Muslim Education Quarterly, Vol. 19, No.

1, 2001 From Documentary-Empirical to the Integrated Methodology 5

The Islamic Academy, Cambridge, U.K.
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
I FROM DOCUMENTARY-EMPIRICAL TO THE
behaviour; lack of standard format; coding difficulties, and bias. WIth 11S
I advantages and disadvantages, this study juxtaposes document~ry resear.ch
II INTEGRATED METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH IN 1 nzside the Islamic approach as exposed in the works of classical Mushm
POLITICAL SCIENCE: A COMPARISON BETWEEN scholars to make it more effective in studying political phenomena in a Muslim
Society.
THE SECULAR WESTERN AND ISLAMIC
APPROACHES
The Analysis of Documents

There are two sharply different types of analysis typical of research using
El Fatih Abdullahi A. Salam documentary data: historical interpretation and content analysis.

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
be made."
Political science research here is best thought of not as a set of observations or .J
Content Analysis
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 Very often a political scientist may learn a great deal about individuals, groups,
research problem, (2) the conceptualization and operationalization of that research institutions or even nations through a careful examination of the communication
problem, (3) the selection of appropriate data-collection techniques, (4) the patterns associated with them. Content analysis can be defined as the systematic
observation of behaviour, (5) the analysis of data, and (6) the interpretation of the counting, assessing and interpreting of the form and substance of communication."
results. There are, however, special problems in the use of content analysis. We
There are four distinctive approaches to political science research: should take special care to enhance the intercoder reliability. This can be promoted
experiments, surveys, field research, and research using available data or by taking some basic steps: (1) to operationalize all variables carefully and
documents. thoroughly; (2) to use as many coders as possible; and (3) to maximize the
This study is about the documentary approach to political research. The interaction among those coders.'
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 The Secular Methodology
conclude our study by presenting some modifications to documentary analysis to
make it more effective in studying political phenomena in a Muslim society. What we intend to do here is to clarify the ontological and epistemological
By 'document' we mean any written materials that contain information assumptions of that method and to provide some examples of writings utilizing that
about the phenomena we wish to study. These documents vary greatly. Some are method.
primary documents, or eyewitness accounts written by people who experienced the Most explanations found in secular, Western social science literature tend to
particular event or behaviour. Others are secondary documents by people who be limited to factors which are only this-worldly, materialistic and non-spiritual in
were not present at the scene but who received the information necessary to nature. There is no place for God or the Day of Judgment in these explanations.
compile the document by interviewing eyewitnesses or by reading primary There is hardly any role for a transcendent spirit or soul. Even when we consider
documents.' different schools of thought, the proponents of each school generally operate
The sources of documentary research may be placed into five broad ].. within the parameters of their all-embracing cultural constellation which is deeply
categories: public documents and official records", private documents, mass media, embedded in the Western civilizational world view. However, this should not be
physical nonverbal materials, and social science data archives.' taken to mean that the Western social sciences are monolithic, or that there are no
 ",
-.':, 6 Muslim Education Quarterly
"j
.\
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:
(1) ~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.
(2) 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.
(3) 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
!
j, 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.
From Documentary-Empirical to the Integrated Methodology 7
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-male-
dominated, 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
8 Muslim Education Quarterly
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
Islamic Methodology
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, that is to worship ('ibadah)
Allah. -This fact entails the following:
(a) Knowing Allah and identifying his unmatchable noble attributes;
(b) Feeling the awesomeness of His power and infinite mercy, with the
result of being filled with unbounded reverence and love for Him;
and
(c) 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.
From Documentary-Empirical to the Integrated Methodology 9
The major source of Islamic knowledge is revelation: the Qur'an and
(5)
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 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.
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:
· - i.,.-·j
10 Muslim Education Quarterly From Documentary-Empirical to the Integrated Methodology 11
i'

