TOWARD A WISE POLITICAL FIQH: THE PERCEPTION OF STATE IN THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF YUSUF AL-QARADAWI

Abstract

This research examines the political thought of Yusuf al- Qaradawi, who is one of the prominent Muslim scholars in the contemporary world. In particular, he considered the vital theorist of Islamic movements and Islamist political parties. He has a massive contribution in forming political thought of the second generation of the Muslim Brotherhood after Sayyid Qutb’s period when the extremism came in front. He is often regarded as the theorist of the Wasatiyyah school of thought. Al-Qaradawi intended to develop a “wise political Fiqh (understanding)” concerning current time, environment, and circumstances in the light of overall text toward an objective of flexible Islamic Shari’ah. He was also concerned about the negative political Fiqh and advised the Islamic movement to reject these negative ideologies in their works and politics. Following this concern, he featured an Islamic state based on wise political Fiqh. His perception of the Islamic state positively approaches modern state terms, i.e., democracy, pluralism, women participation in the legislative council, etc. This paper discusses his concept of state in general and his thought toward a wise political Fiqh in particular. This research is a qualitative content research based on primary data at a large and secondary data in some context. Primary data was collected from the al- Qaradawi’s text on state, where secondary data were collected from the texts written on al-Qaradawi’s political thought.