ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the concern over private versus public is interrogated through an innovating reading of Islamic discourses. It precisely argues that the dimensions and boundaries of politics and religion seem to be fuzzy and artificial as the western modernist enlightenment tried to bifurcate between church and the state/politics. It further points out that the very notion of organised religion in general, and Islam in particular, is essentially political. Such a conclusion has been arrived at through authoritative texts in political theory and psychoanalysis and through a political reading of Islamic discourses. In other words, the possibilities and potentialities of ‘political’ are very much embedded within organised religions, including Islam. To locate the political dimensions of Islamic traditions, this chapter is primarily anchored by two theoretical frameworks: (a) psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, and (b) the discursive field of Islamic history. In politically reading the Islamic discourses from a critical perspective, this chapter takes refuge in some children’s stories from the Quran, and writings on theology and history of Islam.
