al-Ilmaniyya - al-Libraliyya - al-Dimuqratiyya - al-Dawla al-Madaniyya fi Mizan al-Islam
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- al-Ilmaniyya - al-Libraliyya - al-Dimuqratiyya - al-Dawla al-Madaniyya fi Mizan al-Islam
al-ʿIlmāniyya – al-Lībrāliyya – al-Dīmuqrāṭiyya – al-Dawla al-Madaniyya fī Mīzān al-Islām (Secularism, Liberalism, Democracy, and the Civil State in the Balance of Islam) is a contemporary ideological treatise compiled by the Scientific Committee of Jamʿiyyat al-Tartīl li-l-Khadamāt al-Thaqāfiyya wa-l-Dīniyya under the supervision of Shaykh Muhammad ʿAbd al-ʿAziz Abu al-Naja, examining modern Western political and social concepts from an Islamic legal perspective .
Authorship and Background
The work was prepared as part of the religious awareness series (Publication No. 2) by Jamʿiyyat al-Tartīl, overseen by Shaykh Muhammad ʿAbd al-ʿAziz Abu al-Naja, an expert at the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America and a member of the Scientific Union of Muslim Scholars within the International Islamic Council for Da'wah and Relief . The book features a foreword penned in Cairo on 22 March 2011 by Muhammad Naʿim Muhammad Hani al-Saʿi, professor of Islamic jurisprudence and its principles (usul al-fiqh) and member of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America .
The publication was prompted by the political upheavals in Egypt in 2011, during which terms such as "the civil state," "democracy," "liberalism," and "secularism" circulated widely in media and cultural spheres; the authors sought to counter secularist proposals to alter the country's Islamic identity . In his introduction, al-Saʿi praised the concise text for elucidating concepts embraced by contemporary political movements that conflict with established Islamic jurisprudence .
Structure and Content
The treatise is organized into thematic sections addressing each political concept, contrasting them with Islamic governance :
- Introductions: Prefaces by Muhammad Naʿim al-Saʿi and the Scientific Committee .
- Secularism (al-ʿIlmāniyya): Defines secularism, its foundational pillars, the views of secularist proponents, blind imitation, and secularism's ideological deviations .
- Liberalism (al-Lībrāliyya): Discusses the meaning and primary principles of liberal ideology .
- Democracy (al-Dīmuqrāṭiyya): Examines the meaning and core elements of democracy, followed by a dedicated section demonstrating that Islamic consultative governance (shura) is distinct from democracy .
- The Civil State (al-Dawla al-Madaniyya): Analyzes the concept of the modern civil state and its three main pillars: secularism, nationalism, and democracy .
- Islamic Alternatives and Obligations: Explores the overarching aims of these Western doctrines, affirms the religious obligation of seeking judgment exclusively through the Quran and Sunnah, details the virtues and merits of Islamic Sharia, and outlines the urgent duty required of Muslims at the present time (wajib al-waqt) .
Publication
The book was registered under the Egyptian legal deposit number 5169/2011 and reached a third edition . Its publishers explicitly permitted any Muslim to reprint and distribute the treatise without alteration for non-commercial dissemination .
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