لطفا منتظر باشید ...
The Islamic
Concept of Knowledge
Dr. Sayyid Wahid Akhtar
Vol XII No. 3
While it is an open question whether an explicit and systematically
worked out Islamic epistemology exists, it is undeniable that various epistemological
issues have been discussed in Muslim philosophy with an orientation different
from that of Western epistemology. Today attempts are being made to understand
the basic epistemological issues in terms of that orientation. This is
a valuable effort that deserves our interest and encouragement. However,
it can be fruitful only if the practice of rigorous analysis is kept up,
with close attention to the precise definitions of the various concepts
involved.
With this view, an attempt is made in this paper to delineate the different
shades and connotations of the term 'ilm, i.e., knowledge, in the
Islamic context. It is hoped that this brief attempt will serve as a step
for future groundwork for the construction of a framework for an Islamic
theory of knowledge.
In the Islamic theory of knowledge, the term used for knowledge in Arabic
is 'ilm, which, as Rosenthal has justifiably pointed out, has a
much wider connotation than its synonyms in English and other Western languages.
'Knowledge' falls short of expressing all the aspects of 'ilm. Knowledge
in the Western world means information about something, divine or corporeal,
while 'ilm is an all-embracing term covering theory, action and
education. Rosenthal, highlighting the importance of this term in Muslim
civilization and Islam, says that it gives them a distinctive shape.
In fact there is no concept that has been operative as a determinant
of the Muslim civilization in all its aspects to the same extent as 'ilm.
This holds good even for the most powerful among the terms of Muslim religious
life such as, for instance, tawhid "recognition of the oneness of
God," ad-din, "the true religion," and many others that are used constantly
and emphatically. None of them equals ilm in depth of meaning and
wide incidence of use. There is no branch of Muslim intellectual life,
of Muslim religious and political life, and of the daily life of the average
Muslim that remains untouched by the all pervasive attitude toward "knowledge"
as something of supreme value for Muslim being. 'ilm is Islam, even
if the theologians have been hesitant to accept the technical correctness
of this equation. The very fact of their passionate discussion of the concept
attests to its fundamental importance for Islam.
It may be said that Islam is the path of "knowledge." No other religion
or ideology has so much emphasized the importance of 'ilm. In the
Qur'an the word 'alim has occurred in 140 places, while al-'ilm
in 27. In all, the total number of verses in which 'ilm or its derivatives
and associated words are used is 704. The aids of knowledge such as book,
pen, ink etc. amount to almost the same number. Qalam occurs in
two places, al-kitab in 230 verses, among which al-kitab
for al-Qur'an occurs in 81 verses. Other words associated with writing
occur in 319 verses. It is important to note that pen and book are essential
to the acquisition of knowledge. The Islamic revelation started with the
word iqra' ('read!' or 'recite!').
According to the Qur'an, the first teaching class for Adam started soon
after his creation and Adam was taught 'all the Names'.
Allah is the first teacher and the absolute guide of humanity. This
knowledge was not imparted to even the Angels. In Usul al-Kafi there
is a tradition narrated by Imam Musa al-Kazim ('a) that 'ilm is
of three types: ayatun muhkamah (irrefutable signs of God), faridatun
'adilah (just obligations) and sunnat al-qa'imah (established
traditions of the Prophet [s]). This implies that 'ilm, attainment
of which is obligatory upon all Muslims covers the sciences of theology,
philosophy, law, ethics, politics and the wisdom imparted to the Ummah
by the Prophet (S). Al-Ghazali has unjustifiably differentiated between
useful and useless types of knowledge. Islam actually does not consider
any type of knowledge as harmful to human beings. However, what has been
called in the Qur'an as useless or rather harmful knowledge, consists of
pseudo sciences or the lores prevalent in the Jahiliyyah.
'Ilm is of three types: information (as opposed to ignorance),
natural laws, and knowledge by conjecture. The first and second types of
knowledge are considered useful and their acquisition is made obligatory.
As for the third type, which refers to what is known through guesswork
and conjecture, or is accompanied with doubt, we shall take that into consideration
later, since conjecture or doubt are sometimes essential for knowledge
as a means, but not as an end.
