ABSTRACT
Constitutionalism is the basic idea that the exercise of governmental powers should be limited by a basic law, and that the legitimacy of coercive law-making by a government depends on its observing the limitations and rules established by that more fundamental legal order. Constitutionalism and constitutional theory have been some of the most active areas of Islamic legal thought and practice in the modern period. Constitutional theory, however, points to some enduring puzzles about the idea of government limiting itself by law. Post-partition Pakistan was the modern, post-colonial Muslim-majority state to attempt to define itself explicitly as an ‘Islamic state’ and to enshrine that through constitutional declarations. Abu al-Aʿla Mawdudi represents the apex of Islamist ideological constitutional theory, but the field is populated by a wide range of thinkers. Mawdudi also made constitutional theory central to the Islamist intellectual project early in the history of his party.
