The Messiah and the Jurisconsult: Agamben on the Problem of Law in Sunni Islam

Abstract

Although Giorgio Agamben engages Islam at various points in his work, it occupies an ambivalent role in his hypothesis that messianism constitutes the limit concept of the law. This article amplifies that ambivalence in order to explore how centering the shari‘a would confuse certain categorical divisions on which his messianism relies. I first read Islamic apocalyptic traditions with and against Agamben, and then explore messianic temporalities disclosed in the human articulation of divine law. While Agamben’s method organizes Islam alongside the other traditions he engages, the persistence of the Islamic theologico-juridical apparatus instead articulates his political theology as a Christian science.