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HISTORY
History in Islam has to do with the knowledge about past events and the tendency of pondering about its viability till present so as to have better understanding of the future. The statement “History feed itself” can be justified, it implies that history can reveal the way people live their life style compared to the past period. Some philosophers wrote about what they called “Poverty of history” they claimed that history is an utterly useless discipline because it cannot capture the past with certitude; this is why some prominent French predecessor, Rene Descartes (1596-1650) believes history is nonsense due to his famous discourse of method and meditation. Another German thinker ‘Geothe’ thought of history as the most absurd of all things and “web of nonsense for the higher thinking”.
There are defects in their way of reasoning because they don’t believe in history. For someone to know the problem confronting a society, you have to vividly look at history i.e. make findings of the past event and ponder on it.
WESTERN ORIGIN OF THE WORD HISTORY
The word history is derived from the Greek word historia which means ‘information’ or an enquiry designed to elicit the truth. “Tarikh” is the Arabic equivalent of the word history, it has to do with recording the time of an event . History has its root from the Arabic word ‘Arakha’ meaning record, Tarikh is actually a special time an event occurred.
We can derive similar word connoting history in Qur’an such as Qasas (narration), Akhbar (report) and Naba (tidings).
Different Definitions of History.
E.H carr defined history as an unending dialogue between the present and the past.
Marcus Tallius Cicero: History is the witness testifies to the passing of time, it illuminates reality, visualizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings about tiding of antiquity.
R.G. Collingwood defines history firstly as knowing what is to be a person. Secondly knowing what it is to be the kind person you are and thirdly knowing what it is to be the person you are and nobody else is going by the last definition.
Knowing yourself means knowing what you can do and since nobody knows what he can do until he makes an attempt, the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history then is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is. This definition is considered as the best definition.
Ibn Khaldoon believes history to be way of life (Fanu) the art of science that will refer us to past event and ponder about it. History brings about civilization, it is considered as different styles people live. Therefore history must consist of 3 elements which are past, present and future.
History in Islam has to do with the knowledge about past events and the tendency of pondering about its viability till present so as to have better understanding of the future. The statement “History feed itself” can be justified, it implies that history can reveal the way people live their life style compared to the past period. Some philosophers wrote about what they called “Poverty of history” they claimed that history is an utterly useless discipline because it cannot capture the past with certitude; this is why some prominent French predecessor, Rene Descartes (1596-1650) believes history is nonsense due to his famous discourse of method and meditation. Another German thinker ‘Geothe’ thought of history as the most absurd of all things and “web of nonsense for the higher thinking”.
There are defects in their way of reasoning because they don’t believe in history. For someone to know the problem confronting a society, you have to vividly look at history i.e. make findings of the past event and ponder on it.
WESTERN ORIGIN OF THE WORD HISTORY
The word history is derived from the Greek word historia which means ‘information’ or an enquiry designed to elicit the truth. “Tarikh” is the Arabic equivalent of the word history, it has to do with recording the time of an event . History has its root from the Arabic word ‘Arakha’ meaning record, Tarikh is actually a special time an event occurred.
We can derive similar word connoting history in Qur’an such as Qasas (narration), Akhbar (report) and Naba (tidings).
Different Definitions of History.
E.H carr defined history as an unending dialogue between the present and the past.
Marcus Tallius Cicero: History is the witness testifies to the passing of time, it illuminates reality, visualizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings about tiding of antiquity.
R.G. Collingwood defines history firstly as knowing what is to be a person. Secondly knowing what it is to be the kind person you are and thirdly knowing what it is to be the person you are and nobody else is going by the last definition.
Knowing yourself means knowing what you can do and since nobody knows what he can do until he makes an attempt, the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history then is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is. This definition is considered as the best definition.
Ibn Khaldoon believes history to be way of life (Fanu) the art of science that will refer us to past event and ponder about it. History brings about civilization, it is considered as different styles people live. Therefore history must consist of 3 elements which are past, present and future.
