The Methodology of the Islamic Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Methodology is the means of fotmdating the principles that detetmine the guidelines for various sciences. Or, in other words, it is the system of practices and procedures that, when applied to a specific branch of knowledge, will result in furthering the particulars of that knowledge. The concept of studying methodology is not new. In fact, some trace it back to Plato and Anstotle, who gave it special consideration. Its study has developed to such an extent that it has now become a science in and of itself under the fotmal title of "methodology." Its content has also be come intertwined with the philosophy of the sciences themselves. Methodology in the West We can say with certainty that the ideological and civilizational development that affected the West throughout history left profound traces on the essence of methodology. The domination of the Catholic chutch and its teptesentatives over the methods of scientific reseaTch placed limits on rational thinking and confined it within the strictures of church doctrine on the concepts and principles that explained natute and human behavior. In those centuries, man was not the master of the univeme. Furthermote, human thought not only depended upon religious teachings but was actually subject to it. Knowledge was in no way dependent on the soundness of methodology. On the contrary; it was measured by God's pleasure and acceptance, since He was understood to provide knowledge and reason with legitimacy. Of course it was the church which, throughout this period, actually expressed divine pleasure and acceptance on behalf of God. In this manner, the church became the only source for the discovery of natm's sectets, and Christian dogma became the only criteria for distinguishing between scientific fact and fiction ...