Beside various Qur'anic verses emphasizing the importance of knowledge,
there are hundreds of Prophetic traditions that encourage Muslims to acquire
all types of knowledge from any corner of the world. Muslims, during their
periods of stagnation and decline, confined themselves to theology as the
only obligatory knowledge, an attitude which is generally but wrongly attributed
to al-Ghazali's destruction of philosophy and sciences in the Muslim world.
Al-Ghazali, of course, passed through a turbulent period of skepticism,
but he was really in search of certainty, which he found not in discursive
knowledge but in mystic experience. In his favour it must be said that
he paved the way for liberating the believer from blind imitation and helping
him approach the goal of certain knowledge.
In the Islamic world, gnosis (ma'rifah) is differentiated from
knowledge in the sense of acquisition of information through a logical
processes. In the non-Islamic world dominated by the Greek tradition, hikmah
(wisdom) is considered higher than knowledge. But in Islam 'ilm
is not mere knowledge. It is synonymous with gnosis (ma'rifah).
Knowledge is considered to be derived from two sources: 'aql and
'ilm huduri (in the sense of unmediated and direct knowledge
acquired through mystic experience).
It is important to note that there is much emphasis on the exercise
of the intellect in the Qur'an and the traditions, particularly in the
matter of ijtihad. In the Sunni world qiyas (the method of
analogical deduction as propounded by Imam Abu Hanifah) is accepted as
an instrument of ijtihad, but his teacher and spiritual guide, Imam
Ja'far al-Sadiq ('a), gave pre-eminence to 'aql in this matter.
In the entire Shi'i literature of fiqh and usul al-fiqh,
'aql is much more emphasized, because qiyas is only a form of quasi-logical
argument, while 'aql embraces all rational faculties of human beings.
Even intuition or mystic experience are regarded as a higher stage of 'aql.
In Shi'i literature in particular, and Sunni literature in general, 'aql
is considered to be a prerequisite for knowledge. Starting from Usul
al-Kafi, all Shi'i compendia of hadith devote their first chapter
to the merits of 'aql and the virtues of 'ilm. In Sunni compendia
of hadith, including al-Sihah al-sittah and up to al-Ghazali's Ihya,
a chapter is devoted to this issue, though it is not given a first priority.
This shows that there is a consensus among the Muslims on the importance
of 'aql which is denoted by such words as ta'aqqul, tafaqquh
and tadabbur in the Qur'an.
Exercise of the intellect ('aql) is of significance in the entire
Islamic literature which played an important role in the development of
all kinds of knowledge, scientific or otherwise, in the Muslim world. In
the twentieth century, the Indian Muslim thinker, Iqbal in his Reconstruction
of Religious Thought in Islam, pointed out that ijtihad was a dynamic
principle in the body of Islam. He claims that much before Francis Bacon
the principles of scientific induction were emphasized by the Qur'an, which
highlights the importance of observation and experimentation in arriving
at certain conclusions. It may also be pointed out that Muslim fuqaha and
mufassirun made use of the method of linguistic analysis in interpreting
the Quranic injunctions and the sunnah of the Prophet (S). Al-Ghazalis
Tahatut al-falasifah is probably the first philosophical treatise
that made use of the linguistic analytical method to clarify certain philosophical
issues. I personally feel that he is rather maligned than properly understood
by both the orthodox and liberal Muslim interpreters of his philosophy.
His method of doubt paved the way for a healthy intellectual activity in
the Muslim world, but because of historical and social circumstances, it
culminated in the stagnation of philosophical and scientific thinking,
which later made him a target of criticism by philosophers.
There was made a distinction between wisdom (hikmah) and knowledge
in the pre-Islamic philosophy developed under the influence of Greek thought.
