The need for the "Science of Methodology"
Yahya Mohamed
The Science of Methodology is a logic needed by all human sciences, and therefore it can be applied to religious understanding and other fields of study. It is natural that this science comes later in time than the sciences based on it, although it requires - logically - that it precedes it. The history of any science begins without what it is intended to begin with later, that is, it begins outside the limits of logical requirements. And if "external research" can determine for us the historical beginning, then "inner research" is sufficient to determine the logical beginning. In the natural and mathematical sciences, Science of Methodology was not known until late, and it was said that Immanuel Kant was the first to point out the existence of a science that is neither mathematical nor natural science, which was later known as the Science of Methodology.
The humanities sciences cannot be complete unless they are controlled and disciplined in accordance with
methodological science. That is why the ancients realized the necessity of this science in various aspects of knowledge.
This science is usually paid attention to after the effect caused by the chaos and disorder of knowledge production, as it is - from this point of view - like a bat or an owl that does not become active and fly only after the day loses its luster and casting its shadows in the darkness, as is confirmed by the following sciences, which we will briefly talk about.
From a historical perspective, it seems that the first science encompassed by methodological science is logic, as formulated by Aristotle, aiming to Control philosophical thinking after it was overwhelmed by the chaos of the accumulation of philosophical doctrines at that time. Logic is a method of consideration and thinking related to human knowledge in general. Although learning logic does not necessarily require the learner to practice logical thinking.
Among the other methodological sciences is what the Islamic civilization witnessed, such as the Usul al-Fiqh (Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence), the Nahw (Arabic grammar), the Arudh (Prosody in poetry), and others. For example, Imam al-Shafi'i established the Usul al-Fiqh to govern the method of deriving legal rulings according to the considered rules. It has been said that the reason behind al-Shafi'i's initiative to speak on the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence before others who preceded him in the field of jurisprudence is that those earlier scholars were preoccupied with the hadiths that each one of them received in his respective regions, so if the evidence of these hadiths conflicts, he judges them according to his insight. In the era of al-Shafi'i, the situation worsened when the hadiths of all regions came together, so the contradiction was multiplying, sometimes between the hadiths of a single region, and at other times between the hadiths of different regions.
This created confusion among scholars due to the abundance of conflicts and variations. Al-Shafi'i took it upon himself to put an end to this confusion through his treatise on the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. He established principles for reconciling and prioritizing conflicting evidence.
Ibn Khaldun also mentioned that the early generations did not need to scrutinize the chains of narrators due to the proximity of their era and their direct experience and knowledge of them, but “when the predecessors became extinct and the first ones went away, and all sciences turned into the industry; the jurists and scholars needed to acquire these laws and principles to derive legal rulings from the evidence. Thus, they wrote it down as a separate art, known as the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence.
The same applies to the science of Arabic grammar, as there are numerous narrations confirming that the emergence of grammar was a response to the corruption that had taken place in the language among the people.
And all the narrations indicate that the founder of this science is Abu Al-Aswad Al-Du’ali, including that Al-Du'ali came to Ziyad bin Abih and said: "I see the Arabs have mixed with non-Arabs, so their tongues have changed, will you allow me to to put up words for the Arabs by which they can preserve their speech?" Ziyad replied, "No." Then, a man came to Ziyad and said: May God rectify the prince, our father died and left behind sons (tawaffa abana wa taraka banun توفي أبانا وترك بنون) [1]. So Ziyad said: Call for me Aba Al-Aswad, so he was called and Ziyad said: Put to the people what I forbade you from.
In another narration by al-Mazini, it is mentioned that the reason Abu al-Aswad established the foundations of grammar was that the daughter of Abu al-Aswad asked him, "What intense is the heat?" (Ma ashaddu al-harr مَا أَشَدُّ الحَرّ). He said: “The pebbles are in the scorching heat.” She said: “I was amazed at his strength [2]. ” He said: “Did people's words deviate?.” So he informed Imam Ali of that, and Ali provided him with foundations upon which he built and continued to work after him.
In all cases, historically, sciences precede the establishment of methodologies to regulate them, and the crafting of these methodologies comes after the sciences have gone through the phenomenon of chaos and corruption. The latter is what catches the attention of scholars to search for methodologies capable of regulating thinking in the sciences, to avoid the accumulation of this phenomenon.
This situation is evident in the history of philosophy, where the investigation of epistemology serves as a logical framework for controlling and regulating the searches in ontology and axiology. Philosophy originated as a study of ontology, and then the study of epistemology emerged, although logical consideration assumes that this field should have preceded the former and that the research on axiology should have been delayed compared to the other two studies together. If the scientific system has an axiology nature, it must be preceded by a system that suits it on the level of ontology, and this latter should be preceded by a third system on the level of epistemology. This means that the problem of epistemology must logically precede the problem of ontology and that the latter, in turn, should precede the problem of axiology.
[1] This saying is true in terms of meaning, but it is wrong in terms of Arabic grammar.
[2] There is a difference in meaning according to the rules of the Arabic language between saying:(Ma ashaddu al-harr مَا أَشَدُّ الحَرّ) and saying: (Ma ashadda al-harr مَا أَشَدَّ الحَرّ).