This paper deals with some Arab literary texts of the 19th century which take into
consideration questions of an ethical, juridical and political order arising from a
comparison with such themes in the West, especially with regard to the concepts
of freedom, equality and justice. These themes are not extraneous to Islam but
they are rethought out and readapted by Ṭahṭāwī, Zakī and Kawākibī in the light
of the process of renewal that was taking place at the time in every aspect of life
in the Arab world – cultural, political and religious – during the decisive historical
phase of Nahda (Rebirth) in which the modern concept of watan (Fatherland)
was coming into being and in which the dictates of the law and jurisprudence
were coming under scrutiny. Although there are differences between them, the
works examined in this paper are all perfectly in line with the idea of law proper
to classical Islam in which a plurality of interpretations was considered a positive
factor. This tendency acquires a special value when compared with the prevalent
interpretative orientation that šarī‘a, has assumed today. By now it has become a
rigid, crystallized corpus that has taken on the function of legitimizing political
regimes that claim their own independence of opinion but completely distort
the spirit and significance of Islam.
