60 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE CONCEPT OF ISLAMIZATION

OF KNOWLEDGE IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES
Masudul Alam Choudhury & Mohammad Akram Nadwi
The authors are respectively, Associate Professor of Economics at the
University College of Cape Breton, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, and
Lecturer in Islamic Sciences at Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, India.
Abstract
This paper addresses three interrelated objectives. The approach is
philosophical and comparative. As far as possible the Islamic arguments
of the paper are derived from the Quran.
First, the paper establishes a general definition of knowledge as an
intellection process comprehending the entire universe comprising the
human, animate and inanimate categories as subsystems in this
universe. It is then possible to find these categories of subsystems being
guided and yielding to the primordial Divine Law. In this framework, a
modality of evolutionary knowledge formation and dissemination is
configured to provide a basis against which all approaches to
Islamization of knowledge can be evaluated. The essence of this
evolutionary model is unity of truth. The feature of the model rejects the
age-old epistemological-ontological dichotomy or its unclear
explanation. Instead, it treats the two premises in a circular and
interactive causation yielding continuous progression of knowledge.

The second part of the paper invokes this evolutionary knowledge

model for critical examination of selected works by some contemporary
thinkers in the area of Islamization of knowledge. This critical study
reveals that contemporary Muslim thinkers in the area of Islamization of
knowledge have not successfully formulated or paved the way toward
a distinctly Islamic paradigm of the sciences for the Ummah. Much
remains to be done.
The third part of the chapter goes on to suggest a formulation of
the Islamization process in the light of the evolutionary knowledge
model. It shows that such a model derives itself directly from the Quran
and from the continuity precept of Makkah-Madinah sequencing of
events in Islamic historiography. Such a model is shown to be effective
both in the reconstruction of Islamic thought and polity in the future.
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 61

Glossary of Arabic Terms

Ahadith: examples of Prophet Muhammad
Akhira: hereafter
Ayath: verse of Quran
Faqaha: to comprehend
Fiqh: traditional interpretation of sunnah
Ijtehad: deriving authoritative inference from the sources
of Quran and Sunnah
Jihad: all forms of Islamic opposition to injustice,
including armed conflict
Kalam: revealed word
Milla: community
Mujtahid: the Islamically learned
Mutakallimun: religious philosophers
Quran: revealed book to Prophet Muhammad as
complete guidance to mankind
Shariah: Islamic law
Shii: Islamic sect adhering to Quran and sunnah as
reported by the twelve shiite spiritual
heads (imams)
Shura: Islamic consultative body for decision-making
Sufi: Islamic mystic
Sunni: Islamic sect adhering strictly to Quran and the
sunnah as reported by the four spiritual
heads (Imams)
Sura: chapter of Quran
Tafaqqah: to comprehend
Taqlid: uncritical acceptance of authority
Taqwa: God-consciousness
62 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

Tawhid: Unity of God as the Creator and Sustainer

of the universe
Ummah: nation of Islam
Usul: epistemoiogy
Objectives of the Paper
The principal objectives of this paper are first, to develop a Quranic
concept of knowledge in comparative perspective and then to examine
the d e g r e e to which this has been attained by the Ummah in
contemporary times. This will lay down the foundation of Islamic
epistemological and ontological premises, on the basis of which, a
further critical and objective formulation of Islamization process can be
developed. Secondly, this modular characterization of the concept of
Islamization of knowledge will be made the basis for a critical and
objective evaluation of the thoughts of Professor Ismail al-Faruqi,
Professor Fazlur Rahman and some others in this field. These important
personalities are chosen for study as their works constitute important
contemporary landmarks in Islamization of knowledge. Here, only
selected works of these personalities as they pertain to Islamization of
knowledge, will be considered. Finally, we will conclude this paper by
drawing up inferences from contemporary approaches to Islamization
process and suggest an alternative approach for the Ummah. Our
critical evaluation and alternative formulation will be drawn up in the light
of the Quranic concept of knowledge acquisition as formulated in the
first part of this paper.

A Generalized Concept of Knowledge

The premise of knowledge comprises the intelligible derivation of
abstract and cognitive understanding of the universe around us. One
notes the various substantive terms used in this definition of knowledge.
They are intelligence, abstraction, cognition, understanding and the
universe.[1]
The relevance of intelligence in this definition of knowledge is by
way of its usefulness to the animate and inanimate worlds. Here, it is
obvious first, that humans have been searching since the creation of the
universe for better control and utilization of his environment. These are
situations that emanate from a better understanding of the relationship
between man and his environment. Such an environment may be the
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 63

natural order, the ecological order, or the socio-economic and moral

order. Thus, the concept of environment is meant here to comprise the
universal order. It then lends itself to meaningful interactions between
man and man, and between man and the cosmic entirety through his
relationship with God.

The other part of this category of knowledge - one that signifies

comprehension among the non-human animate world - is not always
clearly recognized. That is, does the animate world also go through
phases of development of certain forms of intelligence in a process of
interactions with the environment? The observance of the principle of
order and harmony in the universe is a form of meaningful compliance
of non-human realities, animal intelligence or instinct, with their
environment. If such a relationship on harmony, order and interactions
with the cosmos did not exist for the animal world, there would not be
balance between the ecological order and the socio-economic order.
This in turn, would cause disorders at all other levels of the universal
system through which the effects of basic ecology-society interactions
are transmitted. Thus, there must be a sense of order embodying the
principle of interactions to which the animal world lends itself in the
above-mentioned comprehension of knowledge.

The next point to note in this animate precept of knowledge is that

of evolution. While in the human world it is a truism that knowledge is
acquired through a process of growth and evolution, the question to be
investigated is, whether such an evolutionary principle lends itself to this
animal world as well? While the distinct prototypes of man and animal
will always remain unchanged, can it yet be possible that the animal
kingdom can experience changing intelligence, though not different
categories of intelligence? The cognitive intelligence is known to be
changeable in the animal world, but without such changes being
capable of transforming an animal into anything else but itself. So it is
also true of humans, whose intelligence has changed but has not
transformed him into anything else. Here, Jack London's masterpiece,
Call of the wild, presents us with this truism, when the reader of the novel
sees how the trained dog of its master, bred in the civil environment of
an English fur trapping community, finally returns back to its calling
among the wilds of Canada. The trained dog assimilated itself with its
kind from which it had originally sprung.[2]
64 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

But apart from this view on cognitive intelligence belonging to the

human and animal kingdoms, the animal is also found to submit itself
to a primordial will of order if not to the preception of reason. Otherwise,
the training given to a dog would not be possible if the animal did not
recognize by instinct the sense of order in that higher form of intelligence
beyond simple cognition, one that makes it see, search, hunt and
acquire. This possibility of the animal world acquiring a higher
appreciation of primordial order is seen in the training of dolphins and
parrots, which are found to be trainable to speak human words. Such
an acquisition of intelligence, though not taking effect through reason,
must necessarily be through an instinctive recognition of the sense of
order in the universe. Such a comprehension of order is the result of
intrinsic harmony and interactions between the cognitive world and the
world of adaptation to higher levels of intelligence or instinct.

The same generalization of the concept of knowledge a s an

interactive process of evolution from lower to higher levels of cognition
and intelligence of the environment around us, can be extended to the
animate world. This comprises the natural world in all its verities. The
natural world is seen here to cohere and have respect for certain
inherently primordial laws of the universe. However, such a coherence
between the natural order and the universal order is not accidental or
unpurposeful. Rather, it is profoundly evolutionary and intelligible. In this
system the natural order changes too - not consciously, but through
interactions and inherent recognition of the harmony and balance in the
universe.[3]

Thus, in all forms of existence, be that of the human, animal or

inanimate worlds, the concept of knowledge is founded on the premise
of a higher primordial level of intelligence, which by presenting the
universe in the realm of a profound order, makes all denizens in it interact
and learn from their evolving experience in this system. Here the
essence of interactions exists not merely within the categorized sub­
systems, but also among them.

It is possible to round up the other important qualifying parts of the

definition of knowledge as mentioned above. The term, 'intelligence' in
this definition is used in connection with the primordial premise of laws,
the evolutionary intelligence of humans, and the instinctive faculties of
animals. The idea of intelligence used here is thereby, one of adaptation
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 65

and evolution without it being necessary for the agent to be consciously

knowing. The term, 'cognition', refers to the physical elements of change
affecting the evolutionary media of intelligence. The term, 'abstraction',
applies to the sorting of images of reality gained by the entities of the
categorized sub- systems. In this, humans take recourse to analytical
reasoning; animals to physical perceptions; inanimates to given
compliance, all in accord with the primordially prescribed laws. The idea
of abstraction so conveyed does not necessarily require conscious
exercise of intelligence for recognizing the primordial laws, which
essentially constitute reality. The term, 'understanding' in the
above-mentioned definition of knowledge, means compliance with the
primordial laws as the essence of reality in all categories of sub-systems
- humans, animates and inanimates. Finally, the term, 'universe',
denotes the totality of interactions among all categories of sub-systems
in accordance with the comprehensions of and response to reality
derived on the basis of the evolutionary perceptions of those primordial
laws.

It is important for our purpose to define knowledge in such a

systemic essence, for it can then be treated within the meaningfully
interactive and evolutionary realms of its acquisition. On the basis of
such interactions, the experiences of both noumena and phenomena
can be explained.[4] Otherwise, in the absence of such a systemic
conception of knowledge, it is impossible to study the animate and
inanimate worlds in relation to God and to study God in relation to these
other categories of sub-systems.

Compatibility Between the Generalized and Quranic Concepts of

Knowledge

The above-mentioned generalized concept of knowledge and its

interactively evolutionary essence is indeed compatible with the Quranic
concept of the same. In several verses, the Quran sheds clear light on
the primordiality of Divine Law as the foundation of knowledge;[5] its
purposeful cognizance and obedience by the animate and inanimate
worlds;[6] on the purposeful and harmoniously evolutionary process
followed by all such sub-systems of the universe;[7] and on the
universally interactive processes at work among the categories of
sub-systems toward realizing the pervasiveness of Divine Law.[8] These
characteristics of the Quranic concept of knowledge and its acquisition,
66 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

present the key points on which we will develop a model of Islamization

of knowledge, on the basis of which, an objectively critical examination
of contemporary works on Islamization of thought and their alternatives,
can be pursued. These key points in the Quranic characterization of
knowledge are, (1) the concept of absolute knowledge, which is God
Himself, and which is not fully manifest to the universe in temporal life,
but will be so manifest in Akhira. (2) The concept of functional
knowledge, as distinct from veritable reality of God in the order of things
and to His fullness of knowledge, is an evolutionary process embracing
interactive intelligence and experience gained in all sub-systems of the
universe.

