The Congruent Critique of Despotism in 'Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi and Shaykh 'Ali Abdel-Raziq

Authors

  • Author

  • Hicham El Haddaji

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31430/almuntaqa.1.3.0092

Abstract

The question of political and religious despotism is investigated here through an examination of the most important manifestations of the congruent critique, made by two prominent modern Arab thinkers: al-Kawakibi and Abdel-Raziq. The study aims to demonstrate that they have various critical features in common despite their multiple differences, since the goal of critiquing despotism, whether political or religious, is the critique of politics from inside using its own tools. Both thinkers worked ceaselessly to sow the seeds of enlightened thinking in order to break the essentialist and interest-based links between the political and religious domains and re-establish the relationship between them according to a modern, and rational understanding.

References

  1. This study was originally published in Issue 20, Spring 2017 of the quarterly journal on philosophy and cultural studies, Tabayyun.
  2. Political Science Researcher, Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco.
  3. Abd al-Rahman Al-Kawakibi, Ṭabāʾiʿ al-Istibdād wa-Maṣāriʿ al-Istiʿbād [The Nature of Despotism]., ed. with intro. by Muhammad Imarah. 2nd edition
  4. Sa'd Zaghlul Al-Kawakibi, ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān al-Kawākibī: as-Sīrah adh-Dhātiyyah [ʿ Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi: A Biography], Beirut: Bissan Publishing
  5. Al-Kawakibi, The Nature of Despotism , pp. 15 - 16. Studies, Publishing and Distribution, 1987), p. 29.
  6. George Katurah, Ṭabāʾiʿ al-Kawākibī fī Ṭabāʾiʿ al-Istibdād [The Nature of Al-Kawakibi on the Nature of Despotism] (Beirut: University Foundation for (Cairo: Dar al-Shorouk, 2009) p. 15. and Distribution, 1998), pp. 18 - 19.
  7. Al-Kawabiki, Nature of Despotism , pp. 23 - 24.
  8. Ibid., p. 15. Fatimah Hafiz (Cairo: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2014)
  9. ʿAbd al-Rahman Al-Kawakibi, Umm al-Qurā: wa-Huwa Ḍabṭ Mufāwaḍāt wa-Muqarrarāt Mu’tamar an-Nahḍa al-Islāmiyya fī Makka al-Mukarrama ʿĀm 1316H [Mother of Villages: A Record of Discussions and Decisions Taken at the Islamic Nahda Conference Convened in Mecca in 1316 AH], introduction by
  10. Al-Kawakibi, Nature of Despotism , p. 26.
  11. Al-Kawakibi, Mecca , p. 231.
  12. Étienne De La Boétie, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude , trans. Harry Kurz (Alabama: The Mises Institute, 1975) p. 42.
  13. Étienne De La Boétie, Maqālat al-ʿUbūdiyyah aṭ-Ṭawʿiyyah [The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude], trans. 'Abud Kasuhah (Beirut: Arab Organization for
  14. Hassan Hanafi, " Ṭabāʾiʿ al-Istibdād wa-Maṣāriʿ al-Istiʿbād: Qirā’a Jadīda" ["A New Reading of Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi's The Nature of Despotism "] in Ahmad Al-Qadi 'Arafat et al., Falsafat al-Hurriyyah [The Philosophy of Freedom]. Produced by the 17th Philosophical Conference organised by the Egyptian
  15. Samir Abu Hamdan, ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān al-Kawākibī wa-Falsafat al-Istibdād [ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi and the Philosophy of Despotism] (Beirut: World
  16. Fahmi Jadʿan, Usus al-Taqaddum ʿind Mufakkirī al-Islām fi-l-ʿĀlam al-ʿArabī al-Ḥadīth [The Foundations of Progress among Islamic Thinkers in the
  17. Muhammad Jamal Barut, Ḥarakat al-Tanwīr al-ʿArabiyya fī’l-Qarn al-Tāsiʿ ʿAshar: Ḥalaqat Ḥalab Dirāsah wa-Mukhtārāt [The Arab Enlightenment
