A prelude to the media jurisprudence by Hujjat al-Islam Moballeghi:

An analysis of the media jurisprudence (Part 1)

For the deep analysis of the social issues such as media, the first and foremost step is the verbal theorisation about the society (religious sociology); the second is the development of a jurisprudential theory within the society as the topic of the jurisprudential principle on the society; and the third step is self-attention (the jurisprudence of the society).

News ID: 445015

Date: 22 May 2019 - 14:15

RNA - The media is the most boundless social factor having the broadest effect. Media impacts all social factors, it encompasses and influences all religious, cultural, art, economic, welfare and environmental domains, and it is possible to claim that the media is the broadest social topic within the field of jurisprudence.

Jurisprudential approach towards the issue of media

Media is a dynamic and developing phenomenon, thereby the idea of “Don’t approach the media” is not thorough or even wrong according to the jurisprudence; as the media maximally impacts the society without our permission or our intention to approach it; therefore, we can’t approach media through the existing overlapping fatwas on adultery, the properties of the orphans and the books of the religiously deviant sects.  Consequently, the idea of “abstention from the media” can’t be effective, and we have to interpret the principles on the media through another standpoint, as escaping and abstention from the media is futile, and we inevitably come to face it, and on the other hand, the media has the potentials to highly reinforce or debilitate the religion, accordingly its effects can’t be neglected.

Breadth and inevitability of the impacts of the media

The idea of considering the media a human issue bears some effects. Whether we approve or disapprove of it, we are a part of the human society whose affairs are formed/fulfilled through the media. Therefore, if we abstain from approaching the media, it will lead to our isolation; nonetheless, we should be an active part of the society regarding the issues of the human society. Indeed, if Muslims and believers don’t actively participate over the issues of the human society, they will experience isolation; accordingly if we firmly decide to not approach the media based on the rule of “we should abstain from using it”,  it will bear no fruit but coming to see the maximal impacts of the media on all areas. If we avoid entering this field, the media won’t stop from impacting and making changes to the (social) areas and issues. It goes ahead and involves us as a part of the human society.

A problem may raise here: The impacts of the media don't deprive us of authority, thereby they aren’t inevitable. The answer to this issue is that the inevitability of the media doesn’t dictate a compulsory usage of the media, yet it requires us to approach it, otherwise, it will involve us; and thus we had better pre-empt it, i.e. theorise and attempt to convert the content of the effects of the media into religious or human materials so that you can act in those areas in which the religion is absent.

The existing approaches to the media

Assume we are to form a “society” encompassing more than one or two persons. When the contents in a society are changed, even if when the individual has some few links to the society, s/he inevitably observes his/her inundation by the media; thereby, the jurisprudential approach of “refrain from using it” and “sanction it” isn’t viable and if viable, it bears no effect, and it is also possible to impose more isolation on the religion. Not only are any of these two approaches effective, but also they may aggravate the problem emptying the field for the media and persuading the generations pay more attention to the media.

Unlike the End-time theory, there stands the view believing that during the occultation of the Innocent Imam, the religion can have some participation in the society and control/manage some parts like the media. There are an abundance of [mutual] opportunities available on the media: They can be both employed by the religion or against the societal position of the religion.

To be continued

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