Sociological Principles of Islamic Culture

The word religion is referred to as decree, tradition and custom in dictionaries as well as in Koranic usage (Dehkhoda, 1981:77). Although the religion in essence has been andis the oldest and most influential social entity accepted and followed by different nations during the history, there is a significant disagreement between nations, groups and individualsin terms of definition of religion; everyone has its own definition of religion, in accordancewith its own attitude toward the religion. A western author discussing the variety and abundance of definitions for religion in west says: There have appeared so many definitionsfor such a phenomenon in west, during the centuries, that even giving an imperfect list of the definitions is almost impossible (Mircha Iliade, 1990: 85).In English the word culture is referred to as cultivation and physical nurture which is still used in some combinations and terms, such as Bee culture, Pearl culture and Agriculture.Gradually its usage by sociologists and anthropologists and generally by scholars of social sciences for new concepts caused a change in meaning of the culture. Lutay Kooy (1999) argues that there are almost 300 definitions of culture which can be classified into sixcategories, including Descriptive definitions: They are less satisfactory in terms of meaning,Historical definitions: Culture as a social heritage, normal definitions: Culture as the shared life of members of a society, psychological definitions: Culture as the taught procedure forsolving the problems, Structural definitions: Culture as the unifying and solidifying concept and Genetic definitions: Culture as an earthen and idealistic product of human activities.