Taha Jabir Al-Alwani’s Fiqh of Civilization

Abstract

This article addresses the features of Taha Jabir Al-Alwani’s “fiqh of civilization” (civilizational jurisprudence) by shedding light on the following: his civilizational philosophy (which stems from the Qur’an’s higher objectives (maqāṣid)); the nature of his civilizational project and its associated foundational concepts; the tools of this project and its mechanism of operation (ijtihād) and the theoretical framework for building an apostolic mujtahid; and the requirements and elements of this fiqh, which Al-Alwani refers to as “the greater fiqh”. The article argues that this fiqh of civilization is a product of a “philosophy of reception”, which is a philosophy based on identifying the Qur’an’s universals and principles and then deducing legal rulings from these. This philosophy gave rise to the mindset of trusteeship beyond the reduction of the Qur’an and the divine message to mere rulings, jurisprudence, and legislation. The paper concludes that the project of fiqh of civilization is based on a basic assumption: that the current stage in dealing with Western civilization requires three conditions: fiqh of scripture, fiqh al-wāqiʿ (understanding the local context), and fiqh of time. The integration of all of them is expected to lead to the fiqh of civilization.