True & False Knowledge

8/2/2019 True & False Knowledge

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TRUE AND FALSE KNOWLEDGE *

Syed Muhammad a/-Na quib a/-Attas

Every cult ure has a "view of the world"

which it infuses int o knowledge. Knowledge

is not something neutral. I t is possible for

a culture to imprint its own concepts and

values into the body of knowledge. It is

for this reason that Christian missionaries

and Western culture have sought to under

mine Islam th rough a more subtle weapon

- knowledge. They know that Muslims are

constantly interested in seeking knowledge.

In fact Holy Qur 'an makes more than 800

references to Ilm , and t here is no other reli

gion and culture which emphasises the im

portance of knowledge in human life and

in percepti on of the truth to the same ex

tent . It is fundamental for Muslims to dis

tinguish and understand t he Islamic con

cept of knowledge.

One could compare the West ern con

cepts, which come under disguise of knowl

edge, to false currency. I f you spread this

about, it will gradually undermine the econ

omy of the count ry. False currency pre-

-t ends to possess true value whereas in re

ality it has no value. The same with con

cepts. What to the Muslims may appear to

be the truth may in fact have no value for

him - though he does not know it .

The false concepts infiltrated Muslim

count r ies when the Western powers succeeded in conquering and colonising th em.

Those not colonised were controlled and in

fluenced t hrough t heir tr ade and education.

I would like to give t he example of the coun

tr ies of South East Asia , because of all the

Muslim lands, they did not have time to de

velop their own Muslim historians, t hinkers

and writers before arrival of the Western

"This is a composition of extract s from an ex

tempore talk delivered by P rof. Syed M. Al Naquib

al Attas to t he FOS IS Conference in June 1975in Manches ter , En gland . This composition is pre

par ed from the tapes of t he talk by t he organisers

of th e confe ren ce, Ed .

1

imp erialism. Of course, the historians and

interpreters of culture that lat er arose were

Western influenced , so the Muslims were

cut-off ent irely from their understanding of

Islam as a civilisation. They were left only

with the pr actice of Islam in its simplest

form. On top of t his the West attempted

a cultura l policy - to de-Islamise the Mus

lims so that they would be more receptive

to their ideas. For them South East Asia

was an experiment . However , it goes on in

all Muslim countr ies in varying degrees.

I would like to give an example of the sort

of confusion that has arisen in t he minds of

Muslims. "Is there an economic system in

Islam", t he Westerners have asked. They

have also posed the problem of banking

and interest while t he Muslims stand agape

with no valid answer. The Muslim leaders, themselves product s of Western impe

rialism, are not ab le to reply. When they

asked the Muslim scholars t hey received no

answer. But it is an error to conclude from

th is that t here is no economic system in Is

lam. I t is also unwise not to answer the

persistent and challenging quest ion. I think

t he answer should be that first , it is not pos

sible for Islam not to have an economic sys

tem because it has been cont rolling world

trade for mor e th an a thousand years; second , it has a monet ary system. In fact the

cheque was originated by the Muslims, and

t his is a fundamental of banking. All this

reveals that there must have been a great

economic system sust aini ng t his activity for

a thousand years or more. We must then

proceed to say that we have not defined

the nature of the system because we have

not yet made the study and have not been

given oppo rtunity to do so. The oriental

ist s have written a lot about theology, phi

losophy, t assawuf and history, bu t none of

them have writ t en very much about the Is-



lamic economic system. That is why it now

appears as if there was none. So now it is

up to us to undertake study and research

- bu t to do this we must have some peace

and freedom. Vie have to decide upon th e

structure

of the un iversity tha t must be established and how the research is to be con

ducted. Then perhaps we will pu t forward

the answer. I th ink this is a rational and

acceptable approach. I t is an answer which

does not give Mus lims an inferiority com

plex.

I f t he education system is not se t up in

a way which is acceptable to Islam, th en

th e result will be chaos. There will be

zulm (injust ice) . The conception of knowl

edge is very closely connected with the concept of justice, responsibility and duty. We

must distinguish between what Islam and

t he West mean by t hese terms and con

cepts.

I t hink it is important to point out dis

tinctions when things appear similar or am

biguous; For example; there is no heed t o

make a distinction between a lamb and a

dog because we can see the difference. How

ever, we have to make a distinction between

a cat and a wild-cat because though they

appear the same, the species are different.

Similarly, in Western civilisation there are

many things which appear to be the same

as t hose in Islam which are in reality .not

so.