In Islam there is no such distinction. Those who made such a distinction
led Muslim thought towards un-Islamic thinking. The philosophers such as
al-Kindi, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina are considered to be hakims (philosophers)
and in this capacity superior to 'ulama', and fuqaha This misconception
resulted in al-Ghazali's attack on the philosophers. Islam is a religion
that invites its followers to exercise their intellect and make use of
their knowledge to attain the ultimate truth (haqq). Muslim thinkers
adopted different paths to attain this goal. Those who are called philosophers
devoted themselves to logic and scientific method and they were derogated
by the Sufis, though some of them, such as Ibn Sina, al-Farabi and
al-Ghazali took recourse to the mystic path in their quest of the truth
at some stage. As I said earlier, 'ilm may not be translated as
mere knowledge; it should be emphasized that it is also gnosis or ma'rifah.
One may find elements of mystic experience in the writings of Muslim philosophers.
In Kashf al-mahjub of al-Hujwiri a distinction is made between khabar
(information) and nazar (analytic thought). This applies not only
to Muslim Sufis but also to most of the Muslim philosophers who sought
to attain the ultimate knowledge which could embrace all things, corporeal
or divine. In the Western philosophical tradition there is a distinction
between the knowledge of the Divine Being and knowledge pertaining to the
physical world. But in Islam there is no such distinction. Ma'rifah
is ultimate knowledge and it springs from the knowledge of the self (Man
'arafa nafsahu fa qad 'arafa Rabbbahu, 'One who realizes one's own
self realizes his Lord'). This process also includes the knowledge of the
phenomenal world. Therefore, wisdom and knowledge which are regarded as
two different things in the non-Muslim world are one and the same
in the Islamic perspective.
In the discussion of knowledge, an important question arises as to how
one can overcome his doubts regarding certain doctrines about God, the
universe, and man. It is generally believed that in Islam, as far as belief
is concerned, there is no place for doubting and questioning the existence
of God, the prophethood of Hadrat Muhammad (S) and the Divine injunctions,
that Islam requires unequivocal submission to its dictates. This general
belief is a misconception in the light of Islam's emphasis on 'aql.
In the matter of the fundamentals of faith (usu-l al-Din), the believer
is obliged to accept tawhid, nubuwwah and ma'd (in
the Shi'i faith, 'adl, i.e. Divine Justice, and imamah are
also fundamentals of faith) on rational grounds or on the basis of one's
existential experience. This ensures that there is room for doubt and skepticism
in Islam before reaching certainty in Iman. The sufis have described
iman as consisting of three stages: 'ilm al-yaqin (certain
knowledge),'ayn al-yaqin (knowledge by sight) and haqq al-yaqin
(knowledge by the unity of subject and object). The last stage is attainable
by an elect few.
'Ilm is referred to in many Quranic verses as 'light' (nur),
and Allah is also described as the ultimate nur. it means that 'ilm
in the general sense is synonymous with the 'light' of Allah. This light
does not shine for ever for all the believers. If is hidden sometimes by
the clouds of doubt arising from the human mind. Doubt is sometimes interpreted
in the Quran as darkness, and ignorance also is depicted as darkness in
a number of its verses. Allah is depicted as nur, and knowledge
is also symbolized as nur. Ignorance is darkness and ma'rifah
is light. In the ayat al-kursi Allah says: (Allah is the Light of
the heavens and the earth ... Allah is the Master of the believers and
He guides them out of the darkness into light). Usually darkness is interpreted
as unbelief and light as faith in God. There are so many verses in the
Quran as well as the traditions of the Prophet (S) that emphasize that
light may be attained by those who struggle against darkness.
Among Muslim philosophers, particularly some Mu'tazilites, like Nazzam,
al-Jahiz, Aba Hashim al-Jubbai and others, adopted the path of skepticism.
Al-Ghazali was the most eminent among Muslim philosophers who, in his spiritual
auto-biography, al-Munqidh min al-dalal, elaborated the path
of skepticism which he travelled to attain the ultimate truth. There have
been some Muslim thinkers, like Abu Hashim al-Jubba'i, al-Baqillanis al-Nazzam
and others, who advocated skepticism in order to arrive at certain religious
faith. Skepticism is a philosophy that has three different meanings: denial
of all knowledge, agnosticism, and a method to approach certainty. Most
of the Muslims philosophers sought the goal of certainty. Skepticism in
the general sense of the impossibility of knowledge is not compatible with
Islamic teachings. It is acceptable only when it leads from uncertainty
to certainty. The skeptical method has two aspects, rejection of all absolute
knowledge, and acceptance of the path to overcome uncertainty. Muslim philosophers
have followed the second path, because there has been an emphasis on rejecting
blind faith. Shaykh al-Mufid (an eminent Shi'i faqih) said that there was
a very narrow margin between faith and disbelief in so far as the believer
imitated certain theologians. In his view, an imitator is on the verse
of unbelief (kufr).
