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 (PBUHH) 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 (i.e. Oneness of God), nubuwwah (Prophethood) and ma’d (i.e. Resurrection) and also adl (i.e. Divine Justice), and Imamah (according to Shia 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 (knowledge by certainity),‘ayn al-yaqin (knowledge by sight) and haqq al-yaqin (knowledge by the unity of subject and object). The last stage is attainable by a selected few.
‘Ilm is referred to in many Qur’anic verses as ‘light’ (nur), and Allah is also described as the ultimate light. 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. It is hidden sometimes by the clouds of doubt arising from the human mind. Doubt is sometimes interpreted in the Qur’an 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-Nur 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. (Qur’an 24:35)
Usually, darkness is interpreted as unbelief and light as faith in God. There are so many verses in the Qur’an as well as the traditions of the Prophet (PBUHH) 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 (PHUHH) 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 the significance of intellect and knowledge in Islam, and how deeply related they are to faith and the morality.
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 endeavours 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 claim that the Qur’an and Sunnah do not contain scientific and philosophical ideas is totally false. As earlier stated, 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 ibn Abi-Talib (PBUH) 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 thought 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 (PBUHH) 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, collected under the title: Nahj al-Balaghah, 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 from the appellation of kufr by the partisans of blind imitation, who were hostile to the principle of ijtihad, research and critical thought. Likewise, 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 were not spared.
It would be unjust not to mention the significant contribution of Ikhwan al–Safa, 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.
By: Dr. Sayyid Wahid Akhtar