Another example of th is confusion is the

rise of the Modern ists, who have been

claiming more than can be justified. They

have not brought anything new except their

claim. Their claim is false and they toocontribute to the confusion of the Muslims.

They have compared Islam with science,

culture, and with other religions. The Mod

ernists have made st atements regarding ijti-

had and taqlid. However, one does not per

form ijtihad on simple problems. In Islamic

history ijtihad is concerned with the general

natu re and aspects of Islam . For example,

it is not ijtihad to correct the directio n of

the qibla in a mosque. That is correction

of an error , not an ijtihad, because, t hereis no intellectual struggle involved and it is

too trivial , and it does not refer to a gen-

2

eral religious problem of the Muslims which

requ ire a solut ion that can be generally ap

plied to th em. Similarly they have inter

preted taqlid to mean "following blindly"

whereas, it is acceptance knowingly - so it

is not blind. T he acceptance by Christians

of their, doctrines is blind, because they do

not know what they accept .

Some of the values of the Age of Enlight

enment began to creep into the interpre

tation of the Modernists on Islam. What

t hey mean by ijtihad is what some human

ists consider (as the individualistic spir it

tha t every man decides for himself. This

is not wha t ij tihad means. Not everyone

can decide what should be done. Certainly

not every man should decide for himself onmatters he does hot know about He should

decide on the authority of those who know,

because part of knowledge is based on au

thority.

On top of t his is the raising of false prob

lems which continues to this day - prob

lems which are in fact tr ivial. They do not

discuss the natu re of Islam , or the ques

tion of education, or economics bu t whether

t ransplants are allowed or not , or whether

it is pe rmitted to use the water of a cer

tain coconut for ablution. None of t hese

things are real problems, nor can verdicts

applicab le in t he case of ijtihad or taqlid be

passed on them. I t is an insult to the great

ulama of the past to consult the ir books

. on such things. Unfortuna tely these things

still happen in t he Muslim world today.

Consider t he question of pork. People

still ask as if it is a problem - but it is not

many people have answered this question.There is one answer which ought to be unas

sailable, from the point of kalam and logic.

Non-Muslims ask why, if pork has now been

cleansed with t he help of science, it is still

not eaten? We will then answer tha t the

very fact that pigs have to summon t he help

of science to cleanse them while cows, goats,

etc . do not , mean s that t he pig is a rather

exceptionally unclean animal. T his means

that the Qur'an is stating t he truth about

it. What is said about t he pig cannot be denied , and since tha t is the case we still do

not eat the pork t h at has now been cleansed



by science and presented before us simply

because we respect t he truth.

Then of course there are problems which

are more difficult to answer , like tha t of

qada and qadr. This quest ion has arisen

among the Muslims after a few hundredyears of colonisat ion and West ern influence.

Some of t he u lama no longer understand

the bas is of Islam. But only a lit tl e bit of

fiqh. As a result our enemies now hurl at

us the same quest ions which were hurled

about in t he t ime of Hasan-al Basri, Al

Ashari, and AI-Ghazzali - but with the

difference that the Muslims now are igno

rant and t here are no such personalities to

answer them. The Muslims being already

cut-off from their t raditional understanding

of these things and their sources are not

able to answer. They think it is a new prob

lem and are not able to refer back to see if

t his had been previously dealt with.

Some of these matters like qtula and

qadar cannot be answered simply by any

philosophical method or rational enquiry.

Ult imately it can only be grasped when

t he person has understood cert ain aspects

of the Att ributes of Allah , regarding t hetawhid and the natu re of man's duty in this

world. When he understands that , he will

automatically not raise the question , nor be

confused by it .

Due to the propagation of false, knowl

edge there has risen among us the modern

j ahiliya. There are two types of the j ahil ac

cording to the way in which the Ar abs un

derstand the te rm j ahil. One is simple void

of knowledge in the mind. This is an inno

cent kind of j ahil and the voidness of knowl

edge can be filled . The person can be in

structed and educate himself. But it is the

second type tha t we are referring to when

we speak of t he modern j ahiliya - t hat is,

t hey who believe in falsehood, and consider

what is false to be t rue. They persist in tha t

and fight for it and defend it . Such people

have become an impediment to any form

of reform of the Muslims at both the indi

vidual and collect ive levels. The real enemies of t he Muslims are not t he Christians,

but the enemy within themselves. They are

like toys which have in t he past been wound

3

up by the springs and coils of Western con

cepts, and when the countries gained inde

pendence these toys are left playing, carry

ing on the business of the past .

