Authority Divine or Qur'anic?

Abstract

Any study of authority will need to consider the subject from a number
of different perspectives, including an analysis of concepts and how
bese are formulated, and a study of the effects of these concepts at both
the practical and theoretical levels. The study that ensues does not claim
to be the last word on the subject. Rather, its purpose is to open the door
to further examination and inquiry and to critically analyze the main concept,
in addition to the network of concepts attached to and contingent
upon it.
I shall not spend a great deal of time analyzing the lexical aspects of the
concepts we are about to study, because terms and concepts are two different
things. In a study of terminology, it might suffice to identify the lexical
root and its particular meanings and then move on to a discussion of the
usages appropriate to a particular field, subject, or science. Thereafter, one
might attempt to define the term in a way that gives a clear idea of its
intended meaning. A concept, however, may be described as a term connected
to a network of philosophical and culhual roots. Furthermore,
regardless of the diversity of its roots, a concept will always correlate with
the epistemological paradigm in which it functions. Certainly this assumption
holds true in regard to Islamic concepts or those concepts that are key
to an understanding of the Islamic order.
Surrounding the Islamic concept of divine authority, for example,
there is an entire network of related concepts. Unless these related concepts
are understood, both on their own and within the larger context of
the Islamic order itself, the concept of divine authority will remain
unclear. This network includes, for example, the concepts of divinity, creation,
worship, the world and the hereafter, the divine discourse, the lawful
and the unlawful, the classification of texts as relative or unqualified or ...