A Western education is highly Eurocentric, but pretends to be objective and universal. In particular, social sciences are lessons extracted from European historical experience on how to organized society. The false claim, embodied in the word "science", is that these are universally applicable. Shock and Awe of Western technological prowess has led to unquestioning acceptance of this claim. In turn, this has led to the attempt to shape all societies around the world on European patterns. This has caused massive harm, as these European conceptions of society are in dramatic conflict with local cultures. There is an urgent need to recognize and reject Eurocentric Social Science, and rebuild the study of diverse societies on broader intellectual bases. Islamic epistemology provides such alternative foundations, which are discussed in this set of slides

1. • Download these slides from:
• Rethinking Social Science Education:
https://bit.ly/SSrsse23
• Related Slides: Creating an Alternative
to Western Education
http://bit.ly/SSmaju23

2. Rethinking
Social Science &
Humanities for
Pakistan
Dr. Asad Zaman

3. A Central Concern of Mine For
A Long Time
"On improving social science education in Pakistan.“ Lahore
Journal of Policy Studies, v. 2 n. 1 (2008): p125-134.
Marxists analyze class struggle in terms of capitalists versus
laborers – this framework cannot be used in Pakistan.
Class struggle is between English speaking power class – army
and bureaucrats – versus the vernacular class (Urdu medium).
This is heritage of colonization – which the West never
experienced. It requires developing our own conceptual
frameworks for study of our society and heritage.

4. Impact of Colonial Heritage
Blog Post: http://bit.ly/AZimpact
Psychology of the Colonized:
Frantz Fanon: Black Skins, White Masks:
W.E.B. Dubois: The Soul of Black Folks.
The central problem is psychological slavery. Solution
is de-colonization, intellectual revolution
Psychological damage reflected in Hassan Nisar,
Salman Rushdie trilogy: Shame (for family, culture),
Midnight’s Children (Nation, Society, history), Satanic
Verses (Religion, Heritage): The Coconut Complex.

5. Education: Central to
Colonization of Minds
Western Education is deeply Eurocentric.
The West is advanced and developed. East is backward
and primitive.
Counters:
“Alternative Models of Development”
http://bit.ly/HelSUS
“Rejecting Eurocentric Conceptions of Development”
http://bit.ly/AZrecd
Development is Human Development – excellence in
conduct – not acquisition by armed robbery of materials
and wealth.

6. The Black Panther
Fantasy Kingdom: Attempt to create black pride,
by showing victory over West.
BUT, implicitly accepts the same standards
(science and technology), doing damage to
cause.
Alternative Model: ROOTS
Kinship, Family, Excellence in Character, Hunting
Skills, Integration with Environment.

7. The Puzzle of Western Social Science
http://bit.ly/AZpss
Social Science: Obviously Lessons from European Historical
Experience.
Mitchell (2002, Rule of Experts): “The possibility of social
science is based upon taking certain historical experiences of
the West as the template for a universal Knowledge.”
PUZZLE: Why does it claim universal applicability (“science”)?

8. Orientalism: All Western Knowledge about
East is Tainted by Conquest & Colonization
Global Colonization created a superiority complex in the
West.
AND a corresponding inferiority complex in the East.
Europeans are the most advanced civilization – all others are
primitive and infantile. When they grow up, they will become
like Europe.
Social Sciences of the West become applicable to societies as
they develop into European forms.
Development means becoming like Europe.

9. The Counter-Narrative
Ibn-e-Khaldun documents historical cycle:
Civilization age, mature, and decline, and are
over-run by youthful & energetic barbarians.
In general, barbarians learn from, and adopt,
culture of the civilization; the Mongols accepted
Islam, and adopted local culture.
But the most recent cycle was exceptional.
European barbarians over-ran the world, but did
not learn from the more advanced civilizations
around the globe.
A Few Exceptions: The White Moguls, Shogun,
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, The Fatal
Shore.

10. Theft of History: Erasing the
East
Schumpeter: The 500-year Gap in Economic Thought!
The Greek Strategy: See: http://bit.ly/AZGreek
Copernicus: Plagiarist or Revolutionary? Copied from Ibn-e-Shatir.
Scultetus: Friend and Fellow-Canon – subjected to torture for ten
years.
The Deadliest Weapon: Fabricated History: http://bit.ly/AZDeadly

11. Consequences: Direct Attack on Faith
Islam: The knowledge given by God to man 14 centuries
ago is the greatest treasure in collective possession of
mankind. It is far superior to any conceivable knowledge
which has been, or could be, created by man.
Europe: Mankind was in darkness until European learnt
to reason. The European Enlightenment developed the
most advanced type of knowledge known to mankind.
Lord Macaulay – the knowledge in one bookshelf of a
European is worth more than all the literature in Arabic
and Sanskrit.

12. How To Rebut this Charge?
Key Conflict is Epistemological:
Enlightenment: All knowledge comes from observations
and reason.
NO:
(91:7-8) and by the soul and by Him Who perfectly proportioned
it, and imbued it with (the consciousness of) its evil and its piety
We are built with knowledge of Good and Evil.
All human knowledge is built on moral foundations.
Economics is a branch of Moral Philosophy.