The implications of the above key points of knowledge domain can

now be seen. The primordiality but inaccessibility to Divine Law in its
fullest form, establishes the epistemological foundation of Islamization
of knowledge. It provides the seat whence knowledge is seen to spring
and convey its functional form in the intelligible, abstract and cognitive
realms of reality. As mentioned above, such an a priori reality is
pervasive in the universe across all categories of sub-systems. This
realization of the primordial laws is transmitted not necessarily through
the conscious exercise of reason and cognition in the first place, for
knowledge in this primordial form exists in the original state of nature.
However, reason and cognition is secondarily formed and subsequently
enhanced by the conscious realization of the a priori laws. This means
that Divine Revelation as perfected in the Quran has always existed in
the universe of total and complete knowledge even before the advent
of form on earth.[9] Subsequently, with the creation of man, the revealed
premise of knowledge was integrated with the rational premise of
knowledge.

Thus, there is no simple concept of complementarity, rather

inseparability of reason with revealed knowledge. Reason is a part and
parcel of revelation. In this form it is revelation alone that need to be
addressed for knowledge formation. There is no need to invoke the
notion of reason-revelation complementarity, a s if these were different
categories in any distant conception of the mind. The epistemological
study of the Quranic verse, Chapter X, verse 31, conclusively points to
the criterion of Truth as the totality of the Divine Law. This is the act of
God being explained through a dynamic process of moral, mental and
material transformation. Consequently, in relations to the nature of
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 67

reality that must be explained by it in the Truth premise, such a criterion

must encompass both revelation and reason in itself. It then becomes
difficult to comprehend how some reason premise can be at all outside
the realm of revelation. It is true that our human comprehension of
reason premise embedded in the revelation premise, may not dawn on
us at a specific point in time and circumstances. But this is not a
distinction between the realms of reason and revelation a s two
discernible parts of the criterion of Truth. If this was the perception
upheld, then given the subsequent protraction of time, the rise of reason
alone as a legitimated Islamic process of knowledge formation, would
render obsolete the need for revelation. Since this would be Islamically
acceptable procedure, s o the protraction of time will defeat the
relevance of revelation, which otherwise is the very purpose for
upholding the Tawhidi Law a s the criterion of Truth.

It is important to understand what may be implicated by reference

to revelation and reason as two premises of Islamization of knowledge
even in the concept of their complementarity. In the safest case, this
would mean the short period of time over which existing understanding
of Quran may not lend the mind to the reason base on specific issues
confronting the individual, science and society. In such a case, it might
be necessary to exercise reason to the extent that this does not conflict
with established premises of Quran. But this is a state of incompleteness
of knowledge, which over the evolutionary stages will be improved upon
to bring the Quran to bear on the impending questions. The invocation
of reason then becomes a derivative of the Quranic and Sunnatic
knowledge itself. Beyond this premise of certainty, all other realms of
knowledge are either to be treated in comparative framework or be
upheld on the basis of conformity with Ahqam derived from Quran
through scientific syllogism. But such extraneous knowledge premises
have no right by themselves to establish the realm of reason. Hence, it
is illogical even to invoke t h e notion of r e a s o n - r e v e l a t i o n
complementarity and demarcate the Tawhidi Criterion into a premise of
revelation and a premise of reason.

It was such a mistaken view on reason, revelation and the notion of

their complementarity, that has given rise to much intensive divisions
and confusions amongst the Islamic philosophers and scientists of all
times. In contemporary times, Quranic verses have simply been quoted
to defend a premise of scientific and social reasoning, rather than for
68 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

Islamic thinkers to investigate the epistemological and ontological

meanings of the verse (and of the Ahadith on this topic) in the founding
of new foundations.

Reason does not therefore, hold any status of its own in the light of
r e v e a l e d k n o w l e d g e . It is intrinsically i n c a p a b l e in totally
comprehending the Divine Law. Thus, the human, and thereby, the
systemic integration of knowledge in the universe, must proceed in an
evolutionary form, from lower to greater levels of certainty, with the
possibility of making mistakes and conflicts in this process of
moment-to-moment becoming of the Islamic personality.

In the area of Islamization of knowledge, not only is the

epistemological foundation of Divine Law and its oneness with reason,
an essential precept, but it is also important to note that knowledge in
its complete form is unattainable in this a priori framework of reference.
Thus, Islamization of knowledge must at best be looked upon as a
process of receiving knowledge in quanta, without it being erroneously
assumed, that knowledge will ever reach perfection over the Islamization
process. At best what can be configured is a well-defined movement of
individuals, societies and institutions from lower to higher levels of
certainty, and that too, by realistically accepting the chances of
mistakes, errors, conflicts and shortcomings of a human type.[10]

Total knowledge will be manifest by God in His Being in Akhira,

according to Quran. Such a picture of the knowledge plane may be
referred to as the principle of conservation of knowledge in the
evolutionary plane transcending temporal bounds. For, since the Quran
presents creation and its realization as a grand design, the knowledge
of Akhira must play a major part in the cognition and abstraction of the
intelligible. But unlike the evolutionary framework, in which time matters
and knowledge is incomplete, the precept of Akhira in knowledge
domain must mean irrelevance of the time-concept in knowledge
comprehension in its completeness. This separability of Akhira as the
sure reality of perfection of knowledge in transcendental time from the
perception of functional knowledge in temporal order, must mean first,
that transcendental time transforms to the moment of Akhira as an event.
Secondly, the infiniteness of temporal time now becomes meaningless.
It is replaced by the meaningful transformation of the event Akhira onto
the real world to give any form of cognition of this sure reality in the
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 69

Islamization process. Thus, the precept of Akhira becomes a cardinal

element of Islamization of knowledge.

Between the primordiality of Divine Revelation and Akhira we have

a one-to-one correspondence. The perfection of Divine Law being of
primordial essence, it creates, re- originates, guides and sustains the
universe in all its categories toward a unique goal of perfection, the
realization of Akhira On the other hand, God and His Perfect Law, which
are not fully realized in temporal time, must be brought to a meaningful
realization. This necessitates the culmination of reality to Akhira.
Therefore, if abstract knowledge of Divine Law is to be exactly
conformable with the perceivable reality of Akhira, then it is equivalent
to say, that in the concept of Islamization of knowledge, either of these
fundamental premises play equal role. If Divine Law gives movement to
knowledge process, then Akhira must provide exactly the s a m e
movement to this process called Islamization. The Quran establishes
this point when it equates Akhira with sure reality, which is the moment
of re- creation as the great comprehension and realization of Divine Law
with supreme felicity.[11]

Next, we come to the characterization of functional knowledge, its

relationship with the premise of complete knowledge, and their conjoint
relationship with the concept of Islamization of knowledge. While the
precept of Divine Revelation (Tawhidi Law) provides the epistemological
foundation of Islamization of knowledge, the functional knowledge
premise provides the ontological foundation for the same. The ontic
character of this functional knowledge premise is conveyed by the fact,
that the evolutionary nature of knowledge in Islam in its perpetual
intellection toward comprehension of the Divine Law, manifests a
moment-to-moment comprehension of the Law in the affairs of the world
and in the realm of cognition and abstraction. In other words,
reinforcement of an Islamization process is progressively formed by the
actual effectiveness of Divine Law in the affairs of this world. These
reflexes then cause greater comprehensions and appreciations of the
Law in temporal time.

The epistemological and ontological characterization of the

functional relationships with the universe found in Tawhidi Law, is of a
different essence than the concept unnecessarily found to embody
revelation-reason complementarity. The epistemic-ontic relationship
70 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

exists and is derived from the Quran, precisely by means of universal

relationships, with the centricity of evolutionary comprehension of
Tawhidi Law.
The E-O Simultaneity Principle a s a Model for Islamization of
Knowledge
The ontological foundation of knowledge is now seen to be inseparable
from the epistemological foundation - a circular causation. Islamization
of thought at any moment is then essentially completed by the cyclical
interrelationship and regeneration of the epistemic-ontic integration of
reality. We will refer to this principle of circular integration and
regeneration between the epistemological and ontological premises a s
the E-O simultaneity principle.[12] In this, while revelation is generic of
the a priori law, which is the epistemological foundation of Islamization
process, reason is integrative with revelation in the ontological sense.
This circular interrelationship between the epistemological and
ontological premises, marks the intellection process from the real world
of cognition and abstraction onto the levels of discursive and greater
comprehensions of Divine Law, in as far as any intellection process must
for ever leave incomplete the evolutionary knowledge domain.

When we take this evolutionary picture of knowledge acquisition

based on the E-O simultaneity principle in temporal time, then the logical
place of Sunnah as a complementary part of revelation, and Ijtehad a s
a rational enquiry into the tenets of Quran and Sunnah as they apply and
appear in temporal comprehensions, is established. The a priori core of
Divine Law comprises the tenets of Quran and Sunnah. These provide
the principles and practical modes of conduct on Islamic affairs and
thought processes. The a posteriori core of Divine Law is generated by
Ijtehad, which provides the interpretations and further enquiry of the
Islamic principles and modes of action and thought. The process of
Ijtehad cannot be contradictory to the Quran and Sunnah, but can be
discursive in nature toward further understanding these foundational
epistemes of Islamic thought. When perceived in this way, Ijtehad does
not comprise a process independent of revealed knowledge. It thus
provides the ontological essence of Islamic intellection.

Finally, it is the circular interactions between the epistemological

and ontological premises of knowledge that make knowledge advance
in this world from lower to higher levels of certainty. In the incomplete
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 71

evolutionary knowledge domain, the E-O simultaneity principle exists in

perpetuity, and Islamization as a moment-to-moment intellection
process, can undergo temporary setbacks, revisions and conflicts to
the degree that Ijtehad as a rational process of reasoning can fall short
of comprehending the ideal content of Divine Law.[13]

Any concept and programme of Islamization must be viewed in

terms of the E-O simultaneity principle as it integrates and regenerates
the essence of Divine Law with the functional domain of knowledge.
Through this process it is at once seen that all the essentials of
knowledge as defined earlier, are attained. These essentials are, (1)
interactions among all categories of sub-systems through the
God-Man-Nature interrelationships under the Tawhidi precept of
pervasiveness and uniqueness; (2) origination and re-origination of
a b s t r a c t i o n a n d cognition in this interactive framework; (3)
understanding and knowledge evolution in the midst of both, a universal
order comprehending not only the temporal universe but also the
created temporal forms on the basis of given comprehensions of such
realities as Divine Law and Akhira. The two are equivalent to each other.

