Islamic Constitutionalism

Abstract

As the first survey of the topic, this review covers Islamic constitutionalism since its emergence a century ago, showing a significant range of historical variation. The first two phases of Islamic constitutionalism are separated by a watershed, the late coming of the age of ideology, which began with the creation of Pakistan in 1947, thus predating the contemporary resurgence of Islam by some two decades. In the first phase, Islam appeared as a limitation to government and legislation, without any presumption that it should be the basis of the constitution itself. In the second phase, Islam came to be considered the basis of the constitution and the state. In the incipient third phase of postideological Islamic constitutionalism, we witness a return to the idea of limited government—this time as the rule of law according to a constitution that is not based on but is inclusive of the principles of Islam as the established religion.