Foundations of Islamic Governance

Foundations of Islamic Governance The aim of this book is to explore and analyse the Islamic axioms, foundation principles and values underpinning the field of governance in an attempt to construct the architectonics of a new systemic and dynamic theory and formulate the articulation of ‘Islamic governance’. This discursive and abstract piece, rather than being an empirical exercise, assumes to produce a ‘good governance’ framework within its own formulation through a value- shaped dynamic model according to maqasid al-Shari’ah (higher objective of Shari’ah) by going beyond the narrow remit of classical and contemporary discussions produced on the topic, which propose a certain institutional model of governance based on the classical juristic (fiqh) method. Through an exclusive analytical discursive approach in this book, readers will find that Islam, as one of the major religions in the contemporary world with the claim of promising the underpinning principles and philosophical foundations of worldly affairs and institutions through a micro method of producing homoIslamicus, could contribute towards development of societies by establishing a unique model of governance from its explicit ontological worldview through a directed descriptive epistemology. Maszlee Malik is assistant professor in the Faculty of Islamic Revealed Know- ledge and Human Sciences at the International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. He holds a doctorate degree (PhD) from Durham University in Durham, UK in Good Governance. His research area is in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), Classical and Contemporary Islamic Political Thoughts, and Islamic Movements and Good Governance. He is the author of the books, Good Gov- ernance: a Critical introduction and Islam, Civil Society and Islamic Governance. Routledge Studies on Islam and Muslims in Southeast Asia Series Editors: Syed Muhammad Khairudin Aljunied, Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir 1 Foundations of Islamic Governance A Southeast Asian Perspective Maszlee Malik Foundations of Islamic Governance A Southeast Asian Perspective Maszlee Malik First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Maszlee Malik The right of Maszlee Malik to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Maszlee Malik, 1974–, author. Title: Foundations of Islamic governance : a Southeast Asian perspective / by Maszlee Malik. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016035078| ISBN 9781138219748 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315414652 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Islam and state. | State, The. | Political culture–Islamic countries. | Islam and state–Southeast Asia. Classification: LCC BP173.6.M28 2017 | DDC 322/.10959–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035078 ISBN: 978-1-138-21974-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-41465-2 (ebk) Typeset in Galliard by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear Contents Preface vi Acknowledgements viii List of abbreviations ix Prolegomena xi Introduction 1 1 Governance: definitions and conceptual framework 8 2 Deconstructing the concept of Good Governance 37 3 Religion and governance: a philosophical inquiry 68 4 Ontological and epistemological sources for Islamic governance 78 5 New approach to the texts: epistemological method- related concerns 102 6 Contributions of Muslim scholars in the development of knowledge base for governance 115 7 Architectonics of Islamic governance: locating the axioms, foundational principles and working mechanism 136 8 Articulation of Islamic governance 195 Conclusion 233 Epilogue 247 Bibliography 249 Index 275 Preface International institutions have promoted a ‘good governance’ agenda as an archetypal model to achieve development for underdeveloped and developing countries. However, closer scrutiny can trace the root of this agenda back to the hegemonic nature of modernity that proposes a specific meta- narrative upon others, as part of Eurocentrism. Many, however, have criticized this Eurocentric paradigm, since the non-Western communities with their own constructed version of ‘good’ in governance have also proven their ability to develop and prosper in the present or in the past. Thus, the cultural and value- laden nature of such vernacular concepts provides the rationale for the existence and practice of other paradigms. In line with this argument, Islam, with its long history of governance and richness of its values can be considered as another alternative, which should be thoroughly examined to disclose and depict its conceptualization and paradigm of ‘good governance’. The aim of this book, thus, is to explore and analyse the Islamic axioms, foundation principles and values underpinning the field of governance in an attempt to construct the architectonics of a new systemic and dynamic theory and formulate the articulation of ‘Islamic governance’. This discursive and abstract, rather than being an empirical exercise, assumes to produce a ‘good governance’ framework within its own formulation through a value- shaped dynamic model according to maqasid al- Shari’ah (higher objective of Shari’ah) by going beyond the narrow remit of classical and contemporary discussions produced on the topic, which propose a certain institutional model of governance based on the classical juristic (fiqh) method. In this new dynamic paradigm, a discourse- oriented approach is taken to establish the philosophical foundation of the model by deriving it from Islamic ontology, which is then articulated using the Islamic epistemological sources to develop and formulate the discursive foundations of this new theoretical framework. A deductive method is applied to the ontological sources and epistemological principles to explain the architectonics of this new theory, which are represented by the constructed axioms, which later help to articulate the working mechanism of the proposed ‘Islamic good governance’ framework through a specifically formulated typo- logy to function as an alternative conceptualization of ‘good governance’. In doing so, the author has tried to take into consideration the current reality in Preface vii bringing the text into reality by resorting to maqasid al- Shari’ah (higher objective of Shari’ah). This research is an attempt by the author, who came from the multi- religious and multi- cultural background of Southeast Asia, which requires Muslims to always be cautious when dealing with people, not to impose literally the Islamic texts and jurists views from a different time and background on the issues of governance. This study, through an exclusive analytical discursive approach, finds that Islam, as one of the major religions in the contemporary world, with the claim of promising the underpinning principles and philosophical foundations of worldly affairs and institutions, through a micro method of producing homo Islamicus could contribute towards the development of societies by establishing a unique model of governance from its explicit ontological worldview through a directed descriptive epistemology. Thus, the research on governance in this study does not only focus on the positivistic materialist components such as institutions or mechanisms or growth per se, but it encompasses the value- laden holistic nature of human life in accordance with the Islamic worldview as an important contribution. In doing so, it formulates the ‘good governance’ in Islam in relation to the conceptualized ‘ihsani social capital’, which constitutes the main thrust of the constructed model. Nonetheless, this generative (non-cumulative) paradigm of looking into the governance issue should be viewed as an incomplete certainty as the production of the continuous ijtihad (reasoning) progression will continue to reveal ways through which its working mechanism can be expanded along with potential developments in its philosophical formation. Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to my Mevlana and dear guru, Professor Mehmet Asutay, for being my guidance and teacher, which had taught me a lot during my sojourn in the UK from 2007–11. It was his patience and supervision that made it possible for me to bring this work to completion. The amount of knowledge, and most importantly, wisdom I have learned from him is invaluable. I am equally thankful to my dear mentor and icon, Dr Azzam Tamimi, for his charismatic, passionate and forbearance since we first met back in the year 1991 and that has inspired me to be what I am today. Similarly my utmost gratitude to all those who inspired me, helped me and encouraged me during the course of my research amongst the IIUM colleagues, comrades in Durham.

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