From Documentary-Emperical to the Integrated Methodology of Research in Political Science-A Comparison Between the Secular Western and Islamic Approaches

Muslim Education

Quarterly,

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From Documentary-Empirical

Vol. 19, No.1, 2001

The Islamic Academy, Cambridge,

U.K.

to the Integrated Methodology

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There are advantages as well as problems with research using documentary Advantacres include: inaccessible subjects; nonreactive measurement; d aa. t a . longitudinal analysis; spontaneity; and savings on resea:ch .C?sts. DI~advantages of this method include: selective survival; lack of availability, h~lte~ to ver~al behaviour; lack of standard format; coding difficulties, and bias. WIth 11S advantages and disadvantages, this study juxtaposes document~ry resear.ch 1 nzside the Islamic approach as exposed in the works of classical Mushm scholars to make it more effective in studying political phenomena in a Muslim

FROM DOCUMENTARY-EMPIRICAL TO THE INTEGRATED METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH IN POLITICAL SCIENCE: A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE SECULAR WESTERN AND ISLAMIC APPROACHES

Society.

The Analysis of Documents There are two sharply different types of analysis typical documentary data: historical interpretation and content analysis.

El Fatih Abdullahi A. Salam

of research

using

Historical Research The historical analyst is interested in understanding the past. This partly involves establishing what happened in a factual way. However, historical research must consider historical materials in a broad enough context so that a fair re-creation can

Introduction Political science research here is best thought of not as a set of observations or theories but as a process of gathering and interpreting information. This research process consists of six. distinct but highly interrelated stages: (1) the formation of a research problem, (2) the conceptualization and operationalization of that research problem, (3) the selection of appropriate data-collection techniques, (4) the observation of behaviour, (5) the analysis of data, and (6) the interpretation of the results. There are four distinctive approaches to political science research: experiments, surveys, field research, and research using available data or documents. This study is about the documentary approach to political research. The format of the paper covers the following: definition of the method; description of the method; its major advantages and disadvantages; its uses by Western secular political scientists; its uses by Muslim political thinkers; and then finally 'we conclude our study by presenting some modifications to documentary analysis to make it more effective in studying political phenomena in a Muslim society. By 'document' we mean any written materials that contain information about the phenomena we wish to study. These documents vary greatly. Some are primary documents, or eyewitness accounts written by people who experienced the particular event or behaviour. Others are secondary documents by people who were not present at the scene but who received the information necessary to compile the document by interviewing eyewitnesses or by reading primary documents.' The sources of documentary research may be placed into five broad categories: public documents and official records", private documents, mass media, physical nonverbal materials, and social science data archives.'

be made." .J

Content Analysis Very often a political scientist may learn a great deal about individuals, groups, institutions or even nations through a careful examination of the communication patterns associated with them. Content analysis can be defined as the systematic counting, assessing and interpreting of the form and substance of communication." There are, however, special problems in the use of content analysis. We should take special care to enhance the intercoder reliability. This can be promoted by taking some basic steps: (1) to operationalize all variables carefully and thoroughly; (2) to use as many coders as possible; and (3) to maximize the interaction among those coders.'

The Secular Methodology

]..

What we intend to do here is to clarify the ontological and epistemological assumptions of that method and to provide some examples of writings utilizing that method. Most explanations found in secular, Western social science literature tend to be limited to factors which are only this-worldly, materialistic and non-spiritual in nature. There is no place for God or the Day of Judgment in these explanations. There is hardly any role for a transcendent spirit or soul. Even when we consider different schools of thought, the proponents of each school generally operate within the parameters of their all-embracing cultural constellation which is deeply embedded in the Western civilizational world view. However, this should not be taken to mean that the Western social sciences are monolithic, or that there are no

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dissident views. Indeed, some of the best minds in Western scholarship have called attention to the transcendent aspects of human reality, but these voices do not represent mainstream scholarship and most of them could hardly break loose from the prevailing cultural mould." Therefore, their application to a Muslim context remains doubtful, The Islamic revealed knowledge perspective, in contrast, offers a radically di.fferen~ view of human nature that shuns the prevailing dichotomy of knowledge mto spiritual and temporal realms, as we will see later on in this study. Some of the fundamental issues that distinguish Western social science methodology from other ways of looking at social phenomena are as follows:

