Dr. Muhammad al-Habib (Abu Yarub) al-Marzouqi (d. 1947) is a Tunisian thinker with an Islamic philosophical orientation within the framework of the historical and structural unity of human thought.
His upbringing and studies
Dr. Abu Yarub Al-Marzouki was born in Bizerte (Menzel Bourguiba), Tunisia, in 1947. He obtained a BA in philosophy from the Sorbonne University in 1972, then a state doctorate in 1991. He taught philosophy at the Faculty of Arts, Tunis First University, and took over the management of the Translation Institute (Beit Al-Hikma) in Tunisia, before moving to teach Islamic philosophy at the International Islamic University in Malaysia.
His philosophical project
“We can say that the Tunisian Arab thinker, Abu Yarub Al-Marzouki, was able to take the first step, which is undoubtedly the most difficult, towards the establishment of a contemporary Arab philosophy that does not show hostility to religion, but rather casts its shadows and is guided by its guidance. Perhaps Marzouki’s success in this is due in the first place because it is news The religious and philosophical thought, both Islamic and Western, and began to forge a new path and approach, through which it seeks to restore philosophy to its leading role in the religious and philosophical building.This interest of Marzouki is not limited to philosophy only, but extends to other matters related to the political and intellectual advancement of Arab and Islamic civilization. Al-Marzouki has the necessary tools to research this topic, as he is well versed in the most important international languages, such as English, French and German. (Introduction to Muhammad al-Hawarani's dialogue, Al-Arabi Kuwaiti magazine, January 2005)
The central idea of Dr. Abu Yarub's project is that the intellectual history of humanity is a single history, and this includes both philosophical thought and religious thought, as it is not possible to separate between philosophical (mental) thought and religious (faith) thought. Therefore, Dr. Abu Yarub presents a historical and structural conception at the same time for this unified human intellectual history. It presents a perception that both Ibn Taymiyyah, through his "nominal" (or logical or structural) perceptions, and Ibn Khaldun, through his social-historical (or evolutionary) perceptions, together presented a "revolution" in the course of the development of this human thought. The features of this project appear clearly in “Reforming the Mind in Arab Philosophy - From Realism of Aristotle and Plato to the Esmaya of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Khaldun” (1994), as it appears in the Unity of Religious and Philosophical Thoughts (2001), and the epistemological and value paradoxes in Ibn Khaldun’s philosophical thought, (2006).
Therefore, the philosophical project of Abu Ya`rib takes an Islamic orientation because it presents a conception based on the "Islamic thought" of this human thought. But at the same time, he does not depend on the traditional "heritage" or rhetorical conceptions of Islamic thought, but on the contrary he criticizes all of them as being unable to present the correct conception of human philosophical thought based on Islamic thought. (The problem of renewing the principles of jurisprudence, an interview with Dr. Muhammad Saeed Ramadan Al-Bouti)
On the methodological side, Dr. Abu Yarub relies primarily on formal logic in achieving his project, as he is keen to establish logical relationships characterized by self-consistency between the concepts presented. Secondly, on sculpting and formulating new words or new combinations of previously used words in order to achieve the logical orientation in his works. And thirdly, it depends in addition to the structural approach in the general sense, so it is keen to establish a holistic structure for the subject in question so that all concepts and details can be placed within the framework of this overall structure.
Texts from his works
The problem of the total and its role in the history of Arab thought - Introduction to the book Reforming the Mind in Arab Philosophy, Center for Arab Unity Studies, 1994, pp. 13-29.
The concept of philosophy and its structural and historical conditions - Contemporary Arab Philosophical Horizons, Dar Al-Fikr, Syria, 2001, pp. 53-76.