Islamic culture: method and characteristics An analytical and critical reading in the thought of Muḥammad Al-Fāḍil Ibn ʿᾹshūr
Research objectives: This study examines the structure of Islamic knowledge and the crisis that hindered its development from the perspective of Al-Fāḍil Ibn ʿᾹshūr in his approach to the components of civilization, with a focus on the characteristics of Islamic scientific production that contributed to the achievement of the Western renaissance.
Methodology: This study adopts an analytical approach to exemplify the perspective of Al-Fāḍil Ibn ʿᾹshūr regarding the method of Islamic culture and its characteristics. This will be investigated through the historical and critical approach to attain awareness of the difference between the radiant history of Islamic culture and its rigid present after the loss of the constituent link of Islamic culture.
Results: This research emphasized the fact that the crisis of Islamic culture lies in the apathy of the spirit of creativity, which helps to overcome the illusion of Western centralism and its claim that contemporary science is a purely Western fence. This also raises the awareness that knowledge in its various forms is an accumulation and a human legacy that was historically contributed to by various peoples. Therefore, the value of acculturation, which constituted Western modernity after the fruitful meeting between the Islamic and Western cultures, should be recognized.
The originality: This study lies in the emphasis of the critical style of the Zaytouni school through the personality of Al-Fāḍil Ibn ʿᾹshūr, who based his reformist thought on internal criticism by observing the points of stagnation in Islamic culture, and external criticism by exposing the deceptions of western cultural centralism.
Key words: Culture, Islam, Civilization, the West, Al-Fāḍil Ibn ʿᾹshūr