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(1)

(2)

(3)

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~oc~al scientific theory has to do with what is, not with what ought to be, i.e. It has to do with the empirical and not the normative. This means that scientific theory cannot settle debates on values. Social scientific theory aims to determine the logical and persistent patterns of regularity in social life. Behind this aim is the assumption that life is regular, not totally chaotic or random. Social scientists primarily study social patterns rather than individual ones i.e. researchers create theories about the nature of group, rather than individual life,"

The intellectual roots of this tradition go back to the French philosopher August Comte (1798-1857), who l~unched an intellectual adventure that is still unfolding today, Comte identified SOCIetyas a phenomenon that can be studied scientifically. Before Comte, religious paradigms predominated in explanations of the human nature. The state of social affairs was often seen as a reflection of God's Will. Comte separated his inquiry from religion and replaced religious belief with scientific objectivity i.e, basing knowledge on observations through the five senses rather than basing it on belief and metaphysics. . Co~te's basic views formed the foundation of the subsequent development of the social SCIences. He coined the term positivism to describe this scientific approach. Throughout its history, practitioners of social science have sought the proper po~ition of their discipline with respect to physical science and, to a lesser extent, with respect to the humanities. To this day, there are within the social sciences both those who think of themselves as scientists in the strictest sense of the term and those with a more subjective approach to the study of society, who see themselves more as humanists than scientists. . One of the most extreme positions was espoused by W. Dilthey, a nmeteenth-century sociologist who believed that humans had free will, and thus no one could predict their actions and generalize about them.!? In its extreme form this view would allow only for the study of unique events and not for explanation and prediction. Emile Durkheim espoused essentially the opposite view. Like Comte ~urkhe~m claimed that social phenomena are orderly and can be generalized. This vIe:vpomt wa~ based on the assumption that phenomena adhere to underlying social laws, Just as physical phenomena follow physical laws. From this standpoint, there was little difference between physical and natural sciences and social science except for subject matter. The logic of inquiry based on cause and effect in both cases was essentially the same.

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Not all Western social scientists, either in the past or now, endorse the positivistic approach to social science as wholeheartedly as did Comte, Durkheim, social Darwinists, structural functionalists and behaviouralists. Many social scientists favour an approach modelled after Max Weber, who devised an intermediate course between the two extremes. According to Weber, social phenomena were not merely determined by social laws but were the product of human volitional actions. In his view, the fact that humans have free will does not mean that their actions are random and entirely unpredictable. Rather, free will is exerc:is~d in a rational fashion, and human actions can be predicted by understanding rational actions." Among contemporary Western social scientists, it seems safe to say that Dilthey's extreme view that social phenomena are random and unpredictable is very rare, if not completely absent. Most social scientists in the West feel that if human actions were indeed random, a scientific social science would be impossible. Further, they tend to think that social phenomena are orderly enough to be explained and predicted. Survey researchers and experimentalists are generally regarded as being within the positivistic tradition. The experimentalists generally seek to establish causality, while the survey researchers look for correlates, if not causes. Most positivists tend to use quantitative techniques. They also tend to formulate rather rigorous hypotheses that are amenable to verification. Not all social science is conducted within the tradition of empiricism and positivism. Document analysis tends to rely more upon subjective verbal analysis than upon rigorous, quantitative hypothesis testing. Some documentary research, such as content analysis, is structured and quantitative, just as some survey research is unstructured, but this is an exception to the general rule. In recent decades the idea of positivism has come under serious challenge. For example, many postmodern scholars are highly critical of positivism and of science in general. Not only do they reject its emphasis on causality and its claim to objectivity, but they also criticize what they see as its dominance by Europeans and the white male elite, characterizing it thus as a "Euro-centered white-maledominated, elitist approach"." At the same time, the extensive and cogent criticisms which have been made by feminists of social science cannot be ignored. Feminists argue that women's position within society is not a natural phenomenon, as Hegel and Darwin argued, but a social, political and economic product, which is reflected and perpetuated by the bias of 'Science' .13

