Al-Daleel

This study deals with humanism in the Western and Arab contexts, and the ambiguities and problems that the concept of (humanism) has. The study highlights the difference, in perception, between the two by showing the authoritative and conceptual bases on which it was built, whether in the Western or Arab deliberation. The study also discusses this topic, using examples from both contexts; examples that we have chosen just as samples but not the whole, to give a general perception about this issue. In the study, we have relied on a complex approach that combines history, description, comparison, and analysis, aiming, as much as possible, at covering the subject in its various aspects. We have concluded that the advent of humanism dates back to the very advent of the awareness of man’s uniqueness. In fact, the role of religions in this awareness cannot be denied at all. The study of the value of humanism in the Western thought cannot be true except by evoking the philosophical dimensions, whose features had become clear during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Surely, the Arab-Islamic civilization abounds with examples of philosophers and others scholars in various fields of knowledge, who had authored works of no less importance and profundity than what the Western civilization had offered to the human heritage, and according to the Islamic authority that is compatible with the texts of Divine Revelation.

Humanism is an intellectual tendency and a philosophical trend that has been imposed on the Western philosophical sphere since the Renaissance in Europe, as an intellectual revolution against religious doctrines that had made God the axis of all concerns, ignoring the human concern. Humanists thought they could take people away from the power of God and make them think they would not be in need of Him. They said that science and cognitive development would suffice, and people could build their worldview away from the light of divine revelation. This movement continued to exist in the West until our present time, when it collapsed into nihilism, absurdity, and the domination of relativity over everything. This trend also appeared remarkably in the Arab and Islamic culture, where it focused on the “humanizing” of religion with all its components. Its ultimate goal was to give a new understanding of religion, violating the constants by following humanistic approaches in the reading of religious texts, completely relying on human reason as a substitute for revelation. Therefore, this study gives two examples of the intellectual effects of humanism, one in the Western philosophical sphere, that is the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, and the other in the Arab philosophical sphere, that is the thinker Muhammad Arkoun.The study has followed the analytical, critical and comparative approaches.

Secularism is defined as a principle based on denying the authority of religion or its authority in managing some or all of people’s affairs. This is based on the authority of man to realize the truth and benefit inherent in this world. Secularism had appeared in the era of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment. One of the most important reasons that had led to the appearance of secularism was the church’s struggle with science, the second was the French Revolution, and the third was the theory of evolution. Secularism underwent two stages; the first was the moderate secularism and the second was the excessive secularism. Secularism is divided into two kinds: the first is the comprehensive Secularism and the second is the partial Secularism. The reasons for its appearance were of two kinds: one was social reasons, the first of which was the conflict between the Church and science, and the second was the French revolution. The other kind of reasons was an epistemological reason, and it was not but the theory of evolution. We have criticized the epistemological reason, and criticized the premises on which secularism had relied. The first of those premises was the empirical sensitive approach, the second was humanism, and the third was the epistemological ethical relativism. These premises are incomplete and can be rationally criticized.

First, the term humanist was given to the educated elite that had been greatly interested in the Greek and Roman culture; the elite that expressed itself through literature, art, and daily behaviors more than through philosophical discourse. This atmosphere was considered as a coup against the Church and all Christian heritage inherited from the Middle Ages. However, all this was done without giving any other proposal or alternative except the liberation from any authority, and the call for individualism, starting with thought and ending with behavior. Humanism believes in the instrumental reason to the extent of sanctification. The ideas of t humanists had dominated over most of the horizons of thought. In fact, they have subconsciously dominated over our thoughts as learned people. So, the reading of books was no longer related to the date or circumstances of their origins, which led to a closure of consciousness among the Islamists in particular; as a result of their strong abidance by inherited beliefs, that often led to extreme actions. In this article, we follow the deductive approach through observing the process of founding the thought of humanism by studying its foundations, and then analyzing them. We have concluded that the best way in dealing with humanism, as a modern intellectual theory, is to be with no excessiveness nor negligence, but through studying it deliberately and criticizing it objectively.

