the absence of a founding principle of obligation (duty), we see that these formulations have not allowed the realisation of a society in a position to manage diversity so much on the legislative as on the cultural plane. This without taking into account that they do not protect us from the excesses of intolerance that are the result of social fractures in the West (cf . below).