(a) Thorough knowledge of the Qur' an and Sunnah.
(b) Knowledge of Arabic language and grammar.
(c) Knowledge of the situations and circumstances in which verses are
revealed.
(d) Knowledge of Usat al-Fiqh.
(e) Knowledge of the greatpurposes imaqasidy of Shari'ah.
(f) Possession of faculties concerning Fiqh.
(4) 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."
(5) Encyclopedi.c works which deal with the phenomena of ideas and topics:
Representative examples of this type of documentary source are al-
Qalqashandi'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.
(6) Historical texts: As far as the exposition of political phenomena is
concerned, history books can be categorized under the following:
(a) 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.
(b) Texts on states' political history: Concentration here is only on the
political processes and operations'. Ibn Qutaiyba's Al-Imaman wa al-
si~asah, and Ta'rikli al-Khulafa' by al-Suyuti are in this category,
(c) 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.
(d) 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, Ai-
Wuzara' by Khalil Ibn Hassan, and Tuhfat al- Wuzara' by Abu al-
Qasim 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. AI-
Balathri, 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.
 j
12 Muslim Education Quarterly
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: Al-
Siyasatul 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
i 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. Al-
Ahkam 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. Al-
Mawardi 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
From Documentary-Empirical to the Integrated Methodology 13
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 al-
Mawardi, 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
 "~\ 14 Muslim Education Quarterly
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)
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. . made to highlight the ontological and epistemological assumptions underlying the
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
r 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
II 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 man-
made 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
From Documentary-Empirical to the Integrated Methodology 15
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 study of the political thought of early Muslim thinkers reveals the
brilliance of that thought and its successful attempt at a synthesis between
revelation and reason. There seems to be a profound respect for reason and
knowledge, 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
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.
1- -V
16 Muslim Education Quarterly From Documentary-Empirical to the Integrated Methodology 17

For a full discussion of the Islamization of Knowledge work plan, see Islamization of
Notes
Knowledge: General Principle and Work Plan, Herndon, Virginia: IIIT, 1987.
1. For more on the primary-secondary distinction, see Kenneth D. Baily, Method of Social
Research, New York: The Free Press, 1994, p. 294.
2. For more on Durkheim's findings, see Royce Singleton, Jr. et al., Approaches to Social
1 '
Research, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 327-328.
3. 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 two-
thirds of the articles were based on the analysis of existing survey data.
4. 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.
5. For a more detailed account of historical research, see Therese L. Baker, Doing Social
Research, Singapore: McGraw-Hill, 1999, Ch. 9.
6. Manheim, Jarol B., Empirical Political Analysis, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, 1981, p. 155.
7. 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.
8. 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.
I
9. Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research, Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing
Company, 1995, pp. 26-38.
10. Cited by Kenneth Baily, Methods of Social Research, op. cit., p. 8.
I'j: 11. Ibid., p. 9.
i:,. 12. See T. R. Young, "Postmodernism and the Chaos Theory", Perspectives: The American
Sociological Association Newsletter, (the Theory section), No. 6:3, 1993.
13. 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.
14. Louay Safi, The Foundation of Knowledge: A Comparative Study in Islamic and
Westem Methods of Inquiry, KL: IIUM Press, 1996.
15. Mehdi Golshani, "Philosophy of Science from the Quranic Perspective", in Toward
Islamization of Disciplines, IIIT, Herndon, Virginia, USA, 1999.
16. Quoted in Tawfiq al-Fakiki, AI-Ra'y wa al-ra'iyah: al-Mathal al-a'lii li'l-hukm al-
dimuqriuiy fi'l-lsiam, Baghdad: Asad Press, 1962.
17. See full works of al-Farabi in Rasii'il al-Farabi, Hyderabad: Publications of Da'irat al-
Ma 'arif al-'Uthmaniyyah, 1926.
18. 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.
19. Ed. by Mohammed Mustafa Abu al-tila, Cairo: al-Gondi Library, n.d. This manuscript
consists of 165 pages.
20. Ed. by Mohammed Mustafa Abu al-'ila, Cairo: al-Gondi Library, n.d. This manuscript
consists of 112 pages.
21. Al Tibr al-Masbiik; op. cit., p. 10.
22. Al-Siyiisat al-Shar'iyyah, ed. by Mohammed Ibrahim al-Banne, et al., Cairo: Dar al-
Sha'b, 1971. -:
23. 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.