Research Article / Original Article
Rereading and interpreting the ideas of leading Muslim thinkers
Fatemeh Nazari; Majid Zamani Alavijeh; Ahmad Fazeli
Abstract
This article explores the civilizational thought of Malek Bennabi and demonstrates how his critique of the foundational assumptions of Western civilization lays the groundwork for Islamic civilizational renewal.Bennabi contends that Western civilization presupposes a universal truth and views the civilization ...
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This article explores the civilizational thought of Malek Bennabi and demonstrates how his critique of the foundational assumptions of Western civilization lays the groundwork for Islamic civilizational renewal.Bennabi contends that Western civilization presupposes a universal truth and views the civilization it has built as the ultimate manifestation of that truth. In contrast, he argues that truth is situated and communitarian—each ummah is endowed with a truth specific to its collective capacity, and no group may claim exclusive access to absolute truth. These communal truths are context-bound and contingent. Bennabi identifies various factors that condition and delimit truth, pointing in particular to the prevailing spirit of a people and the culture that permeates them as the primary constituents of civilizational truth.This study adopts a comparative-analytical approach to examine Bennabi’s civilizational ethics and political thought. The research is based on library-based sources and uses thematic content analysis to extract key conceptual patterns from Bennabi’s writings.The findings suggest that Bennabi’s civilizational framework imposes upon Muslims the responsibility to build a unique civilization aligned with their own talents and dispositions. His ethical schema leads to a form of “communitarian deontology” in which moral obligation is assigned by the ummah to the moral agent. Within this paradigm, war is valorized over peace, as every civilization must engage in unceasing struggle to preserve its identity. Moreover, Bennabi’s model necessitates the fusion of religion and politics, rendering ethics subservient to religion and undermining the normative authority of Western human rights. Each ummah, in this view, is entitled to construct a legal system consistent with its civilizational ethos.
Research Article / Original Article
Rereading and interpreting the ideas of leading Muslim thinkers
Hadi Salehi
Abstract
The concept of alienation, despite the coherent and shared semantic framework employed by various thinkers in its explication, exhibits significant ontological diversity and plurality, with disagreements persisting regarding its "essence." Nevertheless, these thinkers utilize this concept to critique ...
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The concept of alienation, despite the coherent and shared semantic framework employed by various thinkers in its explication, exhibits significant ontological diversity and plurality, with disagreements persisting regarding its "essence." Nevertheless, these thinkers utilize this concept to critique the existing state of affairs and articulate an ideal condition. Whether the criticized condition arises from a materialist contradiction between two classes or groups or remains confined to a discursive framework determines the idealist or materialist foundation of alienation.In a broad classification, Søren Kierkegaard, Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Max Stirner—alongside nihilist thinkers (such as Nietzsche and Stirner) and existentialists (like Sartre)—can be considered among those who have approached alienation from an idealist perspective. In contrast, Marx and Frantz Fanon have employed the concept within a materialist framework. Among revolutionary thinkers, Shariati extensively utilized the concept of alienation. However, the present author argues that Shariati’s thought incorporates both materialist and idealist dimensions in defining alienation. This, at times, coupled with Shariati’s methodological ambiguities, has led to a misunderstanding of the concept or, at the very least, a lack of theoretical coherence in his definitions.The materialist dimension of alienation in Shariati’s thought pertains to cultural alienation and the issue of assimilation into a foreign culture. A probable reason for this is the conspicuous boundaries of material antagonism between indigenous and foreign cultures. The dominance of dependency and self-sufficiency discourses—and, in their Iranian iteration, the theme of "return to the self"—serves as an indication of these clearly demarcated boundaries. In contrast, the lines of class and material antagonism within Iranian society remain ambiguous due to the underdeveloped class structure and civil society in Shariati’s contemporary Iran. It is in this dimension that Shariati’s views on alienation assume an idealist form.
Research Article / Original Article
Rereading and interpreting the ideas of leading Muslim thinkers
seyyed zakariya mahmoudiraja; seyyed mohsen Ale sayedghafur
Abstract
This article adopts a critical approach to the contemporary crisis of Islamic identity, arguing that the simultaneous spread of takfiri discourse and the advance of secularism—two sides of the same coin—have fundamentally weakened the foundations of solidarity, legitimacy, and religious identity ...
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This article adopts a critical approach to the contemporary crisis of Islamic identity, arguing that the simultaneous spread of takfiri discourse and the advance of secularism—two sides of the same coin—have fundamentally weakened the foundations of solidarity, legitimacy, and religious identity in Muslim societies. The central focus of the study is twofold: first, a rigorous examination of the discursive mechanisms and crisis-generating dynamics of takfiri movements; and second, an analysis of the unifying potential embedded in the thought of Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltout as an effective counter-strategy.The methodology integrates critical discourse analysis with Thomas Spragens’ four-stage model of crisis, systematically mapping the development and continuity of the present dilemma. The first stage diagnoses the crisis of identity as an outcome of the dominance of takfiri discourse and religious exclusivism, which result in the fragmentation of communal cohesion and erosion of religious legitimacy. The second stage attributes the origins of this crisis to the prevalence of dogmatic, exclusionary, and othering approaches, along with a retreat from rationality and genuine inter-sectarian engagement. The third stage foregrounds Sheikh Shaltout’s reformist orientation, which champions sectarian rapprochement, rational dialogue, recognition of jurisprudential diversity particularly the formal acceptance of Shi‘a jurisprudence as a legitimate fifth school and an emphasis on shared doctrinal foundations. Finally, the fourth stage presents Shaltout’s ideal of a tawhidi (monotheistic) community unified by core tenets of faith.The findings demonstrate that overcoming the multifaceted crisis engendered by takfir and secularism requires a fundamental rethinking of the discourse of Islamic identity, and a genuine revival of rationality, unity, and the formal acceptance of sectarian plurality. This necessity is most compellingly articulated within the critical and reformist framework of Sheikh Shaltout’s thought.
Research Article / Original Article
Intellectual, historical and civilizational traditions of Muslim social thought
Amir Mohajer Milani
Abstract
In the decades leading up to the Constitutional Revolution, the introduction and establishment of modern concepts within the Iranian epistemic order posed significant challenges to the authority of traditional knowledge systems. In the face of these emergent challenges, religious thought could no longer ...
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In the decades leading up to the Constitutional Revolution, the introduction and establishment of modern concepts within the Iranian epistemic order posed significant challenges to the authority of traditional knowledge systems. In the face of these emergent challenges, religious thought could no longer rely solely on dogmatic or devotional responses. At the same time, the historical embeddedness of religious thinking limited its capacity to transcend the dominant epistemological structures of the time. This regime of knowledge, grounded in a specific constellation of values and presuppositions, confined rational deliberation to its own discursive boundaries. Interpretations of hijab, produced within this traditional framework and devoid of female agency, often reflected gendered biases and, at times, overt misogyny. Such readings could not endure within the evolving intellectual landscape of Iranian society. As shifts occurred in the traditional structure of knowledge, religious discourse was compelled to reconsider its fundamental assumptions. Employing a Foucauldian archaeological method, this study investigates the rupture and its conditions of possibility within contemporary Islamic thought. By dividing the relevant historical period into three distinct phases—pre-Pahlavi, Pahlavi II (excluding the final decade), and the pre-Revolutionary era—it traces the development of hijab discourses and reveals how the entanglement of cultural and religious norms, alongside increased female agency, has necessitated a gender-inclusive language for its reinterpretation.
