What Remains of Malek Bennabi's Thought Toward Outlining a New Bennabian Project

Abstract

This study revisits the thought of Malek Bennabi to identify the elements of his civilizational project that remain relevant for outlining a renewed Bennabian framework capable of addressing contemporary challenges. It analyzes the core concepts underpinning his intellectual vision, including colonizability, effectiveness, the world of ideas, and the conditions of renaissance, as methodological tools for diagnosing the crisis of Arab and Muslim societies and proposing paths toward renewal. The paper highlights the originality of Bennabi's conceptual framework and its integration of philosophical, sociological, and historical perspectives while emphasizing the central role of the human being and the religious idea in the process of civilization-building. It also examines the reasons behind the marginalization of his thought despite its intellectual significance and argues for reviving the "Bennabian spirit" as a dynamic project that can contribute to establishing an Arab-Islamic school of social thought and philosophy of civilization. The study concludes that engaging with Bennabi's legacy requires a critical and creative reinterpretation rather than a mere reproduction of his ideas