Introduction
It
is undeniable that various epistemological issues have been discussed
explicitly and systematically in Islamic philosophy which is different from
that of western epistemology. With my little knowledge on Islam I will compile
and try to pen down the Islamic concept of knowledge- epistemology on this
paper. This is my small effort to understand the basic epistemological issues
in term of Islamic orientation. This could be a valuable effort that deserves
one’s interest and encouragement. It can, however, be fruitful only if the
practice of rigorous analysis is kept up, with close attention to the precise definitions of the various concepts involved in it. With this view, an attempt
is made in this broadsheet to demarcate the different shades and implications
of the term ‘ilm, i.e. knowledge, in the Islamic context. I hope that this
small attempt will serve as a step for future groundwork for the construction
of a framework for an Islamic theory of knowledge.
The
theory of knowledge in Islamic philosophy, the term ‘knowledge’ is derived from
an Arabic word ‘ilm’. Rosenthal has justifiably pointed out, that this ilm has got
a much wider connotation that its synonyms in English and other Western
Languages. According to Rosenthal, ‘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. Here Rosenthal belittles the nature and scope of the concept of
knowledge in western thought to mere information (how) about something. But in
reality knowledge is much more than information dealing that/ what not just
how. What-knowledge is epistemological knowledge but not how-knowledge which is
information.
Islam,
more than any other religious, emphasizes the importance of knowledge. The
world knowledge appears many times in Quran. Dr. Sayyid Wahid Akhtar has
rightly pointed out that 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 towards ‘knowledge’
as something of supreme value for Muslim. Ilm is Islam, even if the theologians
have been hesitant to accept the technical correctness of this equation. The
very fact of the their passionate discussion of the concept attests to its
fundamental importance for Islam
Nature of knowledge
We
see clearly that Muslim philosophers are primarily concerned with human
happiness and its attainment. Regardless of what they consider this happiness
to be, all agree that the way to attain it is through knowledge. The theory of
knowledge or epistemology, has appeared chiefly in their logical and
psychological writings. Epistemology concerns itself primarily with the possibility,
nature and sources of knowledge. Muslim philosophers stress on this. Their intellectual
inquiries, beginning with logic an ending with metaphysics and in some cases
mysticism, were in the main directed towards helping to understand what
knowledge is and how it comes about.
Muslim
philosophers followed in the footsteps of the Greek philosophers. They consider
knowledge as to be the grasping of the immaterial forms, nature, essences or
realities of things. They are agreed that the forms of things are either material
or immaterial. While the latter can be known as such, the former cannot be
known unless first detached from their materiality.
Once
in the mind, the pure forms act as the pillars of knowledge. The mind
constructs objects from these forms and with these objects it makes judgments. Thus
Muslim philosophers like Aristotle divided knowledge in the human mind into
conception, apprehension of an object with no judgment and assent, apprehension
of an object, the latter being, according to them, a mental relation of correspondence
between the concept and the object for which it stands.
Goal and means
There
are two matters that a person must take into consideration when he/she wants to
seek Islamic knowledge:
The
Goal: Understanding Aqeedah, Fiqh and Islmaic Conduct according to the book of
Allah and the Authentic Sunnah.
The
means: The person must study the sciences that serve as a means to understand
the goals that were previously elaborated.
Aqeedah
refers to what one believes and acts upon. The scholars of Islam have said that
this science pertains to the study of the six points of Imaan which are: Belief
in Allah, the angels, the books, the prophets, the Day of Judgment and Divine
Decree. There are others scholars such
as Shaikh Aman Al Jaami, who divided this study into three categories:
knowledge of Allah, Knowledge of the Massagers and Belief in unseen matters.
The theory of Knowledge
The
central concern of philosophy is with questions connected with knowledge, the answers
to which are called the ‘theory of knowledge or epistemology’. The theory of knowledge
is a product of doubts or skepticism, which is well accepted by all
philosophers begun by sophists, who experienced chaos created by different
earlier Greek schools of thoughts- on cosmological issues and knowledge, may
be: What is the definition of knowledge? Is knowledge possible? Is there some knowledge
which proceeds birth or, is a baby born like a blank slate? How do we know? How
do we know what we know? These kinds of questions will go on and on.
When
we have asked ourselves seriously whether we really know anything at all, we
are naturally led into an examination of knowing, in the hope of being able to distinguish
trustworthy belief from untrustworthy. Descartes
doubted everything even his own doubt, and concluded ‘I think therefore I am’. Thus
Kant, the founder of modern theory of knowledge, represents a natural reaction
against Hume’s skepticism. It is perhaps unwise to being with a definition of
the subject, since, definitions are controversial, and will necessarily differ
for different schools but I will least say that the subject is concerned with
the general conditions of knowledge in Islam, in so far as they light upon
truth and falsehood.
What is knowledge?
Knowledge
generally refers to understanding any issue, specific or general, in the manner
by which it supposed to be understood. Islamic knowledge therefore refers to
having the correct understanding of issues which the Quran and the Sunnah have
dealt with. The scholars have divided Islamic knowledge in three broad categories:
Aqeeda or worship, Fiqh or Jurisprudence and Suluuk or behavior.
The
first problem encountered in epistemology is that of defining knowledge.
Philosophers use the tripartite theory of knowledge, which analyses
knowledge as justified true belief, as a working model much of the time. The
tripartite theory has, however, been refuted; Gettier cases show that some
justified true beliefs do not constitute knowledge. Rival analyses of knowledge
have been proposed, but there is as yet no consensus on what knowledge is. This
fundamental question of epistemology remains unsolved. Though philosophers are
unable to provide a generally accepted analysis of knowledge, we all understand
roughly what we are talking about when we use words such as “knowledge”.