The subject of (humanism) is still a theoretical thought creeping like a swarm of ants in its actions, but it is like the sound of thunder in its effects and results. However, the problem lies in the variegation and ambiguity that surrounds the thought of humanism. By variegation, the truth is falsified due to its change from time to time, and by obscurity, an observer and researcher would not be able know the reality of humanism. In the Age of Enlightenment, humanism meant the rationalization of scientific religion and spreading it among people. Humanism, in terms of science, is related to humanities that take man as its subject, and in terms of history, humanism studies the religious texts, while having nothing to do with the sacred. In this study, I have followed the analytical descriptive approach, taking into mind the chain of historical events; in order to refer to the statements of early humanists, and the different quiddities that the theorists of humanism pursued throughout history, passing by the age of enlightenment and later on until today. I have got to some conclusions, the most important of which is that humanism as an idea free of materialism, atheism and excessiveness is not opposite to Islam. Yet, with its depth in Western philosophies, it may change; and therefore, the Islamic judgment on it may change too. Moreover, we should ponder on what have come about man in the Islamic Mission. In the Holy Qur’an, it is highly focused on the dignity of man in particular. It is necessary to stand against the thought of humanism if it would mislead man and make him submit to fancies, materialism, empirical knowledge, pleasures, whims, and lusts.

Modern philosophy suffers from the infiltration of atheistic trends into its contemplative fields (inductive and inferential). This has led to a state of hijacking of contemporary philosophical lectures, and restricting them into arguments opposed to reason itself, under claims of reason and superstition at some times, humanity and humans at some times, and science and causation at other times. And this had led to the spread of a philosophical impression hostile to all religions, especially Islam. All that is done through artificial dichotomies used by logicians in defining some terms that do not meet together nor do they refute each other (God and man), (religion and humanity), (religion and science) (religion and reason). This article tries to reveal the features of Islam's humanitarianism, based on a contemplative reading of the Islamic doctrine of monotheism, and the comprehensive liberation it entails for man to be free from the constraints of the material world, in comparison with the atheistic and secular philosophies that imprison man in the transient material world and throw him into the trap of nihilism under the cover of relativity.

This article discusses the concept of a religious miracle according to both theologians and philosophers; besides the intellectual foundations and premises of the fundamentals and principles they have relied on to explain or justify the possibility of its rationally occurrence. The article also analyzes and criticizes the philosophers’ position towards the concept of causation in their interpretation or justification of the possibility of the miracle occurring, and comparing it with modern and contemporary causation. Hence, the nature of the study required the descriptive approach in reviewing the philosophers’ different opinions and orientations, the analytical approach in analyzing the nature of their position towards causation in their interpretation or justification of the possibility of a miracle occurring, and the comparative critical method in their criticism of the interpretive view of religious miracle, and comparing the opinions on it; so that to help reveal the common points and the differences between them. The study also tries to compare that in the light of modern and contemporary causation and in the light of modern and contemporary experimental sciences. Due to this article, it has become clear that a miracle, in its religious sense, does not contradict the rational principles and definitive scientific facts. Rather, miracles - that have been proven to exist - must be included among the mental potentials. So, if what is meant by a miracle is that it is not based on a cause, then the occurrence of miracles is impossible; because it is impossible for an effect to occur without a rational cause.

The study of perfection and perfect man is one of the significant topics that Islamic philosophy has paid much attention to, as it is one of the internal religious issues. In fact, Islamic philosophy has given it a new nature consistent with its goals. Among the Muslim philosophers, who have paid much attention to this subject, were al-Sheikh al-Ra’ees and Sadruddeen al-Shirazi . Here, we will try, through the rational analytical approach, to study their opinion about the matter. Al-Sheikh al-Ra’ees sees that perfect man is one who has perfect theoretical power by obtaining acquired intellect, and has perfect practical power by obtaining justice. In addition to this, one, who had the prophetic feature, he would be the most perfect man ever. As for Sadrul-Muta allihin, perfect man is one who has reached actuality in all levels of the self, that are sense, imagination and reason. Only prophets and infallible peoples have all these three actualities altogether. He also sees that perfect man is the cause for the creation of the upper and lower world, and by knowing him, perfection is attained by human beings, and their existential rank is highly confirmed. Al-Sheikh al-Raees and Sadrul-Muta’allihin both believe that the human community’s attainment of perfection and getting to the ultimate purpose is only possible through the presence of a perfect man, whether a prophet or an infallible one.