Corruption of knowledge halts progress

Today we find ourselves confused between knowledge, information, conjecture, theories, and speculation.

IT is incumbent on the educated and those in positions of power among present-day Muslims to have greater clarity on what constitutes the fundamental challenge facing them, so that we can better strategise and prioritise solutions at both the individual and collective levels.

Does the fundamental challenge of man today merely lie in collective ignorance, or in their lack of scientific and technological prowess? Could it simply be attributed to inequality, disunity, or corrupt leadership?

Even the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) “OIC-2025 Programme of Action”, which is supposed to represent the collective views of Muslim nations, does not express any clarity with regard to this question.

Deeper contemplation will reveal that whatever seems to occupy most nations is symptomatic of a deeper problem: the inner state of man. There is a problem in the way we think as a whole, our world view, and the way we govern our individual selves.

This was a key message advocat- ed by some prominent Muslim thinkers in the 20th century, such as Ottoman-Turkish theologian Said Nursi and Malay theologian Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, as demonstrated in their life and work.

There seems to be a consensus in the inaugural World Conference on Muslim Education (Jeddah, 1977), organised by the OIC, that the root problem of the Muslim world’s predicament lies in the problem of knowledge and education.

But it was reported that there was some confusion among the 313 scholars who attended the conference on what the term “knowledge” (‘ilm) even meant.

Throughout its 1,400-year history, knowledge has always been understood by Muslim scholars (represented by the mutakkalimun or theologians), fuqaha (jurists) and ahl tasawwuf (metaphysicians) as something internal in man.

It is as the famous saying goes, attributed to al- Shafi’i, the Palestinian founder of the Shafi’i school of law, that “knowledge is in the hearts of men, not in the lines of books”.

Only in the modern age do we find ourselves confused between knowledge (‘ilm), information (ma’lumat), conjecture, theories and speculation (zann). True knowledge (al-‘Ilm) should provide more clarity and certainty (al-yakin) on one’s role in the momentary sojourn one takes in this world.

Thus there is strong reason to believe that the “corruption of knowledge” is a phenomenon of the greatest magnitude experienced by present-day Muslims – a term coined by Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas to explain the predicament that many Muslims currently find themselves in. (See, for instance, his Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam, Istac, 1995).

Corruption of knowledge happens in the mind when key ideas (such as on God, revelation, religion, man, happiness, justice) which projects a certain outlook and understanding towards existence – known as the metaphysical worldview – are either changed or restricted in meaning, thus rendering them meaningless.

It was for this reason that the languages spoken in the Islamic world, be it Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Turkish or even Malay, shared a basic vocabulary to refer to certain concepts derived from Revelation: din, ‘ilm, insan, ‘alam, ‘adl, etc, which ensured the intellectual and spiritual unity of the Muslim community worldwide.

It was due to the metaphysical worldview of Islam that Muslims in the past were able to express a distinct character in the way they led their lives, organised their economy, designed their cities, created art and innovated their technologies.

This metaphysical world view and the key ideas contained therein have never changed in terms of its meaning in the consciousness of genuine believers throughout the ages – until now.

For instance, “man” as al-insan has been changed to mean homo sapiens, “knowledge” as al-ilm has been changed to mean facts and information and “happiness” has been changed to mean bodily pleasures.

The consequence of the corruption of knowledge is that there will be contradictory fusion between truth and falsehood and between the illusory and the real – hence the term “confusion”.

Such corruption of knowledge ultimately causes man’s forgetfulness of his primordial covenant (al-mithaq) with God, his duties as a Muslim, as well as the inability to realise a harmonious condition in the self, with others, and the environment.

It prevents the progress of Muslims because the very understanding of progress and development according to Islam is contingent on how one understands these great and timeless ideas.

Progress for Muslims would mean a definite direction (sirat al-mustaqim) that is aligned to a final purpose (al-akhirah) that is meant to be achieved in worldly life, which includes remaining true to their covenant with God and its realisation in one’s life.

It is natural, though, that many educated Muslims today are unable to perceive correctly the true challenge of Muslims, for that is the nature (sifah) of knowledge (‘ilm).

One has to seek it from those whom God has endowed deeper perception on the realities of things, as per the famous dictum attributed to Malik ibn Anas, the founder of the Maliki school of law from Medina: “Knowledge is to be sought, not to be brought.”

We are not saying that Muslims should reject all foreign or Western ideas. For the Prophet Muhammad called on the Muslims to take hold of wisdom (hikmah) wherever one finds it.

Rather, Muslims should be discerning when accepting a particular idea so long as it does not contradict the metaphysical worldview of Islam.

Ideally, the OIC could play a more prominent role in addressing the problem of corruption of knowledge among Muslims, being the root cause of Muslim disunity and disorder.

This was the reason the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (Istac) – the now defunct postgraduate university – was conceived by Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, which succeeded in educating a group of Muslim thought leaders and scholars of various fields now actively playing their role globally.

Ikim, being a think tank, alongside like-minded scholars, are committed to the mission to address the problem of corruption of knowledge and to assist the Muslim community to better understand the worldview that Islam has to offer.