A Quranic Reading of Social Capital with an Emphasis on sura al- Hujurat

Abstract

Social capital is among the most important issues in sociology, management, political science, etc. in today's world. This concept can improve the society's efficiency through simplifying social relations and decreasing interchanging expenses. Meanwhile, it comprises some other features, namely trust, norms and network. The present study aims at explaining and introducing the most important structural, cognitive and correlative components of the sura Al-hujurat (The Chambers) using library and documentary method and descriptive- analytical approach. This sura incorporates communicative principles that can provide a healthy communicative environment. It contains communicative skills and its detrimental obstacles. The components mentioned here can boost social capital at structural, cognitive and correlative levels. Examples such as the observance of etiquette and civility, fulfilling things according to religious criteria, avoidance of surpassing Allah's and His Prophet's instructions are but the same as our being permanently under God's supervision. One must add other traits such as social discipline, fraternity, unity, assessing the news reliability, etc. to the list. Among detrimental obstacles we can refer to acts such as suspicion, faultfinding, backbiting, derision, and slander.

Keywords

• sura al-hujurat
• social capital
• social trust
• social capital components
• the holy quran