نشریه معرفت فرهنگی اجتماعی
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 25، زمستان 1394)

Muslims’ sociology is a series set of systematic and methodical thoughts and ideas about social questions intended to satisfy man's needs and bring to him happiness and perfection. Earnest scientific endeavor should be made to investigate the identity and nature of Muslims’ sociology and its difference from other types of sociology, especially modern sociology. This study constitutes a step on the way to achieve this goal. The questions about Muslims’ sociology are based on Islamic principles and have special concepts, themes and issues which have lent it a true identity with a long history. Among the features of Islamic sociology are: ultra-historical identity, capacity for generalization, dependence on the principles of Islam, especially monotheism in ontology, critical realism based on revelation, reason and sense in epistemology, idealism and having a hierarchical approach to existence and social world.

Muslim scholars have studied the social problems and phenomena of their communities through various approaches and methods. This paper seeks to investigate the features and qualities of these approaches and their inter-relationships between them under the name of Muslims’ sociology. The revelatory approach in the lifetime of the Prophet, the traditional, hadith-based, interpretive, jurisprudential, philosophical, theological, mystical, reportage concerning two subjects: history and monographs (itinerary) and oratorical approach in the form of a book of politics, a book of principles of chivalry, a book of Sharia are used for explanation, interpretation, criticism and prescription in the field of sociology or propagation on a social scale. These approaches have different capacities and use various methods. However, they interact and they have relationship with one another in a coherently classified system and so they constitute one specific discipline.

Every social theory is influenced from the beginning of its development by different factors. The social thought of Ash‘arites, too, is based on special epistemological or non-epistemological principles which are rooted in Ash’arite theology. Such knowledge which is based on Ash‘arite theology, revitalizes special ideological areas which consider conservatism and concentration on description and demonstration as the main function of this knowledge. The trends of Ash‘arites’ thought which came, later made Ash’arism lose the capability of having interpretive, explanatory and critical knowledge. On the other hand, this condition brings this knowledge closer to the followers of realism who surround themselves by the barriers of status quo and past events, and cannot dissociate themselves from the present situation and idealization. This research investigates Ash‘arites’ ontological, anthropological and epistemological principles and demonstrates, in the framework of fundamental psychology, the potential they have for producing the sociology of these principles.

In sociology of ethics, the quiddity and nature of morality are realized through the acquaintance with the social structure and system of social action. Farabi, a Muslim thinker, elaborates at length in some of his works on the relationship between morality and structure of society, from the perspective of sociology of ethics. A review of the works of Muslim thinkers contributes to the production of knowledge according to the native Islamic culture. This research is centered on the question of the relationship between moral and social structure in Farabi’s view. After examining Farabi’s works by using a hermeneutic method and asking questions about this topic, the paper tries to answer these questions. Farabi adopts a moral view on the form of social life and class structure of societies, on one hand, and considers the moral system to be influenced by the model used by the government ruling class, employment and labor distribution, peer groups, the style of housing architecture and urbanization, topology and climate, etc on the other.

This research concentrates on investigating the process of the development of social interpretation which is considered as one of the cultural-social changes in the Islamic world in the recent century. A method of conceptual analysis used in this research which is based on study of sequential and thematic interpretations. This method of interpretation can be recognized within the framework of the encounter between the Islamic world and modern world. The encounter between the Islamic world and the scientific and technical advances in the West and the backwardness in the Islamic world, have urged some social reformers to look for a remedy. Having identified the cause of the problems of the Islamic world, they realized that they have no solution other than referring to the Qur’an and reviewing it so as to fulfill man’s modern needs. Social interpretation was first established in the beginning of the fourteenth century by some interpreters like Rashid Reza and appeared in the form of the sequential interpretation of Al-Manar, and its development is still continuing taking the form of a sequential and thematic interpretation. The most important characteristics of this approach: its realistic interpretation, considering social reality in the investigation of Divine message and using a critical approach to the current state of the Islamic world, especially modern society.

Ekhwan al-Saffa and Khollan al-wafa are among the most important Muslim groups which considered the issue of the classification of the science. Ekhwan al-Saffa sought to make a fundamental ideological change in the society and pave the way for man’s felicity. This group has left more than fifty epistles about the different fields of knowledge and culture which is an indication of their important contribution to the prosperity of Islamic culture. The way of arranging the topics and the epistles which makes this work look very similar to a philosophical-scientific encyclopedia, is one of the most important sources of inferring higher classification according to Ekhwan al-Saffa. Besides this classification which is arranged according to the hierarchical nature of sciences, another classification which is greatly different from that of the epistles is mentioned in the seventh epistle of this set of epistles below the one entitled “On Scientific Industries and their Purpose”. This paper, describing these kinds of two classifications, seeks to explain Ekhwan al-Saffa’s view about and their role in the classification of Islamic sciences.

This paper expounds the methodology of the social theory of Ali Harb, a Lebanese philosopher and iconoclast theorist. Using an analytical-documentary method and referring to the scientific and socio-political dimensions of Ali Harb’s life, the paper reviews the early origin of his thoughts. The paper studies Jacques Derrida, one of those who has influenced Harb's views about such questions like difference and signs. Reductional logic and circulating reason are among the important aspects which characterize of Harb’s scientific approach and which are strongly connected with his social theory. Originality of individual and community, cultural interaction, public opinion, role of elites, extremism and social reforms are among the aspects of Harb’s social theory which are the main topics of the paper. At the end, referring to the critical capacities of his views, it shows that there are some criticisms against his social theory.