MALAYSIA successfully hosted the Second Global Knowledge Conference recently.
Sporting the theme “Building Knowledge Societies” the conference outlined as its main objective the formulation of action plans to democratise the information revolution.
This means that the world’s poor, especially, is to be given the opportunity to access information and, whenever relevant, use it as knowledge.
With this it is hoped that they would be able to improve their income and enhance the quality of living.
Sadly though, while the information era has dawned upon some parts of the world, the majority of its citizens are still left stranded in the dark.
An estimated four billion people are living in an under-developed environment, some in a state of abject poverty.
There is little doubt that the majority of these under-privileged people are Muslims.
In the Knowledge Society that shaped the holy city of Makkah the Prophet Muhammad initiated an effort to build a God-fearing community based on knowledge.
The purpose of this society was to rebuke and replace the prevalent Ignorant Society, characterised by immorality and agnosticism.
The Prophet himself was an epitome of the knowledge society that he and his companions built.
Despite being unlettered initially, with the constant coaching by the angel Gabriel he was able to master knowledge and generate a pool of human resources that later became the catalysts of one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever witnessed.
The Quran and practices of the Prophet Muhammad, in that order, are the two most important sources of knowledge for the Muslims.
Obviously, the most certain knowledge is the divine revelation.
Through it the Almighty is recognised and acknowledged, and by it He is worshipped.
God has honoured men of knowledge and raised them to a high status.
He has also made them bear witness to His oneness with sincere devotion.
Verse 18 of Surah Ali-Imran of the Holy Quran is translated thus,
“Allah bears witness that none has the right to be worshipped but He. The angels and those having knowledge also bear witness to this.”
It follows that one who is imbued with this knowledge knows what God has made lawful or otherwise for him. This is a sign that he has attained wisdom.
The second source of knowledge is from the Prophet Muhammad. According to a renowned Islamic scholar, Shah Waliy Allah, the knowledge ascribed to
the Holy Prophet is of two types.
One, inspirations received from God, and two, personal opinions based on his thoughts as a mere mortal.
While the former is infallible and has been faithfully captured as his traditions, the latter is open to scrutiny.
Thus, during the Battle of Badr when the Muslims of Medinah were for the first time engaged in a major war with the Quraish of Mekkah, the Prophet’s directive on certain military tactics was rescinded in favour of an expert’s opinion.
Similarly, the Prophet was considered to have erred for initially advising against artificial pollination of date palms, a technique very much proven to be effective and useful at the time.
Naturally when it came to the knowledge of worldly matter, the Prophet Muhammad encouraged Muslims to become experts in their own fields, and to use their knowledge in these areas as they deemed fit.
This advice proved to be indispensable to those responsible for the phenomenal expansion of the newly established Islamic community not long after the death of the Prophet.
As a result of their foray into the bastions of the then established civilisations, Muslims found themselves thrust immediately into contact with people who had relatively more sophisticated knowledge of medicine, astronomy and mathematics.
They were then presented with two choices. First, to reject this new knowledge as the product of ways of thoughts based on alien or non-Islamic religious and cultural beliefs.
Second, to work out how to incorporate the new knowledge with their own ways of looking at the world, that is, their worldview.
Fortunately, it was this second choice that was adopted by the Muslims.
As a result, we saw a rich symbiosis of cultures and religions take place, one that manifested in the shape of the Islamic Civilisation.
Men of knowledge have always figured prominently in Islam. However, true scholars do not seek knowledge for the sake of ostentation, fame or gaining ephemeral gains of this world, including scoring political points.
A person who pursues knowledge with an evil intention is admonished through the saying of the Prophet,
“Whoever acquires knowledge in order to compete with the scholars or to dispute with the ignorant or to attract people’s attention, then it is the hellfire for him.”
According to Shaikh Abdul Azeez Baz, scholars’ affinity for knowledge is due to their wish to be acquainted with their religion and gain an insight into what God has made incumbent on them.
They may also want to lead the people out of darkness and into the light, thus they strive for knowledge, act on it accordingly and teach others about what a good Muslim should do.
They use their knowledge to unite rather than divide people. Scholars like these deserve to be accorded the status of “the heirs of the Prophet.”
However, even then, Shaikh Baz warned that people should not cling fanatically to any one of them.
Instead of perpetually concluding, “this scholar is absolutely correct”, one should say, “everyone at times errs and at times is correct.”
Likewise it is forbidden to stubbornly attach oneself to one group or party.
This is the most common mistake that many Muslims have committed again and again, ever since the demise of the Prophet Muhammad.
That is why knowledge is very strongly promoted in Islam. A strong grasp of the revealed knowledge can help man attain wisdom to distinguish truth and certainty from falsehood and doubt.
Similarly the knowledge acquired from non-divine sources is also pertinent as according to Bertrand Russel, the great thinker of the last century, it helps man decipher right from wrong.
The emergence of knowledge society emphasises the need for its members to be informed and wise.
As for Muslims they would be more equipped to distinguish between the true teachings of Islam and the jaundiced interpretations of the religion.
The quest for a knowledge society is the search for the long-lost Islamic society.
Whosoever re-establishes it, then he or she would surely benefit from it, very much in line with the Prophet Muhammad’s saying,
“Wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so whosoever finds it, he has a better right to it.”