In Islam 'ilm is not confined to the acquisition of knowledge
only, but also embraces socio-political and moral aspects. Knowledge is
not mere information; it requires the believers to act upon their beliefs
and commit themselves to the goals which Islam aims at attaining. In brief,
I would like to say that the theory of knowledge in the Islamic perspective
is not just a theory of epistemology. It combines knowledge, insight, and
social action as its ingredients. I would like to cite here a tradition
of the Prophet (S) narrated by Amir al-Mu'minin 'Ali ibn Abi Talib: Once
Gabriel came to Adam. He brought with him faith, morality (haya')
and 'aql (reason) and asked him to choose one of the three. When
he chose 'aql, the others were told by Gabriel to return to heaven,
They said that they were ordered by Allah to accompany 'aql wherever
it remained. This indicates how comprehensive are the notions of intellect
and knowledge in Islam, and how deeply related they are to faith and the
moral faculty.
The all-round development of various branches of knowledge pertaining
to physical and social phenomena, as well as the process of logical argumentation
for justification of Islamic doctrine and deduction of Islamic laws (ahkam)
with reference to Qur'anic injunctions and the Prophetic tradition, is
indebted to Islam's notion of 'ilm. Scientific knowledge, comprising
natural and physical sciences, was sought and developed by Muslim scientists
and mathematicians vigorously from the beginning of the last decades of
the first century of Hijrah. The scientific endeavour found its flowering
period with the establishment of the Bayt al-Hikmah in the reign
of al-Ma'mun. Undoubtedly the major contributions in philosophy and sciences
were made by Iranians, but the myth created by the orientalists that the
fundamental sources of Islam, viz. the Qur'an and Sunnah, did not
contain scientific and philosophical ideas is totally false. As said earlier,
not only the Qur'an and hadith encouraged Muslims or rather made
it obligatory for them to pursue truth freely from all possible sources,
but also contained certain guiding principles that could provide a secure
foundation for the development of religious and secular sciences. Some
Prophetic traditions even give priority to learning over performing supererogatory
rites of worship. There are several traditions that indicate that a scholar's
sleep is more valuable than an ignorant believer's journey for pilgrimage
(hajj) and participation in holy war, and that the drops of a scholar's
ink are more sacred than the blood of a martyr. Amir al-Mu'minin 'Ali ('a)
said that the reward for piety in the other world would be bestowed upon
a believer in proportion to the degree of his intellectual development
and his knowledge.
Islam never maintained that only theology was useful and the empirical
sciences useless or harmful. This concept was made common by semi-literate
clerics or by the time servers among them who wanted to keep common Muslims
in the darkness of ignorance and blind faith so that they would not be
able to oppose unjust rulers and resist clerics attached to the courts
of tyrants. This attitude resulted in the condemnation of not only empirical
science but also 'ilm al-kalam and metaphysics, which resulted
in the decline of Muslims in politics and economy. Even today large segments
of Muslim society, both the common man and many clerics suffer from this
malady. This unhealthy and anti-knowledge attitude gave birth to some movements
which considered elementary books of theology as sufficient for a Muslim,
and discouraged the assimilation or dissemination of empirical knowledge
as leading to the weakening of faith.
Apart from Shaykh al-Mufid and other Shi'i scholars, a number of classical
Sunni fuqaha and 'ulama,' even those considered to be conservative, like
Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, regarded emulation or
imitation (taqlid) as religiously unauthorized and harmful. Jalal
al-Din al-Suyuti held that taqlid was forbidden by both the
salaf and the khalaf (early and later generations of scholars).
He cited al-Shafi'i's opposition to taqlid. Ibn Hazm followed the
same line. These and many other fuqaha' and theologians emphasized the
exercise of 'aql and ijtihad as obligatory for the believers.