The Islamic Critique The Islamic critique of the Western methods is based on the following: First, ever since their early formulation in the works of Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes, modern Western methods have had an empiricist bias which culminated in contemporary times in the logical positivistic approach embodied in Western behaviouralism. Behaviouralism is inherently deficient because it is predicated on an invalid assumption, namely separating fact from value in social studies. Secondly, through the heavy reliance on positivistic, and hence ahistorical tools, Western methodologies elevated to the level of universal norms practices which are deeply embedded in the modern Western culture, thereby promoting

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them as universal laws. The result of this is that Western scholarship has produced normatively biased research. Thirdly, mainstream Western scholarship has eliminated revelation as a source of knowledge, by relegating revelation to the level of myth, fiction and ungrounded metaphysics. This is a simplistic and a misleading argument. It fails to see that Islamic revelation seeks its justification in empirical reality which in itself is a manifestation of a transcendental reality. Indeed, the Qur 'an abounds in verses which emphasize the interconnectedness of the empirical and the transcendental." The relationship between the Qur'an and Science is, at its most basic, one of harmony and not of discord. The Qur'an repeatedly invites man to study nature and its laws. Fourthly, even though observation and experimentation are vital for having a thorough picture of the physical world, not all our knowledge about nature is derived from sensory experiences. Many concepts are not even derivable from sense experience. For example, our information about distant regions of space and time is not direct. The growth of science is, therefore, due to both experimental work and theoretical speculations. 15

In sharp contrast to the Western civilizational world view stands an Islamic alternative which provides us with a radically different view of human nature and basis of knowledge. This Islamic perspective has the following underlying assumptions: (1)

Human beings are dignified creatures, created by Allah, who is in complete control over the whole universe, which in its entirety was created by Him.

(2)

Human beings were created with a purpose, Allah. -This fact entails the following:

(c)

that is to worship

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The major source of Islamic knowledge is revelation: the Qur'an and Sunnah. The fundamental values revealed in the Qur ' an cannot be questioned or tampered with; they must be accepted as they are.

What follows from these premises is that the Islamic paradigm conceives of knowledge as a composite, integrated whole and rejects the Western world view which dichotomizes knowledge into the spiritual and the temporal realms. We turn now to study the documentary sources of Islamic political heritage.

Documentary

Sources of Islamic Political Heritage

These can be categorized into two major sources: direct, or specified sources, which deal specifically with political phenomena, and indirect sources which treat political phenomena as a subsidiary/peripheral field of study. A cursory look at th.e literature of contemporary Islamic political thought reveals that much of It concentrates on the indirect sources rather than the direct ones. Indirect Documentary

Islamic Methodology

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Sources

These are sources which do not concentrate specifically on the study of political phenomena, but analyse them within a broader context that deals with a specific historical, philosophical or religious issue. These indirect sources include the following: (1)

Exegesis of the Qur'an and Sunnah: the Quran and Sunnah (Hadith) are two primary and direct sources of all types of Islamic knowledge. However, their exegesis and how Muslim jurists have dealt with that across time and space would make them indirect sources.

(2)

Fiqh Texts: For example, I/:I.ya' 'uliim al-din written by al-Ghazali is a manual to initiate Muslims into the contemplative life and to show how Muslims regulate their lives, and so it discusses the rules which governors and the governed must follow for their common good. Nowhere is it more apparent than in Ihya' 'uliim al-din that politics for the Muslim was not a separate discipline but a department of theology (Fiqh).

(3)

Usul al-Fiqh Texts: Deductions of legal judgements from their proofs cannot be based on human subjectivity and caprice. Rather, it is based on determined rules and precise objective methodology, which guide the jurist (Faqih) and prevent him from making errors. These tools and methods have been called Usul al-Fiqh. The general proofs are sources from which legal judgements are derived i.e. Qur' an and Sunnah, consensus (Ijma '), syllogism (Qiyas) and unconditional interests (Maslahali Mursalahy.

('ibadah)

Knowing Allah and identifying his unmatchable noble attributes; Feeling the awesomeness of His power and infinite mercy, with the result of being filled with unbounded reverence and love for Him; and Acting according to His command as they settle on earth and take charge of their duties of utilizing and caring for it (imnran and istikhlafy.

