Dar al-Rayyan
Student portal
Logic and Critical Thinking: Sharh al-Sullam · Sep 8, 2026

Lecture 1: Worldview, Paradigm, and the Foundations of Islamic Critical Thinking

Ready
Key takeaways
  • A paradigm is a specific interpretive framework; a worldview is a broader vision of reality as a whole.
  • Islam should be studied on its own terms, not merely through modern Eurocentric assumptions.
  • Recognizing paradigms does not mean truth is relative; the instructor rejected nihilism and affirmed shared reality and capital-T truth.
  • The principle “al-hukm ala shay far un an tasawwurihi” means one should not judge something before properly understanding it.
  • Worldviews include ontology, epistemology, axiology, anthropology, cosmology, practical life, and aesthetics.
  • Much of modern Western thought emerged from specific European experiences: medieval Christianity, Renaissance humanism, Reformation anti-clericalism, scientific revolution, Enlightenment rationalism, secularism, modernism, and postmodernism.
  • The Islamic tradition did not historically frame science and religion as enemies in the same way Europe did.
  • Logic and the Muqaddimat of al-Sanusi will together provide tools for sound critical thinking within an Islamic worldview.

This opening lesson set the intellectual frame for studying mantiq (منطق), classical logic, and Islamic theology together. The instructor began by distinguishing a paradigm from a worldview: a paradigm is a more specific framework used by a particular community to interpret its subject matter, while a worldview is a comprehensive vision of reality. A worldview answers the largest human questions: What exists? What is knowledge? What is the human being? What is good and evil? What is the purpose of life? For students of Islam, the key point is that one cannot fairly assess the Islamic intellectual tradition by forcing it into categories formed by a different civilization’s history and assumptions.

Text references covered
  • Al-Akhdari, al-Sullam al-Munawraq: course text for the logic class; students were advised to begin with the first five lines.
  • Imam al-Sanusi, al-Muqaddimat: paired with the logic course as a foundation for theology and Islamic critical thinking.
  • Imam al-Ghazali, al-Munqidh min al-Dalal: mentioned as a text to be read in a later semester.
  • Imam al-Ghazali, Maqasid al-Falasifah: mentioned as al-Ghazali’s presentation of the philosophers’ views before critique.
  • Fakhr al-Din al-Razi: his classification of four kinds of Qur'anic verses was discussed.
  • Qur'an 108:1, 'Inna a'taynaka al-Kawthar': used as an example of a verse whose full meaning requires prophetic explanation.
  • Examples of huruf muqattaat mentioned: Alif Lam Mim, Ha Mim, Ayn Sin Qaf, Ya Sin.
Questions to think about
  1. What assumptions do you personally bring to the study of Islam because of your education, culture, or social environment?
  2. How can one avoid both extremes: imposing an outside framework on Islam, and falling into relativism where no truth can be known?
  3. Why is the maxim “judging a thing depends on conceptualizing it” especially important in the age of quick online information and AI tools?
  4. In what ways might modern suspicion of religious authority be shaped by European Christian history rather than by Islamic tradition?
  5. How do ontology, epistemology, and axiology appear in everyday life, not just in philosophy books?
  6. What does architecture or public space in your society suggest about what that society values?
  7. How should a non-specialist Muslim balance personal engagement with the Qur'an and reliance on qualified scholarship?
  8. What is the difference between useful critique and being critical merely for the sake of being critical?
  9. How might the distinction between hukum adi, hukum aqli, and hukum shari help clarify debates about science, reason, and revelation?
  10. What would it mean to develop critical thinking skills from within an Islamic intellectual framework rather than simply importing modern assumptions?