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Islamic society is a civil society, one that has been undermined by the enforced process of secularization, thus impairing its ability to sustain a genuine process of democratization.

Like John Keane, El‐Affandi, and others Ghannouchi takes issue with Ernest Gellner in his refusal to include Islamic society within the category of a civil society.

Islamic law and faith both play a vital role in civilizing and pacifying individuals.

The Islamic concept of taqwa (the fear of God) motivates citizens to be law‐abiding individuals, thus reducing the cost to both state and society.

Contrary to the effect of Islam, secularism is seen as a major contributor to much of the brutality that human societies suffer from.

This chapter presents a conceptual framework for ideas about Islamic civil society and explores the meaning of civil society to Islamists themselves. An Islamic civil society does not differ in certain ways from a non-Islamic or secular civil society but embraces some of the same values (e.g., civility, tolerance) and roles (e.g., independent entities compensating for the deficiencies of the state). Another prominent theme is that Islam, both as a religion and as an expression of cultural identity, should not be relegated solely to the private sphere but should also be situated squarely in the public sphere. A third theme stressed compatibility between Islam and civil society, arguing that Islam contains all the requisite elements to form a civil society and that traditional Islamic society was indeed a version of civil society.

Stressing an interpretive method, this chapter seeks to rethink democratization in the context of the Arab Middle East. It highlights the fierce contests and counter-contests of Western democratization theory. Its interrogation of the ‘transition paradigm’ and ‘third wave’ democratization is based on reference to the key voices in the field. Against this background the chapter looks at the complexity involved in transposing the conventional wisdom and dogmas of such a theory to the Arab context. Interrogation is doubly fierce when ‘word’ (theory) meets ‘world’ (context, practice). A key conclusion is that it is difficult to ‘normativize’ Western democratization theory, suggesting alternative and critical ways of how to treat Western transitology in its ‘travel’ to the Arab context, and noting the ‘open-endedness’ and ‘complexity’ of Arab transitions.

This chapter expounds on the Islamic perspective on freedom and human rights, and draws references from multiple Islamic thinkers on the subject. It asserts that freedom, according to the Islamic worldview, is a trust, a responsibility, an awareness of the truth, a commitment to follow it, and a dying to self for its sake. According to its literal meaning, freedom is permission and choice, or simply following one's instincts. Freedom is thus the power to choose between good and evil—a divinely appointed responsibility. Furthermore, according to the specialists in legal theory, in its ethical and legal meaning freedom means “conformity.” Freedom is to exercise responsibility in a positive way, fulfilling one's duty in in a spirit of obedience by following what is commanded and avoiding what is forbidden.

This chapter discusses the medieval Western technology that drew from classical antiquity, Islamic and Asian societies, and its own original creativity. It observes that diffusion of new technology was usually slow, and that the old techniques often stubbornly survived and coexisted with the new for decades and even centuries. The chapter notes that in terms of direct contribution to aggregate output, changes in agricultural technology were particularly important, as the bulk of the population was engaged in farming. It also discusses energy utilization as the second area in which early medieval Europe was successful. The chapter notes that wind power had been used in sailing ships, but had not been harnessed in the West in other ways until the first windmills were built there in the twelfth century. In waterpower, radical improvements came early, and during the Merovingian and Carolingan eras, better and bigger waterwheels spread through Europe.

This chapter discusses the first Muslim organisations and mosque communities established in Ireland before mass immigration began in the mid-1990s. Starting with the first Muslim organisation, the Dublin Islamic Society, established by South African students in 1959, the chapter illustrates how an initially local initiative was increasingly connected to transnational networks such as the Muslim Brotherhood in order to secure funding for the expansion of their activities and the purchase of adequate mosque space. The Dublin Islamic Society, renamed to the Islamic Foundation of Ireland in 1990 in order to demonstrate its role as representative Muslim umbrella organisation, also acts as patron of the two Muslim primary schools in Dublin, the first of which was established in 1990s and the second in 2001.

This chapter examines the role played by the legal-religious community and its interaction with state and society in the Islamic world. From the early development of these societies onward, a specialized, cohesive group of interpreters of Islamic law and religion emerged, which held a key position in these societies because of their power of interpretation and adjudication of law. However, the Ottomans added distinct elements to their relation with the legal community by raising its status in the populace while at the same time bringing it under their control by claiming the right to appoint chief judges and chief juries consult to manage the entire legal hierarchy. The convergence and divergence of interests among these agents led to the adoption or nonadoption of certain innovations.

