Abstract:
From an/the Islamic perspective, there is nothing outside of Islam, i.e. Islam simultaneously covers both what is religious and what is secular. This is (one of) the book’s primary thesis, which is explored through a range of contexts. This thesis is based on the conceptual distinctions between secularity and secularism, between religion and Islam, between religion and religiosity, and between what is and is not religious within Islam. In addition to religion, which includes clear commands, prohibitions, and criteria for what should or should not be done by Muslims, Islam also contains a legislative void space of the permissible or “the neutral space”. This non-religious Islamic space allows Muslims to act as they deem appropriate in the context, provided that they remain committed to the general values of Islam. The paper challenges traditional and widespread approaches to the relationship between Islam and secularity, which posit a dichotomy between Islam or religion and secularity, considering secularity as opposite to, and not overlapping with, Islam. I argue that secularity, as a distinction between the religious and the non-religious, is embedded in Islam and neither is separate from it nor forms its counterpart.

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