Critical Study of the Approach Adopted by Hasan Hanafi to Islamic and Human Sciences

Hasan Hanafi who is among the contemporary Egyptian intellectuals has his own intellectual and epistemological foundations borrowed from schools such as Husserl’s phenomenology, Marxism and socialism, relativism, pragmatism, empiricism, humanism and historicalcivilizational approach; and, relying these foundations, he studies the Islamic heritage. In this view, heritage is not something sacred, rather it is a historical development and a social evolution and there is no standard against which false and truth may be theoretically recognized within it. Hanafi’s historical approach has been intertwined with his Marxist approach and the result is a materialist interpretation of the fundamental principles of religion. His view to the West, human sciences and Islamic sciences is not something new and specific to him; rather, its general spirit and main features are shared by many westernized intellectuals in the Islamic world and should be seriously and fundamentally criticized. The present article is aimed to do so.