A New Perspective on the System of Islamic Political Rationality

The pursuit of an effective social rationality is a significant preoccupation for Muslim intellectuals, especially in the wake of the modern era. The central inquiry revolves around the means to attain rationality while navigating the abstract and unidimensional perspectives on reason and rationalism held by Muslim philosophers and theologians, which finds expression in practical wisdom. This pursuit embodies a rationality that not only maintains religious authenticity but also establishes connections with instrumental reason and empirical science. Such a rationality aims to bolster the material and spiritual prowess of the Islamic world, compensating for past inactivity and failures in competing with the modern Western civilization. There are already general studies of this topic, but has clearly presented a theory of an efficient social rationality. This study explores novel interpretations of religious texts and leverages religious sensibilities to apply instrumental and calculative rationality, along with common-sense scientific approaches, to individual and societal contexts. By doing so, it presents a fresh understanding of rationality within a distinct theoretical framework, offering a unique perspective on this significant subject matter. The research methodology employed in this study is argumentative-deductive, and the method of ijtihad is utilized to analyze religious texts. The theoretical framework primarily draws inspiration from Mulla Sadra's perspective on existence and the nature of human beings, while also expanding beyond the confines of the Sadraean approach in practical terms. One implication of this research is its significant contribution to the development of Islamic human sciences and, by extension, facilitating theoretical discussions on the revival of Islamic civilization. Moreover, in the short term, it can assist in addressing governance issues through the lens of Islamic rationality.