Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers

Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers

An Analysis of the Concept of Lifestyle and Its Theoretical Foundations Based on Tabataba’i’s Theory of Iʿtibārāt (Conventional Constructs)

Document Type : Research Article / Original Article

Author
Amanallah Fasihi
PhD in Sociology, Al-Mustafa International University, Kabul, Afghanistan.
10.22059/jstmt.2026.408295.1855
Abstract
Explaining how inner needs are transformed into behavioral patterns and stable external structures within the phenomenon of lifestyle constitutes one of the fundamental issues in social studies. Accordingly, the present study seeks to explain the nature, logic of transformation, and criteria for evaluating lifestyle, with the aim of providing a philosophical explanation and a sociological formulation of this concept based on Mohammad Hossein Tabataba’i’s theory of iʿtibārāt (conventional constructs). The theoretical framework of the study was developed by extracting insights from the views of modern thinkers and organizing them into a four-dimensional model. The research employs a descriptive–analytical method and applies the methodology of rational reconstruction. The findings indicate that lifestyle is a systematic configuration of constructed oughts and the product of the longitudinal interaction among innate needs, emotions, and practical reason. Through the mechanism of iʿtibār-making (the formation of conventional constructs), practical reason establishes a bridge between inner feeling and external action, thereby providing lifestyle with its binding force. Moreover, the formation of social lifestyles is rooted in the desire for existential development and in the dialectic between the principle of utilization and the imperative of justice. Ultimately, the plurality of lifestyles does not result from the relativity of truth; rather, it arises from the diversity of variable iʿtibārāt (conventional constructs), which develop on the basis of fixed iʿtibārāt (conventional constructs) in order to observe the principle of ease, adapt to the environment, and correspond to social position. The capacity of this theory to explain emerging phenomena, particularly digital lifestyle and the redefinition of the principle of utilization by artificial-intelligence algorithms, is also examined. In the domain of pathology, false lifestyles emerge as a result of the subjugation of practical reason by the estimative faculty. Despite their instrumental efficacy, such lifestyles are characterized by ultimate purposelessness. This deviation can be prevented through an interactive combination of the constants of religion and innate disposition, the authority of the wali al-amr, and the dynamism of social thought and collective ijtihād.
Keywords
Existential Development
Iʿtibārāt (Conventional Constructs)
Lifestyle
Mohammad Hossein Tabataba’i
Principle of Utilization
Rational Reconstruction
Ultimate Purposelessness
Subjects
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Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers
Volume 16, Issue 3
Summer 2026
Pages 43-67

  • Receive Date 20 December 2025
  • Revise Date 01 March 2026
  • Accept Date 30 May 2026
  • Publish Date 23 September 2026