Islam in the Modern State as Seen from the Concept of Family : An Example of Egypt

YAGI Kumiko

This paper explores the concept of family in the modern history of Egypt. The focus is on the relationship between Islam and the modern state. As a result of the modernization of laws, Personal Status Law ruling family relation alone remained as Islamic law in Egypt. In this process, the word usrah, generally translated as a nuclear family, came to dominate the legal discourse on family, while ʻāʼilah, translated as an extended family, was rejected. In the 1956 constitution, promulgated under Nasser, the phrase, “family (usrah) is the foundation of society” appeared. While ʻāʼilah, the core of belonging for people, could compete with the nation-state for their loyalty, usrah, originally meaning a group sharing a concern or interest, could not. When the phrase appeared in the constitution, the family (usrah) stopped being a private entity. Repeated citations of Quranic verses in the explanatory memorandum attached to Personal Status Law sacralized usrah. By redefining people as citizens and equating Personal Status Law with Islamic law, the state redefined itself as a guardian of Islam. In the Arab world, secularism, more often than not, means a system in which the state regulates the religion, not vice-versa. Placing Personal Status Law under the control of the state brought the kind of secularism to completion.