The ideology of Islamic cultural reformation (by the example of Hassan Hanafi)

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to determine the features and specificity of one of the major models or patterns in the modern Islamic political idea. This is intended to mean the updated or new form of the old Islamic historical pattern crystallized by rational traditions in theology and philosophy. It is the cultural pattern of the Islamic political idea, which seeks to establish the theoretical and practical political idea based on the rational traditions of Islamic culture, especially the traditions of Mu’tazila and Muslim philosophers. Hassan Hanafi is one of the most representative figures of this style. It is to him also belong the attempt to establish the so-called ideology of the Islamic left. This, in turn, was not isolated from the political and ideological impact of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the 1970s. Hassan Hanafi has sought, through his research and books, which he collected in the eighties of the twentieth century and printed them in a set of volumes, perhaps the most important of them is the book (Religion and Revolution in Egypt) with eight volumes, and the book (From Creed to the Revolution) with five volumes. In addition to his theoretical attempts by drawing on the fundamentals of the Islamic religion (Mu’tazili in particular) to lay the foundations of pure Islamic political thought. Hence, it placed it on the basis of cultural and rational «Islamization». Therefore, complete liberation from the influence of Western traditions in this regard. He continued this mission in his attempt to establish what he called «the science of Occidentalism», which calls for criticizing the West, especially its cultural impact, as the best way to build political traditions on the one hand, and awareness of cultural self on the other.