Social statics and social dynamics in Shah Waliullah's thought
Loading...
Date
2014
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Management and Technology
Abstract
Theology, metaphysics, sociology, psychology, political theory, and taswuf, all synthesized in one person—Shah Waliullah (1703-1762), one of the most profound scholars Muslim civilization has produced. What makes him and his work more important is the fact that he appeared on the scene at a particular juncture of history—Muslim India was passing through social and political crisis, and, so it seems now, and generally human history was entering into a new era marked by rationality and critical thinking. Shah Waliullah, in his works, seems to us quite aware of the social and political turmoil of his society and at the same time was conscious of the advent of new age.
There is much research on Shah Waliullah’s religious thought , and there are some works on his socio-political thought as well (Ghazi 2002, al-Ghazali 2001), yet there is need to understand Shah Waliullah’s thought from the perspective of modern sociology. Modern sociology is based on two principal themes: Social Statics and Social Dynamics. The chief purpose of this study is to explore these two principal themes of sociology in Shah Waliullah’s thought. But Shah Waliullah is not the first Muslim thinker who took social world as object of his study. His work should be seen in the light of a tradition of Muslim social thinkers. The first chapter of this study deals with a brief description of Muslim sociological tradition. Then life and times of Shah Waliullah have been discussed briefly and finally some general features of his thought have been discussed.
Description
Keywords
M.Phil Thesis, Islamic Thought and Civilization