Social Sciences in Crisis: A Dialogue with Professor Neil Smelser on the Future of Social Sciences...click
Social Science's Need for a Cultural Symbols Paradigm...click
The Islamization of Social Sciences in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects...click
Sacral Qualities of Form in Mosque Architecture: Transformation of the Arts of the Qur'an into the Arts of the Mosque...click
The Book of Revenue Abu `Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam...click
The Construction of Knowledge in Islamic Civilization: Qudama b. Ja`far and His Kitab al-Kharaj wa-Sina`at al-Kitabah...click
An Introduction to Collective Ijtihad (Ijtihad Jama'i): Concept and Applications...click
The Impact of Western Colonialism and Secularization on the Application of the Shari'ah Law in the Muslim World... click
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Religion, Society, and Culture in Malik Bennabi's Thought
Mohamed El-Tahir El-Mesawi
One major feature of the forces that unleashed the phenomenon of modernity was those forces' antagonism to tradition in all its forms. Tradition was mainly identified with religion. This meant that an utterly uncompromising crusade had to be waged against religion and the church - its formal and institutional embodiment - so that modernity's program to de-traditionalize society and culture could be implemented.
Regardless of the multiple factors that were in play and that finally shaped the historical destiny and cultural character of Europe from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, reason and science emerged as the crowned twins with whom ultimate authority should rest. The reason that was now claiming universality for its principles and dictates was one whose bêtes noires - tradition, authority, emotion, example, etc. - had to be confronted and fiercely combated. As for science, it found its model in physics as philosophically conceptualized by Descartes and mathematically formulated by Newton in terms of his clock-like, self-sufficient universe.
Accordingly, beliefs and values could only be sanctioned if they pass the test of reason and science. Reality and truth are only what can be vindicated by the canons of reason and measured by the yardstick of science. This is all well and fine, but it is not the actual problem. Indeed, throughout its age-long experience mankind has always resorted to reason and science, no matter how both reason and science might have been conceived in different civilizations and by different peoples. Humans throughout their long history have done so in order to vindicate their beliefs and values, to understand their position in the world, to comprehend reality and truth, to regulate the affairs of their life, and to deal with nature and the different realms of existence... read more |
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Social Change as Seen by Malik Bennabi
Fawzia Bariun
Malik Bennabi (1905-1973), the noted Algerian thinker, was born in Constantine, Algeria in the midst of the French occupation of his country. Despite his education in French institutions both at home and in France itself, he was considered a second-class citizen, an indigene. During his formative years, he lived in the antithetical worlds of East-West, Africa-Europe, and Islam-Christianity. Nevertheless, Bennabi remained immune to the inferiority complex afflicting most of his Western-educated Muslim contemporaries. Although he may have suffered from what some scholars call "cultural schizophrenia," Bennabi strongly identified with Islam, its culture, and its history. His childhood education in Arabic and the Qur'an was an important reserve which he developed and drew upon at later age?
The diversity of the social, economic, and political conditions of his people, "the colonized: and that of the French, "the colonizers," motivated and sharpened his intellectual ability. In the late forties, when he wrote Les Conditions de la Renaissance (translated into Arabic under the title of Shurut An Nahdah), Bennabi reached the conclusion that "the problem of any people is that of its civilization." Unlike other Arab and Muslim intellectuals and writers, Bennabi did not use expressions such as taraqqi (advancement), taqqadum (development), or nahdah (renaissance). Rather, he consciously and carefully selected the term hadarah (civilization) to indicate his broad historical concept of the social phenomenon of human life. All of his books, therefore, including his autobiography, Mudhakkirat Shahid al Qarn z (Memories of Century's Witness), and Al Zahirah al Qur'aniyah (The Qur'anic Phenomenon), bear the subtitle Mushkilat al Hadarah (The Problems of Civilization)... read more
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Malek Bennabi: An Analytical Study of His Theory of Civilization
Zahra Boussalah
However, the debate over this issue of civilization is not a new topic that has come to open discussion in the new era, but it is related to the long history of the Islamic thought. In fact, the fourteenth century Arab thinker Ibn Khaldun enlightened the world at large with his deep insights into the workings of kingdoms and civilizations. Interestingly, some studies have averred that the Algerian thinker Malek Bennabi (1905-1973) was the most original Arab thinker since Ibn Khaldun when it came to speculating on the phenomenon of civilization.
Malek Bennabi is a Muslim thinker, educated in the West and spent a long time trying to understand the Western civilization and culture. He believed that the decline of the Muslims is not because of Islam but because of the Muslims themselves. Belonging to a country (Algeria) that was colonized for more then a century, Bennabi looked deep for the essence of the problem to find out if it is mainly a problem of civilization. My question now is how did Malek Bennabi speculate on the issue of civilization and what are the solutions he proposed to overcome the contemporary problems of the Muslim world? To answer these questions, I will first analyze how Bennabi speculated on the question of building civilizations. Then, I will analyze Bennabi's views on the causes behind the decline of civilizations. Last, I will analyze the inner structure of Bennabi's theory of civilization... read more
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BIIT First Quarter Report - 2009
Bangladesh Institute of Islamic Thought (BIIT) has organized several workshops, seminars, exchange of views and book displays for the first quarter of the year. Among the workshops conducted were Workshop on Integration of Knowledge & Curriculum Reform and Workshop on Epistemology & Curriculum Reform with Special Reference to the Quran and Sunnah Studies. The Institute also organized seminars on Reforming the Quranic & Sunnatic Science, Seminar on Islamic Paradigm of Education, and Seminar on Knowledge, Science & Religion. Among the resource persons for the workshops and seminars were Prof. Dr. Israr Ahmad Khan from Kuala Lumpur and Prof. Dr. Mulyadhi Kartenegara from Jakarta. The workshops and seminars were held in several campuses in Dhaka, Chittagong and Kustia. Feedbacks from the participants were very encouraging and they were eager to incorporate ideas being discussed into their teaching and writing activities. Publications of IIIT were also on display and sold during these events... read more |
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