The Ship and the Stranger

Abstract

Relying on a metaphorical approach aiming to produce effects that could change how the world is seen and to help free Muslims from restrictive and conventional religious understanding, this paper discusses the issues of governance and Islam by using the metaphors of “the ship” and “the stranger.” It argues that both help illuminate the idea of “soft governance” in Islam, understood as an attempt to meaningfully connect a multiplicity of actors from different terrains with complex relationships among themselves in the process of governing with a far more pluralistic conceptualization of power.