The Epistemological Paradigm of Islamic Civilization

Introduction

I argue that Islamic philosophy has an essence related to the root of Islamic civilization, while other scholars argue that philosophy itself is the essence of civilization and they claim that the decline of philosophy leads to the decline of the civilization(1) .  But in order to maintain that philosophy is the ultimate irreducible essence, we must ask them why philosophy declines in the first place.

If this question is answered in terms of “something else,” then that “thing” or that ultimate explanation becomes more essential than philosophy. Then we are led to ask about the essence from which all these philosophical aspects flow. What is it that underlies the many aspects of a civilization?

We can answer this question by saying that it is the law, especially the divine law that underlies any civilization(2) .  A civilization is indeed the systematic set of laws that elevates individuals spiritually and advances the society socially and materially. A civilization cannot develop until the more animalistic side of human beings is controlled, and this is accomplished with comprehensive laws(3) .  The legal system has a twofold function: (1) to establish what is important and beneficial for human existence, and (2) to protect what is already established, by a set of laws, rules, regulations, and punishments. In Islamic civilization it is the Islamic law (sharīa ) that plays this role.

An important question arises in relation to this thesis. If law is the essence of civilization, why do civilizations with advanced systematic laws decline? I argue that they decline because the law itself becomes ineffective for one of two reasons: (1) it is not sufficiently comprehensive to fulfil the needs of humans through space and time, or (2) the people themselves leave the law and respond to their impulses; the law is practical, but may not be practiced in the society.

In contrast to other civilizations such as the Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Persian, Indian, and numerous western civilizations, in which the name of the civilization refers to a geographic entity or nation, Islamic civilization refers to Islam as its core. This core, which is Islam, is spiritual and intellectual. It provides man with a universal outlook (weltanschauung) of the origin of the universe, its essence, its goal, the meaning of life, values, the relationship between man and the universe, and the end of this life and what follows(4) .

A question may be raised: how can Islam as a religion operate as the central core of Islamic civilization and specifically Islamic philosophy? Since philosophy is an activity of knowledge, I utilize an epistemological paradigm to illustrate how Islam plays this central role by stimulating philosophers to continue the search for truth.