When the Islamization modality is so understood, then the E-O

simultaneity principle becomes a unique one necessitating conscious
comprehension and action in all disciplines of knowledge. In other
w o r d s , an a p p r o a c h c o m p r e h e n d i n g theoretical or practical
formulations, that does not incorporate this E-O simultaneity principle,
cannot be thought of as realizing an Islamization process. One can at
once see the difference the E-O simultaneity principle makes from the
simple E-treatment or the simple O-treatment in the process of
Islamization. The simple E- treatment is of a Kantian essence. Kant's
treatment of the a priori basis of reason as foundation of thought makes
any a posteriori premise (empirical knowledge) irrelevant in knowledge
formation.[14] If this E-treatment is applied to formulate an Islamization
concept, it would leave unanswered and ineffective the integration and
reflexes of Divine Law onto and from the real world, which is the empirical
seat of knowledge. The simple O-treatment on the other hand, is of a
Humean or Marxist essence, where a categorical separation is made
between the original nature and second nature of reality.[15] The
original nature when applied to the transcendence of God, is treated as
being incapable of presenting reality. But only the cognitive world
matters in knowledge formation in the O- treatment. Thus, in either the
72 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

E-treatment or the O-treatment, the essence of duality between

noumena and phenomena remains. This is contrary to the Islamic E-O
simultaneity principle. Hence, any formulation of an Islamization
process must thwart this separable process.

A further caution must be noted in respect to well- defining the

evolutionary character of Islamization process. The evolutionary
process substantively explained by the E-O simultaneity principle must
be carefully differentiated from the Darwinian concept of evolution, the
Popperian concept of evolution through falsification, and the rationalist
concept of evolution of knowledge through independence between
revelation and reason. All three of these approaches have been
extensively used in the literature on evolutionary epistemology.[16]
Without going into the details of this vast area of study, it may simply be
noted here, that in Darwinian concept of evolutionary epistemology, the
assumption of natural selection leads to the formation of non-interactive,
independent group formation, each endowed with its insular knowledge
that evolves in this same fashion. Thus, the essence of interaction, the
development of cognition and abstraction through such interactions, its
consequence of pervasiveness of the Law in the universe, are all
annulled.

In the context of Darwinian epistemology it must further be noted

what is meant by the concept of evolution in the non- human world.
Biological change is extensive in this physical evolutionary world with
mutations, say from amoeba capable of forming higher genes and life
patterns.[17] The concept of natural selection must then well-categorize
such mutations. In Darwinian biological perception of evolution, it is not
necessary to assume the existence of a primordial law more reducible
than the amoeba, one that can generate or re-originate life. The
existence of amoeba being taken as the logically most reducible unit of
life form, it is seen to exist as the result of a profound accident.[18]

Such a perspective of knowledge formation in the amoeba that

makes it mutate and evolve into other life forms, is not the one presented
in the concept of Islamic knowledge a s a process of intellection through
cognition and abstraction in both the animate and inanimate worlds. In
the latter, the most reducible premise of life forms and its mutations in
the process of re- creation, is the Divine Spirit.[19] Then too, it is
impossible for mutations to be randomly extensive, as patterns of
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 73

creation exist in well-defined categories and thus perform distinct

functions of life. It is only within these well-defined and distinct
categories that all processes of growth, evolution, and intellection as
processes of abstraction/perception and cognition/adaptation, are
realized in the evolutionary framework of Islamic knowledge. The only
way now to make different categories of sub-systems interact in the
universe is the conscious realization of Divine Law.

In P o p p e r ' s concept of falsificationism, there is perpetual

incompleteness of knowledge formation a s each scientific paradigm
lends itself to revision and external evaluation and is thus capable of
being supplanted by fresh paradigms. In this concept an allowance is
made for chaotic representation of a body of knowledge. No guarantee
exists now to derive order out of such chaos.[20] When such a principle
of evolutionary epistemology is applied to Islamization of knowledge,
the consequence would be to render relativistic the Divine Law and to
annul the precept of universal harmony in a general sense. Thus,
although interactions exist in Popper's methodology, it does not
necessarily lead to a realization of harmony and purpose as conveyed
by the non-self-inferential nature of Divine Law in the natural and
conscious states of knowing and becoming. The E-O simultaneity
principle is thwarted.

The rationalist approach to evolutionary epistemology takes reason

alone as the seat of knowledge, be this realized from the E-treatment or
the O-treatment, separately. The old Hellenic philosophy took stock of
such conceptions of reality.[21] These were later emulated by the
Muslim rationalists, such as, the Mutazillites, lbn Sina, al-Farabi, Ibn
Khaldun and the Ikhwan as-Safa.[22] This approach was also endemic
to Cartesian philosophy, Newtonian mechanics, and today it finds
special assertion in Husserl's concept of phenomenology.[23] It is well
known from history that such rationalist approach to knowledge had
adverse effects in the building of an independent body of Islamic
theories of science and philosophy in the hands of the Muslim
rationalists.

However, our presentation of the E-O simultaneity principle of

Islamization and rejection of alternative approaches to this, does not
imply that an Islamization process as explained by its evolutionary
character will be intolerant to alternative views. It would not be correct
74 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

to say that such an evolutionary process will not at times fall into the
grips of mistakes. All such possibilities must be acknowledged in this
evolutionary framework as conflicts in states of nature by virtue of the
incomplete nature of knowledge in temporal order. However, it must
only be the E-O simultaneity principle that can realize the positive
Islamization process.

Summary of Above Sections: E-O Simultaneity Principle a s

Criterion for Critically Evaluating Contemporary Approaches to
Islamization of Knowledge

In summary to the above sections, it may be said now that there is a

distinct well-definition of knowledge presented by the Quran. It is seen
a s an evolutionary process of intellection comprising cognition,
abstraction and understanding of the universe around us. Such an
intellection process is open and unbounded in the temporal order,
because only the Divine Law or its equivalence, the Akhira, presents
perfect and complete knowledge. Furthermore, the evolutionary
process is attained through interactions. Hence, the E-O simultaneity
principle governs this process. We have also shown that such a
specifically defined evolutionary knowledge process, governs all
categories of sub-systems in the universal order. For the non- human
world, intellection is replaced by instinctive adaptations and perceptions
or simple compliance with the Divine Law.

The E-O simultaneity principle establishes the criterion for

formulating, planning and evaluating a process of Islamization of
knowledge and approaches to it. In this section we will use this criterion
to first, critically evaluate some of the contemporary approaches to
Islamization of thought. Secondly, we will then present alternative
perspectives in both the theoretical a s p e c t s and work-plan of
Islamization. Our principal review of literature here will comprise works
of Professor Ismail Ragi al-Faruqi and Professor Fazlur Rahman. Other
authors will also be examined with reference to the concept of
Islamization of knowledge. Only selected works of these personalities
that are representative of their approach to the topic of Islamization of
knowledge, are considered here.
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 75

A Critical Review of Islamization of Thought According to Ismail

Ragi Al-Faruqi

Professor Ismail Ragi al-Faruqi, a Palestinian by origin was a

distinguished Islamic thinker in modern times when the Muslims around
the globe are re-examining the roots of their ways of life and searching
for newer directions for self-assertion in all fields of thought and actions.
A sweeping review of Faruqi's prolific writings reveals that his interest
on Islamization of knowledge started in the late seventies and gained
momentum during the eighties until his untimely martyrdom in 1987.

In his edited book co-authored with A.O. Nasseef entitled, Social

and Natural Sciences: the Islamic Perspective, Faruqi wrote on
Islamizing the Social Sciences.[24] The message on Islamization of
thought that he laid down in this paper, was not new, beyond what was
well-known among the older Islamic scholars. But Faruqi emphasized
in clear terms to the present generation of Muslims, that the nature of
Islamic sciences remains independent of the naturalistic assumptions
of Western sciences. He showed, that Islamic sciences derive their
sources of knowledge from the essence of unity of truth rather than from
the sources of reason as in the rationalist school of scholasticism or the
Cartesian school of Western empiricism. Faruqi wrote on this common
premise of methodology, that is, on the unity principle for both the
natural and social sciences: The Ummatic sciences should not be
intimidated by the natural sciences. Their place in the total scheme of
human knowledge is one and the same with the difference lying in the
object of study, not the methodology. Both aim at discovering and
understanding the divine pattern.

This note on methodological commonness of divine unity shared

by all the Ummatic sciences, was an important documented contribution
by Faruqi in his then growing concept of Islamization of knowledge.
From such a concept it is possible to develop a methodological purview
of what is known as the general equilibrium system of Islamic sciences,
within which abide the interacting categories of sub-systems.[25] In this
way, the principle of unity of truth, which essentially is the Tawhidi
precept in all fields of knowledge, becomes instrumental toward
interrelating God, Man and Nature in a unified whole. Of course, the
essence of Tawhidi precept cannot imply this interrelationship in the
Pantheistic sense of God taking up forms in matter and in man, which
76 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

is a common mistake of Hellenic philosophy, and was shared by Ibn

Sina in his version of Islamic philosophy. The interrelationship is meant
essentially to convey interactive phenomena of the pervasiveness of
Divine Law in the working of the universe. From such interrelationships,
intellection takes place in the realm of abstraction, cognition,
understanding and evolution. Although Faruqi had not fully developed
this methodological picture on the interrelationships that take place
through the unity of truth, his emphasis on this note was an important
and implicit one for such a view on Islamization of knowledge.

Through such a principle of methodological interactions in the

realm of Ummatic sciences, Faruqi goes on in his paper to derive his
conclusion on the inseparability of the normative from the positive
elements of scientific enquiry. On this point he wrote, Any investigation
of a human must therefore, include its standing a s it ought to be within
the realm of possibility. In conjunction with the afore-mentioned
evolutionary concept of knowledge, Faruqi's statement here implicitly
points to the establishment of the E-O simultaneity principle in the body
framework of Islamic sciences. It is indeed by removing the artificial
divide between the a priori laws, now taken as the spring of normative
axioms, and the a posteriori premise, now treated a s positivism, that the
epistemic-ontic dichotomy of Western sciences is destroyed and
replaced by their intrinsic unity in the essence of Divine Law. Here too,
Faruqi's statement is implicative of, though not methodoligically
developed in, presenting the E-O simultaneity principle.

