Method of Seeking Modern Concepts in Religious Texts (Relation between the Concept of Ummah in the Holy Quran and that of Culture)

Abstract

Today, the concept of culture is used in close association with other terms in various fields of humanities such as philosophy, psychology, semiotics, and policy making. Meanwhile, when it comes to human and Islamic sciences point of view, it becomes necessary to adopt a method which, next to an accurate understanding of it in humanities, could seek it in religious texts as well. In other words, understanding the concepts developed in humanities, together with a knowledge of religious texts' view of those existing concepts and ultimately, a recognition of the relations between these hold a high importance. The aim of this study is, therefore, explaining the method of seeking modern concepts in humanities and sociology in religious texts. We have here a case study of expounding on culture as a modern concept in the Holy Quran. Additionally, we try to comprehend the concept of Ummah as a Quranic term that has common features with culture. This is a significant step towards adapting humanities to our own conditions through seeking modern concepts in religious texts. The process we have gone through from the point of content and methodology is as follows: 1- Step one: use of historicity in expounding on culture in order to recognize its constituents' development. 2- Step two: Seeking extracted components from the Holy Quran using traditional semantics (dictionaries) and coming across the concept of ummah. 3- Step three: structural semantics of ummah in order to reach the main constituents and semantic system of the concept. 4- Step four: an analysis of the relation between ummah and culture concepts.

Keywords

• concept of culture
• concept of ummah
• historicity
• structural semantics
• semantic domain