Milad Mujtama
- Author died
- 1393 AH
- Editions
- Dar Al Fikr
Milad Mujtama (The Birth of a Society) is a sociological treatise by the Algerian thinker Malek Bennabi (1323–1393 AH / 1905–1973 CE), forming part of his series Mushkilat al-Hadarah ("Problems of Civilization") and focusing on the theoretical foundations of social cohesion and collective historical action .
Background and Publication
Written during Bennabi's residence in Cairo and issued in 1961, the work was published in Arabic under the title Milad Mujtama: Shabakat al-'Alaqat al-Ijtima'iyyah ("The Birth of a Society: The Network of Social Relations") in a translation by Abd al-Sabur Shahin . Following Bennabi's death, editions were issued by Dar al-Fikr in Damascus and Algiers under the supervision of Nadwat Malik bin Nabi, administered by his intellectual trustee Omar Meskawi in accordance with Bennabi's 1971 legal testament recorded in Tripoli, Lebanon .
Themes and Concepts
The book provides a systematic conceptual framework for the emergence of human societies and their historical trajectories, defining the core term "society" before applying its analysis specifically to the Islamic world :
- The Network of Social Relations: Bennabi posits that the initial historical act constituting the birth of any society is the establishment of its network of social relations, which channels individual energies into unified, collective action . In early Islamic history, this was exemplified by the fraternal pact established between the Emigrants (al-Muhajirun) and the Helpers (al-Ansar) following the Hijrah, which established social ties prior to the full crystallization of the three constitutive realms of society: persons (ashkhas), ideas (afkar), and things (ashya' ) .
- Social Education and Moral Conditioning: The work argues that social education transforms raw instinctual drives into socially directed energy through conditioned behavioral reflexes . Bennabi identifies religious and moral doctrines, as well as legal codes, as protective systems instituted by societies to defend their relational networks against fragmentation and individualistic egotism .
- Civilizational Decline and Rupture: Bennabi analyzes civilizational decline as the rupture of the social network rather than a mere material shortage; a society may remain abundant in persons, ideas, and material objects, yet lose its capacity for historical initiative when its relational bonds fray and the psychological condition of colonizability (al-qabiliyyah li-l-isti'mar) sets in . Rebuilding Muslim society, he contends, requires restructuring the moral conscience and restoring the vitality of these social ties .
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