In 1982, Faruqi gave his important contribution to the field of

Islamization of thought entitled, Islamization of Knowledge: General
Principles and Workplan.[26] This small book is a combination of three
distinctly important issues: First, Faruqi traces the present days malaise
of Muslims around the world and the onslaught of Western socio-cultural
and political weapons on the Muslims. Secondly, he attributes the
causes of Muslim socio-cultural and political bondage to the West on
factors both within and outside the framework of a decadent Muslim
society. Thirdly, he goes on to develop his work-plan on Islamization of
knowledge based on an Ijtehadi orientation of the Islamic world-view.

Faruqi points to the backwardness of traditionists and the

unacceptable separation between the realms of revelation and reason
in the development of knowledge. Although one could imply, beyond
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 77

the unexpressed emphasis by Faruqi in this book, that the criticism was
aimed at both the traditionists and the rationalists, yet it is pointed more
against the traditionists. Faruqi wrote: Thinking their (traditionists) world
consigned to doom, they became over-conservative and they sought to
preserve their identity and most precious possession, viz. Islam, by
prescribing all innovation and advocating a strict adherence to the letter
of the shariah. It was then that they abandoned the major source of
creativity in the law - ijtihad. They declared its gates closed. Treating the
shariah as perfected in the works of the ancestors, they declared its
gates closed. Treating the shariah as perfected in the works of the
ancestors, they declared any departure from it an innovation, and every
innovation undesirable and condemnable. As elaborated by the
schools, the shariah was to become frozen and as such to safeguard
the survival of Islam.

All this points clearly to what Faruqi emphasized, that Shariah

should be seen as an amalgam of core principles and an expanding
horizon of knowledge supported by Ijtehad. This again indespensably
brings into relevance the complementarity between revelation and
reason as enhancing the evolutionary knowledge process of the Shariah
and its modus vivendi to the ever changing modes of life. Faruqi wrote
on this point: "Evidently, it (fiqh) is a technical meaning, highly restricted
when compared with that of the Quranic term faqaha or tafaqqaha,
repeated in numerous verses, which point to intellection and
understanding, to grasping the essence and explanation, in short, to
knowledge of Islam as a whole." Such are conclusive indications to the
great latitude that Faruqi realized would be necessary in the Islamization
of thought if Shariah was to continue giving guidance to the ummah over
time. Such is also the condition required by the methodological nexus
of relationships in the evolutionary knowledge concept based on the
E-O simultaneity principle.
In the most important part of his Islamization of Knowledge: The
Work Plan, Faruqi prescribes the following methodology: "(1) mastery
of the modern disciplines; (2) mastery of the Islamic legacy; (3)
establishing of Islamic relevance in the modern sciences; (4)
synthesizing Islamic knowledge with modern sciences; (5) selecting the
path that best attains the Islamization of knowledge." It is important to
take note of the methodology prescribed here - modem synthesis of
78 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

Islamic knowledge in the sciences, followed by adoption of the best

alternative for Islamization available.
On the first of these matters, Faruqi suggests that "...the nature of
the modern discipline, its constituent methods, principles, problems,
objectives and hope, its achievements and shortcomings - all of these
should be related to the Islamic legacy; and the legacy's specific
relevance to each must be deduced from the general contribution." In
regards to the second point, Faruqi takes the production of university
textbooks to be a crowning aspect of Islamization of knowledge. He
writes, "The university textbook is truly the final end of the long process
of Islamization of the disciplines. It is the work which crowns the long
search of all foregoing steps."

A summary review of Islamization of Knowledge shows, that Faruqi

sought for Islamization of thought within the broad framework of
received Western socio-scientific works. This was seen to proceed by
use of a discursive rule among the Islamically prepared scholars
producing works of modern worth with imputation of Islamic principles
and methodology in them. Thus, the synthesis between modernity and
Islam in scholarship, further disseminated through the intellectual
media, is seen as the modus operandi of Islamization of knowledge
according to Faruqi.

Ismail Faruqi, Jafaar Sheikh Idris and Ibn Al-Arabi: Comparative

Thought on Islamization of Knowledge
Such a concept of Islamization of thought is shared by Jafaar Sheikh
Idris a s well, whose procedure toward Islamization comprises the
following:[27] All empirically or rationally discovered facts whether they
be natural, physical, physiological, social, mathematical or otherwise,
irrespective of who discovered them, should be accepted as part of the
Islamization process. To these are to be added Quranic facts and
authentic traditions. The Quran and Sunnah are to be researched in the
perspective of explaining the discovered or rationalized thoughts found
to be perceptually compatible with Quran and Sunnah. Theories are to
be developed toward explaining this Quranic and Sunnatic synthesis of
modern thought. Caution is to be exercised in mistakenly accepting
non-Islamic philosophical assumptions during the process of the
synthesis. A fact that appears to be true in either reason or revelation is
to be accepted as scientific truth. Apart from the Quran and Sunnah,
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 79

which are to be treated as foundational to Islamic knowledge, all other

sources are to be treated as relative and comparative. An evolutionary
basis of ascertaining a given piece of knowledge should be acceptable
in the Islamization process.

The above-mentioned compendium of approaches comprises the

grounds in which, according to Idris, Islamization of knowledge is to be
pursued. These approaches agree with Faruqi's in the area of Islamic
synthesis of modern thought, given the necessary care for asserting the
truely Islamic assumptions and methodology while weeding out the
non-Islamic ones. The net result of these identical approaches is seen
to be the theoretical and scholarly pursuits toward enhancing the
ensuing Islamization process in Islamic societies.

Subsequent to his views on Islamization of knowledge Faruqi

published his book entitled, Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and
Life.[28] In this, he tried to show the interplay of the Tawhidi core of
Islamic knowledge in a variety of fields, such as, history, knowledge,
metaphysics, ethics, social order, family, political order, economic
order, world order, aesthetics, and the principle of Ummah. Briefly,
Faruqi brings out here the indispensible premise of revelation-reason
complementarity in Islamic knowledge formation and acquisition. He
then points out that it is this premise which provides the dynamics to all
departments of life and thought toward attaining truth in the real world,
rather than being simply encouched in the mysteries of metaphysics.
But Faruqi treats this media of complementarity between revelation and
reason to lead to the acquisition of truth. It is not clear whether by
referring to the term, 'truth', Faruqi means relative truth during the
process of intellection from lesser to higher levels of certainty or
absolute truth. In other words, the perspective of Tawhidi precept that
gives the evolutionary essence to the Islamic field of knowledge, is not
methodologically treated as the principal basis of knowledge formation,
acquisition and its transmission. Thus for example, Faruqi writes in
respect to the attainment of truth in the Tawhidi quintessence of life and
action that he presents: Tawhid as the recognition that the truth is indeed
knowable, that man is capable of reaching it. Scepticism that denies this
truth is the opposite of Tawhid.

Furthermore, on the issue of Tawhidi methodology, Faruqi presents

an identical correspondence between the Law and reason, so that
80 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

nothing that is not rationally logical and comprehensible, is globally not

part of revelation. It is important to note the key idea of global
acceptance or rejection of hypothesis or phenomenon that does not
correspond to either reason or revelation. This is also the approach
taken by Idris in categorizing items for acceptance or rejection in the
Islamization process. If such an identity is called forth between
perceived reason exercised on an issue temporally, then the global
qualification of reality would negate the evolutionary perspective of
knowledge acquisition. Hence, no allowance can be made for truth to
dawn its realization upon the individual and society incrementally - what
is perceived as dissociative between reason and revelation now may be
resolved by a dialectical process of enquiry tomorrow!

However, if the assumption of global realization of the contradiction

is not made in qualifying such an apparent but not real contradiction
between reason and revelation a s untruth, then an evolutionary
perspective of knowledge must be taken. And this then cannot be a
scepticism but a process toward deriving truth from lesser to higher
levels of certainty in knowing it and in the consequential becoming of
the universe around us through this intellection. Such an evolutionary
process of knowledge formation, acquisition and dissemination must
necessarily accept a dialectical process to establish the temporal
unfolding of truth.

Some such process is referred to by Ibn al-Arabi as the unveiling of

Quranic knowledge.[29] Sciences according to Ibn al-Arabi are divided
into three types. The first is the science of reason, which is attainable by
exercise of reason, ponderance, analytics and considerations. The
second is the science of states, which exists in expectational form in
nature and can be attained only when the event takes place. The third
type is the sciences of mysteries, which may remain beyond the reach
of reason. Such knowledge may be unveiled to the highly God-fearing,
Islamically motivated and just. In the evolutionary perspective of
knowledge, all such knowledge formation and its unveiling exist, but are
not necessarily attainable always. Thus, truth even in its limited temporal
form is not always attainable by the exercise of reason-revelation
c o m p l e m e n t a r i t y . In all t h e r e f o r e , t h e r e v e l a t i o n - r e a s o n
complementarity remains a pragmatic subset of knowledge acquisition
and dissemination in the framework of global realization of truth. In the
evolutionary perspective, it can always exist as a possibility, not simply
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 81

as a pragmatic experience. But a pragmatic experience cannot lead to

a universal affirmation of truth, it being simply a subset of the totality of
perceptions of a reality, some conformable and some non-conformable
with reality. In this sense, the perspective of attaining truth globally by
exercise of reason-revelation complementarity must be at best reduced
to a local event of knowledge formation and its dissemination.

A Critical Evaluation of Islamization Concept Given by Faruqi and

Idris: Theoretical Perspective

The treatment of the global perspective of attainment of truth through

the exercise of reason-revelation complementarity has led to the
enunciation of the following Tawhidi methodology in Faruqi's Tawhid:
"First, rejection of all that does not correspond with reality; second,
denial of ultimate contradictions; third, openness to new and/or contrary
evidence." Such a methodology is contradictory to the evolutionary
methodology if the definition of reality given in the above quote is made
independent of time or of different states of nature in which an event can
occur. If the concept of reality here means moment-to-moment
realization of an event, then the idea of rejecting a non-complying event
is replaced by that of preference among alternative events until the time
that conclusive evidence appears. This conclusive evidence may appear
either in the form of abstraction or cognition and help reject the event
altogether from an Islamic evolutionary trajectory of knowledge. But it
appears equally that Faruqi indeed may have implied an evolutionary
process in terms of the second and third parts of his methodological
statement. If this is the case, then the first statement must be qualified
by the concept of unveiling of knowledge while giving credence to the
possibility of rejection of facts that are conclusively proven to be
Islamically inadmissible.

