Fiqh al-Dawa al-Islamiyya fi al-Gharb wa Wujub Tajdidiha ala al-Hikma wa al-Wasatiyya wa al-Itidal
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Fiqh al-Dawa al-Islamiyya fi al-Gharb wa Wujub Tajdidiha ala al-Hikma wa al-Wasatiyya wa al-Itidal (The Jurisprudence of Islamic Outreach in the West and the Necessity of Its Renewal Based on Wisdom, Moderation, and Balance) is a treatise by the Moroccan scholar Ali al-Raysuni that examines the principles of Islamic missionary work (dawah) in Western societies, taking contemporary Spain (al-Andalus) as a case study.
Background and Purpose
The treatise was prepared by Ali ibn Ahmad ibn al-Amin al-Raysuni, head of the Islamic Da'wa Association and the Chefchaouen branch of the League of Moroccan Scholars (Rabitat Ulama al-Maghrib). It aims to address the challenges facing Islamic outreach in Western nations and to counter terrorism and religious extremism claiming Islamic roots. Al-Raysuni distinguishes between terrorism inside the Islamic world and terrorism committed outside it against non-Muslim countries, focusing primarily on the latter and establishing that Islamic jurisprudence strictly criminalizes violent assaults against innocent civilians.
Structure and Core Arguments
The treatise is organized into an introduction, two main parts, and a conclusion:
Theoretical Foundations of Renewal
The first part argues that the renewal (tajdid) of da'wa in the West entails modernizing its methods, discourse, and mechanisms rather than altering its core theological tenets. Al-Raysuni defines three guiding pillars:
- Wisdom (hikma): Involving sound planning, gentleness, deep understanding of the local environment, and proficiency in the language of the audience.
- Moderation (wasatiyya): Focusing on universal moral virtues and avoiding racial, ethnic, or sectarian chauvinism.
- Balance (i'tidal): Rejecting exaggeration, radicalism, and violence.
Al-Raysuni defines terrorism as harmful verbal or physical acts directed at innocent individuals for political or economic goals, and connects it to classical legal concepts such as brigandage (hiraba), rebellion (baghy), and spreading corruption on earth (ifsad fi al-ard). Citing violent attacks such as the September 11 attacks in New York, the May 16 bombings in Casablanca, and the March 11 bombings in Madrid, he invokes classical legal maxims to affirm the absolute prohibition of targeting civilians and non-combatants.
The Andalusian Model
The second part provides a framework for contemporary outreach in Spain. It reviews the history of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula from the fall of Granada in 1492 (897 AH) and the final expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 (1018 AH), through observations during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), to the resurgence of conversions and constitutional religious freedom following the death of Francisco Franco in November 1975.
To protect Islamic outreach in Spain from extremism and ideological deviation, al-Raysuni outlines fifteen guidelines:
- Integrating scriptural texts with the higher objectives of Islamic law (maqasid al-shari'a).
- Avoiding rigid imposition of any single legal school (madhhab) and respecting the Maliki school prevalent among North and West African immigrants.
- Acquiring proficiency in Castilian Spanish and understanding Spanish history, geography, law, and culture, noting that classical scholars like Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya engaged Christian thought through direct knowledge of their interlocutors.
- Presenting Islam both as a faith and as a civilizational project (hadara) to facilitate cultural engagement.
- Establishing open dialogue with Muslim youth to curb ideological extremism, hasty excommunication (takfir), and charges of heresy.
- Formulating da'wa policies domestically within Spain rather than importing them from abroad.
- Addressing the practical educational, social, healthcare, and material needs of the Muslim immigrant community.
- Adopting gradualism (tadarruj) in outreach.
- Combining scriptural proofs with rational and empirical arguments.
- Drawing on classical works of spiritual purification to foster tolerance and curb moral arrogance.
- Applying the juristic principle of widespread necessity/affliction (ma 'ammat bihi al-balwa).
- Utilizing legal maxims concerning the removal of hardship (raf' al-haraj) and necessity (al-darurat tubih al-mahzurat).
- Engaging collective juristic reasoning (ijtihad jama'i) within minority jurisprudence (fiqh al-aqalliyyat) and contextual jurisprudence (fiqh al-waqi').
- Deepening the study of Sharia-oriented governance (al-siyasa al-shar'iyya) in light of globalization and the post–Cold War unipolar world order.
- Elevating Islamic discourse to address broader global issues, such as environmental degradation, poverty, weapons of mass destruction, racism, and economic inequality.
In the conclusion, the author notes that constraints of space precluded detailed coverage of the 1992 cooperation agreement between the Spanish state and the Islamic Commission, as well as the broader institutional landscape of Islamic federations in Spain.
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