Islamic epistemology
Knowledge is one unit in Islam. Unity of Knowledge means that there exists no differentiation between religious and worldly sciences in Islam. Instead, Qur’an and hadith have regarded the acquired knowledge (modern sciences, social sciences and other related sciences) as ilm science and have considered it arguable in the same way as it has regarded religious sciences (Qur’an and hadith etc.) as pure science and have considered them arguable.
The second important feature of Islamic epistemology is that it not only believes in the unity of knowledge but also motivates its followers to obtain acquired knowledge irrespective of its nature. For example, the Holy Quran invites man in numerous places and styles to ponder on universe and its systems and to get benefitted from it materially and theoretically. In one of the hadiths, the Prophet (SAW) said, “Obtain knowledge, even though you have to travel to China for that.” (Narrated Bazzaz). In another hadith, the Prophet (SAW) said: “The wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so wherever he finds it then he has a right to it” (Muslim, Tirmizi and Ibn Majah etc). How much importance Qur’an gives to these sciences can be evaluated from the fact that there are around one thousand verses in the Holy Qur’an which deal with the universe and nature and invite man to reflect and ponder on it, whereas the number of verses relating to Islamic shariah is only 150.
The third most important feature of Islamic epistemology is that it frequently advocates application between Shariah sciences and acquired wisdom, so that through compatibility between these two sources of knowledge, it could be established that the source of both these sciences is one and the same, and that there exists complete uniformity and consistency between both the natural laws and shariah laws. Hence as the objective of acquired sciences is to get benefitted from its innumerable material benefits, similarly, one of its main objectives is the acquaintance with the God and affirmation of His Oneness.
It has established then that there are three stages for the perfection of knowledge according to the Islamic epistemology: The first stage is obtaining the Islamic sciences; the second stage involves acquisition of acquired knowledge; while the third stage is the phase of application between both these sources of knowledge. So only after the completion of the third stage, man can realize the true secrets of his own creation and mysteries of this gigantic universe, and he can apprehend His Creator. Therefore in one of the Hadith Qudsi, the main purpose of the creation of man is acquaintance of God.
Defects of modern education system
In this context, if we look at today’s education system, we find two types of education systems prevalent today: One is the contemporary education centers (colleges and universities) and the other is the Islamic seminaries. Each one of them seems to have restricted itself to just one aspect of education. Islamic seminaries teach only Shariah sciences, neglecting completely the second and third phases of education. On the contrary, modern colleges and universities stress only on the second phase of knowledge neglecting the first and third phases of education. In other words, colleges and universities deal with only material aspects of modern science neglecting its theoretical and spiritual aspects altogether, which amounts to a kind of opportunism. Ideally the man could have benefitted equally from both material and spiritual aspects of modern sciences, and the whole of humanity might have benefitted from it.
So today we need to set up a new system of education whereby the importance of these two sources of knowledge might be inscribed in the minds of our new generation on the one hand, and on the other, it might become eligible to refer and examine both these sources of knowledge directly. Obviously, we need to make revolutionary changes in the existing educational system to achieve this.
