Society and History

Description

The outlook of a school of thought regarding society and history and its specific approach to them, plays a decisive role in its ideology. From this point of view, it is essential, in the context of Islamic world outlook, to throw light on the Islamic approach to society and history. It is evident that Islam is neither a theory of society nor a philo¬sophy of history. In the sacred Book of Islam, no social or historical problem is dealt with in the technical jargon of sociology and philo¬sophy of history. In the same way no other problem, ethical, legal or philosophical, is discussed in the Qur’an, either in the current terms or according to the traditional classification of sciences. However, these and other problems related with various sciences can be deduced from the Book. Islamic thinking on society and history, because of its special importance, is a topic that deserves to be studied and investigated pro¬perly, and, like its many other teachings, reveals Islam's profound¬ness in dealing with various issues. Since the problems that deal with society and history are closely related, and since we wish to discuss them briefly, it was apt to discuss them together in a single book. How¬ever, we shall discuss the problem related to society and history only to the extent that would help in understanding Islamic ideology. Contents Note by the Publisher of the Book i Introduction iii What is Society? 1 Is Man Social by Nature? 2 Does Society have an Essential and Independent Existence? 7 First View 7 Second View 8 Third View 9 Fourth View 11 The Qur’anic View 13 Society and Tradition 21 Determinism or Freedom 25 Social Divisions and Polarization 31 Nature of Society: Homogeneity or Heterogeneity? 39 Societies of the Future 45 What is History? 59 Scientific History 69 1. Authenticity and Inauthenticity of Traditional History 70 2. Causation in History 73 Is History Materialistic in Nature? 81 Basic Principles of Historical Materialism 84 1. Priority of matter over spirit 84 2. Primacy and priority of material needs over intellectual needs 88 3. Priority of action over thought 91 4. Priority of the Social Existence of Man Over His Individual Existence, or the Principle of Priority of Sociology Over Psychology 95 5. Priority of Material Aspect of Society over its Intellectual Aspect 100 Conclusions 113 1. The first conclusion is related to the problem of study of society and history 114 2. The law governing history is deterministic, inviolable, and external to human will 117 3. Each historical period is quite different from the other period in character and nature 124 Criticism of Historical Materialism 139 1. Baselessness 142 2. Revision of Views by Its Founders 144 3. Contradiction of Necessary Correspondence between Base and Superstructure: 156 4. Nonconformity of Ideological and Class Bases 159 5. Independence of Cultural Developments 160 6. Historical Materialism Contradicts Itself 163 Islam and Historical Materialism 165 Criticism 183 Islam's 'Philosophy' of History 225 Criteria 225 1. Strategy of the Call 226 2. An Ideology's Nomenclature 240 3. Favourable and Unfavourable Conditions for Acceptability 241 4. Rise and Fall of Societies 244 A. Justice and Injustice 244 B. Unity and Disunity 245 C. Practice or Neglect of the Principle of al-‘Amr bi al-Ma’ruf wa al-Nahy ‘an al-Munkar 246 D. Moral Corruption and Degeneration 247 Evolution and Change in History 249 1. The Racial Theory 252 2. The Geographical Theory 253 3. The Theory of the Role of Genius or Heroes 254 4. The Economic Theory 256 5. The Religious Theory 256 6. The Theory of Nature 261 The Role of Personality in History 263