JKAU: Islamic Econ., Vol. 27 No. 2, pp: 3-28 (July 2014) DOI: 10.4197 / Islec. 27-2.1 3 An Islamic Approach to Humanities Asad Zaman Vice Chancellor Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad Abstract. The methodology of science is suitable for material substances subject to laws, but not for humans with free will. “Social science” was born from the misconception that application of the scientific method to human beings and societies would lead to remarkable progress. However, this approach has failed in many ways, which is documented in this paper. Islam provides us with a radically different approach to the study of human beings and societies, predicated on human freedom to choose between good and evil. This approach is delineated in this paper. Keywords: Positivism, Freedom of choice, Morality, Scientific method, Revelation. KAUJIE Classification: G2, H12 1. Introduction The message of Allah to human beings starts with the imperative “Read!” and goes on to introduce the Creator of Heavens and Earth as the One who taught man that which he did not know. This knowledge, given to illiterate and backward Arabs, allowed them to overtake established civilizations of the Chinese, Persians, and Romans. Historian Marshall Hodgson (1974, p.71) attests to the power of this knowledge as follows: “Soon after the founding of the faith, Muslims succeeded in building a new form of society, which in time carried with it its own distinctive institutions, its art and literature, its science and scholarship, its political and social forms, as well as its cult and creed, all bearing an unmistak- able Islamic impress. In the course of centuries, this new society spread over widely diverse climes, throughout most of the Old World. It came closer than any had ever come to uniting all mankind under its ideals.” It was prophesied that Islam came as a stranger and will soon become a stranger. Chittick (1998) writes that the Islamic intellectual