This means that the basis of all historical move­ments...

This means that the basis of all historical move­ments, revolutions, and historical manifestations of every society, is its economic structure. They are the material forces of production of society and its relations of production which fashion history and give direction to all intellectual manifestations of a society like morality, science, philosophy, religion, law, and culture. These manifestations change with changes in the mode of production and relations of pro­duction.

The expression that history is dialectical in nature means that the evolutionary movements of history are dialectical movements caused by a series of dialectical contradictions, which are concomitant with those contradictions. Dialectical contradictions are different from non­dialectical ones in the sense that every phenomenon is compelled to give rise to its own negation from within.

As a result of a series of changes caused by this inner contradiction, the phenomenon under­goes a radical qualitative change at a higher level, wherein the two lower stages attain perfection through synthesis. Thus historical materialism is comprised of two basic stands: first­ly, that the nature of history is materialistic; secondly, its movements are dialectical movements. Here we shall study the first problem.

The second shall be taken up while dealing with the evolution and develop­ment of history. The theory of materialistic nature of history is based on a series of certain philosophical, psychological, and sociological principles that logically lead to other theories of ideological significance. I would like to throw some light on this subject, especially because some Muslim writers claim that although Islam does not approve of the philosophical materialism, it accepts historical materialism.

Consequent­ly they have based their own historical and sociological views on this theory. It is, therefore, essential to discuss this problem in some detail, first expounding the foundations and principles on which this theory is based and then the conclusions which are derived from them. After this exposition we shall evaluate the basis of this theory from the Islamic and scientific points of view. Basic Principles of Historical Materialism 1.

Priority of matter over spirit Man has body as well as spirit. Human body and its functionings are the subject of biological, physical, and physiological studies.