Islam: a sacred Law

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vii
Contents 
List of Illustrations
x
Acknowledgments
xi 
The Participants 
xiii
Introduction
 1
The conference of scholars
3
Measuring Islamicity 
4
Conversation: why is the Shariah index project important? 
6
Part I Defining an Islamic State and Rule of Law
1 Shariah and the Objectives of Islamic Law 
 17
What is Shariah?
17
Can Shariah evolve?
19
Islamic law: any law that is not un-Islamic
21
Can we adopt Western concepts and terms into our
tradition?
21
Conversation: does the Shariah have a theory of 
“human rights”?
23
The rule of Shariah: the Muslim understanding of the
rule 
of law
26
What are the
Maqasid
?
d
27
Classical origins
27
Contemporary approaches to the 
Maqasid
d
28
What is the primary purpose and most important function of 
an 
Islamic State?
30
Implications of a
Maqasid
-based approach
d
31
The
Maqasid
and the 
d
Hudud
d
33
2 Islamic State: Foundations
 36
Does the Qur’an require Muslims to establish a state or 
any political order? 
36
How did the term “Islamic State” arise? 
38
Have we always called ourselves Muslims and our
institutions 
Islamic? 
39

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viii
Contents
How did the term “Islamic State” become an entrenched
concept in contemporary discourse? 
39
Can a state be Muslim?
42