A Revolution in Social Sciences
Asad Zaman
Dear Friend Assalamo Alaikum and Ramazan Mubarak.
The last 'ashra is upon us, containing the blessing of the Laylatul Qadr which is more precious than a thousand months. May Allah T'aala give us all, and the entire Ummah, the Tawfeeq to benefit from it, and from all the baraka of of the blessed month. In this group, I have been focusing on the need to reject all of Western economics -- this requires RECOGNIZING that Western Economics is a religion, not a science, and in fact, it is the religion of worship of the Nafs. Once we understand that ALL of Western social science is constructed on a highly deficient understanding of human beings -- who we are, our hearts and souls, the purpose of existence -- then we can see that this entire field of knowledge is seriously deficient. In fact, as I have explained in "Origins of Western Social Sciences", social sciences emerged in the West AFTER they lost faith in Christianity, and attempted to answer questions of morality which were previously answered by religion. Thus social science originates with a rejection of religion, and an attempt to find a RATIONAL basis for solutions of our human problems. Again this world RATIONAL is highly problematic -- recent Islamic Economics Textbook published from Malaysia discusses and ACCEPTS this concept, not reallizing the Enlightenment Rationality is a LOADED word. To be rational means to REJECT the unseen -- it means not accepting anything for which there is no empirical evidence, like afterlife, God, Angels,etc. Many have seen through this trick (but not Muslims unfortunately). For example, Hausman and MacPherson reveal how economic theory creates the illusion of objectivity and neutrallity. They write that the assumption of rationality is a Trojan Horse which sneaks in questionable moral assumptions into the citadel of economics.
Once we understand that Western Social Science is based on fundamental misconceptions about the nature of human beings (and this is obvious, because they reject the heart and soul of human beings in their analysis) then it is clear that without understanding human beings, we cannot possible build a sound social science for our societies. Then the path is open to "Launching an Islamic Revolution in the Social Sciences". We already HAVE a well-developed social science -- our thousand year old FIQH gives us the answers we need in terms of appropriate ways to construct societies, the essence of social science. Furthermore, upon comparison, it is easy to see that our solution to human problems are FAR BETTER than those provided by Western Social Science.
The SOURCE of the problem -- why Muslim eyes are so dazzled by Western Sciences that they are unable to see the brilliance and power of our own heritage -- is explained in my post on "Knowledge to Change the World":
Islamic teachings launched a revolution in world history fourteen centuries ago. They have the same power today. However, centuries of colonization have created shock and awe the West in Muslim minds. Instead of looking to the Quran for guidance, Muslims seek to imitate the West in order to develop. How we can overcome this mistake, and utilize the teachings of Islam to change ourselves, and the world around us.
Allah T'aala will PERFECT the NOOR of his Guidance, however much anyone else might RESIST this. May Allah T'aala grant us the Tawfiq to be part of spread of the Noor of the Knowledge of Islam throughout the world, to all of humanity and until the end of time.
