Baber Johansen

49
indicates that the legal validity of the act is not important for the heavenly reward,
whereas the niyya is decisive for it. On p. 23 he lists the acts that are valid without
niyya and can, therefore, also be performed by non-Muslims. But his texts also
shows the tendency to extend the notion of the cultic acts far beyond prayer, fasting,
alms-tax, and pilgrimage through the use of metaphoric language.
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
NawawÐ, al-MajmÙÝ, vol. I, pp. 362.
Ibid., vol. III, pp. 5-6.
Abū al-BaqÁÞ AyyÙb b. MÙsÁ al-ÍusaynÐ al-KaffawÐ, al-KulliyyÁt. MuÝjam fi l-
muÒÔalaÎÁt wa l-furÙq al-lughawiyya eds. ÝAdnÁn DarwÐsh and MuÎammad al-MaÒrÐ
(Beirut: MuÞassasat al-risÁla, ,1993/1413), p. 583.
Ibn ÝÀbidÐn, Radd al-muÎtÁr ÝalÁ al-durr al-mukhtÁr, vol. I, p. 78, see also pp. 144-
145.
Ibid., vol. I, p. 78.
Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1964; repr. 1971), p. 208, writes: "As regards the formal character of positive law,
the sociology of law contrasts two extreme cases. One is that of an objective law
which guarantees the subjective right of individuals; such a law is, in the last resort,
the sum total of the personal privileges of all individuals. The opposite case is that of
a law which reduces itself to administration, which is the sum total of particular
commands. Islamic Law belongs to the first type, and that agrees with what the
examination of the structure of Islamic ‘public law’ has shown." Schacht is
definitely right in stressing the importance of subjective, individual rights in Islamic
law. There are also one-sided obligations in Islamic law that one cannot simply
disregard. The cult certainly knows many of them and thus justifies the use of
deontology as an analytical tool, but that cannot go so far as to ignore the many
ways in which Islamic law guarantees individual rights and in which the discussion
of the cult opens perspectives for individual initiatives and a social morality built
upon them.
But see van Ess, Prémices, p. 36.
Helmut Ritter, s.v. "Al-GhazÁlÐ," in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, Vol.
II (Leiden and London: Brill and Luzac, 1965), pp. 1038-1042.
George Makdisi, s.v. "Ibn ÝAqÐl, Abu l-WafÁÞ," in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New
Edition, Vol. III, pp. 698-700.
AbÙ ÍÁmid MuÎammad ibn MuÎammad al-GhazÁlÐ, Al-MustaÒfÁ min Ýilm al-uÒÙl
(Cairo: MaÔbaÝat MuÎammad, 1356/1937), p. 3.
Ibid., p. 4. I choose this translation of akwÁn following van Ess, Theologie und
Geschichte, vol. IV, pp. 128-129.
GhazÁlÐ, MustaÒfÁ, p. 4.
Ibid., p.4.
Ibid., p.5.
Ibn ÝAqÐl, al-WÁÃiÎ, vol. I, p. 2.