The Role of Jurisprudence Against Social Damages

The issue of social damages is one of the most important threats to social life that by destroying society's strengths and abilities has a devastating effect on the health and community development process. Poverty and unemployment, begging, corruption at petty and grand scales, immigration and slum residences, addiction, moral corruption, sexual perversion, running away from religion, divorce, theft and homelessness are common causes of social harm and other problems and damages. Posing the main question of the study; that is, "What is the role of Islamic jurisprudence in identifying social damages, their contexts and the causes of their creation, as well as prevention, control and reduction of the damages?", and with an emphasis on the religious foundations and rich doctrines of Imamiyyah fiqh, the study has an attempt to prove that this fiqh enjoys the capacity and potential in this regard which has less been attended to. The findings of the study show that social damages do not arise except by disrupting one of man's quadruple communication with God, with his fellow man, with the nature and the relationship with himself. Besides, with regard to the subject and purpose of the principled knowledge of fiqh and its capacity and thresholds - which covers all four of the mentioned relationships – this knowledge along with different institutions can be used to identify, prevent, and cure social harm at the macro and micro level. The study also emphasizes that the capacities and functions of fiqh in the face of social problems and damages must be properly identified and exploited. As some instances of these roles, we can refer to fiqh’s role in identifying social damages, its role in protecting society through social systems, its function in legislation, and its capacity in promoting awareness and empowerment.