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The Great Muslim Theorist of Socio-Political Science

NOTE: As I have commented earlier that Allama Iqbal had the ability, knowledge, and a greater opportunity to have brought about a Renaissance in the World of Islam if he had thought the way a great socio-political theorist and philosopher of history ibn Khaldun had visualized. Here is an introduction of ibn Khaldun’s philosophy, which I believe if Iqbal had laid the foundation of his socio-political thought on Khaldun’s political philosophy, not only Pakistan rather the whole world of Islam would have got a unique political system. Pakistani nation would have been proud of its own philosophy of life and a political system dynamically different from the rest of the world. — Mirza Ashraf

Abdu’l Rehman ibn Khaldun 1332–1406

Ibn Khaldun, born in Tunis, was a Muslim philosopher of history, political science, and sociology, who devoted his life to a systematic study of human sciences and civilizations. He was the first great historian-philosopher whose research provided rational and a scientific basis for history to be classified as philosophy of history. Ibn Khaldun’s Prolegomena (Muqaddimah) to his Universal History (Kitab al-Ibar) is the most comprehensive synthesis of the human sciences achieved by the Arabs. Ibn Khaldun is known as a towering figure in the field of philosophy of history and social sciences during the time between Aristotle and Machiavelli or any other political philosopher of modern time. In his work A Study of History vol. III, the great historian Arnold Toynbee paying tribute to ibn Khaldun remarks:

An Arab genius who achieved in a single ‘acquiescence’ of less than four years’ length, out of fifty four years’ span of adult working life, life-work in the shape of a piece of literature which can bear comparison with the work of Thucydides or the work of a Machiavelli for both breadth and profundity of vision as well as for sheer intellect power. … He is indeed the one outstanding personality in the history of a civilization. In his chosen field of intellectual activity he appears to have been inspired by predecessors, and to have found no kindred souls among his contemporaries, and to have kindled no answering spark of inspiration in any successor; and yet, in the Prolegomena (Muqaddimat) to his Universal History he has conceived and formulated a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place.

Ibn Khaldun brought up on a tradition of scientific method, as a greatest figure in the social sciences with positive outlook and matter-of-fact style, renders him a congenial figure to the modern world, particularly to the mind of Muslims in the World of Islam, which is in search of a political system compatible with their faith.

Ibn Khaldun was a historian, politician, sociologist, economist, a political scientist, and a deep philosopher of human affairs, who analyzed the past of mankind in order to understand and shape its present and its future. For him history is not mere chronicle of events, but is sociology. Other Muslim thinkers, such as ibn Sina, ibn Rushd, and al-Ghazali, who had an impact on Western thought, had inquisitive insight into the metaphysical, philosophical, and religious disciplines. Ibn Khaldun, profiting from these philosophers’ speculations, surpassed them in his approach to social problems and the social sciences. He did not follow Islamic philosophy’s tendency to debate old themes of the relation between revealed theology and rationalistic Greek philosophy. He believed that the intellect should not be engaged in such issues as the oneness of God, the other world, the truth of prophecy, the real character of the divine attributes, or things and matters that lay beyond the level of intellect. He therefore construed a fresh and novel philosophical approach in the form of a natural science. He explored a new perspective, remaining connected with his contemporary genre of philosophical thought, yet setting himself apart by establishing conclusions based on natural science. He introduced a completely new “science of culture” anchored in natural philosophy.

With a legacy of Greek science and philosophy, it was not easy for ibn Khaldun to draw a line between the natural sciences and the positive sciences of divine law. He was convinced that his science of culture was based on natural science and a subject of entirely original social science newly introduced to the Islamic traditions. It relates the study of human society and the causes of its rise and fall. Its different manifestations are a subject of natural inquiry. It is a new and important science virtually invented by ibn Khaldun. Arguing about the importance of history he argued: “Water is not so like to water as the future to the past.” He was the first thinker to have introduced the subject of sociology as an important part of social sciences. To him, sociology is the study of present which throws light on History and the study of past, in the same way as History provides materials for it. Sociology, not religion, is basically a study of various forms of human society by investigating the nature and characteristics of each of these forms, and analyzing the laws governing its evolution.

