The Interplay of Politics and Ethics: Contributions of ʿAbdurrahmān Ṭaha and Wael Hallaq

Abstract

The complexity of the ethical component especially in its relation to modern politics resembles a motivation to break into this field and explore how the relation between them should be formulated in this modern context. Two approaches have been specified in which the ethical dimension represents the starting point, unlike many others, the approach of the Moroccan philosopher ʿAbdurrahman Ṭaha, and that of the Palestinian scholar Wael Hallaq. Both consistently propose an ethical framework upon which their political approaches have been established. Ṭaha on a philosophical basis establishes an ethical theory that returns ethics to religion and then decides politics as ethical according to the extent of its subordination to religion. While Hallaq provides the conceptual framework for ethics and politics according to the Islamic Qurʾānic perspective. He elaborates on how the Qur’ān develops an ethical theory through which the human relationship with the universe should be organized on the basis of moral responsibility. The modern politics manifested mainly in the modern nation-state violates their conceptualization in favor of its sovereign secular nature and its doctrine of progress. Consequently, both scholars presented way-out proposals for political reform based on their ethical conceptualizations. Taha adopts the individual reform through the process of spiritual purification and doesn’t stipulate the reform of the ruling authorities. On the contrary, Hallaq proposes the total departure from the state along with the construction of nascent forms of governance through which the socio-political order will be rearranged on a moral basis. Despite that, they seem to adopt different courses of action in their political reform projects a considerable harmony has been captured between the approaches of both authors. The concept of individual cultivation has been largely adopted but also supported by Hallaq through many of his works. In addition, Ṭaha assumes the possibility of the reform of the state as a fruit of the individual reform process. Thus, their difference can be returned mainly to the adopted priority for each rendering both approaches can be treated in a complementary way, covering the lacunae of each other in favor of the political reform project, considering the criticism directed to them in order to achieve the best possible results.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Islamic Studies