Dr. Asad Zaman's presentation discusses the inadequacies of Western social sciences in Islamic societies, emphasizing that these disciplines are rooted in a Eurocentric worldview disregarding diverse human experiences. He argues for re-establishing social sciences on Islamic foundations, drawing from the Quran and Sunnah, to address fundamental questions of existence and ethics. The lecture critiques the Enlightenment project for its assumptions about knowledge and human nature, suggesting that Western paradigms promote a pursuit of pleasure and power devoid of moral values.

1. Rebuilding
Economics on
Islamic
Foundations
• Dr. Asad Zaman
• Monday 24th July 2023
• International Institute of Islamic Economics, International Islamic University
of Islamabad (IIIE, IIUI)
• Download THESE slides from http://bit.ly/SSreif

2. Part 1:
Why Use of Western
Social Sciences
(including Economics)
is not appropriate for
Islamic Societies

3. The Puzzle of Western Social
Sciences
Social Science is the study of human society.
But WHICH society?
The term “science” makes the misleading suggestion that there
are universal laws which apply to all human societies.
This is easily proven to be false. Economic, Political, and Social
structures have been extremely different in different societies.
See: http://bit.ly/AZpss

4. Why is term “Social Science”
used?
Science applies to external world, which behaves subject to
laws.
Human beings are free. Our behavior cannot be predicted by
any mathematical laws.
Societies have evolved and changed dramatically, in the past
century, before our eyes. There are no universal “scientific”
laws applicable to all of them.
All of this is VERY EASY to prove. Despite all of this, there are
“social science” departments in universities all over the world.
WHY?

5. The Origins of Western
Social Sciences
• More than a century of devastating wars between
Protestants and Catholics in Europe. One third of
population wiped out in certain regions. All of European
population affected.
• Scholastics built social science on Biblical foundations.
This was rejected by all thinkers – Christianity leads to
wars.

6. The Enlightenment Project:
Rebuild All Human Knowledge
From Zero
• We cannot build society on Biblical grounds, because it
leads to wars.
• Necessity to rebuild all of social sciences from ground
zero, after rejecting Christianity.
• The Enlightenment Project: Create a science of society
which allows different religions to live together in peace.

7. New Answers to
Fundamental Questions
1. How was the Universe created?
2. What is the purpose of our lives?
3. How should we behave towards each other? (ethics)
4. What should be the institutional structure of society?
Politics
5. How should we arrange for production and distribution of
goods and services? (economics)
See: http://bit.ly/IR3owss

8. Even more fundamental question:
What is knowledge?
How can we know if something is true? Or false?
Christian Answer: All knowledge is founded on the Bible.
Islamic Answer: Quran and Sunnah are foundation for all
knowledge.
Enlightenment Answer: Knowledge comes from senses and
reason. Reject authority and tradition, and rebuild
knowledge from ZERO.
Descartes: I think therefore I am.

9. Foundations of Western
Social Sciences
• There is no God, or Creator (no empirical evidence!)
• Universe was created by chance events.
• Man is just another type of animal, created by the
evolution process.
• Life is a jungle. Survival of the fittest is the only moral
code.
• Purpose of our lives is pursuit of pleasure and power.
ALL of the above assumptions are embedded within the
concept of “rationality”!

10. Enlightenment Conceit:
There is no one like us!
Enlightenment thinkers thought of themselves as revolutionaries.
Dismissing all accumulated human knowledge as ignorance and
superstition, they sought to rebuild the entire stock of human
knowledge on solid foundations of empirical evidence and reason.
They thought that they had created a unique civilization –
unparalleled in human history – and that all of mankind would
follow in their footsteps, once they learned to reason!
Immanuel Kant – the greatest moral philosopher of Europe –
thought that only white males were rational. Females, and other
races were defective in their ability to reason.

11. Why Social “Science”?
Derived on basis of empirical evidence and reason (rationality) –
therefore, same for all rational human beings.
Institutional pattern for the most advanced human society –
Europe – and therefore valid as an ideal goal for all other
(primitive) societies.
Above are all Eurocentric prejudices, accepted as truths by
colonized minds.
See: Recep Senturk: Decolonizing the Social Sciences
http://bit.ly/RSdss

12. Lesson: Social Sciences are the “DEEN” which
replaced Christianity (Scholastics SS)
This DEEN (way of life) is based on rejection of God, and hence
make pursuit of pleasure and power the goal of life.
There are no moral values in this DEEN.
Both of these lessons are at the foundations of Economics.
Utility theory: it is rational to maximize pleasure = Nafs-e-
Ammara
Game Theory: it is rational to betray commitments if you get
benefit from doing so.
See: Rebuilding Social Sciences on Islamic Foundations: Parts 1
&2 http://bit.ly/AZrss1 and http://bit.ly/AZrss2

13. End of Part 1: Why we cannot use Western
Social Science to organize Islamic societies.

14. Links:
Writeup on Islamic Worldview Blog: Imposing Eurocentric Patterns on
Islamic Societies – http://bit.ly/AZiepi
These Slides: http://bit.ly/SSiepi
Video: http://bit.ly/YTiepi
Closely related: Rebuilding Social Sciences on Islamic Foundations:
Part 1: http://bit.ly/AZrss1 and Part 2: http://bit.ly/AZrss2