Abdessamad Belhaj

Authority in Contemporary Islam

Structures, Figures and Functions


Guiding the Umma: a role in Muslim global politics

Guiding the umma is a hybrid kind of authority that interfuses the religious and political domains. It is an overlooked function of the ʿulamāʾ especially since modern states in Muslim countries have restricted them to employees narrowly defining their tasks and forbidding them from engaging in politics per se. As “heirs of the prophets”, the jurists are expected by the communities to freely assert their views about the “issues of the umma” today, and IUMS does not spare the occasion to utter its opinion and even take action regarding certain issues, especially those that are subject to consensus within the Muslim world (the Palestinian question for example). The support of IUMS for Palestinians (especially to Islamic movements in Palestine) is a major part of its action and discourse, calling itself “a pulpit to serve al-Aqsa” and overtly siding with Hamas.1

Authority in Contemporary Islam

Tartalomjegyzék


Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó – Ludovika Egyetemi Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2024

ISBN: 978 963 454 960 4

Authority is a key question in Islamic studies and beyond. This book examines the nature, figures, structures and functions of religious authority in contemporary Islamic ethics. It also discusses how Islamic authority and political power compete and/or cooperate in Muslim contexts and Europe. Moreover, it provides a coherent framework to understand authority as a moral foundation in relation to community, power, tradition and subversion. Various cases from Europe and the Muslim world are studied here to showcase the claims and practices of authority in their contexts. Despite its active role and resourcefulness in contemporary Islam, religious authority has to confront many limitations, including the dynamics of secularisation and individualisation. The author is a senior researcher at the Religion and Society Research Institute of the Eötvös József Research Centre at the University of Public Service (Budapest).

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/belhaj-authority-in-contemporary-islam//

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