Sünnetullah: Kâinatta Mizan, Tarihte Adalet (Kâinatın ve Toplumun Düzenine Ontolojik Bir Bakış)

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Abstract (English)

The concept of Sunnatullah—the divine order through which God governs both the cosmos and human history—has long occupied an important place in Islamic thought. While this concept is often discussed in relation to the regularity of the natural world, its social and historical dimensions receive far less attention in contemporary discourse. Yet the Qur’anic notion of Sunnatullah refers not only to the stability of the cosmic order but also to the moral and historical consequences of human action within society.

This essay examines Sunnatullah through three interconnected ontological layers: the question of causality and the relationship between cause and effect, the cosmic order that grounds human knowledge and trust in the world, and the social order through which justice and accountability unfold across history. Drawing on the insights of al-Ghazālī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, and Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır, and guided by Qur’anic references to the unchanging character of Sunnatullah, the essay argues that divine order manifests itself simultaneously in the reliability of nature and in the moral structure of history.

Seen from this perspective, Sunnatullah is not merely a cosmological principle but a comprehensive framework that links the intelligibility of the world, the possibility of knowledge, and the responsibility of human societies. Understanding this pattern allows the relationship between divine law, historical experience, and human agency to be read within a unified horizon of meaning.