السياسة الشرعية Legitimate Politics

1. ‫الشرعية‬ ‫السياسة‬
LEGITIMATE POLITICS
I. Saujan
Temp. Assistant Lecture
Islamic Law & Legislation
savjaniqbal@seu.ac.lk

2. INTRODUCTION
• Etymologically the term fiqh siyasah consists of two words, namely fiqh and
al-siyasi.
• Linguistically, the meaning of fiqh is “to understand” and the term al-siyasi
means “to control”
• Islamic Siyasah based on maslahah. this siyasah was born from al-Qur’an and
Hadith, not from the interests of certain individuals or groups.
• According to Shaykh Fairuzzabadi, the meaning of siyasah (Politics) refers
to an organization of human’s welfare (maslahah) according to the principle of
shari’ah Law.
• Politics or siyasa used in classical legal terminology has multiple senses.

3. CONTINUE
• The First- siyasa was understood by the Hanafi and other jurists as an aggravated law (shar‘
mughallaz), usually used in the context of punishment that requires a stronger stance.
• The Second, the word denotes rulings issued by sovereign and his official representatives for
the practice of governance or statecraft.
• Al-Maqrizi (d. 845/1442), a Mamluk historian and scholar, was probably the first person who
defined siyasa in this second sense. he defined siyasa as a type of statute or as a kind of
ruling: “Siyasa is a qanun promulgated to observe etiquette, interests, and regulation of
properties (al-qanun al-mawdu‘ li-ri‘aya al-adab, wa’l-masalih wa’n-tizam al-amwal)”.
Examples: Traffic rules, Vehicle Licence, Birth and Death Certificates, Marriage registration
• It is not clear which of the two meanings came first. the classical texts use both of them.
• In the context of penal law, most jurists typically used the word siyasa in the section of
ta‘zir, discretionary punishment. The jurists debated whether siyasa is synonymous with the
word ta‘zir.

4. DEFINITIONS OF SIYASAH SYAR'IYYAH
• According to Imam al-Bujairimi, fiqh siyasah is designed to “improving the
society’s affairs, that is, by organizing and governing them with an aim of creating
their common welfare (maslahah). As such is only realized because of their
obedience to government”
• Wuzarat al-Awqaf wa al-Syu'un, the meaning of fiqh siyasah is “the improvement
of people’s lives by managing their affairs and by showing the way by which they
could be saved from destructions, both in the present and future”
• According to Imam Ibn ‘Abidin, the meaning of fiqh siyasah is "realizing people’s
common welfare by way of showing them the path of salvation, both in the world
and the hereafter.

5. SIYASAH SYAR'IYYAH
• Fiqh siyasah comes from the Prophet Muhammad, both specifically and
generally, both physically and spiritually.
• From the physical side, it comes from the sultan (the state’s leaders), while the
spiritual one comes from the ‘ulama, who is the heirs of the Prophet Muhammad.
• According to Imam Syafe’i the principles of common welfare are as follows:
• Seeing that there is always a common welfare that is contained in the case under
• Seeing to the characters that are suitable with the purpose of sharia, which requires the
existence of legal provision in order to formulate a welfare.
• Seeing the process of legal enforcement of a public welfare, decided by a special argument.
That is, the enforcement is validated by one of the objectives of the Islamic law.

6. CONTINUE…
• the term welfare, according to Hanafi, is as follows:
• It specially applies to muamalah (social relations) matters because the issue of worship is
permanent and does not change.
• It does not contradict the intentions of sharia, a legal justification (dalil) from the texts that
are familiar in society.
• It is according to the real interest of, and is needed by, the community.
• As explained above, it can be concluded that there are two important elements in
fiqh siyasah which are mutually related.
1. They are the parties who regulate and
2. The parties who are regulated with the aim of achieving benefit.

7. CONDITIONS OF SIYĀSAH ALSHARʿIYYAH
• The ʿulamāʾ provided certain conditions and parameters as to how to apply
siyāsah alSharʿiyyah:
• Siyāsah must comply with the requirements of the Sharīʿah.
• Siyāsah must be in line with the spirit of the Sharīʿah and its principles.
• It should not contradict clearly with the naṣṣ (scripture).
• It must rely on the correct methods or instruments of ijtiḥād (independence reasoning)
like maṣālih al-mursalah (public interest) and sad al-dharāʿi (blocking the means) and
not based on whims and fancies of the respective parties.

8. CONCLUSION
• The welfare referred to by the siyasah context is the concrete positive impacts
of the government, state, and leadership, on public interests of all members of
the communities.
• Even though the welfare is not based on texts contained in the Qur’an and the
Sunnah, because it is especially related to the problem controlling of the
community and the state life, which carries out obligation and safeguards the
rights of leaders and their people.

9. REFERENCES
1. Bedir, Mürteza. (2020). The Hanafi View of Siyasa and Sharia between Idealism and
Realism: Al-Hasiri’s Conception of Temporal and Religious Politics: (Siyasa ad-diniyya
al-‘uzma and siyasa alhissiyya al-‘uzma). İslam Tetkikleri Dergisi-Journal of Islamic
Review 10/2, (Eylül 2020): 451-466. https://doi.org/10.26650/iuitd.2020.693785
2. Imam Mahdi, Ade Kosasih1 Aneka Rahma. (2019). Analysis of Fiqh Siyasah on a Local
Government’s Policy About the Making of a Religious and Happy Society in Bengkulu.
Proceedings of the 1st Raden Intan International Conference on Muslim Societies
andSocial Sciences (RIICMuSSS 2019): 249- 252.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
3. AHMAD, M. M. (2013). The Doctrine of Siyāsah in the Ḥanafī Criminal Law and Its
Relevance for the Pakistani Legal System. Islamic Studies, 52(1), 29–55.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43664251