01
Reference
How does Islam appear in Izetbegović’s project as a fundamental reference for building a human and civilizational vision?
From restoring reference to modeling its structure
This examination does not begin from a ranking between Ali Izetbegović and the MANHAJ, nor from diminishing the value of Izetbegović’s project. It seeks instead to identify the location of methodological movement in each project: what reference organizes inquiry? How is the human being understood within it? Where does meaning arise? And how are the spiritual, material, and ethical dimensions organized in constructing the vision?
The examination is significant because Izetbegović invokes Islam as a foundational reference for understanding the human being, life, and civilization, and resists reducing the human being to a single dimension. The MANHAJ moves to another methodological level by making coordinate origin, conceptual domain, meaning coordinate, and the relations derived from them explicit objects of examination and modeling.
The difference between the two projects therefore lies neither in the importance of reference nor in the value of invoking it, but in the level at which they work on it: Izetbegović builds a vision of the human being and civilization from an Islamic reference, while MANHAJ examines the structure within which reference, meaning, concepts, and the cognitive act are organized.
Three questions guiding the detailed examination
The examination is read through the chain: doctrinal centrality → coordinate origin → conceptual domain → meaning coordinate → cognitive act, while taking into account the difference between invoking a reference and building a methodological model of its structure.
02
Meaning
How does the question move from the meaning of the human being, spirit, and matter to studying the meaning coordinate and the conditions of its variation within the conceptual domain?
03
Coordinate origin
What is the difference between building a vision from an Islamic reference and making coordinate origin and the relations derived from it an explicit object of modeling?
Ali Izetbegović and MANHAJ: where does inquiry begin?
Ali Izetbegović
Izetbegović invokes Islam as a fundamental reference for constructing his vision of the human being and civilization, and rejects reducing the human being to the material dimension alone or separating it from the spiritual and ethical dimensions. The integration of the dimensions of the human being therefore becomes an essential element of his conception.
Faouzi Messeoud — MANHAJ
The methodology moves the question to an explicitly foundational level: what is the coordinate origin from which the conceptual domain branches out? How is the meaning coordinate determined within this domain? And how are the relations connecting reference to concepts and the cognitive act organized?
Four points of methodological dialogue
01Reference: invoking Islam versus modeling coordinate origin
Ali Izetbegović
He makes Islam a fundamental reference in constructing his vision and seeks an understanding of the human being that goes beyond the duality separating spirit from matter.
MANHAJ
It makes reference and coordinate origin explicit elements of analysis: what centrality does the domain branch from, and what relations constitute the rest of the structure?
02The human being and meaning: existential integration versus meaning coordinate
Ali Izetbegović
He emphasizes that the human being cannot be understood through matter alone and that the spiritual and ethical dimensions are part of his reality. The balance among his dimensions therefore occupies a central place in his vision.
MANHAJ
It does not treat meaning as a fixed value attached to a concept in every context, but studies it according to its coordinate within the conceptual domain and the conditions of its formation.
03Concepts: constructing a vision of the human being versus examining the domain that produces meaning
Ali Izetbegović
He employs philosophical and ethical concepts and dualities to construct an integrated vision of the human being and civilization, in which human value is not separated from its spiritual dimension.
MANHAJ
It asks before and after the concept: what domain does it belong to? What coordinate origin gives it its coordinate? And what happens to its meaning when it is transferred to another domain or other coordinates?
04Level of the cognitive act: constructing the vision versus modeling its structure
Ali Izetbegović
He constructs a philosophical, human, and civilizational vision from an Islamic reference and makes restoring human integration a basis for understanding civilization and the human being.
MANHAJ
It seeks to turn the structure of the question into an analytical model linking doctrinal centrality, coordinate origin, conceptual domain, meaning coordinate, and cognitive act.
Izetbegović: restoring reference; MANHAJ: modeling its structure
Izetbegović’s importance in this examination does not lie in having “reached” the concepts of MANHAJ, but in offering an important model of invoking Islam as a fundamental reference for constructing a vision of the human being and civilization and resisting the reduction of the human being to a one-dimensional material model.
The level of work in MANHAJ is different: the question moves from what reference should we build our vision from? to how is this reference constituted within the model? How do conceptual domains branch from it? How is meaning determined within their coordinates? And how does the cognitive act arise from it?
The relationship between the two projects is therefore neither one of negation nor one of superiority, but a distinction in the level of the cognitive act: Izetbegović builds a human and civilizational vision from an Islamic reference, while MANHAJ makes the structure of reference, meaning, and the relations derived from them an explicit object of analysis and modeling.
Continue the dialogue with other projects
Cite this page
For researchers and graduate students, two ready-to-use citation formats are available.
Messeoud, F. (2026). Examination of Ali Izetbegović’s Project through the Intellectual Modeling Methodology (MANHAJ): Reference, the Human Being, Meaning, and Conceptual Domain. MyPortail. https://www.myportail.com/en/compare_begovic_faouzi_messeoud_balance_en.php
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