Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Extended abstract
Introduction
The question of degeneration, especially when a society has gone through a period of growth and excellence for several centuries producing a vibrant and dynamic civilization occupies the minds of thinkers. Ibn Khaldun is a thinker who lived during the decline of Islamic society in the 8th century; he searched for the pathology of this degeneration and tried to provide a solution to open the horizon towards the Islamic utopia. Ibn Khaldoun, with an organic view of society, examines the pests and damages of a society and proposes a rational and religious policy for the stability of the state despite the nervousness. This article expounds the explanation of Ibn Khaldoun's plan for the transition from decadence to the Islamic utopia, and seeks an answer to this question: which factors did cause the decline of Islamic societies and a movement towards the Islamic utopia?
Methodology
Various methods are used to analyze the thoughts of thinkers in the humanities. One of these methods is the method of textual analysis which -using studying and examining the works and writings of a thinke- extracts the thinker's theory and thought in various fields. The article used the method of textual analysis and inspired by the theoretical framework of Thomas Spriggens on the subject of the decline of Islamic society and the solutions to achieve utopia. Problematology, reasonology, idealism and solutionology are explained in this article to study Ibn Khaldoun's thought in the transition from civil corruption to utopia.
Results and discussion
Ibn Khaldoun has presented extensive discussions in the discussion of the pathology and etiology of the degeneration of societies, and the above titles are only a list of the most important reasons, then if we want to complete Ibn Khaldoun's theory in the fourth step of Spriggan's theoretical framework, the most important finding of this research is Ibn Khaldoun's solution. Khaldoun's solution to this crisis is his original and innovative point and a valuable contribution to the state of the Islamic world today. Faced with modernity, the Islamic world is caught in a kind of self-loss and alienation, and despite the serious philosophical criticism of this system of thought by Western thinkers, it is still wandering. According to Ibn Khaldoun, there is no other way to get rid of civil corruption than to follow religious recommendations, and attention to religion and religious teachings can prevent degeneration. Ibn Khaldoun has divided political systems into three groups according to their objectives: 1. Primitive cultures or civilizations whose only aim is the pure life; 2. Civilized rational political systems whose aim is the worldly good; 3. Civilized religious systems whose aim is the good of this world and the hereafter. According to Ibn Khaldoun, the third model is desirable. In his book, he mentions two types of rational and religious policies to bring order to social affairs, and the type of political system is determined by which the policy that the ruler chooses. In general, it can be said that Ibn Khaldoun presented a new approach to the study of life and the course of social evolution with the project of civil engineering. He compiled the new science of civil engineering as the knowledge of social change and introduced social change as a subject of history.
Without understanding the concept of nervousness and civil engineering and Ibn Khaldoun's theoretical discussions related to these two key concepts, it is not possible to understand his utopia and ideal, because nervousness and its function and civil engineering as indigenous knowledge and as the infrastructure of the ideal future situation are necessary conditions on this path. In Ibn Khaldun's Introduction, there is no separate chapter on Medina, but studying this book and the references that the author made in various parts to construction and development make it is possible to extract the themes related to Medina from his writings.
Conclusions
Ibn Khaldun's discussions were raised in the 8th century of Hijri and in the conditions of the decline of the Islamic world. As a concerned thinker and with a pathological view, he tried to deduce the traditions of history and used the method of historical philosophy to teach lessons in order to prevent the repetition of abnormal events in history. And secondly, he drew a model of a utopia where rational politics coexists with Sharia politics, and this is the innovation that can be a path-breaking thought in the post-modern world.
The discussion of civil science and the revival of the view of historical philosophy on the developments of the Islamic world, and finally the plan of the policy of religious and rational integration and his initiative in using the concept of nervousness to prevent the decline of Islamic societies and open horizons for the Islamic utopia were the ideas that are considered in this article. And it can still be a basis for new theories today.
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