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political islam 467people, or the German people. Such a body is usually divided intoseveral different (religious, political, and social) subunits, for example,communities, tribes, clans, and such. An Arab woman, on theother hand, belongs to the Arab people, but may also belong, inaddition to her membership to her family, to a clan and a tribe, toa Marxist umma or to a Christian umma, or to the umma of the Muslim-Believers. A ‘nation’ (sha#b), on the other hand, is a more complexterm as it refers to a self-defined cultural and social body that combinesseveral languages (lis§n) and several ethnicities (qaum) with amultitude of ideological or religious communities (umma), but it isgoverned by a single political system and contained in a unified territory(the national homeland) which are both controlled and regulatedwithin the realm of a nation-state (waãan). We will show thatmembership of each of these bodies is explicitly acknowledged by theBook and that the term al-wal§" is uniquely employed in order toexpress the many different layers of personal and collectiveidentities.Al-wal§"The Arabic term wal§" is derived from the root w-l-§, from which theBook has drawn 217 derivatives (e.g., walÊy; maulan; wil§ya; tawallin;muw§l§h): the first mentioned is in 2:64 131 and the last is in 96:13. 132The semantic field of this verb root contains basically two (contradictory)meanings: a) a turn towards someone or something, and b) aturn away from someone or something. The first meaning is expressedin 5:56 and 2:115:As to those who turn (for friendship) to God [yatawall a All§h], His Apostle,and the (fellowship of) believers—it is the fellowship of God thatmust certainly triumph. ( Al-M§"ida 5:56)To God belong the East and the West: whithersoever you turn [tuwallå],there is the presence of God. ( Al-Baqara 2:115)The second meaning is contained in 2:142 and 17:46:The fools among the people will say: “What has turned them from[wall§hum #an] the qibla to which they were used?” ( Al-Baqara 2:142)131‘But you turned back [tawallaytum] thereafter: Had it not been for the graceand mercy of God to you, you had surely been among the lost’ ( Al-Baqara 2:64).132‘Do you see if he denies (truth) and turns away [wa-tawall§]?’ ( Al-#Alaq96:13).