ABSTRACT
One of the main characteristics of “modernity” in the view of modernisation theorists, is the separation of the world into differentiated spheres like religion, economy, politics, and aesthetics, while the “traditional” world view was holistic, linking these fields so that what is “good” in religion is also “good” or “beautiful” in the other systems (cf. e.g. Kwark 2004, 128-129). The term “Islamic la w” would in itself be an example of such a holistic merging of two spheres, conflating a person’s faith with his rights, or even three, if “law” is seen as a natural aspect of state politics that in a modern differentiated system should not be separated from religion, in its institutions and its rules.
