Justice precedes freedom in Islamic thought

Young journalists club

News ID: 886
Publish Date: 14:19 - 23 April 2013
Tehran, YJC. Scholar says that in the Islamic thought, freedom is defined in terms of justice, implying the priority of the latter.

Hassan Qanbarizadeh, faculty member in the Department of Philosophy, University of Religions and Denominations of Qom said in an interview with Mehr News Agency "Justice is one of the things very well discussed in Islamic philosophy, and especially dialectics, in the past. Modern thinkers like Motahari have also given it comprehensive deliberation.”

He added "One of the main topics meticulously discussed in Islamic philosophy is the notion of justice and its definition. In Islamic thought such subjects are given much more consideration than instances and attributes of justice.”

Qanbarizadeh further said "What justice is, what it means, and how it relates to human and arbitrary rights and duties have undergone much debate in Islamic philosophy. Instances of individual justice and instances of social justice, from people’s relations with each other to the basics and forms of these relations are discussed in the Islamic philosophy. Whether in the Islamic world such issues are in agreement with its [Islam’s] notion of justice is a conceptual matter that is discussed in Islamic philosophy.”

Regarding the precedence of justice over freedom, he said "The precedence of justice to freedom is emphasized in Islamic philosophy and dialectic, because, although it is true that freedom has become so eminent in recently-emerged areas, especially in the Western culture, in our religious and dialectic culture freedom is not an absolute notion but a relative one, being defined in relation to other notions.”

"In Islamic thought, freedom is defined in terms of justice; therefore a sort of precedence of justice over freedom prevails in Islamic philosophical thought.”

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