Abstract
The question of ruling and who should rule is one of the primary matters of the Islamic thought. Indeed, the political derive its legitimacy from religion. On the other hand, in modern Western political philosophy, “sovereign authority” is central to statehood, and yet it has confounded politicians, pundits, and clerics worldwide. Nevertheless, understanding sovereignty is essential in understanding authority. This chapter focuses upon issues of sovereignty and authority in contemporary Muslim society while bearing in mind the common operational definitions concerning such notions as statehood, authority, and sovereignty itself may be problematic between the West and Middle East. It is thus an attempt to understand political philosophy in the Middle East in a different way than typically found in Western philosophy. Indeed, one may even argue “democracy” has no place in Islamic heritage but is rather a contemporary matter for Islamic jurisprudence.
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Alrebh, A.F. (2019). Muslims, Secularism, and the State. In: Woodward, M., Lukens-Bull, R. (eds) Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73653-2_29-1
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