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.
Comments posted are the sole opinion of the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of AIM. |
