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Editorial for the Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America 3rd November 2009 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) Professor King Fahad Medical College Riyadh, Professor of Epidemiology and Islamic Medicine University of Brunei, and Visiting Professor of Epidemiology University of Malaya. EM omarkasule@yahoo.com WEB: http://omarkasule.tripod.com
The Islamic perspective of knowledge is built on the assumption that human knowledge has 3 sources: Divine revelation, wahy, human intellect, ‘aql, and empirical experience, 'ilm tajriibi. The secular perspective denies the validity of revelation as a valid source Empirical knowledge, is superior in quantity while revealed knowledge is superior in quality. Empirical knowledge is relative and probabilistic because it is based on imperfect perception by human senses or imperfect interpretation of sensory perceptions by the human intellect. There is close interaction and inter-dependence between revelation, intellect, and empirical observation. Reason is needed to understand revelation and reach conclusions from empirical observations. Revelation protects reason from mistakes due to human whims and biases and provides it with information about the unseen. The intellect cannot, unaided, fully understand the empirical world. Knowledge is classified as knowledge of the seen. 'ilm al shahadat[1], and knowledge of the unseen, ‘ilm al ghaib[2], with complementary relations between the two. The unseen can be absolute, ghaib mutlaq[3], not knowable by humans except through revelation or relative, ghaib nisbi[4], knowable after observation or experimentation.
The Qur’an provides general guiding epistemological principles and is not a substitute for empirical research. Its monotheistic, tauhidi, paradigm postulating one Creator for the whole universe provides an intellectual basis for the scientific phenomena of causality, rationality, order, predictability, innovation, objectivity, and natural laws (knowable from revelation or empirical observation and experimentation). The Qur’an emphasizes the inductive methodology based on empirical observation, nadhar[5] & tabassur[6], and interpretation, tadabbur[7], tafakkur[8], i’itibaar[9] & tafaquhu[10]. It calls for evidential knowledge, bayyinat[11] & burhan[12]. It condemns blind following, taqliid[13], conjecture, dhann[14], and following subjective personal whims, hiwa al nafs[15]. The Qur’anic concept of objective following of the straight path of truth, istiqamat[16], calls for valid and un-biased knowledge. The Qur’anic enunciated 3 concepts that can serve as a basis for technology: of human viscegerancy on earth, istikhlaf[17], Allah's placing of the whole cosmos at the service of humans, taskhir[18], and Allah's tasking the human to build a material civilization, isti’imar[19], are a basis for technology. The concept of useful knowledge, ‘ilm nafe[20]i, underlies the imperative to transform basic knowledge into useful technology.
I accept the scientific method involving formulating and testing hypotheses using empirical data but I reject some philosophical assumptions that are wrongly associated with it such as rejection of divine revelations as a source of knowledge, and rejection of the human duality between matter and spirit. I am also not comfortable with use of the scientific method without an integrating holistic intellectual paradigm like tauhid that will ensure balance and equilibrium among different human activities and thus ensure protection of the environment. In practice we find that some scientists claiming to follow the scientific methods can be culturo-centric and biased and may not answer to the claims of being open-minded, methodological, accurate, precise, objective, and morally neutral.
I would call for incorporating values based on tauhid whose main precepts are[21]: unity of knowledge, wahdat al ma'arifat[22]; comprehensiveness, shumuliyat al Islam[23]; causality, sababiyyat[24], as the basis for human action, accepting limitations in human knowledge, mahdudiyat al ma'arifat al insaniyat[25], investigation of causal relations is based on constant and fixed natural laws, sunan al Allah fi al kawn[26], harmony between the seen and the unseen, takaamul al ghaib wa al shahadat[27], using all three sources of knowledge (revelation, inference, and empirical experience), human acceptance and assumption of the duty of vicegerancy, masuliyat al khilafat[28], that implies responsible and accountable exploitation of natural resources under the aegis of taskhiir.
Notes
[1] Humans unaided by revelation can only perceive empirical knowledge using their sense organs.
[2] Neither humans humans (113 5:109, 5:116, 6:50, 7:118, 11:31, 12:81, 19:78, 27:65, 52:41, 53:35, 68:47nor the jinn (114 34:14
[3] There are matters that humans can never know such as the full nature of the soul ruh 17:85, the date of the Last Day 6:31, 7:187-188, 12:107, 16:77, 20:15, 21:109, 22:55, 27:65-66, 31:34, 33:63, 34:3, 41:47, 42:17, 43:66, 43:85, 47:18, 72:25-26, 79:42-44 or the time of death 31:34
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[21] Formulated by Dr Abdulhamid Abusulayman
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