Sunnatullah al-Ijtima'iyyah as a Compass for Civilization: Reconstructing the Quranic Laws of History within the Paradigm of Modern Human Social Transformation

Abstract

Civilizations across history exhibit a recurring pattern of rise and fall, yet whether this pattern follows discoverable laws remains a fundamental question. Prior thematic-exegesis studies have mapped Qur'anic terms related to social transformation (al-taghyir, al-ibtila', al-tamhish, al-tamkin), but have not systematically linked these patterns to Ibn Khaldun's classical civilizational theory or to the multidimensional crises of modern civilization. This study addresses that gap by reconstructing sunnatullah al-ijtima'iyyah as an integrated paradigm functioning as a "compass of civilization," with three interrelated roles: diagnostic (identifying a civilization's stage of transformation), corrective (revealing the causal factors requiring correction), and predictive (projecting the trajectory of social change). This is a qualitative library research using the thematic (maudhu'i) exegesis method. The findings show that sunnatullah al-ijtima'iyyah operates through the stages of al-ibtila', al-tamhish, and al-tamkin, and that civilizational rise and fall follow a strict causal principle: collective faith, self-reform, and justice drive prosperity, while structural oppression, elite extravagance (mutrafin), and ecological exploitation drive collapse-a pattern empirically confirmed by Ibn Khaldun's 'ashabiyyah theory and by contemporary case studies such as the Mughal dynasty. The study concludes that this Qur'anic law of history retains strong theoretical and practical relevance as a compass for guiding modern social transformation toward distributive justice, trustworthy leadership, a culture of knowledge, and ecological sustainability.