On the Term “Secularism”

It is not known exactly when the term “secularism” (‘ilmāniyya) entered the Arabic language and how it spread in contemporary Arabic political, social, and historical writing. Mention had been made of the expression “civil” (madaniyya) as a quality and as an adjective with reference to institutions with a non-religious basis, as we see in the writing of Farah Antoun on the separation of civil and religious powers, for example. This is also found in the characterisation by Muhammad ‘Abduh of the caliph as a “civil ruler” in every respect. The expression subsequently continued in use until recent times and in the 1920s one finds mention of calls for a civil legal system in the 1920s. The term “secularism”,‘ilmāniyya, in its contemporary meaning entered into common use at that time designating then what it means today. The term became established in the work of Sati’ al-Husri and others after him. The form ‘almāniyya has come to acquire greater purchase usage in recent decades, accompanied by pointless debates.

The French term laicite expresses some of the past echoes of what secularism has meant in history. There is the term secularisme derived from the Latin word “saeculum”, which linguistically means a generation of people. In Church Latin the term took on a particular meaning, alluding to the temporal as opposed to spiritual world. This term has been current in Protestant countries generally while in Catholic countries the term of laicite has been employed, one adopted in Turkish through the expression laiklik. This is derived from two Greek expressions, laos, people, and laikos, laity, as distinct from clerics.

A broad conclusion from these two expressions is that one indicates the spiritual and intellectual dimensions of secularism, while the other intends aspects connected with the religious institution as a socio-political unit. But this is no ground for the classification of secularism into two families. Th e meanings of these terms have not been stable, and do not correspond historically to their narrow lexical meanings or to their etymologies.