(3)

Human beings are accountable to Allah for everything they do. Allah is the sole Lawgiver and human beings must strictly abide by His laws in their capacity as vicegerents.

(4)

Knowledge in the Qur'anic concept is linked to fruitful work and good conduct. Knowledge from an Islamic perspective has purposes (maqasidy; it is an activity of understanding and implementing the mission and trust of vicegerency (istikhlaj). Without this meaning, knowledge becomes an ordinary mundane thing used for just worldly benefits.

In this respect Muslim scholars, whether Usuli or Faqih, need to possess the tool and faculty of Ijtihad. This can be gained after the realization of the following requirements:

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(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

(4)

(5)

(6)

Talks and sermons by the Khulafa' al-Riishidun (the Rightly Guided Caliphs) and their messages to Provincial Governors: These sources would, likewise, include messages for jurists addressed to rulers like that of Imam Malik to Harun al-Rashid. Al-Qalqashandi collected these messages in a book titled Subh. al-a 'sha fi sina 'at al-insha'. A representative messaze of this kind was Imam 'Ali ibn Abi Talib's to al-Ashtar al-Nahkai wh:n he appointed him as governor (wali) of Egypt. In that 'letter of appointment' Imam 'Ali commanded al-Ashtar to be accessible to the ruled, advised him how to choose his subordinates, how to construct rapport with the ruled and to observe justice ('adl) , He also alerted him to eliminate monopoly over basic goods and to encourage trade and manufacture; the Imam also emphasized the primacy of ensuring security and order as a pre-requisite for the welfare and prosperity of the state." Encyclopedi.c works which deal with the phenomena of ideas and topics: Representative examples of this type of documentary source are alQalqashandi's work Subh. al-a'sha, Ibn Muflih's Al-Adab al-Shar'i and the works of Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, These works include chapters on political phenomena, for example, Ibn Muflih's book includes chapters on each of the following issues: shura, bai'ah, 'adl, imamat and hisbah. Historical texts: As far as the exposition of political phenomena concerned, history books can be categorized under the following: (a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Thorough knowledge of the Qur' an and Sunnah. Knowledge of Arabic language and grammar. Knowledge of the situations and circumstances in which verses are revealed. Knowledge of Usat al-Fiqh. Knowledge of the greatpurposes imaqasidy of Shari'ah. Possession of faculties concerning Fiqh.

is

Texts of general history: These are texts with chronicles for the general history of Islam over a relatively long period of time. This category of books includes a description and record of the development and evolution of Islamic institutions of governance and the logic behind their evolution. Examples of this category are the following books: Al-Bidiiyah wa al-nihayah. by Ibn Kathir and Ta'rtkh. al-rusul wa'l-muluk by al-Tabari. Texts on states' political history: Concentration here is only on the political processes and operations'. Ibn Qutaiyba's Al-Imaman wa alsi~asah, and Ta'rikli al-Khulafa' by al-Suyuti are in this category, HIstory of political systems and rulers: Texts of this category concentrate on the study of a specific state, political regime or specific ruler. Al-Tuhfah al-mulukiyyah fi al-dawlah. al-Turkiyyah, Al-Rawdatain. fi akhbar al-dawlatain, Ta'rikn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab by Ibn al-Jawzi , and Sirat Salahuddin by Ibn Shaddad, '~re representatives of this category of historical material.

History of political institutions, particularly that of Wizarah or Ministry: We need to differentiate between two types of books that dealt with Wizarah as the most important political institution in the history of Muslims. The first type of book is conceptual in nature, focusing on the nature of Wizarah, its classifications, functions and the ruler-ruled relationship. The second type is the historical narration of the development 'and evolution of the Wizarah as an institution. The literature on the institution of Wizarah is rich and diverse, suffice it here to mention a few works: Akhbar al-Kuttab by Dawud Ibn al-Jarrah; Akhbar ai-Wuzara' by al-Sahib Ibn Ubad, AiWuzara' by Khalil Ibn Hassan, and Tuhfat al- Wuzara' by Abu alQasim al-Balkhi.

