Criticism of the discourse and Oriental thought according to Muhammad Abed Al-Jabri A Critical Analytical Study of Vision and Approach

Abstract

The history of Orientalism and the studies it has accomplished through its stages of Arab and Islamic history will remain with what it has and what it is subject to controversy, as well as questioning and reviewing by Arab researchers and scholars whose critical positions have varied towards it. From this perspective, we find that Muhammad Abed Al-Jabri, who was known for his high methodological discipline in his approach to his subjects, was aware of the limitations of the vision and method in his criticism of the discourse and forward-thinking thought, and this awareness led him to crystallize a set of methodological steps that he took in his treatment of the phenomenon of Orientalism. This means that, according to Al-Jabri, Orientalism, regardless of its old / modern / contemporary / time, is in one way or another considered one of the most important tributaries of Western culture. This culture, in its view, is loaded with ideological contents, and at the same time it is directed to reshape the mentality of Arab and Islamic public opinion more than it is directed to the Western public. The field of heritage or orientalism in terms of reading, understanding and interpretation is based on three pillars: criticism, rooting and reconstruction, the double critique of the Arab and Western minds, the creative rooting of the methodological tools used to analyze the Arab mind, and the reconstruction of heritage in light of the two previous pillars to restore anew. The aforementioned strategic tasks cannot be accomplished without a new vision and a new approach. And from the results of the research, it can be said, based on the foregoing, that if the criticism of the forward-looking thought of Al-Jabri is in one of its aspects an attempt to strengthen the Arab self and its peculiarity and not falling into the subordination or intellectual domination of the West, then the matter does not mean here his call for the establishment of the project of surprise as a title for such a confrontation between The East and the West, but that this criticism goes beyond this horizon that a number of Arab researchers have called and looked at. Al-Jabri's criticism of Orientalism and that it bears the concern of preserving the Arab self from the alienation of the other, but the dimensions of the independence of this self are not achieved in his view except on the basis of a conscious and dialectical understanding of contemporary authenticity and this Duality, one of its sides, is to define a conscious and critical understanding of the relationship between East and West, especially since contemporary in Al-Jabri’s view only comes with a double criticism of how we deal with both Arab and Western thought. Therefore, he says, “Liberation from subordination to the other can only be achieved through action. In order to be free from dependence on the past, we are in our past. In other words, liberation from fascination, rather the alienation in the culture of the West can only take place through it - and with - liberation from the domination of heritage ... that liberation from the West - and we are It happened here in the Department of Culture and Thought - which means dealing with it critically, that is, entering into a critical dialogue with his culture, which is increasing globally. By reading it in its history, understanding its statements and concepts in relativism, as well as identifying the foundations of its progress and working to cultivate it in our cultural soil, which is particularly rationality and critical spirit.