If beginnings are made toward Islamic social sciences...

If beginnings are made toward Islamic social sciences, regardless of how exactly such sciences are understood, these beginnings will be followed with the erroneous idea that it is these new Islamic social sciences that should be studied in the universities of the Muslim world and not the secular atheistic social sciences of the corrupt West. This would be a grave error because it will be essential for any Islamic or sacred science to stand in a dialectical relationship with the secular sciences.

Islamic social science will not be able to flourish without the study of secular social science any more than Islamic philosophy would have been able to flourish without the study of the Greeks. By relying on an Islamic hermeneutics as sketched above, however, it may be hoped that a suitable foundation for Islamic social sciences may be nurtured that will contribute to a sacred science that has sufficient confidence to engage with the modern sciences in fruitful dialogue.

[^1]: Roberts (2001), 194-195. [^2]: Roberts (2001), 211. [^3]: Roberts (2001), 210-211. Previous…