Through the ages meanings of certa in

word s and concepts have cha nged. However , it is not permissible to change the

meanings of the te rms which are fundamen

t al t o Islam . Certainly one of the cardinal

points discussed in the Qur'an is that t he

Christians and Jews had changed the words

of their Books, and had caused the t ru th to

become falsehood. I would like to mention

two points from Al-Ghazzali on this. One is

t he restriction of the application of a t erm,

for example Ilm. He said tha t in t he early

period , and in th e Qur 'an, t he te rm fiqh

also meant Ilm. It means discernment. I t

did not mean knowing what ot hers think

of a cert ain legal problem, as it later came

to be understood. I t does not mean the

obiter dicta of a modern lawyer. It means

discernment between tru th and falsehood .

So it can be seen how such a wide con

cept is harrowed down to something par

ticular: The second poin t is the restriction

of the people to whom t he term is applied.For example, the te rm is used for people

who do not necessarily possess Ilm in t he

way it was meant. It did not refer only

to the people who understood fi qh. In the

past t he word ulama mean t the peo ple who

pract iced Islam , understood it as a to tal

ity and were able to guide the Muslims in

times of crises. They must show their quali

ties by their writings, dialogues and debates

- because in this way other Muslims can

judge whether t hey can be given the t rust

of Islam, it is not sufficient just to have a

dipl om a from a university.

AI-Ghazzali saw t his same problerri of the

ulama a thousand years ago. He saw for

example that there was a shor tage of doc

to rs among the Muslims , most of the physi

cians being Jews and Christ ians , even in

the courts of t he Ca liphs. Yet, he said , ev

erybody raves in jurisprudence. So for him

it was more important in te rms of, f ard-kifayah to seek knowledge of medicine t han

t hat of fiqh , when the Muslim community

requires that medical knowledge.



4

States and governments change from

t ime to time, and if loyalty were to be di

rected to t hem then the values will also

change . So in Western society chan ge issomething natural. They say tha t society

which docs not change is strange an d un-

Justice is closely connected with fiira-

a state of nature, t hough not of the type

preached by Rousseau. In Western philoso

phy t hey mean jasmania natu re. Bu t what

we mean is t he state when we ma de a Con

t ract wit h God . Allah has asked the sou ls

"Am I no t your Lord?" And we all answered

"Yes", thus we have made a Covenant. Inthis world, those who have iman have con

tinued to 'abide by that Cont ract, while

those who do not are denying themselves

their rightful state.

Therefore th e holy Qu r 'an uses t he ex

pression zulm. According to the holy

Qu r 'an you can be zalim to yourself. In

it lies a very import an t distinction between

t he concept of justice in Islam, and in Greek

philosophy and West er n civilisation. Wh atthey mean by justice is emphasised more

on what I would call the two-person rela

t ion - for example between a person and

another , to ruler and his subjects. Only in

this two person relation can justice of in

justice operate. But in Islam, first justice

t o t he self is ment ioned. I t concerns the

Contract each soul has sealed with Allah.

I f tha t Cont ract is not fulfilled then there

will be a state of zulm and man will be do

ing injustice to himself. He will be in astate in which he ought not to be, therefore

he will be in a state of chaos. He will no t

Some Muslim philosophers say th at it have peace and security. Th is is perhaps

is ridiculous to define knowledge. But th e basic idea of ju stic e and knowledge. I t

it is necessary to show at least some of is based on the idea of Covenant which each

the facto rs involved. One of them is th e U ndividuaLsouLhas_made_with_G_Qd.'l c!2.se connection be tween knowledge and This of course affects t he relationship be-

justice. Briefly, we define justice as the tween th e M s l i ~ an d the St ate . He will no

-state wherebY. things are in their correc t longer consider the ultimate source of his

places - where t he re is har mony. This is loyalty 'to be the State. In Western philos

also connected with fitra and iman. With- ophy, the possibility of certain knowledge

out know-ledge how are we to know wheth er about spiritual matters has been denied an d

things are in their right places or not? people are forced to 'seek happiness, and

When we say "how are we to know" we to se t things right, in a secu lar man ner.

are already using the concept of knowledge. Therefore t hey are forced only to formu

Hence knowledge becomes an integral par t late values within t he context of the st ate.

of the meaning of justice. We must exert They believe each ma n could be happy if he

ourselves to find ou t what should be where, can be put in the right secular place: th e

who shou ld be what , and so on . This is t he citizens in the right kind of job, etc. Theduty of th e Ummah, which it has not ful- educ ational system is also geared to tha t

filled an d has left to only a few to whom it end .

