Foundations of humanities from the perspective of Ayatollah Khamenei

Ontology is a branch of Philosophy that studies about existence. In another word, ontology is the study of phenomena which exist in reality. Being is interpreted in two ways: physical interpretation and divine interpretation. According to these two types of interpretation of being, we will have two kinds of humanities: Islamic humanities and material humanities. For instance, if the being is known as the material fact, the humanities discuss the material aspects of human being; because, there is no fact except the material. But if the being is known as a super-material, the humanities debate spiritual dimension of the human being, in addition to the material.

In Islam, being is not just the material thing as the holy Qur'an, said: “He is the First and the Last, the Clear and the Hidden. He has knowledge of all things.”[1]

What is the ontology of the humanities in the perspective of Ayatollah Khamenei? The Supreme Leader compared the Islamic ontology to the western ontology saying that: “Many humanities were based on the philosophy whose basis is materialism.”[2] "The basis of humanities in the western countries is materialistic and non-divine." [3 He said.  The leader also: “ the base of the western humanity is material ideology which is contrary to religion and Koranic teachings while we should seek the essence of humane sciences in The Qur'an.”[4]

The leader believes that the Western humanities are not useful for us; because, they are based on the basis of materialism. As he said: "humanities will be beneficial to individuals and society on condition that they are based on a divine and an Islamic world view."[5]

Based on the aforementioned points it can be concluded that our intellectual foundations of the humanities are different from Western's intellectual foundations. As a result, if the foundations were different the humanities, which based on them, would be different too. The leader said: “The foundations of the Islamic thoughts are different from the foundations of the materialistic thoughts; therefore, imitating the western human sciences cannot be of any help in solving any of our problems.” [6]  

References:
[1] Surah AL-HADID (57), Verse 3.: هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَالْآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
[2] Leader’s Address to University Professors, 30 August 2009 (30/08/2009) (http://english.khamenei.ir/news/1203/Leader-s-Address-to-University-Professors)
[3] Leaders' Speech in Meeting with University Professors, 2 /Jul/ 2014. http://english.khamenei.ir/news/1928/Leader-s-Speech-in-Meeting-with-University-Professors
[4] Leader's Speech in Meeting with Woman Researchers of the Holy Quran, 20/ Oct/ 2009. (http://english.khamenei.ir/news/1883/Leader-s-Speech-in-Meeting-with-Woman-Researchers-of-the-Holy)
[5] Meeting with University Professors, 2 / Jul/ 2014. (http://english.khamenei.ir/news/1928/Leader-s-Speech-in-Meeting-with-University-Professors)
[6] Meeting a large group of Iranian students, 10/ Aug/ 2011. (http://english.khamenei.ir/news/1506/Leader-s-Speech-to-Students)