Humanism as a Reading of Human Heritage with a View to Islamic Humanism

Humanism, as one of the pillars of the modern era, is defined by giving originality to man and usually in opposition to God-centeredness and divine sovereignty. However, one of the important aspects in the development and expansion of the meaning of humanism is its emphasis on the re-reading of human written heritage, including in the form of religious tradition, which has become the foundation of modern human sciences, and at the same time, contrary to the conventional view, it is a reading in agreement and compatibility with religions. This somewhat unfamiliar combination was proposed among thinkers of Christianity in the Renaissance period and has been used in the contemporary era by some thinkers like "Ali Shariati" to read the traditional intellectual heritage under the title of Islamic Humanism. The content of the present article is that despite the challenge in the possibility of fully combining these two concepts including a religion such as Islam with an ideology such as humanism, presenting this concept in the service of a critical reading of the previous Islamic tradition with a view to its similar experience in Christianity. The findings of such a study indicate that the distinctive feature of religious humanism, especially Islamic, instead of its anti-religious opposition, is based on what Shariati called "refinement of cultural resources" and a critical look at the heritage of the past.
Keywords: Humanism, Education, Shariati, Humanities, Cultural Resources Refinement
 
Humanism is defined by giving originality to man and usually in opposition to God-centeredness and divine sovereignty.However, one of the important aspects in the development and expansion of the meaning of humanism is its emphasis on the re-reading of human written heritage, including in the form of religious tradition, which has become the foundation of modern human sciences.The content of the present article is that despite the challenge in the possibility of fully combining these two concepts including a religion such as Islam with an ideology such as humanism, presenting this concept in the service of a critical reading of the previous Islamic tradition with a view to its similar experience in Christianity.The findings of such a study indicate that the distinctive feature of religious humanism, especially Islamic, instead of its anti-religious opposition, is based on what Shariati called "refinement of cultural resources" and a critical look at the heritage of the past. The possibility of coexistence of humanism with religious teachings was gradually raised and a humanist interpretation of religion was presented.In this article, the concern of humanists in the Renaissance and the text of the Christian religion and after that among the researchers of the Islamic world is discussed with an emphasis on "Ali Shariati" and it is tried to show that many humanists have devoted themselves to critically looking at the tradition of their societies and therefore components such as education, criticism and refinement of cultural heritage, as well as the revival of the rational elements of the tradition are given their attention. The word "humanism" is derived from the Latin root "humanitas", which was used by people like "Cicero" in the classical era to refer to the cultural values resulting from liberal education.One of the most important meanings of this phrase is the study of human affairs (studia humanitas) which includes various fields of art, language, literature, history, and moral philosophy. The term humanista/umanista was used in Italian academic vocabulary in the 15th century to describe a teacher or student of classical literature and related arts, including rhetoric.The importance of literature is not only as a discourse of writers, but also as a discourse based on cultural and historical contexts, as well as the position of human ontology in the world. The confrontation of modern humanists with the intellectual heritage before them was a critical confrontation, and in their efforts to revive the cultural heritage of ancient Greece and Rome, they had an adaptation along with cultural refinement. Humanism can be seen as a general view of the way of thinking about the world, which is clearly opposed to two specific views: on the one hand, humanism is in conflict with the belief in the supernatural and transcendental realm, that is, with an attitude thatBasically, it regards human beings as dependent on the divine order and on the other hand, it is at the opposite point of view that sees humanity as a part of the natural order and the same as other natural beings. The relationship between religion and humanism is much more complex and multidimensional than what it seems at first. The important point in these readings is the emphasis on education and teachings related to humans and arising from scientific activities.The special feature of Islamic humanism was adopting an active approach in confronting the teachings of other civilizations, including Greek, which led to the flourishing of Islamic civilization due to the creation of a different combination and in later stages even inspired the West during the Renaissance period.Ali Shariati has presented a special interpretation of Islamic and Iranian intellectual and civilizational heritage and his concern in combining divine and human subjects has features that make it important to pay attention to him under Islamic humanism.Shariati has a special interest in the refinement and purification of cultural resources and considers it necessary to review the teachings and beliefs of the past while believing in ideological and practical commitment to them. Although Shariati is a critic of an important part of Islamic and Iranian past tradition, he believes that they have been neglected due to heavy tradition during the lifetime of Muslims. He pursues humanism under the revival of neglected themes from Islam and not in opposition to religious theology. In Shariat reflections, the support of epistemology, ethics, and of course belief oriented to practice - more than jurisprudence and Sharia - has been highlighted.Therefore, while trying to overcome the conflicts and differences within sects, he emphasized on Ethical Humanism, which is the opposite of Authoritarianism and can be a turning point for the promotion of Liberative Social Ethics. Therefore, he not only does not see a conflict between Islam and humanism, but also explicitly defends the term "Islamic humanism".His intellectual project in this regard is based on criticizing the intellectual heritage and especially the Islamic written tradition throughout history, which has been separated from its original path in many cases due to the deviation caused by neglect or power, and now it must be informedAs a result of the "refining of cultural resources", it gave new life to its truths, and this is the place that places Shariati in a meaningful and similar relationship with the first humanists in the Western Renaissance, who described the evolution of human texts and the interpretation of human sciences inThey had set their agenda. The important dimension of humanism has been the emphasis on the formation of human knowledge and the development of a field of reflexive awareness in the tradition.The consequence of this situation is the codification of humanities, which first emerged in the Italian tradition and then in the German tradition.The main concern of humanists has been to deal with man and his preoccupations in the path of achieving awareness.Over time, a reading of humanism was formed, which was based on the belief in compatibility between humanism and religion. Shariati by presenting the concept of "Islamic humanism" tried to prevent man from being overshadowed by theological and religious justifications. Although humanism had taken a critical and even hostile position against theology, but an important generation of early humanists were the critic of the official reading and the compiled tradition based on the authoritarian interpretation of the religious guardians, who considered their project to be the revival of the true spirit of the religion. Shariati while believing in the reinterpretation of religion to play a social role, is a serious critic of traditional Islamic heritage.Islam, as one of the Abrahamic religions, is a system of beliefs, morals and rules, and on the other hand, humanism is a human ideology, and therefore they cannot be compared and planned at the same level.Therefore, it seems that it is possible to talk about humanistic readings in the text of Islam, although due to the familiarity of the word humanism, many have preferred to express their meaning in the reading of a part of the past heritage from the following general application."Islamic humanism".