13. How Did Religion Become
Marginalized?
Tawney: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Religion, ceasing to be the master-interest of mankind,
dwindles into a department of life with boundaries
European Transition to Secular Thought: http://bit.ly/AZq5sk
The Scholastics developed economics, politics, and social
theory on basis of Christian teachings and the Bible: Love of
Money is root of all evil. (Bible)
This was abandoned, and replaced by a secular approach:
Lack of Money is root of all evil! (Bernard Shaw)

14. A Century of Religious Wars
The Thirty Years' War is thought to have claimed
between 4 and 12 million lives. Around 450,000 people
died in combat.
Disease and famine took the lion's share of the death
toll. Estimates suggest that 20% of Europe's people
perished, with some areas seeing their population fall by
as much as 60%
Deep Effects on European Psyche and Thought.

15. Consequences of Religious
Wars
• Religion proven incapable of building peaceful society. Retreats
from all-encompassing source of knowledge to personal belief
system.
• Need to build political, economic, and social institutions on
secular grounds.
• Need to rebuild knowledge from scratch – authority and
tradition rejected.
• Empiricism and Rationalism: Knowledge comes from
observations and reason. Combined in Logical Positivism in
early 20th Century.
• Rejection of heart, soul, and subjective human experience as
basis for knowledge.

16. Social Sciences: Replacement
for Christianity
Ontology: There is no God, Judgment Day, Afterlife
Universe and Life created by meaningless
accidents.
Purpose of life is pursuit of pleasure, power, profits.
Society is jungle of fierce competition, with survival
of fittest being the only moral principle.
Key Transformation: Society as a community with a
common goal  “There is no society”: War of all
against all.

17. Consequences of Toxic Moral
Foundations
• There is no morality; the only source is consensus & state
power.
• The bloodiest century in human history – continuous wars.
• War against the planet for profits – extinctions of millions
of species of plants and animals – Climate Crisis.
• Individualism & Hedonism: Loss of family, community, and
welfare.
• More than 50% children in West born to single mothers.

18. Islamic Alternatives to
Social Science
Since Social Science is the religion of the
West, based on rejection of God, Judgment
Day, and afterlife, it is not compatible with
Islam.
Rebuilding Social Sciences on Islamic
Foundations:
Part 1: http://bit.ly/AZrss1
Part 2: http://bit.ly/AZrss2
Decolonizing Social Sciences: From
Uniplexity to Multiplexity by Prof. Dr.
Recep Şentürk

19. Uloom-ul-Umran: Based on Ibn-e-Khaldun
http://bit.ly/AZUUU
Communities are created by a collective
identity.
Communities are drivers of social
change.
Contrast with
Margaret Thatcher: There is no such
thing as society!
Secular Society consists of individuals
each pursuing individual goals.
The ONLY possibility for collective action
comes at government level.

20. The Impossible State:
Wael Hallaq
Islamists – or Political Islam – ACCEPT the Eurocentric thesis
that collective action is possibly only through nation-state.
The European conceptual frameworks underlying the nation-
state are both self-contradictory and in deep conflict with
Islamic concepts.
The Shari’a stands above all authority, and will be enforced
even against the majority and against the King. In contrast,
the state is the supreme and sole source of authority.
Attempt to create an Islamic society through authority of
nation-state are bound to fail. One cannot use un-Islamic
means to create an Islamic outcome.

21. 3-Dimensional Framework for
Social Change
An Islamic Approach to Humanities. JKAU: Islamic
Economics, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2014,
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3066267
Normative: Ideal Society spelled out by Shari’ah, and by
the perfect exemplar: Our Prophet Mohammad SAW.
Positive: Accurate Description and Analysis of Current
Ground Realities.
Transformative: Strategies for moving towards the
normative ideals.
http://bit.ly/AZ3DIE
3-D Framework for Islamic Economics

22. Human Agency:
Theories Shape History
Boonjubun, Chaitawat and Zaman, Asad, How Theories
Shape, and are Shaped by History (December 1, 2022).
Chapter in Karl Polanyi Handbook (Forthcoming), SSRN:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=4291027
Human beings are not robots, subject to mathematical
laws. Theories are used to analyze, and respond to,
events. Which theory is use depends on class struggles,
and other factors, and is not deterministic.
Study of history cannot be insulated from human
agency, as in science.

23. Islamic Economics:
Transforming Knowledge
The Crisis in Islamic Economics: http://bit.ly/cie1iok Uncritical
acceptance of Western economics led to confusion and
stagnation.
Islamic Economics: The Polar Opposite of Capitalist Economics
– spells out the deep differences between Capitalism and
Islam.
Ongoing set of lectures on Islamic Economics – see:
http://bit.ly/na2ie First lecture: Gratitude, Contentment, and
Trust – alternatives to the homo economicus behavior bases
of greed, insatiable wants, and distrust.

24. Links to
Related
Materials
These Slides: http://bit.ly/SSrsse23
Rebuilding Social Sciences on Islamic
Foundations: http://bit.ly/AZrss1 and
http://bit.ly/AZrss2 (parts 1 and 2)
Uloom-ul-Umran: An Islamic Alternative to
Social Science: http://bit.ly/AZUUU