Athar al-Ilm al-Shari fi Muwajahat al-Unf wal-Udwan
- Author died
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- The book is published on the website of the Saudi Ministry of Awqaf without details
Athar al-Ilm al-Shari fi Muwajahat al-Unf wal-Udwan (The Impact of Sharia Knowledge in Confronting Violence and Aggression) is an Islamic scholarly treatise by Abd al-Aziz ibn Fawzan ibn Salih al-Fawzan, a faculty member at the College of Sharia at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, examining the role of Islamic religious knowledge in preventing and treating violence, safeguarding societal security, and restraining extremism.
Purpose and Scope
The author frames security as an essential, innate human requirement vital for stability, civilization, and societal progress. He argues that Islam employs a distinctive approach to security by integrating preventative and educational measures (tarbawiyyah wa-wiqa'iyyah) to stop violence before it occurs, alongside deterrent and punitive measures (zajriyyah wa-uqubiyyah) to address its aftermath and prevent its recurrence. In contrast to positive, man-made legal systems that primarily focus on addressing crimes post-factum, Islamic legislation provides a divine framework free of human ignorance, whims, and bias. The central thesis asserts that authentic religious knowledge founded upon the Quran and Sunnah refines souls, deters individuals from injustice and crime, upholds the sanctity of human rights, and offers the primary remedy for reclaiming and reforming those who have engaged in violence.
Structure and Contents
The treatise is organized into an introduction, a preface, two main chapters (mabhathan), and a conclusion:
- First Section: The Prohibition of Violating Human Life (Tahrim al-I‘tida’ ‘ala al-Nafs).
- Second Section: The Prohibition of Denouncing Evil When It Entails What Is More Evil (Tahrim Inkar al-Munkar idha kana Yastalzimu ma Huwa Ankar Minhu).
Key Findings
In the conclusion, the author summarizes several core findings from the study:
- Security is an indispensable, instinctive human need across all societies.
- Human misguidance—whether in intellectual conceptions, ethics, or actions—stems fundamentally from two causes: ignorance or blindness (al-jahl aw al-ama), and injustice or following whims (al-zulm aw al-hawa), with ignorance being the foundational and more dangerous root of both evils.
- The errors of innovators, transgressors, and religious extremists consistently originate from ignorance, passion, or a combination of the two.
- Acquiring the religious knowledge necessary to perform obligations and avoid prohibitions is an individual obligation (fard ayn) upon every accountable Muslim, whereas broader fields of religious and worldly knowledge needed by the community constitute a collective obligation (fard kifayah).
- A profound distinction exists between an insightful scholar and an ignorant worshipper, underscoring the necessity of sound learning in preserving societal balance.
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