Thankfully, this means that it is possible to get on with epistemology, leaving
unsolved the fundamental question as to what knowledge is.
The
concept of knowledge and the theory of knowledge appears from certain our’anic
verses that the Islam supports the view that knowledge is a statement or a conceptualization
that corresponds with reality. It was once believed by some Arabs that an
intelligent man had two hearts. ‘one might, if he got angry at his wife, tell
her, ‘you are like my mother.’
He would then consider him as such and would not treat her the way one treats one’s wife. Another of them would adopt someone else’s son or daughter and attribute the child to himself as if he were the biological father, just as people do now in the west. Allah declared these claim to be nothing more than words in contradiction to reality. The exalted claims: “Allah has not assigned unto any man two hearts within his body, nor has he made your wives whom you declare (to be your mother) your mothers, nor has He made those whom you claim (to be sons) your sons: this is but a saying of your mouths. But Allah says the truth and He shows the way.”
Is knowledge possible?
The
skepticism has begun in the early Greek philosophers. If we are too skeptic and
take this question literally, we find it contradictory, because when a person
asks about the possibility of knowledge it presupposes that he knows what knowledge
is, and if he knows what knowledge is, then he knows something. However, the
[point of the question is: how can know whether that which we believe to be
real actually corresponds with reality and is not merely imagination or
delusion? The Noble Quran indicates that
knowledge is one of the blessings of Allah which requires gratitude. Allah the exalted
said, “Allah brings you forth from wombs of your mothers knowing nothing, and
gives you hearing and sight and hearts that you might give thanks.”
They
believe that Hadith indicates that although human being is born knowing
nothing, he is not born with an empty mind; rather, in his mind is the seeds of
knowledge which will grow as he grows and reach completion with his maturity. However,
this knowledge which is originally planted in each human being may be overridden
by external factors, even if they don’t have the power to completely extinguish
it.
What
is this knowledge whose seeds are implanted in the Fitarh of a human being? The
Hadith treats Fitrah as being something different from Judaism, Christianity or
Zoroastrianism, which means that Fitah is Islam. Obviously the meaning is not
that a person after the development of his mind finds himself knowledgeable
about the details of the Islamci religion. Rather, two things are meant, first
each person is born with seed of Tawhid in his mind, that is, the affirmation that
no God deserves worship except the sole Creator.
Second,
this person is born with a nature which is not suited to belief and conduct
other than the realities and laws brought by Islam. For that reason Allah
described the religion which He revealed to his messengers as bring the
pristine nature on which Allah created this servants. Allah the exalted said: “so
set your face the religion as open by nature upright- the pristine nature (framed)
by Allah on which He has created man. There is no altering (laws of) Allah’s
creation. That is the right religion, but most people do not know.”
When
a person’s mind and disposition are designed so that nothing but the realities
and laws of Islam suit them, he will feel no contentment or spiritual peace
unless he has surrendered himself to be a worshiper of Allah. “Those who believe
and whose hearts feel content with the remembrance of Allah. Verily in the remembrance
of Allah do hearts find rest.”
Philosophical and Prophetic Knowledge
The
prophetic way is a much easier and simple path. One needs not take any action
to receive the divinely given universal; the only requirement seems to be the possession
of a strong soul capable of receiving them. While the philosophical way moves
from the imagination upward to the theoretical intellect, the prophetic way
takes the reverse path, from the theoretical intellect to the imagination. For this
reason, knowledge of philosophy is knowledge of the nature of things themselves,
while knowledge of prophetic is knowledge of the nature of things wrapped up in
symbols, the shadows of the imagination.
Philosophical
and prophetic truth is the same, but it is attained and expressed differently.
Ibn is the best illustration of the harmony of philosophy and religion the so-called
double truth theory wrongly views these two paths to knowledge as two of truth,
thus attributing to Ibn, a view foreign to Islamic philosophy. One of the most important
contributions of Islamic philosophy is the attempt to reconcile Greek philosophy
and Islam by accepting the philosophical and prophetic paths as leading to same
truth.
Muslim
philosophers agree that knowledge in the theoretical intellect passes through
stages. It moves from potentiality to actuality and from actuality to
reflection on actuality, thus giving the theoretical intellect the respective names
of potential intellect, actual intellect and acquired intellect. Some Muslim philosophers
explain that the last is called acquired because its knowledge comes to it from
the outside, and so it can be said to acquire it. The acquired intellect is the
highest human achievement the theoretical and agent intellects.
Conclusion
The
growth of Islam has tremendous impact on almost every field of life, not only
knowledge. Muslim philosophers agree that knowledge in the theoretical
intellect passes through stages. Its moves from potentiality to actuality, from
actuality to reflection on actuality, thus giving the theoretical intellect the
respective names of potential intellect, actual intellect acquire intellect. Some
philosophers explain that the last called ‘acquired’ because its knowledge comes
to it from outside, and so it can said to acquire it. The acquired intellect is
the highest human achievement, a holy state that conjoins the human and the divine
realm by conjoining the theoretical and agent intellects. For them, happiness
is achieved by this intellect’s grasping of the eternal object, for such grasping
perfect soul. Muslim philosophers who believe that eternity is attained only through
knowledge also agree with Ibn Sina that knowledge is perfect and perfect is
happiness.
Is
knowledge is perfect as they believe? Is knowledge not growing or dynamic? Can we
take the knowledge of Quran as perfect knowledge? How do we know that we know
perfect knowledge as Muslim claim? Is perfect a reality? If so then it’s
perfect, but if not, their perfect is relative; it cannot be perfect and true. Many
of these basic skeptical questions they do not have dealt into like that of the
western and epistemology. They deal more on belief but not much on
justification and truth. It is because they take Quran is perfect, taking it
word by word with without much reflection, justifying and analyzing with the growing
of scientific knowledge.
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