From the above discussion on the evolutionary versus the

pragmatic approaches to Islamization of knowledge, it appears that
certain contradictions have arisen in well-defining the concept of
knowledge and thereby, its potential in Islamizing the Ummah. We will
examine this criticism now. The general viewpoints on Islamization
presented by Faruqi and Idris center around the assumed possibility
that Islamic world-view in the sciences can be readily synthesized with
the existing theories, concepts and empirical basis of Western sciences.
82 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

Ba-Yunus writes in this regard,[30] "Briefly then, Islamization of

Knowledge for Ismail is union of the two systems such as would be
expected to bring Islamic knowledge to the secular and modern
knowledge to the Islamic system." Within this perspective a pragmatic
model of revelation-reason complementarity is introduced by Faruqi
and Idris. The result is seen to be an ideal perception of Tawhidi -
induced reality that the Islamization process as so defined, must surely
attain.

Besides this overall perspective of the concept of Islamization in the

p r a g m a t i c a p p r o a c h , t h e r e a r e also s e r i o u s methodological
incompleteness appearing in this approach. For instance, the reader of
neither Faruqi nor Idris is sure whether these authors are configurating
an intellection process through interactions of the categorized
sub-systems of the universe around, or is it a compartmentalized study
of Islamization of the disciplines, such as, the social and natural
sciences. It is then not clear whether temporal states of Islamization in
such a system are realized through a substantively defined evolutionary
process or is simply attained through a prior arrangement of the universe
around us that must necessarily then yield the best of all states - an
Islamization process. Such an attainment would then be masterfully
superior to all received doctrines in the Western mould, for it is instilled
and driven by Tawhidi Law fully comprehended.

By so perceiving Islamization, no essence of a process, describing

the intellection flight from lesser to higher levels of certainty in
knowledge formation, acquisition and dissemination, exists. The
concept of a process is replaced by a neo-classical world of optimal
attainment of states of nature, given full-knowledge in the first place,
which makes the agents of allocation of available resources, a rational
being.[31] The neo-classical foundation of thought is not only a
deceptive perception of reality, but also it completely negates the
Tawhidi rejection of separation between the normative and positive
elements, that is, between the epistemological and ontological
essences of reality.

The converse is the E-O simultaneity principle earlier explained.

Instead, the separable perception takes us back to the ignorance based
on Kantian duality that has pervaded Western thought and has been
unquestionably imitated by Islamic scholars in large numbers. Thus, for
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 83

example, one finds that over this time when a concept of Islamization of
knowledge has been in place, Islamic economists and sociologists have
not been able to part away from their neo-classical entrapment. In fact,
they have plunged into the belief and use of this doctrine par excellence.
They have been using and extending Islamization of knowledge in the
social sciences fruitlessly to configurate a neo-classical system within
an Islamic mould and vice-versa.[32] This is a sorry state of affairs, and
is seen as the mistaken perception of Islamization that arises from the
belief on the possibility of Islamically synthesizing the modern sciences.

The neo-classical world-view is also non-discursive, non-process

and non-dialectic in essence. In it, knowledge is incapable of being
formed, for it already exists in its optimal state. Hence, the universe
around complying to the neo-classical world-view must necessarily
behave optimally, without chances of conflict and shortfalls remaining.
Throughout the writings of Faruqi and Idris one finds this notion of an
optimal trajectory of attainment by the Islamization experience induced
by Tawhidi essence as knowledge fully accessible to human beings.
Such a note is strong in Faruqi. He writes, "Unless one begins, therefore,
with an assumption contrary to scepticism, namely, that truth may be
reached regarding these matters, nihilism becomes inevitable." As we
mentioned earlier, this statement can have a localized content, as truth
is enhanced through experience. But it cannot have a global content for
which it is meant, without further qualifications, for only God is Truth and
is inaccessible in all fullness by human comprehension. Such is also a
Quranic viewpoint and a partial description of knowledge according to
Ibn al-Arabi.[33]

Views and assumptions of the above types by authors in the area

of Islamization of knowledge have led to methodological flaws and
resulted in their consequential impact on the Ummah. For instance, if
unity is to be the foundational principle of knowledge, then it must
explain the interrelationships between God, Man and Nature. This was
taken up in the evolutionary framework of knowledge to mean the E-O
simultaneity principle, wherein knowledge grows perpetually through
interactions among the various categories of sub-systems. Knowledge
is never complete in temporal time. Only in Akhira can knowledge reach
its perfection and fullness in the sight of God as the Quran affirms. Thus,
the reality of conflicts, sub-optimal states, shortfalls and reversals must
84 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

be accepted along with growth and felicity in the trajectory of evolution

of knowledge.
Also, in respect to the extended concept of knowledge as
intellection via abstraction and cognition, that is, the perspective of
knowledge formation and its dissemination in the non-human world,
from which the human world learns, is totally absent in the received ideas
on Islamization of knowledge. Such an important omission makes it
impossible to impart the Tawhidi core into the realm of the natural and
biological sciences. For example, it then becomes impossible in Islamic
perspectives to explain how the unified field theory can be formulated
by Tawhidi topology, a mathematical conception with the help of which
the interactions, dynamics and transformation of the natural universe
can be explained.[34] The latter features of such a sub-system in fact,
signify the learning process of the natural and biological world in the
extended framework of knowledge a s adaptation, cognition and
change. This Tawhidi imputation in the learning processes of the natural
and bioligical orders presents the interactive capacity to the human
sciences to learn and disseminate from.
These are some of the critical evaluation of Faruqi's and Idris'
thoughts on Islamization of knowledge taken on the theoretical plane.
We will examine their practical consequences on the potential for
forming an Ummah in a later section of this paper.
Islamization of Thought According to Fazlur Rahman
Professor Fazlur Rahman was a distinguished Islamic scholar in the
tradition of Dr Muhammad Iqbal. His deep concern with the problems
of Muslims and their potential alleviation within the context of an
Ummatic order instilled in Professor Rahman to write widely and
prolifically on a broad range of topics in Islam. These contributions won
him international and distinguished repute among both scholarly
Muslims and non-Muslims alike. But even as he thought deeply and
wrote, he raised many controversial issues on the question of the relative
application of Ahadith to contemporary Muslim societies, and of the
relevance of rational interpretation of Quran for the development of
Islamic thought. Such critical thoughts and writings do not imply that
Rahman acted as an orientalist, out to deliberate a blow to Islamic
traditions. Rather, it was his deep concern for realizing a potential future
Ummah and the welfare of Muslims in the order of the greatness that
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 85

rested with the past Islamic civilization, that led him to think in terms of
the conflict between traditionalism and rationalism in the Islamic fold.
This deep concern made Rahman devote to the theme of Islamization
of knowledge late in his life.

In this section we will examine a selection of Fazlur Rahman's

writings over the period of the fifties to the eighties. Our objective is to
examine how Rahman's thought developed toward the theme of
Islamization of knowledge and how his ideas have or potentially could,
influence the direction of the Ummah.

One of Rahman's early works entitled, Prophecy in Islam,

Philosophy and Orthodoxy, was devoted to the study of the early
Islamic rationalistic thoughts.[35] Among others, Al- Farabi, Ibn Sina,
Ibn Rushd and the mutakallimun were studied. It is important to note
how the topic of Islamic rationalism a s it derived itself from early Hellenic
philosophy, was made to appear as the groundwork of the ensuing
divorce between traditionalism and rationalism. From this type of
derivation, the book goes on to suggest the need for platitude between
the two opposing schools in as far as the emergence of the Ummah,
what Rahman calls as the Milla, would need complimentarity between
the two shades of opinion. The thought of Ibn Sina is the one most
prominently analyzed in this book.

The early Islamic rationalists, particularly Ibn Sina, construed

revelation in two parts. There was Divine Revelation that existed in
metaphysical form and was not capable of being transmitted to the real
world in the midst of imperfections of the latter. Then there was technical
revelation, which was seen to symbolize the created reflection in the real
world of the metaphysical, primordial, untouched divine revelation. The
biblical prophets in general, and Prophet Muhammad in particular, is
thus seen to be the messenger of technical revelation through the Quran.
Thus, the Quran was interpreted a s the created symbolization of a
metaphysical divine revelation to which there can be no possible access.
In so characterizing the subject matter of revelation and the role of the
prophet in it, the personality of the Prophet Muhammad was presented
by Ibn Sina par excellence in Hellenic characteristics. That is, at the
intellectual level, which is the level on which Quran was seen to exist as
a created symbol of revelation; the prophet, philosopher and mystic
86 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

were treated as being identical in category. The prophet is only seen to

be distinguished by a strong imaginative faculty.
Although Rahman has devoted this work to a factual study of
rationalist philosophies in Islam in the light of Hellenic philosophy, there
is no critical examination carried out in it to point out some of the
antagonistic influences that such Hellenic leanings have had in the
essential spirit of Islamic belief and world-view. One could particularly
dwell here on a critical, nay, almost cutting rejection of the dichotomy
in revelation introduced by Ibn Sina. In the world of Islam such
Pantheistic thoughts have been a sore in distancing the Shiis from the
Sunnis, and have led to utter incapacity toward forming a truly
non-dualistic, non-Kantian perspective in Islamic scholasticism. While it
is not intolerance to rationalist ideas that is being invoked here, it would
still appear as a duty of responsible Islamic leaders, the Mujtahids, to
raise critical opposition to such Pantheistic views that cut at the very
roots of Quranic representation a s revelation par excellence and
complete, having no incompleteness in it between its metaphysical and
symbolized forms as thought by Ibn Sina. Rahman has not assumed
this responsibility to make critical examination of Ibn Sina's concept of
revelation, and thereby, to warn and constructively instruct the Muslims
against such Pantheistic concepts while invoking truer ones for the
guidance of Ummah.

