Abstract
The relationship between the rule of law and the rule of God has never been simple. This is so in part because of the way the latter lays claim to the former. For any community in which the rule of God implies obedience to divine directives—or, to put it another way, in which the ultimate standard of righteousness is connected with God’s law—the divine standard constitutes a measure against which any human claims may be evaluated.
All citations from the Koran are informed by the translations of M.A.S. Abdel Haleem and Yusuf ‘Ali, with my own alterations based on consultation of the original.
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Notes
John Kelsay, Arguing the Just War in Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007).
See al-Mawardi, The Ordinances of Government, trans. Wafaa H. Wahba (Reading, U.K.: Garnet Publishing, 1996), 32, 36. Cf. al-Shaybani (d. 804/5), as translated in Majid Khadduri, The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani’s Siyar (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966), especially 101–102.
See James L. Gelvin, “Al-Qaeda and Anarchism,” Terrorism and Political Violence 20 (2008): 563–81
Bassam Tibi, “Political Islam as a Forum of Religious Fundamentalism and the Religionisation of Politics,” in Totalitarian Movements and Political Ideologies 10/2 (June 2009): 97–120.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, “Commander’s Initial Assessment,” August 30, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/world/asia/21afghan.html?ref=asia (accessed November 25, 2010); cf. also “Petraeus Takes Command in Afghanistan, Pledging Victory,” at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/04/AR2010070402479.html (accessed November 25, 2010).
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© 2014 Simeon O. Ilesanmi, Win-Chiat Lee, and J. Wilson Parker
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Kelsay, J. (2014). The Just War Argument in Islam (Who’s Up? Who’s Down?). In: Ilesanmi, S.O., Lee, WC., Parker, J.W. (eds) The Rule of Law and the Rule of God. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137447760_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137447760_8
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