ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Hermeneutical Foundations for Islamic Social Sciences Introduction: The Project of Islamic Social Sciences ======================================================= A number of Muslim authors have advocated the development of Islamic Social Sciences. Sometimes, this is seen as a part of a general Islamization of knowledge, while others focus on the social sciences and humanities as being particularly biased by assumptions contrary to Islam.

The term "Islamization of knowledge" was first introduced in 1978 by Syed Muhammad Naquib al- Attas. His discussion of the islamization of knowledge is worth reviewing, since he brings together the ideas: (1) that the sciences as developed in the West are biased in a manner that is unacceptable from an Islamic point of view; (2) that this bias is particularly prevalent in the human sciences; and (3) that this bias occurs because of flaws in interpretation.

Al-Attas argues that knowledge imported into the Muslim world from the West is "infused with the character and personality of Western culture and civilization and moulded in the crucible of Western culture.."[^1] He continues that the elements and key concepts of Western culture need to be identified and isolated.

These elements and key concepts are mainly prevalent in that branch of knowledge pertaining to the human sciences, although it must be noted that even in the natural, physical and applied sciences, particularly where they deal with interpretation of facts and formulation of theories, the same process of isolation of the elements and key concepts should be applied; for the interpretations and formulations indeed belong to the sphere of the human sciences.

[^2] Finally, the Islamization of knowledge is to be achieved, according the Al- Attas, by replacing the Western elements and key concepts by Islamic ones, so that the sciences may be remolded "in the crucible of Islam." According to the nephew of Al-Attas, Farid Alatas, the approach taken by his uncle was influenced by the Sufi tradition, and emphasized the need for proper inspiration (ilham) to inform one's research.

We are really talking about what my uncle once told me: it is the Islamization of the mind. The way I understand it, the discussion is about the way Islam provides the metaphysical and epistemological basis for knowledge.