Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Human beings, as a social creature, need others to get their peace of mind and safety. Such needs encourage or force the idea of cooperation and partnership with others, while the formation of interpersonal relations in a society affects people to use a common environment. Today, urban planners and designers, in the form of professional specialists, are trying to engage their users through collaborative design approaches to identify the underlying aspects of the problem, highlighting those aspects, and proposing practical solutions to get public views. Nowadays, it could be said that the designers choose the middle path of independence and its opposite point being conservatism in design; in other words, they knock themselves out of their power position. A good number of studies have demonstrated that the use of user requirements increases the chance of success in the environment as people in the community know more about the needs and requirements of their environment than specialists. Hence, in recent years, popular participation has received considerable attention from theoretical and practical aspects. The present article was aimed at exploring the concept of participation and determining the criteria for attracting participation in the environment by reference to Western and authentic Islamic sources in order to achieve the principles and desirable criteria for participation in the environment while taking into account the shared values, beliefs, and common needs of the ideal society. In this regard, some questions were raised including the differences and the implications of the concept of participation in the environment from the two perspectives of Islamic and Western thoughts. Considering the fundamental-theoretical nature and the qualitative research approach, a collection of data was compiled through an interpretive-analytical method based on documentary studies to answer the question and collecting data and reviewing the literature of the subject. In the first step, the process of participation in Western literature was defined and applied. Then, the application of participation in various areas of environmental design and indicators influencing the participation of individuals in the environment were examined. In the second step, we tried to inspect the concept of participation in the environment from the perspective of Islamic thought. First, issues related to Islamic ethics, ethical principles that are social (not individual), and especially those related to participation in the environment were scrutinized. The available sources of Islamic sciences, especially the Holy Qur'an, hadiths, narrations, and sayings of Islamic scholars were used in this regard. The principles, criteria, and the results were then obtained by studying the verses and hadiths along with the study of the characteristics and manifestations of participation in the environment with a multi-faceted view. In the third step, these principles were determined in a comparative manner to identify commonalities and distinctions by combining the two previously examined categories. The findings indicated that in Western thought, the level of participation in the viewpoint of theorists involves a spectrum of non-participation to spontaneous participation. Besides, many views are formulated in a general way solely with regard to the background of individual mentality and the consideration of the ideals of intellectual and architectural institutions without considering the culture and social beliefs of various societies. Originality aims at the individual dimension and the consent of the parties while individual preferences are prioritized. In Islamic thought, one of the ethical principles of Islam in society for realizing a united nation is participation which has been emphasized abundantly. The principle of participation also has secondary ethics each of which has complementary components in itself that leads to the mixing of the spectra and levels. It could be said that all categorizations and principles were a subset of spontaneous participation and one can achieve the desired participation in the environment by observing them. The results of the adaptation of concepts and manifestations in both Islamic and Western thoughts provided different criteria for participation in the environment. The comparison of the principles pointed out that Western theories differ from the Islamic method in terms of participation of the environment in a fundamental element that is the importance of sensing and reasoning as the sole source of knowledge along with neglecting divine resources as unitary and complete resources. Contrary to the western-oriented view that focuses on individual dimension and satisfaction, the Islamic perspective emphasizes components such as cooperation, endowment spirit, jihad, and charity as high levels of participation. Numerous references to the symbolic crystallization of Islamic values in the physical form of the recommended architecture testify to the claim that the Islamic viewpoints lay down the basis of all works in the reverence of God and in the spiritual dimension of man. This clearly shows that religious and cultural values are preferable to all minor or short-term needs and ideals and norms derived from Islamic values are beyond individual and group needs and preferences.