Imam 'Ali ('a) gave a place of pride to reason even in the matters of religion.
Abu 'Ala' al-Ma'arri believed that there was no imam except reason. Thus
it is obvious that the Shi'ah and Sunnis, not withstanding their differences
on several issues, agreed on the role of reason and the necessity of ijtihad.
It is unfortunate that some recent movements of Islamic resurgence in the
Sunni world, e.g. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan etc., are
opposed to reason and preach emulation, distorting the role of ijtihad
and disregarding even major Salafi theologians. This attitude, they do
not realize, is self-contradictory and self defeating for their own cause.
It is a good sign that apart from the rejection of 'aql in recent
times by some Sunni quarters, attempts have been made and are still being
made to revive the practice of ijtihad and combining social, scientific
and secular knowledge with the teaching of theology, fiqh, usul
al-fiqh, hadith, 'ilm al-rijal, kalam and tafsir, whose
acquisition is essential for ijtihad in the matters pertaining to
the faith and its practice.
Another myth propagated by the orientalists, that the Arab mind was
not akin to philosophizing and that it was the Aryan mind, i.e. of the
Iranians, which introduced philosophy in the Muslim world, is equally unfounded
and a conspiracy against the history of Muslim philosophy and its significant
contribution to the development of sciences which not only benefited Muslim
world but also contributed to the enrichment of human learning, culture
and civilization. Ironically, despite the claim that the Aryan mind introduced
philosophical and scientific thinking and research, Muslim philosophy is
called 'Arab philosophy' by the orientalists, implying a contradiction
inherent in their prejudice against the Semites. In Islam-of course, after
the Qur'an and the Prophet's hadith-'Ali's sermons and letters,
later collected under the title of Nahj al-halaghah, contained the
seeds of philosophical and scientific inquiry, and he was an Arab. Similarly,
the Mu'tazilah, known as the first rationalists among Muslims, consisted
of Arabs. Even the officially recognized first Muslim philosopher, al-Kindi,
was an Arab.
After the decline of philosophical and scientific inquiry in the Muslim
east, philosophy and sciences flourished in the Muslim west due to endeavours
of the thinkers of Arab origin like Ibn Rushd, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Bajah, and
Ibn Khaldun, the father of sociology and philosophy of history. Ibn Khaldun's
philosophy of history and society is the flowering of early work by Muslim
thinkers in the spheres of ethics and political science such as those of
Miskawayh, al-Dawwani, and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. The credit for giving
serious attention to socio-political philosophy goes to al-Farabi,
who wrote books on these issues under the titles of Madinat al-fadilah,
Ara' ahl al-madinat al-fadilah, al-Millah al-fadilah, Fusul al-madang,
Sirah Fadilah, K. al-Siyasah al-madaniyyah, etc.
Muslims never ignored socio-political economic and other problems pertaining
to the physical as well as social reality. They contributed richly to human
civilization and thought by their bold and free inquiry in various areas
of knowledge even at the risk of being condemned as heretics or rather
unbelievers. True and firm believers in Islamic creed, like al-Ghazali,
Ibn Rushd, Ibn Bajah, al-Haytham, Ibn 'Arabi and Mulla Sadra, and in recent
times Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Iqbal and al-Mawdudi were not spared fatwas of
kufr by the partisans of blind imitation who were hostile to the
principle of ijtihad, research and critical thought.
Along with the Muslim astronomers, mathematicians, natural scientists
and physicians like Ibn Sina, Zakariyya al-Razi, and others who
were instrumental in the development of human knowledge and civilization,
it would be unjust not to mention the significant contribution of Ikhwan
al-Safa (The Brethren Purity) a group of Shi'i-Ismaili scholars
and thinkers who wrote original treatises on various philosophical and
scientific subjects, an effort which signifies the first attempt to compile
an encyclopedia in the civilized world.
In brief, it may be justifiably claimed that the Islamic theory of knowledge
was responsible for blossoming of a culture of free inquiry and rational
scientific thinking that also encompassed the spheres of both theory and
practice.