Though man is the center of his world, he is fully dependent on his physical environment, and in his capacity as an individual he cannot secure all the things required necessarily for his livelihood. Thus man, the individual, has to cooperate with others and live as a family, tribe or a nation. Man’s this act of cooperation is basically enabled by his natural ability to think as a social human being. The core of ibn Khaldun’s political and general sociology is his concept of asabiya, or “social solidarity.” Human beings, insofar as they display asabiya, or political cohesion, form into more or less stable social groups. Village societies or nomadic groups have strong asabiya. For him asabiya is an essential attribute of humanity more basic than the religion, as it is not just by accident that human beings live together; rather, society is natural and necessary. To establish an organized political society, it is necessity to band together for defense, and for agricultural and industrial fulfillment. An abundance of resources in a particular region necessitates the emergence of a group. Then there is a need for the distribution of cultures on earth, which is possible only by living together. He also points out the effect of climate and atmosphere on various cultures and their influence on character.

Addressing the issue of the presence of prophecy in a society, ibn Khaldun maintained that “divine political science” is not natural or necessary. Unlike Aristotle he believed that man by nature is a political creature naturally capable of observing natural constituents. He daringly argued that for the formation of a society and the survival or continued existence of man, there is no need to follow revelation and introduce divine rules to establish divine government. His other argument was that the premises and conclusions of divine political science are not rationally demonstrable, as unaided reason cannot achieve certainty of divine law. Divine laws only command but do not demonstrate rationally the need to hold the opinions and perform the actions. For human reason these divine commands remain undemonstrated, however, they continue to hold the status of belief or opinion.

Ibn Khaldun’s naturalistic approach is the forerunner of modern social science, history, and economics. He professed that the difference between different peoples arises out of the variances of their occupations. Few sociologists have seen the influence exerted by a trade on the character of those pursuing it. His psychology of education is built on the notion of aptitude or skill. Every thought and action necessarily leaves its imprint on the mind of the agent. A continued or a prolonged repetition of the same action indisposes the mind to acquiring a different occupation. He explains the effect of supply and demand factors on prices and wages, supports free competition, and condemns monopoly. As civilization progresses the importance of agriculture declines, while that of services increases. His views on “pure economics” fully earn him the title of Pioneer Economist. He visualized ahead of many modern economists and sociologists the interrelation of political, social, economic, and demographic factors.

About God’s existence ibn Khaldun said, “All objects in the created world, whether they are things or acts (human or animal) presuppose prior causes which bring them into being. Each of these causes is in its turn an event, presupposes prior causes. Hence the series of causes ascend until it culminates in the Cause of causes, their Maker and Creator.” About human beings he said, “Man is made up of two parts; one of the corporeal, and the other spiritual, fused with it. Each of these parts has its own particular powers of apprehension. The spirit apprehends at some times spiritual matters and at other times corporeal; but whereas it apprehends spiritual matters by its own essence, without using any medium, it apprehends corporeal objects only through the instrument of the body, such as the brain and the sense organs.”

Ibn Khaldun, a passionate believer of the religion of Islam, lived an agitated life which, according to Nathaniel Schmidt’s views in Ibn Khaldun, New York 1930, “took him to the huts of savages and into the palaces of kings, into the dungeons with the criminals and into the highest courts of justices; into the companionship of the illiterate and into the academies of scholars; into the treasure houses of the past and into the activities of the present; into deprivation and sorrow and into affluence and joy. It had led him into the depths where the spirit broods over the meaning of life.” Thus, ibn Khaldun’s constant intrigues of life and naturalistic views, led him to changes of allegiance to different rulers and regions from Arab Spain to Syria, which give an impression to modern critics as his lack of patriotism. But this great genius and scholar in the Islamic History has remained true to one fatherland known as Dar al Islam, or the world of Muslim civilization. — MIRZA ASHRAF