The Perception of the Head of State in Ibn Âbidîn’s Redd Al-Mukhtâr
Although fiqh is fundamentally based on nass, it is an institution developed not by an official legislative body but by civilian jurists (fuqaha) independent of state control. Due to this unique way of development and formation of fiqh, it has become a widespread belief that public law and political thought are not developed in fiqh works. Nevertheless, in almost all fiqh works, between the lines of various chapters, there are discussions about Islamic political thought and the head of state, and many fiqh issues, including those related to worship, are directly or indirectly related to the head of state. However, this does not mean that fiqh is under the sway of the state administration. The aim of this study is to examine Ibn Ābidīn's (d. 1836) conception of the head of state within the framework of one of his most important works, Redd al-muhtār. In this respect, the main theme of our study is the perception of the head of state in the works of jurisprudence in the context of Redd al-muhtār. In our study, some of the issues related to Islamic political thought in Redd al-muhtār, which could be subject to more detailed evaluations, will be discussed in order to make a limited contribution. In this way, the claim that the works of jurisprudence other than ahkām al-sultaniyya literature are themselves sources of Islamic political thought will be justified.
Emrullah AYGÜN