  18. Alfieri Vittorio, On Despotism , M. Merget (trad.), (Paris: Molini Books, 1802), p. 10; compare with al-Kawakibi's definition of despotism in: al-Kawakibi, Translation, 2008), p. 93. Philosophical Association at the University of Cairo (Beirut: Centre for Arab Unity Studies, 2009), p. 177. Book Publishing, 1992), p. 9. Modern Arab World] (Beirut: Arab Network for Research and Publishing, 2010), p. 292; Hanafi, footnote 5, p. 177 also refers. Movement in the Nineteenth Century: A Study and Extracts from the Aleppo Circle] (Damascus: Syrian Ministry of Culture Publications, 1994), p. 128. Nature of Despotism , p. 23 ff.
  19. Al-Kawakibi, Nature of Despotism , p. 47; we find the same bold critique in Shaykh 'Ali Abdel-Raziq (see following chapter).
  20. Khosravid in reference to the kings of the Sassanid Empire. The term is used by some Muslim and Arab scholars pejoratively to refer to absolutist rule. / Moroccan Publishing House, 2001), p. 629.
  21. Muhammad Abed Al-Jabari , Naqd al-ʿAql al-ʿArabī (4): Al-ʿAql al-Akhlāqī al-ʿArabī, Dirāsah Taḥlīlīyyah Naqdiyyah li-Nuẓum al-Qiyam fī’th-Thaqāfah al-ʿArabiyyah [Critique of Arab Reason: Arab Moral Reason: An Critical Analytical Study of Moral Systems in Arab Culture] (Casablanca: Arab Cultural Centre
  22. Al-Kawakibi, Nature of Despotism , p. 32.
  23. Katurah, p. 31. p. 64.
  24. Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. Edition revised and corrected based on the most recent London edition (Paris: Calixte Volland Books, 1802),
  25. Abdallah Laroui, Mafhūm al-Ḥurriyyah [The Concept of Freedom], 4th edition (Casablanca / Beirut: Arab Cultural Centre, 2008), p. 30.
  26. Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (1798-1939) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 184. Press, 2012).]
  27. Ali Abdel-Raziq, Al-Islām wa-ʾUṣūl al-Ḥukm [Islam and the Foundations of Political Power], with analysis and documentation by Muhammad Imarah, 2nd edition (Beirut: Arab Institute for Studies and Publishing, 1988), p. 128. [Translator’s note: An English-language translation of this text is available, but the liberties taken in rendering the original Arabic in that version have meant that in this article we have chosen to use our own original or adapted versions rather than the existing English text. See: Ali Abdel Razek, Islam and the Foundations of Political Power , Maryam Loutfi trans. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
  28. Muhammad Al-Bahi, Al-Fikr al-Islāmī al-Ḥadīth wa-Ṣilatuhu bi-l-Istiʿmār al-Gharbī [Modern Islamic Thought and its Connection to Western Colonialism],
  29. Ali Abdel-Raziq, p. 137; for his discussion of ʾijmāʿ , see his book, ʿIjmāʿ in Islamic Shariʿah.
  30. Abdel-Raziq, p. 139.
  31. Ibid. Centre for Arab Unity Studies, 2007), p. 133.
  32. Abdel-Ilah Balqaziz, Al-ʿArab wa-‘l-Hadāthah, Dirāsa fī Maqālāt al-Ḥadāthiyyīn [Arabs and Modernity: A Study of Essays by Modernisers] (Beirut: 4th edition (Cairo: Wahba booksellers, date unknown), p. 252.
  33. Abdel-Raziq, 146.
  34. Al-Bahi, p. 255.
  35. Abdel-Raziq, p. 168. Political Sphere: Prophethood and Politics] (Beirut: Centre for Arab Unity Studies, 2005), p. 38 ff.
  36. Ibid., p. 156; for more detail, see Abdel-Ilah Balqaziz, Takwīn al-Majāl as-Siyāsī al-Islāmī: an-Nubuwwah wa’s-Siyāsah [The Formation of the Islamic
  37. Abdel-Raziq, p. 160.
  38. Abd al-Majid Al-Sharfi, Al-Islām wa-l-Ḥadāthah [Islam and Modernity] , 2nd edition (Tunis: Tunisian Publishing House, 1991), p. 164.
Cover of العدد 3, Almuntaqa

Downloads

PDF (Hosted)
HTML

Published

2018-09-01

Usage statistics

44 views 81 downloads

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 003 (2018): Issue 003

Section

المقالات

License

Copyright (c) 2018 Almuntaqa

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.