Francesca Maria Corrao

‘Ijtihad’ and ‘Relevance of Sharia’ to Contextualize Universal Human Rights Discourse

1 ) This article provides a useful paradigm to re-conceptualize the debate on global justice in terms of a dialogue between a universal notion of human rights and the particularity of Islamic societies. It shows that Sharia can be adapted to modern societies, but also that, because Muslims comply with a distinct source of moral justification and plural sources of legality, this process can be accepted by part of the Islamic community and refused by another – or even rejected by one and the same community. As the author suggests, Sharia norms reflect an ongoing process of interpretation of the Quran, which started in the 8th and 9th centuries CE. Scholars developed a methodology (usul al-fiqh) for the classification of sources and the derivation of specific rules from general principles that did not change the basic structure of Sharia for 1000 years. Some aspects of the historical Sharia can therefore be reconsidered through the application of a similar process of interpersonal, unofficial reinterpretation, which is human and not sacred, of its norms in the light of modernity. This clearly applies to those social and political aspects of Sharia (muamalat) that can change over time, without questioning matters of faith (‘aqida) and worship practices (ibadat). A first consideration concerns the role of the state and the relationship between Sharia norms and state authority. An-Na’im argues that the application of Sharia norms in the settlement of disputes was voluntary and community-based, in a context where Sharia norms and state regulations were relatively independent of each other. However, I would recall that Sharia was interpreted and applied by independent scholars, in an age when states did not comply with the model of a modern nation state as they are today. Furthermore, in the 20 century Muhammad ‘Abdu emphasized the necessity to open the gate to ‘ijtihad’, promoting a process of reform and reinterpretation of Sharia in the light of modernity. Among his several reforms, he promoted the creation of the first modern bank in the Islamic world, which allowed and regulated interest charges on loans (forbidden by the Quran) in such a way as to manage not to create a strong opposition. In spite of this promising theoretical background, the acceptance and implementation of the human rights regime in Islamic societies is still controversial. One major issue in both the conceptualization and the practice of human rights in Islamic countries is surely related to the tension between the alleged universal validity of these standards and the limits of internal state sovereignty. For the author this paradox may be avoided by educating people to adhere to human rights values from within their tradition. He proposes to reframe the notion of universality into a more fluid and dynamic conception that incorporates the ‘contextual’ and ‘particular’ even while accepting the moral universal validity of these rights. The author proposes a peculiar strategy to reconcile or ‘mediate’ between the context and the universal, which configures a possible role of Sharia in the public discourse on legal norms. Sharia can be ‘irrelevant’ to this process when a specific Sharia norm is implemented by the state as a legal obligation that is valid for all within the state boundaries. Sharia norms enforced by the state cease in fact to be religious in nature. On the other hand, he argues that Sharia is ‘relevant’ because it ‘influence(s) the legitimacy and practical efficacy of the protection and implementation of human rights norms in Islamic societies and communities’. This perspective shows that the religious doctrine can indeed change, as it did under the Ottoman 2 Empire and during the Nahda in the 20 century. Similarly, I believe that some elements can be improved according to the urgency of a global and inclusive framework of justice. The problem remains how to develop a democratic debate between the supporters of this possibility and its opponents, who consider Sharia as a ‘divine and eternal’ doctrine. An-Na’im, A. (2013) ‘Human Rights, Universality and Sovereignty: the Irrelevance and Relevance of Sharia’, Global Policy, Vol. X, No. X, pp. xx–xxx. DOI: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Introduction-Critique and Change: Al-Jabri in Contemporary Arab Thought

The editors raise a number of points in their introduction of this first volume dedicated to the Moroccan philosopher Mohammed Abed al-Jabri . First, they start with underlining the ethical predicament that the Arab world and the regional and international powers face in dealing with Arab issues. They situate the so-called “Arab Spring,” or Arab revolts, in a context of what they refer to as global mobile injustice. They critique the invisibility of Arab intellectual productions in “Western” scholarship that deals with Arab political affairs; they argue that a modern Arab political philosophy exists and deserves attention. Second, they situate al-Jabri in the post-1967 Arab intellectual tradition, as a second wave of Arab Renaissance (naḥda), and refer to him as one of its most important figures, through his magnum opus Critique of Arab Reason , which seeks reform from within. Third, they stop at some of the major intellectual advances that al-Jabri has made to Arab-Islamic modern political theory, and how his concepts are so relevant to current politics and thought.

Reflections on Education and Culture in al-Jabri’s Thought

Corrao puts the philosopher’s care for education as the means for both cultural and political renewal in the context of classical and modern Arab-Islamic views on the school. Corrao starts by polarizing the development of educational schools and critical thought in the Arab-Islamic tradition in the sense that there were political factors that led to such a development in the past. She brings in the Mu‘tazila movement, the context of its development and demise. This is linked with al-Jabri’s view that the intellectual and philosophical debates in the tradition are not ideological free. She ends her reflections by underlining al-Jabri’s emphasis on the humanities as important disciplines for cultural opening and the development of critique among students in Arab schools, against rigidity that scientific teaching alone brings about.

The Arabian Nights in Sicily

Abstract Little evidence is left of Arab rule in Sicily. Frederick II created a school of translation where the Oriental collection of fables, Kalila wa Dimna, was translated. Sicilian oral tradition has preserved stories inspired by the Thousand and One Nights. In the nineteenth century the folklorist Giuseppe Pitrè gathered stories from Sicilian oral tradition in which one recognises numerous motifs belonging to the Nights. In my contribution, I discuss Sicilian stories of Oriental origin in order to demonstrate analogies and differences.