(7)

Works authored by Muslim travellers: These include fairly detailed accounts prepared by Muslim travellers, which they collected in the course of their extensive travels throughout Muslim and non-Muslim lands (Dar al-Islam and Dar al-harbi. These accounts provide a useful record of the political, social and economic conditions prevalent in different societies. AIBalathri, al-Yaqubi, Ibn Battutah and Ibn Jubair provide us with an extensive reservoir of information they recorded in their travels.

(8)

Social artefacts: these are the products of the Muslim mind. They include literary works such as poetry, some poets enjoyed the patronage of rulers particularly under the Umayyad and 'Abbasid Caliphates, Their poems mirrored the socio-economic and political circumstances under their patrons.

Islamic architectural works represent an additional and useful source for studying Islamic civilization. This category includes mosques, libraries, cities, castles, coins, markets and weapons and shields. The masjid (mosque) was the focal pomt; it was from that place that Islamic civilization radiated; and it was from the mosque that different scholars of thought made their appearance. Mosques became centres of learning-some, such as Al-Azhar and .Al-Zaituna, developed later on into universities. It was around mosques that some famous cities acquired their Islamic character, such as Damascus, Alexandria and Al-Fustat. Despite the destruction of thousands of Islamic manuscripts, the indirect documentary sources of Islamic political heritage are indeed enduring and extensive. We now turn to the direct and more specified sources that deal specifically with Islamic political phenomena. Because of the extensive works in this category, our approach is going to be selective: we will study the political thought of five prominent political thinkers in terms of content, methodology and the extent to which they adhered to an Islamic perspective.

AI-Farabi (870-950) Though preceded by al-Kindi as the initiator of Islamic philosophy, al-Farabi is the first Muslim thinker to have left political writings, either in the form of commentaries or in treatises of his own, based upon the Greek philosopher Plato.

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That he was more than a pioneer can be deduced from the habit of later writers of calling him the 'second teacher', with Aristotle as the first. He profoundly influenced all subsequent Muslim philosophers, in particular Ibn Bajja and Ibn Rushd in Spain, and Ibn Sina in the East. He showed the way to and gave an authoritative beginning to the integration of Greek-Hellenistic philosophy in all its branches with Islam. However, in a preliminary sketch of political thought in early Islam we are concerned only with his contribution and methodology on political philosophy. The list of al-Farabi's works on politics include the following: AlSiyasatul madaniyyah, Ara' ahl al-madinan al fndilah, Tahsil ai-sa 'adan and Jawiimi' al-siyasah. It is the first two which form the most important contribution of al-Farabi. In his political treatises al-Farabi seeks to reconcile philosophy and revelation, a necessary precondition of the integration of philosophy with Islam. AI-Farabi realized the importance of politics in the philosophers' search for truth about Allah, the universe, reality and man. To balance philosophy and revelation is not easy. We should respect al-Farabi's drive to vindicate the absolute truth of revelation through philosophy and not therefore interpret his writing as giving reason supremacy over revelation. He was a Muslim first and a disciple of Plato, Aristotle and their Hellenistic thought second. It would be a mistake to assert that al-Farabi tried to transfer Greek notions to Islamic concepts and conditions or to apply Platonic and Aristotelian ideas and criteria to his own Muslim surroundings. What he attempted to achieve was a synthesis, a blending of Islamic and Greek notions and in this synthesis lies al-Farabi's importance as a political thinker, in himself and as a formative influence on all subsequent Muslim thinkers. 17

