The Erosion of the Sharia

The great jurist al-Ǧuwaynī (d. 1085) discusses not only the caliphate, but also what comes after the caliphate: the "imamate of usurpation" and the progressive decline of the Sharia down to the hypothetical case of its complete disappearance. In purely negative terms, al-Ǧuwaynī comes very close to theorizing what, in Catholic theology, would be called the legitimate autonomy of worldly realities.