A Philosophical Exposition

 

A Philosophical Exposition

Dr. M. BasharatAli

The existential base of Islamic sociology is the Holy Qur'an, and hence to understand Islamic sociology with logical causality it is necessary that we should study critically and methodically the paradogmatic consistency of the Qur'an – the source-book of all systems of knowledge and culture. One should sedulously keep in mind that the Qur'an is not a text book of Sociology. It gives fundamental laws and principles of all systems of knowledge including sociology. Unfortunately the Muslims, who alone dynamically derived and formulated more than three thousand systems of knowledge, lag behind to identify and formulate the science of society. It was only in the last decades of this century that this science got existential momentum to be developed by generations of scholars to follow. Sociology which deals with social systems and ways of life, ordinarily called culture, is a highly elaborate system of knowledge in the totality of more than five hundred specialties and disciplines.

With the revelation of the Holy Qur'an, sociology got emergence and it took 23 years for its completion simultaneously with the completion of the "Vahi” (Divine Revelation). The first nine "Suras" (Chapters) of the Qur'an in general, particularly the first four "Suras" form the fundamental base of the origination and development of the Qur'anic social system the initial base of the Islamic social system. These Suras hold out to us an initiative for the systematic and methodical development of the science of society — the science which entirely deals with the social system of Islam, which came into being and kept on as an unfolding process from the times of the Holy Prophet (ﷺ), developing steadily, systematically and methodically upto the time of the decay of the Khilafat. Thereafter, The Islamic sociology took a new turn. The periods which followed where the periods of the development of Muslim Sociology, With this brief sketch we will concentrate to study the social system of Islam as delineated categorically and synthetically by the Qur'an.

The Islamic social system originated from the fundamental factors as found in the Qur'an and hence Islamic sociology and Qur'anic sociology are one and the same. They are interdependent and overlapping terms. We have preferred the term Qur'anic Sociology in order to rectify the misnomers and interpretations of the term by a Western scholar, who, under the caption "Islamic Sociology", has written all those things which are related to the decadent Muslim societies of the past. This distorted picture of the Muslim social system has given an erroneous view about Islam as the highly idealistically integrated socio – cultural system, totally different from all the similar systems of the past and the present.

In contradistinction to this distorted analysis, it is indispensible to understand the social system of Islam directly from the Holy Qur‘an – the everlasting, evolutionary document of the Islamic social system. Another thing which is highly significant is the fact that the sociology which is claimed to be discovered by Comte, really comes into being with the first divine message delivered to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) during the process of revelation, and hence, the credit for its discovery and systematization for the first time goes to the Muslims. Similarly, the charge that the Muslims never identified themselves with social philosophy has been repudiated by me through my research treatise published under the title: "The Muslims the First Sociologists" and "The Muslim Social Philosophy".

Islamic social system is neither an order, nor an ideology, but a social system guided by a super system — the axiological existential base. As a system it has been developed methodically, systematically and with a regular rhythmic uniformity. A social system is always correlated with its interdependent parts, namely belief and culture which, by their depth and super organism make the system superb and multi-dimensional. By virtue of its being multi-dimensional and a super systematic unity, the Islamic social system may have a wide variety of forms, but all these forms are invariably coherently united into a super-systematic orientation. These variations in forms are in response to the varied temporal requirements. This variability is intended to extend laxity in practical demonstration of the culture of Islam, and has given sufficient chances for its expansion and upward and forward movements. Inspite of this variety, no one dared to call the socio-cultural system of Islam by any other name, except the one inherently involved in it. The unity in diversity has been resolved by the unity of the content and the meaning of the systems. It is the dimension in which the individual and groups of individuals — the Ummah — function as the creators, users and operators of meanings, values and norms.

Meanings, Values and Norms which originate from the Qur'an and Sunnah, as elaborated by theology (Fiqh) function in three directions, i.e.,

(a)   As components making and defining the specific meaningful nature of social actions and social relationships.

(b)   They form the directions for the meaningful development and growth of economic, religious, political and familial sub-systems or even — systems. They are the integral parts of the all embracing super-systematic system — the socio-cultural system.

(c)   They play the role of regulating, guiding and prescribing obligatory forms of meaningful actions and interactions.

 

 

The three components are basically involved in the formation and development of the socio-cultural systems of Islam, so much so that one cannot even conceive of the evolution and development of personality without making them available. It is to be noted that the Qur’an, the Sunnah and Tauheed (The Oneness of Allah) are not merely tenets of faith but they are the three dimensional socio-cultural realities. Analytically, we can study each dimension separately. Thus, for the steady growth, expansion and meaningful existence two reciprocal operational processes are needed. A continuous study of the Qur‘an and Sunnah (the traditions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), on the one hand and, in synchronicity with it, a study of the socio-cultural and personal systems on the other.

