New Delhi: Pharos Media has just published Towards A Sociology of Islam by Prof. Muhammad Al-Ghazali. This 245-page book is an academic initiative to free the Muslim and oriental mind from the euro-centric perspectives shaping modern social thought. Despite a clear Western stamp on the concepts, theories, interests, and conclusions that constitute “social sciences,” these are often perceived as “universal truths,” which they are not.
This new academic work by a professor in the International Islamic universities of Islamabad and Kuala Lumpur seeks to debunk the myth that the current social sciences are universal.
This book attempts to critically examine the empirical methods adopted in the modern social sciences evolving in the historical context of post-medieval European society. It highlights the conflict that this method has with the Islamic worldview, which created and sustained a distinct Islamic society for over a millennium. After outlining the singular features of Islamic society, it argues for adopting a new method based on the priority of Islamic criteria of truth and reality.
The book identifies conceptual and methodological inaccuracies inherent in the western tradition and argues for adopting a new approach. The author pleads that this new approach should stem from the roots of Islamic creed and culture, if only because Islamic and oriental societies should not and cannot be understood from an alien perspective deeply rooted in the Occidental psyche, history ethos, interests, and experience.
The book attempts to outline a broad framework for studying human society without being hostage to western secular and materialistic presumptions about the genesis and evolution of man and society.
After a critical examination of the presumptions that have been taken for granted in the modern social science project, the author focuses on the distinctive features of the ideal human society established by the Prophet of Islam in Madinah.
The book is a new primer on sociology. It should be taught in the departments of sociology in all colleges and universities across the world to offer an alternative perspective on the discipline of sociology. The author hopes that this work will generate an educational process towards developing a genuinely Islamic method of social research by competent and perceptive scholars. This work provides a factual foundation for the proper development of a new discipline of sociology which could be termed as truly Islamic and oriental in its premises and conclusions. The book is available from Amazon and [email protected].
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