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Abu aI-Hassan aI-Mawardi (974-1058) AI-Mawardi was a near contemporary of al-Baqillani and aI-Baghdadi. However, he was an even more important figure in the development of juristic theory. AlAhkam al-sultaniyyali (Ordinances of the Governor) is al-Mawardi's best-known, though not his only work which treats the issue of government. His purpose was to give a legal exposition of the theory of government speculatively derived from the basis of theology (Fiqh) and set out the formal basis of government so that the ruler knowing his rights and duties might fulfill the mandate laid upon him. AlMawardi emphasizes in particular the necessity for the Imam in ensuring the existence of the Muslim community. Authority to him is delegated by Allah and he alone has the authority to delegate this to others. Unlike al-Farabi, for example, legal speculation plays little part in al-Mawardi's work. He is not concerned with a philosophical discussion of underlying ideas of government, which are 'given' and hence not a matter for intellectual speculation. As far as al-Mawardi's method is concerned, a glance at his political ideas would show that he nearly always looked back on the days gone by with a pang of loss and never fully realized the importance of his own times. The spirit of the institutions which formed the foundation of Mawardis thought had really been swept away by the ascendancy of non-Arab Muslims, and there was as little connection between the administrative machinery as it existed in his own time and the old Islamic State as under the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and the Khulafii' al-Rashidun. Mawardi had an ideal before him which had already proved its worth, and he could well take a lesson from the mass of data which had made his ideal state what it had

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been. It is safe to conclude that al-Mawardi was greatly influenced by the Islamic theory of the state and he more or less ignored not orily the foreign element which had crept into the body of politics but also the changes which were being wrought before his own eyes."

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111) The writings of al-Ghazali range over the fields of jurisprudence, religion and ethics 'and include polemics against the Batinis and the philosophers. His works epitomize the whole range of Muslim political and religious thought. His political writings include Al-Tibr al-masbuk (Molten Gold) which was a politico-ethical handbook for royal guidance." Sirr al- 'alamain (The Mystery of the Two Worlds) was also meant for the rulers and discussed the precise ruler-ruled relationship, the arrangements of caliphates, provincial governors (waifs), and the military." In addition, al-Ghazali's political thought is interspersed in a number of other works, such as Fiitihai al- 'ulum (Introduction to Sciences), which discusses the division of sciences into different branches and their definitions; Kimiya' -i-Sa 'ndat (The Alchemy of Happiness); and his most famous work of IlJya' 'ulum al-din (The Reconstruction

of Religious Sciences).

Al-Ghazali is regarded as a Mujaddid (reviver) and Imam or 'leader' by millions of Muslims today because he relentlessly fought against the paganistic trend of his day and was the torch-bearer for the rationalistic Muslim renaissance. He was against the incursion of semi-Hellenistic trends of thought. To him, the ruler is vicegerent of God only if he is a jurist and follows the Shari 'ah; otherwise he is the vicegerent of the Devil himself, and one day of justice is equal to seventy years of continuous prayer." To him religion and temporal power (sultan) are twins, therefore din (religion) is the foundation and sultan (authority and power) is the guardian. Thus al-Ghazali maintains the religious-political unity of Islam. For him, politics is a necessary extension of religion and morals. As to his method, al-Ghazali mostly adopts .the historical method. Like alMawardi, he gives numerous historical instances if he wishes to carry a point he has enunciated. In addition, his preference is to probe the truth mostly in the traditions of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), his companions and successors.

Ibn Taimiyah (1263-1328) Ibn Taimiyah was born almost midway between two historical landmarks: the end of the 'Abbasid Caliphate and the expulsion of the crusaders from Palestine. He was fearless in his exposition of what appeared to him right and proper, and had to pass through prison gates many times for his beliefs. Ibn Taimiyah based all his arguments on the Revelation and Traditions of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.). What stands out in Ibn Taimiyah's method and approach is his emphasis on the ideal Muslim community under the meal prophet who was a lawgiver and ruler; his appeal to Qur'an and Sunnah and not to historical precedent; his insistence on the realization of the Shari'ah. by the balanced Muslim community (ummah wasat) who cooperate with those in authority by obedience to lawful command and by example in piety; and finally-underlying all the above-he assigns the central