Nowhere was Hodgson’s thought so dazzling as in Venture of Islam of gender and sexuality in Islamic societies. So concludes Jocelyne Dakhlia in her surprising consideration of Hodgson’s approach. Given the dominant essentialist mode under which gender and sexuality in Islam is most often viewed, all ahistorical binaries and patriarchal nudgings, this is surprising in more than one respect. As with many topics in VOI, Hodgson's thought was both original and deep. To start with, Dakhlia introduces us to Hodgson’s distinction between what he calls the hierarchical basis of the Western household, and the egalitarian and contractual basis of the Muslim one. Dakhlia suggests that the systematic character of Hodgson’s thought pushed him to develop his views on all aspects of Islamic belief and practice more deeply than others. As a result, his thought continues to have a resonance with present day feminist theory. Otherwise Hodgson in other respects subject the governing strictures that render opaque certain aspects of the thought of previous generations, it remains surprisingly current in others. In its exploration of Hodgson’s views on gender and sexuality, Dakhlia’s chapter is one of the most challenging in this book.

This chapter outlines the cultural context of Islamic law. It shows that the central feature — the constant negotiation of social ties — is vital to understanding both Islamic law and society. Specific examples that will be treated in more detail in the succeeding chapters are introduced.

This chapter attempts to show how the secretarial profession was viewed in pre-modern Islamic society and how the secretaries have sought to promote their discipline to ensure that it will have an equal footing among other Islamic and humanistic disciplines. It focuses on the influential role of the secretary in the administration of state affairs in accordance with some of the fundamentals of his background and status.

Chapter eight discusses the Islamic society – an ideal abstraction similar to Max Weber’s ideal type – and the Islamic system – a coherent, ordered statement of doctrines. The Islamic society is often called the “umma,” or Islamic community. Its membership is controversial – who constitutes a true Muslim believer and practitioner - especially under the influence of kharijism’s intolerant exclusiveness. Qutb uses the Islamic system didactically as he contrasts Islam against other doctrines such as secularism, modernity, nationalism, capitalism, socialism, communism, and democracy – in order to understand how exactly how these various doctrinal systems fail to match the beauty and perfection of Islam. The Islamic system reflects a definition constructed more by what it is against than what it is for. The key issue becomes a question of loyalty and devotion: those in the Islamic community correctly worship God; those in those communities defined by the other doctrines are erroneously faithful to other (and therefore false) deities.

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to provide a social history of the ʻAlids in the crucial five centuries from the ʻAbbāsid Revolution to the Saljūqs (second/eighth to sixth/twelfth centuries). Due to the richness of the source material, this study focuses especially on the eastern part of the Islamic world. The chapter then provides definitions of terms used throughout the book; a historical overview of the ʻAlid family; and reviews studies the role of the Prophet's family in Muslim societies. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

This chapter discusses the genre of hijā or invective poetry, a cultural phenomenon characteristic of the pre-Islamic Arabian society. It had a special significance in the context of rivalry and tribal conflicts, and was by no means considered sinful or reprehensible even though it was recognized as a form of aggressive challenge. However, this popular attitude towards hijā changed with the dominance of Islamic values that centred on the brotherhood of all Muslims and condemned unnecessary conflict, malevolence and slander. This change resulted in disapproval of the invective poetry, however there was no clear-cut norm for proper manner of reacting to the challenge of hijā. There were various possibilities of response available for the offended person, ranging from extremely violent retaliation to deliberate inaction. Both of these responses might be approved or disapproved by the public and depended on the circumstances and the various interpretations of the antagonist's motives. In this chapter, the focus is on the types of reaction to lampoons. These include: naqā'id exchanges or counter-invective poems, imprisonment of the author of hijā and murder of the poet. The two normative codes of informing ideals of conduct among medieval Mislim Arab elite are discussed as well. These are: the traditional ‘code’ of honour and the ‘code’ based on the legal and ethical precepts of Islam.

This chapter discusses the ʻAlids' financial privileges, false claimants to ʻAlid status, and the ʻAlids' marriage patterns. It shows that as they rose to the top of the hierarchy of Muslim society, the ʻAlids increasingly married within the family; even though there is little in Shiʻite or Sunni law to restrict explicitly marriage choices, ʻAlid women came overwhelmingly to marry ʻAlid men. Maternal lineage also mattered, much more than is usually accounted for. Cognate relations formed the basis of social and political alliances and could determine and explain the behaviour of a clan. Marriage patterns reveal the internal workings of the ʻAlids more clearly than any other accounts.