221029P - TAUHID AS THE BASIS FOR INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE

Presented at a workshop on IOK and Textbook Writing at Riphah International University Islamabad on 29 October 2022. By Omar Hasan Kasule MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) Professor of Epidemiology and Bioethics

1.0 TAUHID AL RUBUBIYYAT (Oneness of Creation)

• Tauhid al rububiyyat is the center of Islam as a religion and as a civilization.
• The concept of tauhid al rububiyyat is the assertion that there is ONE creator and sustainer for the universe and all its contents = the universe is integrated.
• Knowledge of tauhid al rububiyyat is innate because the concept that the universe was auto-created is not logical.
• The concept of several creators is also not logical because we know that our bodies and our environment have a natural harmonious balance and interaction impossible if there were several independent creators. Two creators would lead to chaos. لو كان فيهما الهتان لفسدتا Surat Anbiya:22
• There is physical evidence of tauhid al rububiyyat in the cosmos (dalail al tauhid fi al aafaaq) and the human body (dalail al tauhid fi al anfus). Surat Anbiya:22

2.0 ONE CREATOR FOR MATTER, ENERGY, and PHYSICAL-SOCIAL LAWS (Sunan)

• Allah’s laws (السنن الالهية) in creation: everything was deliberately created انا كل شيء خلقناه بقدر    Surat Al Qamar:49
• Allah’s laws in the human (سنن الله في خلق الانسان)
• Allah’s laws in the cosmos ( (سنن الكون وسنن الآفاق وسنن الطبيعةSurat Fussilat:53
• Allah’s laws in society (سنن الله في الامم) Surat al Ahzab: 62
• The purpose of research is to understand phenomena and the laws that govern their mutual interaction. These are the laws of causality that are manipulated to bring benefit or to prevent harm.

3.0 THE PHYSICAL LAWS ARE FIXED

• After swallowing the human has no control over the food it follows the natural physical laws.
• The law of gravity.
• The laws of motion.
• Einstein’s universal theory.
• Movements of cosmic bodies are exact and fixed: Surat Yasin 40.
• والشمس تجري لمستقر لها ذلك تقدير العزيز العليم. والقمر قدرناها منازل حتي عاد كالعرجون القديم. لا الشمس ينبغي لها ان تدرك القمر ولا الليل سابق النهار وكل في فلك يسبحون يس ٤٠

4.0 THE SOCIAL LAWS ARE FIXED

• No change of the laws Surat Fath: 23
• سنة من قد ارسلنا قبلك ولا تجد لسنتنا تحويلا الاسراء ٧٧
• No deviation of the laws  Surat Ahzab:62
• سنة الله في الذين خلو من قبل ولن تجد لسنة الله تبديلا الاحزاب ٦٢
• No change or deviation of the laws. Surat Fatir:43
• فلن تجد لسنة الله تبديلا ولن تجد لسنة الله تحويلا فا طر ٤٣

5.0 THE LAWS OF CHANGE ARE FIXED

• Allah does not change a community unless it changes. Surat Ra’ad 11
• ان الله لا يغير ما بقوم حتي يغيروا ما بأنفسهم الرعد ١١
• Allah changes communities with time. Surat Al Imran 140
• وتلك الأيام نداولها بين الناس ال عمران ١٤٠
• The law of action-reaction prevents corruption. Surat Albaqara 251
• سنة التدافع: ولولا دفع الناس بعضهم ببعض لفسدت الأرض البقرة ٢٥١
• Allah does not destroy a community if its citizens are good. Surat Hud 11
• وما كان الله ليهلك القري بظلم وأهلها مصلحون هود ١١٧

6.0 TAUHID MAKES THE INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE AN IMPERATIVE

• All disciplines of knowledge must integrate because they study phenomena created by the same creator who also set physical and social laws governing interactions among them.
• Ancient scholars were encyclopedic integrating various disciplines of knowledge. Galileo (1564-1642) was an astronomer, a physicist, an engineer, and a polymath. Ibn Sina (980-1037) was a physician, astronomer, a philosopher.
• Specialization became necessary when the volume of knowledge in each discipline because enormous. Integration of disciplines was lost with too narrow specialization
• Many problems of today arise because of a lack of integration one achievement in one area causes harm in another area because no one looks at both in an integrative fashion.

