The Criticism and Investigation of Historical and Civilized Approach of Hassan Hanafi to Islam and Islamic Heritage

Hassan Hanafi, one of the contemporary intellectuals of Egypt, has spent many years of his life in compiling various works related to “Islam and modernity” or according to his interpretation “al tajdid va al torath” (reconstruction and heritage) and this has raised many different reflections. His theoretical bases are derived from schools like Husserl’s Phenomenology, Marksism, and Socialism and also Relativism, functionalism, sacredness, Empiricism, Omanism, and historical civilized attitudes are the approaches he applies in the analysis of Islamic heritage. In his historical civilized approach, through investigating the issue of “Islamic heritage and modernity”, he believes in a history for every period and a soul for every civilization; it means that the thoughts are born in particular historical and civilized conditions and any thought is a civilized thinking and an interpretation from the soul of its own century. He believes that the nature and basis of the religion is merely an intellectual hypothesis which does not exist except among the historical interpretations of interpreters. Through discriminating between revelatory Islam and civilized one and by putting the revelatory Islam aside, Hanafi seeks to make a basis not to be accused for the sake of ignoring some of the most fundamental bases of Islamic heritage; so he turns to the historical nature of heritage. He believes that heritage is a thoughtful interpretation from the phenomena of every century and a theoretical compilation from its intellectual disputes. Heritage is not a heavenly issue but it is of a historical existence and a social evolution. Hanafi’s historical approach is mixed with his materialist approach and a material interpretation from prophecy and resurrection has been made. He considers the west civilization as a historical and centrifugal one and on the other hand, he introduces the Islamic civilization and its knowledge as a centripetal one which has been formed based on the centrality of domination and power.