Printer-friendly VersionBy Saro Qadir
Second: What are the social functions of religion?
Émile Durkheim, the great French philosopher, became primarily famous with his great theoretical work "The Elementary Forms of Religion," which applied a scientific basis on the social reality for analyzing the role of religion and became known as one of the composing systems of social building.
"Religion is a coordinated system consisting of faith and such behaviors that address sacred subjects and deviate it from the material atmosphere and put various bans on it. And those beliefs and behaviors gather all the believers and those engaged in religious affairs in a spiritual community called the church," Durkheim writes. (Firas Al-Sawah, Din al-Insan [or Region of human Being] p. 27) Durkheim brought about radical reforms in the arguments about religion, something concentrated in his theory that says it is not important whether a thinker thinks of religion, but the essence of the issue is what role does (s)he play in religion. He clarified that religion is an influential system in the formation of the society and has shared, like all the others, in regulating the social life. This theory of Durkheim reduces nothing from the value of the thinkings of other philosophers who have different perspectives on the emergence of religion. This theory pushed the sociologists to look realistically at religion's social role and treat it pragmatically.
In one of his three major theses in his book about the economy and the community, Max Feber talks about the role of the sacred, which includes religion and old conventions, and they become the source especially in conservative societies. (Key Sociological Thinkers: Rob Stones) This is besides the comprehensive study he has done on the role of religion in the growth of capitalism, in which he describes "protestantism and the essence of capitalism" as an influential social and intellectual system.
After reviewing the views of the famous thinkers and sociologists, I reinforce the idea that religion is an ancient social and historical phenomenon that occupies a wide spot in the social intellect, and it is a basis for the individual's intellect in societies where religion is seen as a philosophical source of existence. And those types constitute the majority of the world's societies. Religion, in a very basic way, has a long history in the procession of the evolution of humanity and expresses the community's ability to interpret the phenomena in the universe. The few thousand years in which the major religions of the world were born probably played a vital role in humanity's evolution age; therefore, today's scientific and technological innovations, despite their undoubted authenticity, have not been able to completely set religion aside.
The power of religion lies in the concept of the holiness of its basis that cannot be easily revised. This explains why it can resist even during the stage of civil society and stays as a system. This is besides the reduction in its functions. But when it comes to the social functions of religion, one must use more precision and realism. Religion, like a powerful system in the social structure, shifts from religious awareness to social institutions, institutions that change religious beliefs from awareness to common ceremonies and are organized in special places, such as mosques and religious feasts and ceremonies, setting and controlling individual's behaviors and social duties. By these institutions, we mean temples and other religious places; but in Islamic societies they include mosques, takiyas, khanaqas, and other places related to those. Durkheim says that society imposes its orders through these channels and keeps the gathering feeling alive through the sacred concepts. And the individual is trained such that (s)he abides automatically to the religious norms and orders.
From this perspective, religion resists all new systems and doesn't accept new beliefs and behaviors easily since in modernization the role of convention and holiness weakens and the authority of religion is limited. In the period of civil society, religion plays such a role and shows rigidness in regard to written laws.
Third: Religion as the source of laws
Law has a long history in the political and administrative lives of European countries and America. Right from the old Greece up to the Roman Empires, and further, the rule of church over Europe has gone through various stages. During the Renaissance Period, secularism grew and social relations were put under scrutiny according to the reality of life; therefore, human-made laws took the place of religious and divine laws. If previously divine laws were becoming arrangers of social relations and were assigning the rights according to their views, Renaissance put divinity aside and put the destiny of humans and societies in their own hands and made the reality of relations the foundation of law.
In the Islamic East, the process has gone in the opposite direction. The Sharia sources remained the only source governing society, and that was why ways were rarely open for human-made laws. At the end of the 19th century and as a result of growing colonialism and the arrival of new thoughts, the source of which was Europe, there came into being reformist people and centers and played a key role in the political and administrative reforms in the Middle East. They introduced the idea of constitution and legislation to the Islamic empires like the Ottomans and Qajarids, but they could not put an end to the role of religion in setting the laws. Here, we mention some contemporary witnesses. Dr Mohesn andul-Hamid, who was the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party until recently, is ethnically a Kurd and ideologically seen as the leader of Kurdistan's Muslims, says: "Islam is the state and homeland, or authority and nation, moral and power, or kindness and justice, intellect and law, science and judgment, material and wealth, business and richness, endeavor and Jihad, army and ideology; it is also a true faith and correct worship." (Niwe Kirdnewei Biri Islami, The Renewal of the Islamic Idea, p. 169)
According to this definition by Abdul-Hamid, nothing is left for the contemporary beliefs for the legislation and regulation of social relations. No Islamic country, except Turkey, has moved against this thought, and the Sharia has always been counted as the source of laws. By this, I do not mean that no attempt has been made for civil laws, but the essence of the laws has not crossed the divine interpretations; that is why civil societies have not developed.
In another aspect, the writer says: "The sacred Islamic religion is not the thought and philosophy of humans, and all those concepts (thought and philosophy) are products of humanity's reason and mind in the various stages of the history of humanity, whether they were in the Islamic society or other societies in the history of humanity. The only thing is that those thoughts that have been generated in an Islamic reason and mind and in conformity with the Islamic bases are less expected to be mistaken, compared to those generated from a non-Islamic mind." (Niwe Kirdnewei Biri Islami, p. 37).
Regarding the kind of this ideal human that has to exist in the ideal society of Islamic thought, we can refer to the opinion of Ali Bapir, head of the Islamic Community Party: 1. Salvation. According to Bapir, humans must keep away from all the free behaviors of civil society and abide to every single rule of Sharia. 2. Information and knowledge. This means knowledge of and conforming to all the rules of Sharia that have come in the first phase. 3. Loyalty and integration. There, only attracting the attention of God is considered, and human's wishes and freedoms lose meaning. 4. Avoidance and distancing. There have been some regulations that keep humans away from this world and alienate him/her. 5. Integrity and ascending. 6. Continuity and nonstop. (Ali Bapir. Regai Salih Bun u Berew xwa Cun, The Way to Integrity and Moving Toward God, p. 16-39)
This is a Globe translation of the writer's Kurdish essay. Translated by Aiob Mawloodi