The Session of Civilization-creating Dynamics of the Shiite Jurisprudence (Part 2)

The Characteristics of the Social Jurisprudence

The rules of the social jurisprudence are not totally governmental, and there may be a Muslim society, yet a minority may live in a non-Muslim country, as it is in France, where a community of 10 million Muslims live with no Islamic Government.

News ID: 443742

Date: 05 March 2019 - 08:43

RNA - Dealing with the collective identity of the man is the prominent feature of the social jurisprudence, and what neglected by the individual one. According to the definition provided by this category of jurisprudence regarding the term/concept of religiousness/faithfulness, the social connections and equalisation of the collective behaviours both are conducted and attained through the religion of Islam; the social links are defined as a religious obligation, and a man without social ties and connection isn’t regarded human; and thus, the man is mainly defined through his/her social dimension.

However; the rules of the social jurisprudence are not totally governmental, and there may be a Muslim society, yet a minority may live in a non-Muslim country, as it is in France, where a community of 10 million Muslims live with no Islamic Government.

Therefore a social jurisprudence could be present in the said country, yet a governmental jurisprudence is absent there; ceremonies of I’tikaf (an Islamic practice consisting of a period of staying in a mosque for a certain number of days, devoting oneself to ibadah during these days and staying away from worldly affairs) and Iftar (breaking the fast) are held there; such arguments are encompassed by the social jurisprudence and not by its governmental counterpart. However, regarding the overlap between the social and governmental jurisprudence, all the rules and principles of social jurisprudence mayn’t be of a political dimension. Nonetheless, there may be some social rules with no political dimension.

The Disadvantages of the Western Civilization/no Civilization is Absolutely Homogeneous

There is no uniform civilization, and some minorities are found within all civilizations. The well-established civilizations are the ones encompassing all their ethnic societies and not based on a single ethnic branches.

Currently, a disadvantage of the Western civilization is that it is based on the single basis of the German race, yet, an advantage of the new Islamic civilization, being arranged and developed, is its being based on all different races, including Arab, Turk, Fars and etc.

The only races in Europe with ethnic roots are the German and Roman, therefore a civilization without plurality has limited potentials. Regarding the ethnic Genes, when civilization is discussed, it is mentioned that a successful civilization is the one within which multiple social genes are allowed to be present.

The civilization-creating source of knowledge should be capable of satisfying the needs a society composed of different groups. For instance, when jurisprudence is meant, in addition to the Shiite, it is required to include the jurisprudences of the minority groups, Muslims and ethnic groups, the comparative works/jurisprudences, as well as the juristic jurisprudence.

The work launched as the social jurisprudence in the seminaries, is to conduct interpretation and reach an understanding concerning the rules that can make advances within the social issues regarding the majority and minority groups and religions. Currently, through the use of the existing jurisprudential legacy, the jurisprudence of the minority groups and races has been developed and the comparative and juristic jurisprudences have been produced.

The Characteristics of the Governmental Jurisprudence

The governmental jurisprudence is also wrongly named the state jurisprudence. The governmental jurisprudence has two meaning; the first applies to the governmental rules issued by the ruler in the position of ruling and governing, which are composed and devised. The second includes the political-social jurisprudence of Islam which has been referred to by the scriptures specifically on judgement, Jihad and limits. And the jurisprudent is here responsible to find, interpret and reach understanding over such rules and orders.

At this point, jurisprudence no longer is composition, but it include reports/news, and based on the principles and foundations. It believes in the eternalness of the religion of Islam, and due to it, religions have a social dimension; moreover, it specifies that the ruler or guardian should be either the prophet or his Ahl ahl-Bayt.

The governmental jurisprudence is based on the scriptures stemmed from the guardianship character of the prophet or Imams (As), and the existence of a relation between the collective and individual identities is observed and confirmed; the governmental jurisprudence attempts to promote the unit of the individual to the unite of the society and government, and besides, the affairs and issues of all the members of the society are considered. There are few assignments/allocations and exemptions within the governmental jurisprudence; furthermore, it is much adaptable and compatible with the developments of the life.

This adaptability/compatibility is not necessarily acquired through devising and composition of the secondary rules. The governmental rules, similar to others, can be both primary and secondary; nonetheless the majority of rules are primary ones. The function of the governmental rule is developing political models and systems; a version of jurisprudence is available that its output/s include/s the products of economic, political, security and legal systems designed through the said patterns and models; such a jurisprudence stands above its social and individual counterparts.

The civilization-creating jurisprudence possesses all the characteristics of the above mentioned jurisprudences, and in addition, it has the potentials and dynamics of the individual, political, social and governmental jurisprudences. It is sometimes introduced as priori whose method, principles, foundations and goals are culture-creating, and whose posteriori definition applies to the jurisprudence which deals with the requirements of the civilization-creating jurisprudence. Any jurisprudence capable of meeting the requirements of building culture, is civilization-creating.

If meeting the needs of the faithful who are present in the Heaven is defined as the eventual target of Ijtihad, it will be the civilization-creating jurisprudence; however, it will be maximal civilization-creating jurisprudence if satisfying human needs, on the civilization scale, is set as its final goal.

Civilization-creating jurisprudence relies on the fact that how Ijtihad and its ultimate target is defined. If Ijtihad moves from reasons towards the topics, it will be a jurisprudence; however, it will be a different jurisprudence if it starts from the topics and reaches reasoning. Unlike the present jurisprudence, that moves from the reasoning towards the topics, the civilization-creating jurisprudence should move start from the topics toward reasoning.

To be continued...

Prepared and Edited by: Fatemeh Tarzafan