Hukm al-Jahiliyyah
- Author died
- 1377 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Sunnah
Hukm al-Jahiliyyah (The Ruling of Pre-Islamic Ignorance) is a posthumously compiled collection of writings by the Egyptian hadith scholar and Sharia judge Ahmad Shakir (1309–1377 AH / 1892–1958 CE), focusing on the obligation of governance according to Islamic law (Sharia) and the legal status of ruling by man-made positive legislation .
Background and Compilation
The work was assembled and published by Maktabat al-Sunnah in January 1992 CE to commemorate the centenary of Ahmad Shakir's birth (1892–1992 CE) . Rather than a single continuous monograph written by Shakir as an independent volume, the book gathers his dispersed articles, essays, and marginal commentaries addressing the subject of pre-Islamic ignorance (jahiliyyah) and modern legal systems .
The material was drawn from several of Shakir's major works and editorial annotations, including ʿUmdat al-Tafsir (his abridgment of Ibn Kathir's Quranic commentary), his annotations on al-Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Samʿ wa-al-Taʿah, al-Kitab wa-al-Sunnah, his essay collection Kalimat al-Haqq, and articles published in Islamic periodicals such as al-Fatḥ and al-Hady al-Nabawi .
The published edition contains introductory texts preceding Shakir's writings:
- An opening statement on the book and its publication by the author's son, Usama Ahmad Shakir, dated December 1991 .
- A treatise on the arbitration of positive laws (Tahkim al-Qawanin al-Wadʿiyyah) by Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al al-Shaykh, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia .
- A biographical profile of Ahmad Shakir written by his brother, the literary scholar Mahmud Muhammad Shakir .
Themes and Contents
The title of the book is derived from Surah al-Ma'idah (5:50): أَفَحُكْمَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ يَبْغُونَ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللهِ حُكْمًا لِّقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ ("Do they then seek the judgement of [the time of] ignorance? And who is better than Allah in judgement for a people who are certain?") .
In the collected texts, Shakir presents a critique of positive legal codes (al-qawanin al-wadʿiyyah) imported into Muslim-majority lands during the colonial and post-colonial eras . He argues that replacing the revealed Sharia with European legal frameworks constitutes a modern iteration of the Yasaq—the composite code promulgated by Genghis Khan among the Mongols, which classical exegetes like Ibn Kathir deemed an abandonment of divine law .
Shakir characterizes the enforcement of these laws as an explicit, manifest form of disbelief (kufr bawaḥ), maintaining that it is impermissible for any Muslim to submit to, implement, or validate such legislation . He further contends that any incidental correspondence between positive law articles and Islamic jurisprudence carries no religious validity, as the former is derived from human speculation rather than submission to revelation . Based on these premises, he asserts that assuming judicial office to adjudicate by secular positive laws is fundamentally invalid (baṭil) under Islamic law .
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