The ‘Deen’ is the basis of the science of culture in Islam. It is factually and coherently related with sociology. Inspite of their mutual reciprocity, Islam and sociology represent two differentiated universal phenomena. And again, the structure of the cultural system is different from that of the social system; cultural system is the content, whereas social system is the form. Form and content, in contrast with the modern theories of socio-cultural systems, according to the Qur’an, are cemented with one meaning. Thus, the ‘Deen’ including the ‘Sharia‘- the total cultural content - is the configuration of family, state, politics, economics, religion, literature, law, science, philosophy and ethics. One or many parts of the cultural dynamic agency go together to make the medium of their existence. The social system is the form organized and determined by religious laws and ethical value which are imperative involvements. It is to be noted that the social system is the agent or contributor and continuator, but not the creator of the cultural system. The social system in Islam is divided into two correlated parts - the Ummah (The groups and communities) and the Millat (The greater society or the total aggregate of communities or groups) which are linked with cultural systems, particularly with those of values and meanings. They are not created by the social system. As agencies of cultural system two types of social systems have been referred to by the Qur’an:

1.     The continuation of the special kind of cultural value. According to the Qur’an religion, belief and faith rank predominately high.

2.     All kinds of cultural values, such as family and states. The values are again divided into two parts —- (a) the basis or (a) the basic or fundamental of established meaning (Muhkam) and. They are correlated.

The “Mutashabeh” are to be interpreted and correlated with the “Muhkam”, i.e., the values unchangeable and permanent.

In nature the cultural system differs from the social system. The cultural system is a value system, whereas the social system is an interaction system. The social system in its organization is mainly determined by legal, religious and ethical aspects of human society and their relevant value systems, whereas the cultural systems and, for that matter, the cultural processes have their own determinants, The ‘Deen’ (i.e., the culture) is not only a super-organic but also a super-psychological and super-social system. It has its own genesis and hence the Qur’anic demand of “aminu" i.e., believe and act accordingly. The sura Al-Baqarah is the fountainhead of not only the socio-cultural dynamics, but also for its orientation in the following correlated domains of culturological discourses;

(1)   The life of culture.

(2)   The nature and type of culture as propounded by Muslim ‘Ahle Kitab’ (Christians and Jews) and ‘Mushrikeen’ (Polytheists).

(3)   The structure of the culture — the ideal vs the ideologies and utopias.

(4)   The cultural laws.

The basic point of the socio-cultural system of Islam is adherence to Belief and action. The inseparability of the three system dimensions from each other, is to be noted. The understanding and the systematic cognition of socio-cultural phenomenon, according to the Qur’an, requires as cognition and synthetic analysis of all the three meaning – dimensions and their interrelationship with one another. Thus “Tadabbur” (to meditate on; to ponder upon; to seek to understand), “Tafakkur (Cogitation), and “ tahqeeq” (Research) form part of the study of the socio-cultural dynamics.

“Do they not reflect on the Qur’an or are there locks on their hearts?" (Quran 47:24).

All actions in Islam are social. In this category all those human actions, whether individual or collective, are included which have as main values other individuals as living and conscious beings. Thus “aminu” and “amal-e-Salih" (righteous action) to form one social action.

A lot of research has been done on socio — cultural systems in concordance with their correlated systems of belief and action by western scholars. Much is under way. Quite opposed to the modern theories, the Qur‘an is specifically unique, because all the formulations in relation to socio-cultural systems, based as they are on action and belief, are idealistically integrated. The exponent of the functional school — Talcott Persons, for instance, in his “Social Systems", promulgates that a unit act is independent of the total action system. This means that action, however in unit, can be separated from that of the social system and the social action system. It is wrong to bifurcate actions into two categories — voluntary and purposeful. The Qur’an postulates all actions to be purposeful. The motivation for action, however voluntary, is neither free from purpose nor is it arbitrary. Actions always take place under a social milieus, guided and motivated by the belief system; they are multi-meaningful. This means, in all actions purpose, means and end, norms and volition are involved. An act with out cognizance and involvement of ego is no act. For, in an “Amal-e-Salih" not only cognizance and bare-consciousness but faith and social consciousness are indispensible.

The unit act is never separate from other concomitant units which follow in a serial order in association with one another. Even in the unconscious act the element of social consciousness and cultural milieu are necessarily involved. Though man never acts guided by his peripheral reasoning, yet he is unconsciously and automatically guided by his inner layer of cognizance and egoistic reason. A man free from these essential involvements cannot act. As behaviour goes with ideal and meanings, so does every unit act go idealistically determined by social environment and the cultural milieu. If it is not guided by these essentialities, it will be judged as pathological and anti-social. Thus the unit act will demonstrate nothing but the totality of the observable unit acts.

It has been stated above that the socio-cultural systems cannot attain concrete reality and value orientation pattern without action system. They are in need of a persecution and a solid background which can be made available only when they are all related to the belief systems. Thus faith (lman) and action. (Amal) go together. The tenets of faith are neither doctrines nor mere dogmas but they are social facts to be realized as the original basis of the social system and the action system. The most genetic model of any socio-cultural phenomenon is the meaningful interaction of not less than ten individuals. For the development of the socio— cultural systems, according to the modern concept, two or more interaction individuals are required. Whereas the Qur’an hints at ten.