has en trusted much. c:: -------- kiI f we ask t hem the purpose of see mg

knowledge, t hey would say it is to produce a

good cit izen. The Muslim will answer that

t he pur ose of seeking ,knowledge is to .pro

duce a gomLma.n . There is an p r t a n tdifference ; ~ p o l l c i n g good cit i

zen and producing a g<2.o.j. ! l l a ~ P roducing

'a good man is more fund amental, because

invariably he will be a good citizen. Bu t it

is no t so th e other way around . A good cit

izen may be a t yr an t T he Nazis clai med in

their heyday that they were good citizens of

Germany and tha t wha t they did was right

Islam's position in this matter is more fun

damental and the Muslim must recognise

this. He must know that his ult imate loy

alty is not to the state, nor even to the soci

ety; not the "social cont ract II of Rousseau

it is to the individual cont ract between him

an d God. States an d governments change

from time to ti me, and if loyal ty wer e to be

directed to t hem then the values will also

change . So in Western society change is

some thing natural. They say tha t society

which does not change is strange and un

natural.



€

natural. Obviously if you will place your

loyalty with Allah , He does not change - so

t hose values too do not change . That is

what is meant by the validity of absolute

values . We deny the possibility of relative

values except in certain domains.Qb£ol4tc

Change is regarded as a value in Western

society. T hey cannot endure being what

they call II static"; static means stagnancy.

The fund ament al bas is of this constant

change is that there is tension in the spirit

that has broken the Cont ract . In orde r to

forget this big problem which constantly

nags in the core of their soul, t hey have

to go on doing something, changing things.

It is a dis trac tion from the disenchantmentof religion tha t has brought about th is no

t ion of change in t he West . The notion of

death is something which Western ph ilos

ophy does not want to tackle. They talk

about life and pretend as if death does not

exist. This is surely an unrealist ic way of

life, because the reality is there. Before the

egg hat ches you can prevent the hatching

of the chick by das hing the egg to pieces;

but once it has hat ched you cannot .prevent

the chick from dying. In other words , oneis certain and the ot her is not . They must

su rely see that the first problem to grap

ple with is death. Religion has grappled

wit h death . A Muslim does not see death

as the tragedy of humanity. You will no

tice that in Western civilisation tragedy is

a very important value. I t is found in their

literature. I t is t he very basis of their val

ues . The nobili ty of man is manifested in

tragedy. However , in Muslim lite rature, or

in Eastern literature, you will not find the

concept of tragedy. Tragedy is not a value.

Layla and Majnun is not a tragedy. Even

if somebody dies, it is not a t ragedy . Be

cause the western world is t ragic it reflects

itself in its tragic world-view. That human

life is a t ragedy, and that t his is a value

which we must all accept is after all a fatal

isti c view. Muslims are not fatalists. Allah

has created t his world for us. It is good .

He sent down rain so tha t plants may grow

from the earth, and he creates animals for

us to make use of. The world is not evil. It.

is the people who do not fulfill the Contract

5

who are evil.

In t he universities of the West it has been

thought tha t cu lture is something sacred

which ought to be emu lated and preserved.

They have said tha t religion is par t of cul

t ure. Some of us have been confused bythis . Islam is not part of culture. It is cul

ture which came out of Islam - what we

call Islamic culture. But in Western history

it may be right that religion is cultural

something which is created by man and the

forces of tradition and history.

I t hink there should be research on what

exactly is the Islamic concept of knowledge.

From this, we will see what is t he philo

sophical basis for our educational system.

Having formulated the ph ilosophical basisfor the university and t he system of educa

tion , we should then restructure t he un iver

sity system. From the Islamic point of view

there are types of knowledge which are not

necessarily open to everyone. Now, under

the guise of freedom, t he door of the uni

versity is open to all, regardless of whether

the person has completed the fard-ain as

pect of acquiring knowledge of Islam. It is

thus poss ible for people to get degrees and

lat er hold important positions and become

zalim , because they do not understand Is

lam. I do not believe that everybody has

the freedom to seek the same kind of knowl

edge . Otherwise Muslims would never have

divided knowledge into [ord -ain and fard

kifayah. The reason for this is that one

must firs t complete one step before mov

ing to the other. Not everybody needs to

seek fa rd-kifaya.

In the fard-kifaya also we need a list of

priorities. Obviously Psychology, for exam

ple, may not be a priority for Muslims in

comparison to History. I f we do not have

our own pri orit ies we will be following the

needs of the West .

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True & False Knowledge