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Assignment no 2

Topic: Malek Bennabi's theory of Civilization

Submitted to

Dr. Humaira Ahmad

Submitted By Iqra Aftab F2018086016

University of Management and Technology, Lahore

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Introduction

In his book, Bases of Civilization, Malek Bennabi put his theoryof social change. ... This, then,

becomes known as thecivilization equation which he puts in this simple form:civilization = Man

+ soil + time. Renaissance in any society,Bennabi argues, requires a synthesis between these

three essential elements.

Early life of Bennabi

Malek Bennabi was born to a poor but pious family in Constantine, Algeria in 1905. He had

three sisters and was the only son of the family. An uncle and his wife who lived in Constantine

adopted him. When this uncle died the wife became financially needy and had to return him to

his parents in Tibissa.

Bennabi presented his father as an educated and respected man who worked hard to support his

family and also support him when he decided to go to France to study. As a child, Bennabi was

fond of his grandmother who was the narrator in the family and whom he considers as his first

teacher.

Bennabi went to a traditional school called al Kuttaab where he learnt Qur’an. Then, he joined

the French school where he studied until he graduated with a high school diploma. During this

period of his life, he was aware of the negative impact of colonialism on the Algerian society and

hoped that one day Algeria would be a free state from the French administration. He showed a

keen interest in study and research and during his vacations from school he studied Arabic and

attended lectures of some religious scholars such as Shaikh ‘Abdul Majid. After he graduated

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from the French school, he tried to find a job but in vain.He, then, decided to go to France to

continue his studies in 1930.

He sympathized with these students who raised questions in an attempt to change the conditions

of their societies, but he also tried to awaken them to the reality that unless a change in the

psychological and social realities of people themselves is achieved, their questions are irrelevant.

Bennabi’s encounter with the European culture as well as many natural and social sciences has

helped him in rethinking the problems of Muslims and connecting between the Muslim world

and the rest of the world. He looked at the experience of Muslims as part of a broader human

experience.

In 1963, he went to Algeria where he was appointed Director of High Studies in the Ministry of

National Education. In 1971, he went to the pilgrimage with his wife and their three daughters.

In a visit to Lebanon, he registered a legal document giving his friend Omar Masqawi the total

authority over his books. He died in 1973.

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1. Bennabi’s Work and Thought

All of the studies that were made on the works of Malek Bennabi have come to the

conclusion that the notion of al-hadarah (civilization) is the major idea in almost all of his

works. A mere examination of these works leads one to notice that most of them are

published under the main title ‘The Problem of Civilization” (Mushkilat al-Hadarah).

“Malek Bennabi believes that the problem of any nation is in essence a problem of civilization.”

2. STAGES OF CIVILIZATION

Bennabi divides societies into two kinds: the natural society and the historical society.43 The

natural society is a static society like that of ants, bees, the African society before colonialism

and the Arab society before the rise of Islam.44 The historical society (alMujtama’ al

Tarikhi), however, is the one that appears in some particular initial situation but later it starts

to develop its initial characteristics toward advancement.45 In its development, this society

undergoes three stages that are:

1. A stage before development

2. A stage of development

3. A stage after development

Bennabi identifies these three stages to those of the human being. For him, a civilization

undergoes three stages similar to those of a child. Those stages as he explains them are as

follows:

1.Motherhood period (Tawr al-Umumi):

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As a baby, the human being remains unaware of the world of things, then he/she gradually starts

to feel and sense things around him/her.

2.Pre-social period (tawr qabla al’Ijtima’I):

In this period, the child is involved in the world of things and also the world of persons but still

unaware of the world of ideas.

3.The social period (Tawr al-Ijtima’I):

This period starts with schooling. The child now tries to make a link between the world of things

and the world of ideas.

Bennabi remarks that it is a fact that at a certain period in the chronological sequence of time, a

nation may attain a high level in the growth of its civilization and at other periods it may be left

behind to sink into deep sleep. Owing to this observation, Bennabi points out that Muslims

should first determine their historical position in the cyclic movement of history before

proceeding in any attempt to solve their current problems.

Bennabi says that one of the major problems of the Muslims now is that they ignore where they

stand vis-à-vis the historical cyclic movement; and this ignorance has

led to their catastrophe. Therefore, one cannot talk about solutions while disregarding the

historical position of his/her own people, but there should be coherence between one’s thoughts

and procedures and between the demands of these people’s era. Besides,

importing solutions from the East or the West is but a waste of effort and an aggravation of

the illness.

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Bennabi also talks about stages of civilization in his theory. According to Bennabi, each

civilization is situated between two angles: Birth and disappearance.48 In the first angle,

civilization moves up toward development while in the second angle it heads down toward its

decline and disappearance. In between these two angles, there is a middle point and that is where

civilization in the course of its movement reaches the peak of its height.49 It is the stage when

civilization progresses and spreads. To give his theory a concrete and empirical aspect, Bennabi

has provided a figure50 through which he shows both the elements and movements of

civilization. Now, let us look closely at this diagram.

Figure 1 Bennabi’s stages of civilization

AB: As the diagram shows, the first stage (AB) is that of soul (Ruh) and here Bennabi’s message

is that civilization exclusively starts with the religious creed.

BC: This stage is different from the first one, for now those natural dispositions or those natural

impulses (gharaa’iz) are no more controlled because the mind (‘aql) lacks the soul’s control over

them.

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CD: The third stage is that of the impulses and it is illustrated by the letters (CD) in the figure

above. It is a stage of decline caused by some psychological factors characterized to be of a

lower level than that of the soul and the mind. In the third stage the soul becomes completely

powerless while the natural impulses have their full freedom and become the governing power in

the society.

This is the ending cycle of civilization when the society starts to live the after-stage of

civilization. Bennabi comments that such is the case of the Muslim today.With regard to

outcomes, Bennabi’s unerring conviction that unless Muslims changed their spiritual condition

they could not affect any far-reaching, meaningful change in society is echoed in the Qur’anic

verse: “Verily, never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change what is in

themselves”

References

Bariun, Fawzia. “Malik Bennabi and the Intellectual Problems of the Muslim Ummah.”

American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences9.3 (Fall 1992): 325–337.

Christelow, Alan. “An Islamist Humanist in the 20th Century: Malik Bennabi.”Maghreb

Review17.1–2 (1991): 69–83. An excellent overview of Bennabi's life and work.

Naylor, Phillip C.“The Formative Influence of French Colonialism on the Life and Thought

of Malek Bennabi (Mālik bn Nabı).”French Colonial History7 (2006): 129–142.

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Walsh, Sebastian J.“Killing Post-Almohad Man: Malek Bennabi, Algerian Islamism and the

Search for a Liberal Governance.”Journal of North African Studies12.2 (June

2007): 203–222.

"Malek Bennabi's Book A Question of Ideas in the Muslim World". September 2012.Islam in

History and Society by MalekBennabi

Bennabi, Malek (2000). Bases of Civilization. Damascus: DAR AL-FIKR.