THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL LAW IN IBN KHALDUN

İBRAHİM MAZMAN

ABSTRACT

Ancient Greek philosophers especially Plato and Aristotle had great effect on Muslim
philosophers like Ibn Sina and al-Farabi. Especially al-Farabi’s Al-Madina al-Fadila
emphasized that an ideal city consists of people with a moral and ethical goal to
establish virtuous life and happiness. In this manner, al-Farabi was comparing the role
of a Prophet in leading such a city with Plato’s virtuous king as an ideal philosopher.
Al-Ghazali, on the other hand, criticized Muslim philosophers of losing themselves in
Greek philosophy and splitting off from the Muslim creed. For al-Ghazali, reason alone
cannot attain Truth alone without the guidance of the revelation. Following al-Ghazali’s
criticism of philosophers, post-Ghazali Muslim thinkers like Fakhruddin al-Razi
approached history with a type of relativization of truth to defend their ideas. Opposing
this trend of despising rational, general laws, Ibn Khaldun represents the revival of
rational sciences in approaching history as well as advocacy of al-Ghazali’s emphasis on
Muslim traditional values in the history of Islam.