Consequently, Rahman has only a conchalant response to the

Hellenic characterization of divine revelation by the Islamic rationalists.
He accepts the relevance of symbols in explaining the truth of the Milla
(Ummah) and finds, that in spite of such symbolization by the
rationalists, the essential theory is the same although its terms have
substantially changed. The nonchalance that Rahman offers is that such
symbolization insulated the egalitarian application of Islamic principle
of social justice between the privileged classes who can fathom
speculative philosophy and those who cannot do so. He writes in
Prophecy, "But the basic trouble was the philosophical conception of
the religion - both its beliefs and its laws - as mere symbols from which
there is no escape to reality for the masses. Not only did this
symbol-reality dichotomy cut at the roots of the traditional Islam: it
sought to introduce a distinction of the naturally privileged and the
naturally barred in a society to which essential egalitarianism was a
cardinal article of faith."
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 87

Next, we will review Rahman's book entitled, Islam and Modernity,

which published in 1982, presents a closer view of the author in the area
of Islamization of knowledge.[36] Here, an important point to note is
how Rahman treated or interpreted the relevance of using Quran in
deriving theories or inferences on laws and societal matters. He presents
the appropriate message to Muslims in regards to how Quran and
Sunnah should be applied in a fact-finding and discursive way to deal
with the particular and general concepts of thought, followed by their
application to specific problems. He writes in this regard, "In building
any genuine and viable Islamic set of laws and institutions, there has to
be a two fold movement: First, one must move from the concrete case
treatments of the Quran - taking the necessary and relevant social
conditions of that time into account - to the general principles upon
which the entire teaching converges. Second, from this general level
there must be a movement back to specific legislation, taking into
account the necessary and relevant social conditions now obtaining."

In the light of the above statement, Rahman analyzes a critical

statement made by Schacht in the latter's, Origins of Muhammadan
Jurisprudence - that in the early decision-making process in Islam the
Quran was relied upon as a secondary piece of evidence on specific
matters.[37] Rahman implies from this, that such a statement can be
acceptable if, as he writes, "early Muslims acted first upon their
experience of the totality of the Quranic teaching and introduced the
citation of particular verses only at a secondary stage, then this
statement describes a phenomenon that is both natural and intelligble."

It is important to note what the above statement made by Rahman

and his criticism of Schacht means for the organization of Islamic
thought in modern times. On the matter of movement from the particular
case study to the general principle of the Quran on the matter, we take
recourse to the Quranic verse that says God re-originates life, manifests
the cycle of life and death, brings back the living from the dead as
continuous events in the universe until the time of Akhira, when finally
the extinct world will be recreated.[38] Obviously, the idea of
re-origination used in several places of the Quran means several things,
and these can be extended by inference. The idea is applied to the reality
of life after death, Akhira, to the historical phenomena of rise-decay- rise
of civilizations; to the regeneration and sustenance of the worlds, known
and unknown; to the changing features of nature and universe as we
88 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

know them, etc. Now, if we are to make the above- mentioned Quranic
verse to mean cosmologica! transformations, such as the Big Bang and
the Big Crunch phenomena of modern theoretical physics, the closed
or open ended universal phenomena in the same,[39] then one of two
things must attain in the perspective of the first statement made by
Rahman. Either there must exist a particular evidence at point for a
general theory to be built upon that, or there must be an existing theory
of creation that can be investigated by the above-mentioned Quranic
verse to lead to a general theory of creation in Quranic perspective. In
our opinion, such types of development of thought resulting from the
specific-to- general methodology of theory building on the basis of
Quran, is neither the correct nor the fruitful approach to Islamization of
knowledge. First, the approach relegates to the Quran a credence
bounded by evidence, where there may exist none. Secondly, in doing
this, it relegates the originality of the Quranic approach in the sciences
relative to all other sciences. It also relegates the Quran to a
phenomenon dependent upon some other received evidence or theory.
But on the contrary, Islamization of knowledge must indeed be a
phenomenon of original occurrence in the realm of thought. It must
develop independent of received scientific thought on its foundational
principles (Usuli). It can treat all such other thoughts as comparative
references and tools of convenience, not of substance. The independent
enquiry under the Quranic approach to scientific thinking could then be
comparatively pursued with other developments in the specific area of
creation theory, but without it being necessary to change the Quranic
theory to comply with modern theories of creation.[40] Another
important area that negates such unwanted synthesis is the modern
theory of biological evolution. In economics, we have referred to before
of the abject neo-classical leanings of present days Islamic economists.

Now, let us investigate the second part of the same statement by

Rahman - from the general to the specific. We will use the same Ayat of
Quran and the example of creation theory. It is possible in the Quranic
approach to creation theory, that the application of a Tawhidi
topological approach in which the limiting velocity of the speed of light
acting upon space-time events is replaced by the precept of creation
without form, being and matter, can be contrary to the perceptions of
the universe according to the theory of relativity.[41] Thus, while the
Quranic theory of creation cannot be abandoned because of this
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 89

non-compliance, therefore, there can be no firm credence that

Islamization could benefit from the type of general-to-specific
methodology suggested by Rahman.

S u c h an a p p r o a c h to Islamization m a d e by Rahman in
systematizing Islamic thought with modern thought, is just another
example of the pragmatic approach to Islamization of knowledge. It aims
at submitting Quranic socio-scientific world-view to the modern
conceptions and discoveries of science, without it being necessary in
this case to question the epistemological and ontological foundations
of the latter and establish independently those of the former. If the
distinct development of Quranic scientific mind, axiomed and
formulated on the E-O simultaneity principle, and distinct from the
simple E-treatment or the simple O-treatment of received scientific
theories, is not made, then there will ever remain the danger of
introducing dualism in Islamic socio-scientific thought. This was shown
earlier to lead to non-interactive existences in knowledge domains
encompassing all categories of sub-systems of the universe. Now, if not
consciously then imperceptibly, Western philosophies, influenced as
they are by Hellenic philosophies, enter the framework of Islamic
thought. This has happened in the history of Islam. It has subsequently
given rise to continuing conflicts between the traditionists and
rationalists.

The methodology of Islamization of knowledge as presented by

Rahman cannot be seen to comprise the extended concept of
knowledge, the one encompassing intellection capacity in the realms of
adaptation and cognition in the non-human worlds as well. This is not
simply due to the human knowledge that is solely invoked in the writings
of Rahman, but because of the hidden non-interactive nature of
knowledge domain presented in such thought. And in this state, such
knowledge cannot therefore, unify God-Man-Nature reality. It is here that
one can see the pragmatic approaches to Islamization of knowledge,
by submitting itself to a localized compatibility with modern thought,
leads to aberrations such as the macro and micro dichotomies of reality
established by Keynesian economics, quantum mechanics and relativity
physics. The latter type of dichotomy has been known to present
structural problems in the unified field theory.[42] On the other hand, by
substituting the concept of the macro-micro dichotomy, the concept of
the field in physics, the limitations of the velocity of light in space-time
90 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

events, by a Tawhidi topology, a new perspective in unified field theory

is created. This extends the E-O simultaneity principle to knowledge
among all categories of sub-systems.

The pragmatic a p p r o a c h is also non-evolutionary a s it is

non-deductive. Now the failure of the E-O simultaneity principle to work
by entrapping the potential of the Quranic mind to the sway of existing
and moment-to-moment paradigms of sciences, can at best make the
Islamization process remain still if not retrogate. The generalization
principle given by Rahman in Islam and Modernity appears to make the
specifically moment-to-moment observations a s independent,
separable indicators of situational realities. In this scenario of change,
it is impossible to begin with the fullness of Quran and then deduce the
particular theories and laws. Rahman writes in criticism of the contrary
view: "Yet the real solution lay only in understanding the Quranic
injunctions strictly in their context and background and trying to
extrapolate the principles or values that lay behind the injunctions of the
Quran and the Prophetic Sunna. But this line was never developed
systematically, at least by Muslim jurists."

Over the years, Rahman's ideas on the methodology of the Quran

and Sunnah for Islamization of thought had changed. In his Seera article,
"Sources of Dynamism in Islam",[43] Rahman stresses the role of
Islamic thought in the establishment of a political state. Here he brings
to bear the importance of Jihad in nation building both in its active and
self-inculcating forms. He also stresses the great importance of
Shura-dialogue for better understanding between the traditionists, the
rationalists, the Mutakallimun and anti- sufists, the Sunnis and Shiis, in
regards to matters relating to Sunnah and Kalam. In this paper, Rahman
introduces the important theme of complementarity between reason
and revelation in the building of Islamic thought. In the process of so
developing his explanation of the positive Islamic view of society,
Rahman represents a closer attachment to Sunnah than noticed
elsewhere in his writings. In this regard he writes: "The work of a Prophet
is not limited to the communication of knowledge alone. He has to
explain the relationship between Allah and man, and man and man. He
has to prescribe a moral code, enunciate the principles of culture and
civilisation, lay down the mode of worship, establish a framework of
belief and define the moral imperatives which must govern our life. The
Prophet determines the rules to serve as the basis of social and cultural
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 91

relationships, economic, judicial, and political dealing, matters of war

and peace, and international affairs. The Prophet does not transmit
merely a code of rituals commonly regarded as religion. He brings with
him a whole system of thought and action which is called al-Din (the
complete way of life) in Islamic terminology." He continues on in this
positive note, pointing to the relevance of Sunnah with Quran in founding
a global social order of Islam.

But it appears that Rahman repeats his specific-general- specific

methodology in his conception of an Islamization process when he fails
to observe the essential character and significance of the Makkan period
and the Madinite period in the spread of Islam by the Prophet
Muhammad. According to Rahman, the Makkan period (and
revelations) emphasized the socio-political of an Islamic state as much
as did the Madinite period (and revelations) without any difference in
socio-political significance between the two. This however, is not the
perceived and commonly understood sequence of significance of the
two periods toward establishing a global social order of Islam. It is true
that the two periods and the events that took place therein are
reinforcing of each other, otherwise the Islamic State of Madinah could
not have been founded in the absence of the pre- conditions of belief
and faith (Taqwa) which realized the Islamic transformation of the
individuals in the Makkan period. Also, though the Islamic State of
Madinah the Islamic values formed in Makkah were transmitted and
reinforced. But the Islamic transformation in the personality of the
Prophet took place through the stages of Taqwa-formation in Makkah
followed by its reinforcement and regeneration in Madinah.

The non-sequencing of Makkah and Madinah in this order given by

Rahman fits his methodology of the specific-general- specific
development in Islamization process, for it is now not necessary to take
the totality of the Quran to form a global concept of reality. As mentioned
earlier, Rahman wrote on this point "...although most Quranic
commentators were aware of the importance of these situational
contexts..., they never realized their full import... Instead, they
enunciated the principle that although an injunction might have been
occasioned by a certain situation, it is nevertheless universal in its
general application..." In the c a s e where the Makkah-Madinah
sequencing of events is observed in the formation of Islamic totality, the
absence of a socio-political significance of Makkan revelations cannot
92 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

lead to the formation of the Islamic State of Madinah in the sense of

specific-general-specific methodology suggested by Rahman.

