Feasibility of Deriving a Convergence-Oriented Governance Theory in the Five Islamic Schools of Law Based on the Hard Core of Uṣūl al-Fiqh

Abstract

The present study aims to assess the feasibility of deriving a theory of “convergence-oriented religious governance” across the five Islamic schools of law by examining their jurisprudential and uṣūlī capacities. The central research question is how an operational model for coherent and just governance can be designed on the basis of shared principles of Islamic legal theory. The study employs an inferential-comparative analytical method within the framework of comparative ijtihād, drawing on library-based and documentary data. The findings derived from the comparative analysis of authoritative jurisprudential texts indicate that, despite differences in the foundations of political legitimacy, a shared “epistemic hard core” exists among the five schools, comprising five overarching principles: public interest, preservation of the social and political order, the rational practice of reasonable persons (sīrat al-ʿuqalāʾ), justice as a constitutive condition, and public oversight. On this basis, the study develops a “conceptual-structural model” and presents a “comprehensive comparative table,” proposing a “two-tier governance model.” At the first tier, a “Supreme Trans-Sectarian Sharīʿa Supervisory Council,” through the application of “collective comparative ijtihād” within the sphere of legislative discretion (manṭiqat al-farāgh), assumes responsibility for legislative harmonization and safeguarding the definitive tenets of religion. At the second tier, elected institutions undertake the rational administration of the state. Furthermore, a mechanism for addressing legislative and judicial challenges is formulated in the form of a “dual judicial system,” distinguishing general courts operating on the basis of codified trans-sectarian laws from specialized personal-status courts, thereby reconciling the efficiency of the political structure with the protection of religious freedoms.