Reversing Schmitt: The sovereign as a guardian of rational pluralism and the peculiarity of the Islamic state of exception in al-Juwaynī’s dialectical theology

Abstract

This study presents an Islamic conception of sovereignty from mainstream Sunni theology by closely examining Ghiyāth al-umam fī iltyāth aẓ-ẓulam, the major political work of Abū al-Ma‘ālī al-Juwaynī (d. 478 AH/1085 CE), one of the key figures of the Ash‘arī school. Like Carl Schmitt, al-Juwaynī attempts to excavate the grounds of sovereign power by considering states of exception to political norms; however, al-Juwaynī’s position is the reverse of Schmitt’s. Al-Juwaynī argues that the state of exception, which defines the essence of sovereignty, is the absence of the sovereign power and that the ultimate task of the sovereign is to secure a rationally pluralistic community. Examining al-Juwaynī’s Islamic conception of miracle ( mu‘jiza), the study argues that the epistemological foundation of his characterization of the function of the sovereign power is based on a uniquely dialectical critique of rational absolutism.