The specific-general-specific methodology also leads to a problem

of establishing the E-O simultaneity principle as the foundation of Islamic
concept of knowledge. For, if the initial s e q u e n c e of Islamic
development from Makkah to Madinah, followed by regeneration of
thought in this process, is not upheld, then it is difficult to recognize the
epistemological essence that was Makkah and the epistemic-ontic
circular essence that was Madinah in laying down the Islamic State of
Madinah. For the future generations of Muslims, it then becomes difficult
to adopt such a process of Islamic transformation on the basis of the
Makkah- Madinah model if the clarity of E-O simultaneity principle so
pronounced, is not appreciated. Thus, although not intended by
Rahman, the need to treat the Makkan and Madinah periods in the same
light of socio-political significance, turns out to be a convenience for
maintaining the m e t h o d o l o g y of specific-general- specific in
Islamization of thought, on which Rahman places great emphasis
throughout his ideas on Islamization.

Rahman's work had undergone still further transformation toward

laying down his concept of Islamization of knowledge, in his article,
"Islamization of Knowledge: A Response".[44] It is here that Rahman
presents a much more objective and independent view on knowledge
formation in Islam. He writes, "The stage of creative knowledge will come
only when we are imbued with the attitude that the Quran wants to
inculcate in us. Then we will be able to appreciate and also sit in
judgement on both our own tradition and the Western tradition." He is
clearer in this article that Islamization of knowledge cannot come about
by synthesizing the received Western doctrines with some Islamic
thoughts here and there. Rahman goes on to make the important remark
here that Islamic tradition must be understood essentially in the light of
the Quran, for he sees that the necessary criteria to Islamize must initiate
from Quran. It may then be taken over for further investigation by the
traditions. Rahman writes in this regard: First, we must examine our own
Islamic tradition in the light of these criteria and principles and then
critically study the body of knowledge created by modernity."

While these are positive and earnest perspectives in the area of

Islamization of knowledge, yet they lack in developing any systematic
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 93

understanding of the concept of knowledge, one that will become

foundational to the philosophical orientation of the Ummah and provide
a direction in the development of Islamic socio-scientific thought. In
such a state of silence toward addressing foundational questions of
Islamic knowledge premise, the Ummah cannot possibly realize the
kinds of revolutionary experiences in thought that the Western
civilization has experienced. For instance, the epistemological
foundation of philosophical thinking on which is based Kant's
contribution to the sciences, was a necessary event for well- defining
Western concept of knowledge; so was also the concept of ontology
presented by Hume, Marx, etc. The absence of any such directions for
the Ummah is seen to be steeped either in a pragmatic or partial
approach to Islamization of knowledge or is left unaddressed, as
Rahman writes: "So far a s the problem under consideration -
Islamization of Knowledge - is concerned, I, therefore conclude, that we
must not get enamoured over making maps and charts of how to go
about creating Islamic knowledge. Let us invest our time, energy and
money in the creation, not of propositions, but minds."

A Critical Socio-Political Summary of the Above Sections in the

Light of the Evolutionary Knowledge Model

We have shown above that the pragmatic, traditional or rational

approaches to Islamization of knowledge have not yielded a thoroughly
intellectual contribution to this concept. Consequently, the central
theme of complementarity between revelation and reason that lies at the
basis of Islamization of knowledge, has not been explained in a mould
that will both be intellectually understood and usefully provide, the
Islamic transformation of the Ummah. In the absence of such a
foundational perspective to knowledge in the Ummah, the Muslim
reliance on Western thought and pedagogy, while paying only
peripheral attention to essential Islamic foundations (Usuli), becomes
poignantly inescapable.

The fervour toward Islamization of thought is of course not a new

one altogether. The attempt by the early Islamic rationalists was one
such perspectives among its proponents. In India, for example, the idea
of Islamization was promulgated by Allama Shibli Nomani. He worked
with Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in instilling an opposition to blind closeness
of Muslims to modernism. Thus despaired with them, he joined the
94 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

movement of Nadwa from its beginning. He prepared a curriculum,

which reflected a combination of Islamic sciences and the modern
rational sciences, a combination which for the first time showed that all
the sciences should be framed in Islamic perspective. He insisted upon
changes in the curricula of old Madrasas and new colleges. Yet, neither
Nadwa nor the Madrasa al-lslah founded by Nomani, could fully apply
his thinking. Hence, Shibli Nomani's efforts could not bear real fruits.

In the last decade, a fresh fervour toward Islamization of thought

was perceived. This was led partly by personal commitments of sincere
Islamicists and partly financed by rich personalities and capital surplus
Arab countries. In the wake of this Islamization fervour arose institutions
such as Islamic universities, Islamic research institutions and Islamic
financial institutions. Fresh number of learned journals in Islamic studies,
books in Islamic topics, and learned conferences were accomplished.
Even in the West, Islamic disciplines, such as, Islamic economics,
Islamic sociology, Islamic political sciences, Islamic philosophy and
Islamic literature on traditional sciences, became of interest. Yet today,
in the disastrous aftermath of the Desert Storm, in the midst of continuing
adversities of Muslim communities and nations, in the general
subservience of Muslims to Western education and its allure of success
in the socio-scientific fields, new anti-thesis must be raised as to whether
there w a s any real Islamization realized at all during the last
decades.[45]

On the academic front, Western models and assumptions,

particularly in the social sciences, the utter absence of foundational
Islamic works in the natural sciences, have all continued to reflect in
learned conferences, journals and books. University textbooks in
Islamic universities continue to follow mainstream thinking, with simple
footnotes being devoted to peripheral Islamic treatment. The institutions
of research, learning and community works are subject to the vagaries
of resourcefulness and wishes of their donor capital rich Muslim states.
The lack of global coordination and cooperation among Islamic
organizations, communities and nations, have failed to establish
purposeful efforts in the direction of Islamization.[46] Islamic financial
institutions have continued to operate in identically Western modes of
transactions while doing lip-service to Islamically prescribed modes of
financing, economic and social activities that bring about integrated
transformation and create vibrant consciousness in the Ummah. Where
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 95

some Western academics were interested in Islam, it was for self-interest

to profit from the resources of the Muslim world, from the narrow
approach of Islamic intellectual and political proponents.

Thus, after a decade of drive toward Islamization now, the Ummah

finds itself confused and doubtful of the kind of Islamizing directions to
take. Its political weakness and internal discord presents one with a
sorrowful post-evaluation of the Islamization process today. In the midst
of all these, the question arises as to the future of Islamization process
in the formation of an Islamic state, the Ummah. Here, one must note
the immense role the preconditions for Islamization of knowledge would
play toward establishing such a political state. We have presented the
argument, that it is indeed the emulation of the Islamic State of Madinah
endowed by its E-O simultaneity principle, founded as it is on the
uniqueness of revelation as self-evident ground for reason, that must
provide the pre- condition of Islamization.[47] We have also said that
any academic thought, socio-scientific model and approach that falls
short of this principle, runs the risk of a non-systematic and
non-foundational endeavour.

In the Ummatic - not the politically imposed picture of an Islamic

state - the E-O process model of Islamic transformation as explained
above in the context of an evolutionary model of intellection of the
universe, must essentially be an interactive and integrative conception.
To be so, there must be vertical integration from the grass-roots levels
to higher echelons of power in society. This experience must then be
reproduced by subsequent circular interactions within itself and with the
grass-roots foundations of society. Thus, there must be horizontal
integration among different power structures in the process of
transmitting knowledge through the social spectrum. Through this
general conception of the birth and regeneration of knowledge, it is
possible for Islamic knowledge to be permeable in all levels of society;
for learning and education to be appropriate and accessible to all; for
education to be transparent and useful, not opaque and privileged to a
few.

Unfortunately, the emergence of present days Islamization process

is oriented to advanced learning, while the Madrasa curricula focus on
the traditional way. The result has been that the balanced acceptance
and understanding of Islamic knowledge could not be expressed in clear
96 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

and easy way at the grass-roots levels of society, while it is being

pursued at the higher echelons of thought. The integrative media from
grass-roots levels upwards, followed by circular causation from up to
down, did not take place. Then, of what use is that knowledge forming
process that neither a d d r e s s e s nor attains this most important
integrative function? The process of abstraction, cognition and
understanding of the universal meaning of things, cannot thereby,
pervade the intellection process. Consequently, the formation of an
Islamic state cannot logically rest on such an insular knowledge
process. The required institutions cannot be realized.

Conclusion
Having made a critical examination of Islamization of knowledge in
contemporary times and reviewed some of the prominent works in this
area, can we then say that there has been total loss of these sincere
efforts by individuals and institutions? To answer this question we invoke
here the evolutionary knowledge model, which we have made as the
basis of our critical evaluation of and an alternative to Islamization of
knowledge in the perspective of its grass-roots approach. This
grass-roots approach was shown to be capable of establishing the E-O
simultaneity principle, which is the essence of centering knowledge on
revelation alone and having reason find its logical expression within this.

The Quranic approach to such a development is to appreciate all

truly sincere works of knowledge, critically though. This is the idea that
goes against uncritical acceptance of authority known a s Taqlid.[48] In
the evolutionary knowledge model, the pragmatic, traditional and
rational approaches are seen a s temporary points of discursive
experiences. They are short-run phenomena, and are either revised or
replaced by more acceptably permanent world-views as the intellection
process continues. Such is the spirit of social consensus formation
gained through Shura on all matters of life.[49] Through temporary
experiences of these kinds would evolve long-term realization of the
Islamic foundation of knowledge. Thereafter, by its universally
integrative character among all categories of sub-systems, an
Islamization process can be realized.

Finally, it is now possible to define the idea of Islamization of

knowledge in a comprehensive way. At the outset of this paper we
defined knowledge a s an intelligible abstraction, cognition and
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 97

understanding of the universe around us. Islamization of such an idea

of knowledge means a process toward acquiring and disseminating
it.[50] The process model is taken up in this paper in terms of an
evolutionary knowledge world-view. The essence of that world-view is
the E-O simultaneity principle, presenting complementarity between
revelation and reason in terms of the model of integraton and
regeneration that is universally established by the essence and
character of the Islamic State of Madinah.
98 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

Notes and References

1. Here the method of deriving intelligence may include positive action

but not necessarily so, as knowledge in this plane can also exist in pure
abstraction either wholly or partly. Hence, it is more general than Syed
Qutb's understanding of epistemology by virtue of this openness.
Otherwise, the interactive essence of knowledge premise here implied
a g r e e s with Qutb's. See, S. Moussalli, "Syed Qutb's View of
Knowledge"., The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol.
7, No. 3, 1990.

