One of the most urgent issues that ought to be resolved in the minds of present-day Muslim youths is to free themselves from the mistaken assumption that there is a dichotomy between knowledge and action.<\/p>\n
Once this mental dichotomy is gradually resolved accompanied by a spiritual awakening, the emerging thought leaders and professionals will be able to collaborate creatively and innovatively in profound ways towards addressing our systemic problems in the modern world.<\/p>\n
It has often been argued by some educated Muslims that the main problem of Muslims today is the inability to turn knowledge into action, which assumes<\/em> that we do<\/em> have a great deal of knowledge today but not enough action.<\/p>\n This fundamental assumption needs to be questioned and re-examined especially since majority of the educated Muslims today are unconsciously thinking in ambiguous and dualistic terms arising from the influential force of secularization taken as a philosophical program.<\/p>\n Many are not able to tell the subtle differences between what is understood as \u2018theory\u2019, \u2018information\u2019, \u2018knowledge\u2019, and \u2018wisdom\u2019 in the worldview of Islam. As a result for instance, many Muslim youth today deem the great ideas propagated by authoritative Muslim thinkers as either impractical or too \u2018academic\u2019.<\/p>\n A \u2018theory\u2019 is a learned conjecture, and is not of the same level as the connotations of knowledge in Islam (\u2018ilm<\/em>). For example, Charles Darwin\u2019s theory of evolution pertaining to man is a learned speculation or conjecture. Whereas in Islam, the truth about the origins of man can only be known through revelation\u2014hence the position of Islam is that man (insan<\/em>), are the progenies of Adam.<\/p>\n Information becomes knowledge (\u2018ilm) only when facts are interpreted correctly leading to the right conclusion in agreement with the general truths revealed by God\u2014this realization for instance, can only be achieved with certainty through the \u2018arrival of meaning in the soul and the soul\u2019s arrival at meaning\u2019, although one may think it takes place through one\u2019s reasoning. Knowledge is therefore an attribute of the soul.<\/p>\n This \u2018meaning\u2019 (ma\u2019na) refers to an understanding of a \u2018place\u2019 of a thing in the order of creations (maratib<\/em>), and can only be achived from the viewpoint of the learned Muslims throughout the ages, through contemplation (tafakkur<\/em>), practical devotion (ibada<\/em>h) and ultimately, God\u2019s grace. Therefore not everything that one learns in school or university becomes knowledge\u2014it may simply be an accumulation of facts.<\/p>\n This in turn is based on the understanding that God has created everything in its proper place (see among others, verses 37:164, 2: 253 and 17:5 in the Qur\u2019an) or in Western philosophical terms, \u201ccosmos\u201d. It is man out of his ignorance of the proper place of things in the order of creation or the universe (\u2018alam) that causes \u201cchaos\u201d at the individual and collective level.<\/p>\n \u2018Hikmah\u2019 on the other hand is defined as \u201cthe recognition of the proper place of things in the order of creation, such that it leads to the proper place of God in the order of being\u201d, or in simpler terms: \u201cknowledge of the proper place of things\u201d.<\/p>\n It is not merely theoretical knowledge as understood in the root word of \u2018philosophy\u2019 (sophia<\/em>), which does not include the element of action as understood by the foremost philosophers and thinkers in Western civilization.<\/p>\n It is for this reason, the Prophet Muhammad\u2014who was given the book (kitab) and wisdom (hikmah) by God\u2014is regarded as \u201cmercy for all the worlds\u201d as he is the recipient of the final revelation that reveals the places of everything in the order of creation.<\/p>\n With such knowledge, the Prophet was able to demonstrate either in speech, silent confirmation and\/or action of what is the most praiseworthy way of living which is in agreement with the proper places of things created by God.<\/p>\n By implication, genuine Muslim scholars throughout the ages do not merely \u2018theorize\u2019 or \u2018philosophize\u2019 but articulate their understanding within the enclosure of certainty (yaqin<\/em>) so that we can leave in harmony with the universe and truly serve our purpose of existence.<\/p>\n This was the underlying framework of Muslim polymaths in the past such as Ibn Sina (d. 1037), Ibn Haytham (d. 1040), Al-Biruni (d. 1048), Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), and in the present day such as Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas (b. 1931).<\/p>\n Therefore any accusation that Muslim scholars and thinkers are merely \u2018academics\u2019 or \u2018theoreticians\u2019 is careless and dangerous. It is for this reason the great saints, sages and scholars of Islam\u2014the inheritors of the Prophet\u2014speak of the tremendous importance of \u2018adab\u2019 when seeking knowledge.<\/p>\n By \u2018adab\u2019 the great luminaries of Islam meant \u2018action in conformity with the proper place of things\u2019. At the basic level, adab towards knowledge includes purifying one\u2019s intention, and examining one\u2019s sincerity, before embarking on seeking knowledge.<\/p>\n At a higher level, adab includes recognizing the merits of legitimate intellectual and spiritual authorities of the past and present. For instance, the knowing Muslim community in the past recognized and acknowledged that al-Ghazzali as the \u2018Hujjatul Islam\u2019 (Proof of Islam) and a \u2018Mujaddid\u2019 (renewer of the religion) of his age.<\/p>\n It is a loss of adab if scholars of lesser intellectual worth are raised to a level higher than that of the truly authoritative masters such as al-Ghazali who has been erroneously accused by orientalists and modernists as the perpetrator of Muslim decline and intellectual stagnancy.<\/p>\n The biggest challenge therefore is not simply to put knowledge into practice, but cultivating the proper attitude (adab<\/em>) to receive His lights in the form of right meaning, for God knows who is worthy of His knowledge. And this will naturally lead to\u2014by God\u2019s grace\u2014right action.<\/p>\n As long as Muslim youths do not recognize and acknowledge this, we will continue to be unenlightened and unable to truly be part of the solution to the systemic problems we see in the world today. As a result, many Muslims today are \u2018veiled\u2019 from greater possibilities in fulfilling their human potential and in building a better world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the most urgent issues that ought to be resolved in the minds of present-day Muslim youths is to free themselves from the mistaken assumption that there is a dichotomy between knowledge and action. Once this mental …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-star","category-220","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}