7.0 THE CONCEPT OF INTEGRATION

• In mathematics integration, it is putting slices together.
• In common language, the synonyms of integration (oxford dictionary) all assume a state of disintegration ab initio: combination, amalgamation, incorporation, unification, consolidation, merger, fusing, etc.
• Integration in essence is using all the sources of knowledge in resolving a specific problem. This is what is usually called a multi-disciplinary approach.
• The Islamic position emanating from tauhid is that integration is the original state, and that disintegration is temporarily necessary to break up in order to understand the parts.
• The Islamic worldview is integrative and synthetic: we understand by putting together and seeing the whole. The predominant European worldview is in my opinion analytic it seeks to understand by disintegrating and understanding the component parts.

8.0 TYPES OF INTEGRATION

• Integration of the scholar: encyclopedic scholars combine knowledge of various disciplines for example Ibn Rushd (1126-1198) was a polymath, a philosopher, a theologian, a physician, an astronomer, a jurist, etc.
• Practical Integration of disciplines of knowledge e.g., geopolitics, and industrial psychology in a multi-disciplinary approach to solving a problem.
• Integration of the sources of knowledge is the use of various available sources of knowledge to understand a phenomenon.
• Islamic integration of knowledge (IIOK) is using both transmitted knowledge (‘ilm naqli) and rational/empirical knowledge (‘ilm aqli).
• IIOK arose as a reaction to the secularization of the education system that made only empirical knowledge the source of knowledge and ignored knowledge transmitted through revelation.

9.0 IIOK IS THE RE-INTEGRATION OF REVELATION (WAHY) INTO EPISTEMOLOGY - 1

• Ilm ‘naqli is revealed and transmitted knowledge whose recognized source is the Qur’an and sunnat; other alleged sources are not unanimously accepted.
• ‘Ilm ‘aqli is rational knowledge based on human intellect, human observation, and experimentation.
• Historically There was a time when ilm aqli was based on logical reasoning without empirical observation and experimentation. This has now reversed and ‘ilm aqli is mostly the same as empirical knowledge, ‘ilm tajriibi. The question is why reason out phenomena deductively when you can observe them inductively.
• In practice, deduction makes hypotheses that are tested experimentally, and the intellect is necessary to interpret experimental findings.

10.0 IIOK IS THE RE-INTEGRATION OF REVELATION (WAHY) INTO EPISTEMOLOGY - 2

• There is no essential contradiction between transmitted knowledge (‘ilm naqli) and rational empirical knowledge (‘ilm ‘aqli). Any apparent contradictions are either due to incorrect empirical observations or due to human intellectual deficiency in understanding ‘ilm naqli.
• There has been confusion about what source of knowledge to use. ‘Ilm naqli is used exclusively in matters of ethics and morality. ‘Ilm ‘aqli is used to answer questions of an empirical nature but requires the guidance of ‘ilm naqli regarding fundamentals like objectivity (istiqamat), ethics (akhlaq), and purposiveness (gha’iyyat).
• This integrated epistemology solves the problem of duality in Muslim education.

11.0 WRITING TEACHING MATERIALS WITH IIOK: PRACTICAL STEPS

• A short course on the essence of methodological sciences of usul al fiqh, ilm al tafsir, and ilm al hadith.
• Review books and articles written about IOK in the discipline or similar disciplines.
• In view of the above summarize and critique the main epistemological, methodological, and conceptual paradigms of the discipline.
• Review existing teaching materials from the i.epistemological point of view
• Prepare a course outline if one does not exist making sure to include an i.epistemological dimension.
• Prepare an extensive bibliography using both general and integrated sources.
• Submit a book proposal and a research grant application.
• Either singly or in a team (preferable) start writing the units of the teaching material.