Contemporary IJTIHĀD and the Question of Naturalization : Ethical Implications in Light of the Shift to the Modern Nation-State Context

Accounting for the shift from the premodern to the modern nation-state context, this thesis seeks to highlight some of the ethical implications that stem from contemporary fiqhī approaches (Islamic jurisprudential approaches) towards the issue of naturalization on how we morally evaluate individual political actions. By arguing for the need to centralize the research around political membership and not citizenship, this thesis traces fiqhī deliberations on political membership within the pre-modern and modern nation-state context to explore ethical implications that arise from contemporary fiqhī approaches towards the issue of naturalization. It addresses this by first contextualizing and problematizing the adoption of premodern concepts onto our contemporary reality, analyzing the purpose of governance within each context, and discussing the purpose, role, and implications of political membership under each. The second chapter explores the positions of the four Sunnī mad̲h̲āhib (legal schools of thought) around the issue of Muslims residing in dār al-kufr, serving as a premise to the third chapter which illustrates how contemporary fiqhī approaches towards naturalization which arguably reflect the absence of a sufficient theoretical framework for Muslim political membership, have resulted in ethical implications towards how we morally evaluate the question of Muslim political participation in relation to the rights and obligations of Muslims under the nation- state paradigm. In doing so, it argues for the need for greater theorization and understanding around Muslim political membership in the nation-state context that can help us grapple with fundamental questions around what political membership means for Muslims in the modern nation-state context in relation to their human existential function.