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place to the Shari 'ah, The title of his treatise must be understood as his programme: Al-Siyasah al-Shar'iyyah, administration according to and by means of the Shari'ah, which implies that he is concerned in the first place with the implementation of the divinely revealed law. He dispenses with the election and even the designation of the caliph: Allah designates the sovereign through the infallible voice of the community, the Ijma'.z2 As a Hanbali theologian and jurist he was opposed to everything which could not be traced to or substantiated by the Sunnah, and he fought consistently against bid'an (innovation). He is certainly at variance with al-Farabi as far as the latter's identification of the Platonic philosopher-king with the Muslim Prophetic lawgiver is concerned. It was impossible for a prolific thinker of the eminence of Ibn Taimiyah not to discuss the various aspects of the economic life of the community, and we find his economic thought interspersed throughout his larger works and at the same time discussed in special pamphlets devoted to certain purely economic problems, for example, his expositions in the Majma'at al-rasa'il al-kubrii. His economic doctrine may be said to be something of both a capitalistic society and socialism in which God is the real owner and man holds everything he possesses in trust for Him. Just as we see in Ibn Taimiyah's writing an attempt to integrate Islamic principles in his political views, so in the case of his economic views he also strives to subject the economic activities of man to a high standard based on Islamic principles and morality.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)

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Ibn Khaldun propounded a theory of the state which transcends the opinions generally held in the Middle Ages. Not only is the state an end in itself with a life of its own, governed by the laws of causality, a natural and necessary human institution; it is also a political and social unit which alone makes human civilization possible. It is this human civilization which is the subject of his "new science of history". In the Muqaddimah (Introduction) he composed a theory, not of theology, but of civilization founded on Islamic principles. His political theory is part of his description of 'Umrnn, in the specific sense of 'Civilization'. Ibn Khalduns empiricism, manifest in his 'new science', is matched by his traditionalism. This means that he is deeply rooted in the traditional beliefs and convictions of Islam and steeped in the Shari'ali sciences. It should be emphasized that for Ibn Khaldun, Islam, in the form of the Caliphate, is the choicest fruit of a God-guided and God-centred human association. . Ibn Khaldun's importance consists in a number of novel insights of permanent value and significance: (1) in his distinction between rural and urban life, and the necessity of the latter for the emergence of civilization and state; (2) in his postulating the 'asabiyyah (tribalism) as the principle driving force of political action; (3) in his projection of Islam into a universal human civilization, thus standing on the earth in an Islamic environment and looking out towards humanity at large; (4) in his realization of the causal interdependence of the several factors of social life in the power-state: economic, military, cultural and religious; (5) analysis of an Islamic Mulk whose laws are made of the Shari 'an as well as manmade laws; (6) in his recognition of the vital part which religion should play in the life of the state, especially if it transforms the 'asabiyyah into a durable, cohesive

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spiritual motive power; and (7) in that he postulates a causal law for the state which determines its development in a cycle of origin, growth, peak, decline and fall.

Ibn Khaldun's method of argument is, to a large extent, analytical, but he does not fail to supplement it with historical data. He regards history not as a mere catalogue of facts nor a mere narrative of what happened in the past, but as a science to be studied for the purpose of understanding the causes of the "rise" and "fall" of states. This brief brilliance revelation knowledge,

study of the political thought of early Muslim thinkers reveals the of that thought and its successful attempt at a synthesis between and reason. There seems to be a profound respect for reason and which civilized the cultural life of early Islam and was responsible for

its brilliant success. The last two centuries, however, have witnessed an intellectual crisis of unprecedented dimensions descending on the Muslim world. This crisis has resulted from general backwardness and underdevelopment; all pervasive weakness and lethargy; intellectual stagnation; the absence of ijtihiid and supremacy of taqlid; the absence of cultural progress; a deficient educational system; and estrangement from basic norms and civilization.f The crisis lies partly in the nature of our method, which is confined to textual studies of language, traditions and orthodox jurisprudence. One way out of this dilemma is the integration of revealed knowledge with the human sciences. This is a scientific activity and an epistemological process, which aims at building an Islamic methodology and reforming Islamic thought. To realize the objectives of the Islamization of knowledge, a number of steps must be taken. Their logical order defines the order of priority belonging to each step."

