تطور فقه الخلافة في رؤية الفقيه عبد الرزاق السنهوري (1895-1971 ) إلى عصبة أمم شرقية

(The Evolution of Fiqh of the Caliphate according to Jurist Abdel-Razzak El-Sanhuri (1895-1971) to a League of Eastern Nations)

Abstract

Abdel-Razzak El-Sanhuri, who wrote a book about the Islamic Caliphate, is considered the first author who linked the jurisprudential point of view about the Islamic Caliphate and its philosophical concepts and the real practical applications. According to the basics set by El-Sanhuri for regulating the course of the Islamic Caliphate, or the wise government, we can identify the criteria by which the wise Caliphate body is governed and which all the Muslims must follow on the way to restore the model of the Wise Caliphate. Accordingly, whether it is the wise Caliphate (such as the four wise Khaliphs) or not (such as the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Ottoman Caliphates), it is set depending on the degree that the governmental/political system comes close to achieving those criteria. On the way to restore the model of the Wise Caliphate, Al-Sanhuri proposed setting up the pan-Islamic body called the League of Eastern Nations, which begins with forming the Religious Affairs Authority to exercise the religious powers of the Caliphate. This body would consist of the Caliph, the Caliphate Authority General Assembly, and the Authority Supreme Council until the proper time comes to consolidate political powers alongside religious powers, paving the way for restoring the wisely righteous government system. It will necessarily require applying the Islamic legal principles that are considered the most important and difficult step according to El-Sanhuri’s point of view, as this matter needs great scientific and legislative efforts to engrain the Islamic law provisions instead of the man-made laws in many fields of modern life. Surely, it entails setting up an Eastern body, including all the Islamic countries, and serving as a symbol of their unity. The head of the Religious Affairs Authority would be appointed as the head of this pan-Islamic body, paving the way to subsequently move some political powers to it and to gradually restore the model of the wise Caliphate among the Arab Islamic peoples.