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Law and its Absent Addressee: Towards the Semiotics of Sharia

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Abstract

The crux of the present paper is that Fiqh can be considered as a religious apparatus mediating between the spheres of divine addressivity and Sharia performativity. The former may manifest itself as the addressing of a spectral prophetic figure or the hidden Imām; however, the latter may emerge in the form of a responsive-performative discourse characterized paradoxically by the autonomy of ontology, heteronomy of force and pen-ultimacy of statements. By fabricating a sacred archive, establishing some hermeneutical devices (generative and interpretative), and designating authentic archons, Fiqh as a mediating factor determines the ultimate form of the performative discourse of Sharia and renders the spectral addressing into a sonorous imperative tone. With regard to their various semiotic procedures, different Fiqh apparatuses, in Islamic worlds, lead to divergent and sometimes discordant binding discourses ranging from sovereign and generative Sharia laws to suspended divine rules.

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Change history

  • 12 August 2023

    In the original publication of the article, the word should be “fade into nothing” instead of “fade into noting”

Notes

  1. The same thesis was put forward by Jakobson [45] and Buhler [22]. In these theories, language is characterized by a multitude of signifying modes such as referential, emotive and conative functions or representative, expressive and appeal ones.

  2. addressees/addressers.

  3. This belief seems to be based on a qur’anic verse in Surah An-Najm: وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ ٱلۡهَوَىٰٓ إِنۡ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحۡيٞ يُوحَىٰ.

    “Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination; It is not but a revelation revealed”.

    In addition, in Musnad by Ibin Hanbal [39: 406], there is an authentic Hadith in which the Prophet Mohmmad encouraged some companions to write his speech in any occasion because all of his words are described as pure divine speech: فقالَ : اكتُب فوالَّذي نَفسي بيدِهِ ما خرجَ منهُ إلَّا حقٌّ.

    “So, he said: write it because only true (divine) words come out from this mouth”.

  4. al-Shafi’i [73] describes this apparatus as the science of bayān (expressing or illuminating) which is used to verbalize the silent address(ing) of the sacred archive and that of the absent and spectral prophet.

  5. It should be noted that there are some Shia scholars, such as Ibn Junaid, who believe that analogy is an accepted and recognized hermeneutical procedure in the Imāmi tradition (see [68: 388]). Also, Tousi [81: 160] points out that due to undue reliance on analogy, Ibn Junaid’s books have been disregarded by Shia clerics.

  6. Minor occultation refers to a situation in which the last Imām has been concealed by God, but some specific deputies may visit him sometimes; however, major occultation refers to a situation in which the last Imām has been concealed by God till an unknown future, and no one can see him till that unknown moment (his appearance in a redemptive moment in the future).

  7. In harmony with this, Naini [67] also presents a relevant distinction between mashru’e (مشروعه) [religiously legitimate] and mashru’ (مشروع) [legitimate according to public interests] in which the former is exclusively specified for the infallible Imām.

  8. Although there is no mashru’e political system at the time of occultation of Imām, Khorasani [51] believes that people can follow those states that observe their rights and needs. However, no political power can claim that it is a religiously legitimatized state. Therefore, the idea of emergency state enters the scene. Analyzing this radical approach to the political in the Shia religion is beyond the scope of this paper.

  9. haqiqat bud maghz ʔeslām pust// čonān maghz ba pust dar ham nekust// čo bādām dar ŝarʔ beŝkaste ŝod// haqiqat ʔaz ʔān maghz wāraste ŝod [47]. The truth is the core (kernel), and Islam is the skin (shell)// that skin fits that core// when the almond of Sharia is broken// the core (seed) does not need the shell anymore.

  10. It seems that the divine figure of Shāh-mimān has shaped into a considerable part of the history of Yārāsn even before the advent of Soltan Sahak (13th or 14th century) (see [78: 32]).

  11. Imām here refers to both figures of the prophet and Imām in the Shia religion.

  12. “I have perfected your religion for you, and have completed my blessing upon you, and chosen Islam as Dīn (religion and a way of life) for you” (Al-Ma’idah, verse 3).

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  1. Department of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, 6617715175, Iran

    Rahman Veisi Hasar

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Veisi Hasar, R. Law and its Absent Addressee: Towards the Semiotics of Sharia. Int J Semiot Law 36, 2397–2427 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-023-10032-z

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