ABSTRACT
No account of Muslim thinking on this subject, however, would be complete without due attention to the contributions of the Muslim philosophical tradition (falsafa) and, for lack of a better term, the belle-lettrists who often expressed a conception of the law and its relationship to the state from the perspective of the practical statesman rather than the philosopher, theologian, or jurist. Space constraints, however, have made it impossible to devote even cursory attention to their views of the Sharia and the state.
