The Islamic Secular and the Secular State

Abstract This chapter engages with the thesis of Abdullahi An-Na’im in his book Islam and the Secular State. An-Na’im argues for a secular state because he believes that only it, in contradistinction to the Islamic State, can accommodate human rights, citizenship, and constitutionalism. I argue that by ignoring the Islamic Secular, An-Na’im exaggerates the role of sharī‘ah and from there sees the solution exclusively in the wholesale elimination of sharī‘ah from the state apparatus. This is particularly crucial, according to An-Na’im, given the presence of non-Muslims in Muslim-majority states. In this regard, I argue that An-Na’im imputes the legal monism of the modern state to sharī‘ah, whereas pre-modern jurists, operating on the logic of the “empire state,” recognized that sharī‘ah applied to non-Muslims only in limited ways, where it applied at all. I also argue that so much of what modern states are called upon to regulate or provide falls into the realm of the non-shar‘ī, Islamic Secular. As such, the idea that many of the problems he raises can only be resolved by removing sharī‘ah from the state is simply misplaced. In fact, I argue, many of the problems An-Na’im raises are actually created by this very oversight.