Book Review: The Principles of State and Government in Islam
| Published date | 01 June 1962 |
| Date | 01 June 1962 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206201700229 |
| Author | R. M. Savory |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
186
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
On
the
basis
of
the
facts
presented
by
Apter
it
is
difficult
to
argue
with
his
major
theses.
Furthermore,
things
seem
to
be
working
out
in
just
the
way he has suggested.
It
may
only
be
a
minority
opinion,
but
East
African students
with
whom
I
discuss
this
matter,
as well
as
African
leaders to
whom
I
have
spoken,
take
a
different
view
of
the
"Buganda problem"
in
the
long
run.
They
see
a
unified
East
Africa
under
a
coordinated
and
strong central
government
run
along
socialist
or semi-socialist lines.
In
such
an
organization Buganda
would
be
forced
to
give
up
its
claims
to
autonomy,
and
its
leaders
would
be
brought
into
the
cadre
of
central
government
personnel
directing
the
develop-
ment
of
the
entire
region.
Purely
local
interests
and
advancement
would be
viewed
as
"tribalism"
and
strongly,
perhaps punitively,
discouraged.
Professor
Apter
has
given
us
a
detailed
contribution
to
political
theory,
and
a
wonderfully
alive
account
of
a
particular
stage
of Uganda
political
history.
One
wonders, however,
whether
a
completely
different
story
might
not
emerge
in
the
next
decade?
Federalism in
Canada
is
entrenched
along its
present
lines,
but
is
it
so
stable
in
Africa?
McGil
University
RoNA•L
CO0EN
THE
PuNaCIPLES
OF
STATE
AND
G•VERNMENT
IN
IsLAm.
By
Muhammad
Asad.
196L
(Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press.
xiii,
107pp.
$3.00.)
This
is
a
fascinating
book
by
a
gifted
and
interesting
author.
Muhammad Asad was
the
name
assumed
by
Leopold
Weiss,
originally
of Lvov, on
his
conversion
to
Islam
in
1926.
The
Principles
of
State
and
Government
in
Islam
is
a
development
of
the
author's
essay
Islam•c
Constitution-Making
(1948),
in
which he
set
forth
his
ideas
on
the
future
constitution
of
Pakistan.
Muhammad
Asad
states
in
his
preface
that
he
has
been
moved
to
write
the
present
work
by
the
consideration
that,
after
a
decade,
the
problem
of
the
constitution
of
Pakistan
is
stll.
unslved.
Muhammed Asad
attempts
to
formulate
a
Pakistani
constitution
on
the
basis
of
indications contained
in
the
Qur'an and
the
hadith,
or
Tradition
of
the
Prophet.
He
argues
that
the
shari'a,
or
canon
law
of
Islam,
is
the
only positive
indication
of
what
God
wants
us
to
be
and
to
do,
and
he
defines
the
shari'a
as
properly
consisting
only
of
the
nusus,
or
unequivocal
ordinances
contained
in
the
Qur'an
and
the
sunna
(tradition
and
precedent
of
the
Prophet).
These
nusus,
which,
he
says,
have never
been
presented
to
Muslims
in
a
clear
and
separate form,
embody
general
principles
of
universal
application, and
are
not
subject
to
restrictions
of
time
and
place as
are
many
of
the
later
rulings
of
theologians
and jurisprudents.
On
the
basis
of
the
nusus,
therefore,
Muhammad
Asad
is
able
to
outline,
in
a
brillant
and
closely-argued
thesis,
the
general
principles
which should
underlie
the
constitution
of
an
Islamic
state.
From
the
standpoint
of
the
strictly
orthodox
or
traditionalist
Muslim,
the
weakness
of
Muhammad
Asad's
argument-and
this
is
a
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