Conclusion This study is a modest attempt to compare and contrast the documentary approach to political studies from the empirical/positivistic Western perspective on the one hand, and the Islamic perspective on the other. This study commenced with defining the basic concepts used in the study of documents; the advantages and disadvantages of their methods; the different documentary sources, and the analysis of documentary data. An attempt has been made to highlight the ontological and epistemological assumptions underlying the Western world view. In its discussion of the Islamic perspective, the study has emphasized that this perspective is value-laden and that it rejects the dichotomy between the spiritual and the temporal realm, and that it endeavors to integrate the two. We proceeded after that to enumerate the direct and indirect documentary sources of Islamic political heritage. The study concluded by diagnosing the roots of the present intellectual crisis of contemporary Islamic thought and recommended the integration of revealed knowledge and human science in order to steer Islamic intellectual life in the right direction.

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For a full discussion of the Islamization of Knowledge work plan, see Islamization of Knowledge: General Principle and Work Plan, Herndon, Virginia: IIIT, 1987.

Notes 1.

2. 1 '

3.

4. 5. 6. 7.

8.

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9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

For more on the primary-secondary distinction, see Kenneth D. Baily, Method of Social Research, New York: The Free Press, 1994, p. 294. For more on Durkheim's findings, see Royce Singleton, Jr. et al., Approaches to Social Research, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 327-328. See C. Hakim, Secondary Analysis in Social Research: A Guide to Data Sources and Methods with Examples, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982. Hakim's analysis of articles published in 1979 in two leading sociology journals of the USA-The American Sociological Review and American Joumal of Sociology showed that twothirds of the articles were based on the analysis of existing survey data. For our discussion of advantages and disadvantages of documentary studies, we have relied on Kenneth D. Bailey, Methods of Social Research, op. cit., Ch. 12. For a more detailed account of historical research, see Therese L. Baker, Doing Social Research, Singapore: McGraw-Hill, 1999, Ch. 9. Manheim, Jarol B., Empirical Political Analysis, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1981, p. 155. The most useful text dealing with the techniques of content analysis and their application to political science research is Robert C. North et al., Content Analysis: A Handbook with Applications for the Study of International Crises, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1963. Ibrahim A. Ragab, Dealing with Psychological Problems: A Partial Attempt at the Application of the Islamization of Knowledge Methodology, a paper submitted to The Second Intellectual Workshop, organized by the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University, Malaysia, September 1997. Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research, Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1995, pp. 26-38. Cited by Kenneth Baily, Methods of Social Research, op. cit., p. 8. Ibid., p. 9. See T. R. Young, "Postmodernism and the Chaos Theory", Perspectives: The American Sociological Association Newsletter, (the Theory section), No. 6:3, 1993. See E. Lieven, "If it is Natural, We Cannot Change it", in Cambridge Women's Studies Group (eds.), Women in Society: Interdisciplinary Essays, London: Virago Press, 1981. Louay Safi, The Foundation of Knowledge: A Comparative Study in Islamic and Westem Methods of Inquiry, KL: IIUM Press, 1996. Mehdi Golshani, "Philosophy of Science from the Quranic Perspective", in Toward Islamization of Disciplines, IIIT, Herndon, Virginia, USA, 1999. Quoted in Tawfiq al-Fakiki, AI-Ra'y wa al-ra'iyah: al-Mathal al-a'lii li'l-hukm aldimuqriuiy fi'l-lsiam, Baghdad: Asad Press, 1962. See full works of al-Farabi in Rasii'il al-Farabi, Hyderabad: Publications of Da'irat alMa 'arif al-'Uthmaniyyah, 1926. Al-Ahkam al-sultimiyyan has been printed a number of times. I have consulted the Mustafa al-Babi al-Hanbali edition, Cairo: n. p., 1973. Ed. by Mohammed Mustafa Abu al-tila, Cairo: al-Gondi Library, n.d. This manuscript consists of 165 pages. Ed. by Mohammed Mustafa Abu al-'ila, Cairo: al-Gondi Library, n.d. This manuscript consists of 112 pages. Al Tibr al-Masbiik; op. cit., p. 10. Al-Siyiisat al-Shar'iyyah, ed. by Mohammed Ibrahim al-Banne, et al., Cairo: Dar alSha'b, 1971. For an elaborate discussion on the root causes and consequences of the present Islamic crisis of knowledge, see Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman, Islamization: Reforming Contemporary Knowledge, Herndon, Virginia: International Institute of Islamic Thought, Occasional Paper No.6, 1994.

17

to the Integrated Methodology

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