Ali Abdel Raziq

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Ali Abdel Raziq (1888-1966) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar and sharia judge. He can be
regarded as the intellectual father of Islamic laicism or secularism (the separation of state and
religion, not the secularization of society). His main work is called "Islam and the Foundations of
Governance" (Al-Islam Wa Usul Al-Hukm) and was first published in 1925. Due to its
controversial standpoints regarding the necessity of the caliphate and religious government, the
book triggered an intellectual and political battle in Egypt. In essence the author claims that the
Muslims may agree on any kind of government, be it religious or worldly, as long as it serves the
interest and common welfare of their society.

Abdel Raziq's arguments:

1. The two main sources of Islamic law (sharia), the Quran and the Sunnah (Tradition of
Messenger Muhammad), neither demand nor reject the rule of a caliph (caliphate) or imam
(imamate).
2. There is no real ijma (consensus) on the necessity of the caliphate.
3. Experience shows that the caliphate entailed a series of disasters for the Muslim community,
and there is no single rational argument for the (re-)establishment of the caliphate.

As Abdel Raziq recounts the horrors of the caliphate, among other things, one can conclude that
he advocated a humanist kind of governance, probably a democratic state. This assumption is
supported by the fact that his father Hassan Abdel Raziq and his oldest brother, the philosopher
Mustafa Abdel Raziq, were also liberal activists. In Abdel Raziq's opinion, the separation of
Islam and state is supposed to protect Islam and the Muslims from the political abuse of Islam.

Ali Abdel Raziq also wrote "Consensus in Islamic Law" (Al-Ijma´ Fi Ash-Shari´ah Al-
Islamiyyah) which was published in 1947. He later served as Minister of Endowments (twice),
one of the three highest positions in religious learning and administration (besie the Rector of al-
Azhar and the Grand Mufti) before he died in December 1966.

[edit] References
Adams, Charles C.: Islam and Modernism in Egypt. Russell & Russell, New York, 1968 (2ndd
Edition). Page: 259-68.
Meier, Andreas: Der Politische Auftrag des Islam (The Political Mission of Islam). Wuppertal
(GER), 1994. Page: 106-114.
Abdel Raziq, Ali: Al-Islam Wa Usul Al-Hukm: Bahth Fi-l Khilafa Wa-l Hukuma Fi-l Islam
(Islam and the Foundations of Governance: Research on the Caliphate and Governance in Islam).
Critique and commentary by Mamdooh Haqqi (Beirut, 1978).

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Rashid Rida
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Muhammad Rashid Rida (September 23, 1865, Syria - August 22, 1935, Egypt) is said to have
been "one of the most influential scholars and jurists of his generation" and the "most prominent
disciple of Muhammad Abduh" [1]

Rida was born near Tripoli and his early education consisted of training in "traditional Islamic
subjects". In 1884-5 he was first exposed to al-`Urwa al-wuthqa, the journal of Jamal al-Din al-
Afghani and Muhammad Abduh. In 1897 he left Syria for Cairo to collaborate with Abduh and
the following year they launched al-Manar, a weekly and then monthly journal comprising
Quranic commentary,[2] at which Rida worked until his death in 1935.

Like his predecessors, Rida focused on the relative weakness of Muslim societies vis-à-vis
Western colonialism, blaming Sufi excesses, the blind imitation of the past (taqlid), the
stagnation of the ulama, and the resulting failure to achieve progress in science and technology.
He held that these flaws could be alleviated by a return to what he saw as the true principles of
Islam, albeit interpreted (ijtihad) to suit modern realities.

Politically Rida promoted a restoration or rejuvenation of the Caliphate for Islamic unity, and
"democratic consultation on the part of the government which he called shura."[3] In theology,
his reformist ideas, like those of Abduh, were "based on the argument that

shari'a consists of `ibadat (worship) and mu'amalat (social relations). Human reason has little
scope in the former and Muslims should adhere to the dictates of the Qur'an and hadith. The laws
governing mu'amalat should conform to Islamic ethics but on specific points may be continually
reassessed according to changing conditions of different generations and societies [4]