Other contemporary ideas on Islamization of knowledge on purely

epistemological plane are provided by Z. Sardar, Islamic Futures
(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Pelanduk Publications, 1988); Z. Sardar,
"Islamization of Knowledge, or the Westernization of Islam?" Inquiry,
Vol. 1, No. 7, 1984; M. al-Fadl, "Contrasting Epistemics: Tawhid, the
Vocationist and Social Theory", The American Journal of Islamic
Social Sciences, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1990; S.P. Manzoor, "Human Ecology
and the Quest for a Universal Science", Journal of Islamic Science,
Vol. 7, No. 1, Jan-June, 1991.

The central theme presented in these works on how to transform

the epistemic ideas into theoretical and positive constructs of
knowledge, is not found to emerge from these works. In other words,
the following question remains unanswered: How does the episteme
propounded, establish concrete premises of axioms, structure of the
world-view that can be universally applied to all sciences and social
theories in one unique way, with different focus on the nature of the
problems? Here is where we must see the normative and positive
essences of Tawhid merging together to give definitive substance to
ideas. Such a problem is not a new one for Islamic thinkers in all fields.
It existed during the times of the Mutakillimun and the rationalist
philosophers taking Hellenic origins. Al- Kindi's, Al-Ghazzali's, Ibn
al-Arabi's masterful insight into the philosophy of knowledge acquisition
or on the foundation of individualism in Shariah. The same applies to
Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, the Ikhwan as-Safa, Al-Farabi, the Mutazzilites.
Such methodoligical and individualism, which are now being pursued
in the names of public choice, social choice and rational expectations
theories in post-Keynesian era of economics, have thus proven to be of
neoclassical essence. And neoclassical orientation in any thought
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 99

process is anti-Islamic perception of reality. The same applies to the

Islamic mathematicians and scientists.

The challenge to evolve science distinctly from Qur'an lies on the

Muslims for a long time now. This point does not mean that Islamic
sciences will not interact with, contribute to, or learn from the past and
existing domains on inquiry. But all such investigations must be taken
up in comparative mould and not in compliance with. This must include
the ideas left by the Islamic philosophers and scientists. Such an effort
lies as a huge but open challenge to the Muslims today and in the future.
It primarily requires deep study and research of Quran and the authentic
Sunnah in view of the Quranic world-view - not necessarily the Islamic
world-view as meant to comprise the historical works of the
Mutakalimun and the Muslim philosophers of Hellenic origins. It is in this
light that the Epistemic-Ontic circular causation model of reality of this
paper has been propounded by direct reference to Quran (also linked
with the implications of Sunnah) while considering all other premises as
questionable or comparative knowledge.

For references in this section see, C.A. Qadir, Philosophy and

Science in the Islamic World (London, Eng.: Routledge, 1990); S.H.
Nasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines (Boulder,
CO: Shambala, 1978); A. Hakim, The Arabs and Mathematics Part I
(unpublished Ph.D. Thesis Archival Manuscript, University of Calcutta,
1941).

2. This is the story of J. London's masterpiece, Call of the Wild.

(adapted version, New York, NY: Playmore, Inc. 1979).

3. In the absence of this generalization, the universal character of

interactions in God-Man-Nature plane breaks down, as the relationships
of the natural order signifying its own intrinsically given intellection
process would contain no parameters to motivate such interactions.
There would also be no motivation in the human relationships to explain
why they must meaningfully interact with the natural order. Such an
extensive characterization of the intellection process is taken up by the
study of evolutionary epistemology. See, G. Radnitzky and W.W.
Bartley, (eds.) Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality and the
Sociology of Knowledge (La Salle, III.: Open Court, 1987).
100 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

4. For a further understanding of these ideas see I. Kant, Groundwork

of the Metaphysics of Morals, tr. H.J. Paton (New York, USA: Harper
& Row, 1964).

5. Al-Quran, sura xlii, verse 52, 53; sura Ixxvi, verse 1.

6. Al-Quran, sura Ixii, verse 1.

7. Al-Quran, sura xli, verse 9-12; sura xliv, verse 38, 39.

8. Al-Quran, sura xli, verse 53.

9. Al-Quran, sura xi, verse 57.

10. This was the theme of the series of lectures entitled, The Tawhidi
Episteme, presented by M.A. Choudhury at the Oxford Centre for
Islamic Studies, St. Cross College, Oxford University, between
Jan.-May, 1991.

11. Al-Quran, sura xxix, verse 5; sura lxix, verse 1-3; sura lxxviii, verse
1-5.
12. The E-O simultaneity principle was formally established in M.A.
Choudhury's, "The Foundations of Islamic Political Economy", part of
the lecture series, The Tawhidi Episteme.

Here the epistemic-ontic circular causation concept can be very

briefly formalized by the following topological model:

Let, T(θ) denote the Tawhidi space of knowledge, which is complete

in every form. Hence, it is unattainable in temporal order, but must surely
be attainableinAkhira. T(θ) therefore, maps 'onto' the real world through
a simultaneous effect, but its cardinality, card (T(θ)) is the limiting
cardinality of all sets of realities, Ai(θ), where, Ai(θ) ⊂(θ), with card
(Ai(θ))<card(T(θ)), i = 1,2,... Consequently, there are mappings from
Ai(θ) 'onto' T(θ). {θ} are 'taqwa' related knowledge parameters formed
by interactions between the Ai(θ) subsets and between T(θ) and Ai(θ).
The above two types of 'onto' and 'into' mappings are denoted by the
following:

f:T(θ) → Ai(θ), i = 1,2,..., such that, f(t(θ)ε Ai(θ), for t(θ)ε T(θ) as a
particular momentary conception of the Tawhidi universality.
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 101

g:Ai(θ)→T(θ), i = 1,2 such that, g(ai(θ)) eT(θ), for ai(θ)e Ai(θ) a s

a particular momentary conception of the temporal order of 'taqwa'
induced knowledge subset.

Now the compound mapping is fog: T(θ)→ T(θ). That is, T(θ) being
a topological s p a c e (Banach Space), fog determines a unique
optimal-equilibrium point. But this can happen only in Akhira, when
knowledge premise will be perfected.

In the case of f alone, there is always a general equilibrium but no

optimality, meaning that this is an 'onto' mapping, with card
(T(θ))>card(Ai(θ)), i = 1,2,... In the case of g alone, there is a locally
stable equilibrium but a globally unstable equilibrium, for Ai(θ) can now
attain equilibrium only in the neighbourhood of limiting points in
{θ}-values pertaining to specific Ai(θ), i = 1,2,...

Finally, n o t e that, 1im(i→inf, θ→inf)[Ai(θ)]inf=1im(i→inf).,

[UAi(θ)] =T(inf.), therefore, 1im(i→inf)[card(Ai(θ)] =card(T(inf)). Hence,
fog = 1, must mean one-to- one mapping between f and its inverse, g
only in this limiting sense. In all other cases, for {θ} values in finitely
temporal plane of knowledge, fog≠1. This is also the result of finiteness
and perpetually imperfect but evolutionary form of knowledge that must
exist in the temporal order in its flight of the Tawhidi perfect knowledge,
T(θ). Thus, the mappings f, g and fog altogether explain the knowledge
forming process in the epistemological plane (f), in the ontological plane
(g) and the epistemic-ontic, E-O plane (fog). All of these exist to prove
the existence of fog in its evolutionary form.

Note that the concept of cardinality and infinity taken up here have
substantive mathematical properties that cannot be included within the
s c o p e of this paper. They involve Cantor-type cardinalities and
denumerability properties in higher dimensional spaces (see, B. Russell,
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (London, Eng.: Allen &
Unwin, 1970) Chapter 8.

The above system of mappings explaining the E-O circular

causation between the T(0) and Ai(0) sets can be represented in figure
1:
102 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

The expanding domains of the f and g mappings comprise the

circular mapping, fog as shown, and conform with the higher levels of
knowledge acquired to enable evolution in through these expanding
domains. These expanding knowledge values are shown by values.
The correspondence fog in the temporal plane is an 'into' mapping as
shown by the boundaries of evolution of subsets of space.
The mapping f is 'onto' mapping as shown by the shaded extensions.
This region indicates the unbounded union of subsets towards the
open Banach Space,

For references in this section see, I.J. Maddox, Elements of

Functional Analysis (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press,
1970); W. Rudin, Functional Analysis (McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1991); M.A.
Choudhury & U.A. Malik, The Foundations of Islamic Political
Economy (London, Eng.: Macmillan & New York, NY: St. Martin's Press,
1992); M.A. Choudhury, "The 'Tawhidi' Precept in the Sciences",
Journal of Islamic Science, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1991; M.A. Choudhury, The
Epistemological Foundations of Islamic Economic, Social and
Scientific Order, Vol. 3, Chapter 3 (five volumes under preparation).
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 103

13. Such an incomplete knowledge p r o c e s s can be linked to

mathematician, Kurt Godel's concept of mathematical incompleteness
which contradicts Russell and Whitehead's concept of mathematical
completeness. This is presented by R. Rucker, Infinity and the Mind:
The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite (Bantam New Age Books,
1983). See also, K.Godel, The Consistency of the Continuum
Hypothesis (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1940).

14. I. Kant, Essays, on Ethics, tr. L Infeld (Indianapolis, Indiana &

Cambridge, Eng.: Hackett Publishing Co., 1963).

15. A technical explanation of these concepts is provided by A.N.

Whitehead, Process and Reality, edited by D.A. Griffin & D.W.
Sherburne (New York, USA & London, Eng.: The Free Press, 1978).
16. See, D.T. Campbell, "Evolutionary Epistemology", in Evolutionary
Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge.

K. Popper, "Scientific Reduction and the Essential Incompleteness

of all Sciences", in his, The Open Universe: An Argument for
Indeterminism, ed. W.W. Bartley, III (Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman &
Littlefield, 1982).

G. Radnitzky, "In Defense of Self-Applicable Critical Rationalism",

in G. Radnitzky & W.W. Bartley, III (eds.) Evolutionary Epistemology,
Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge.
J.F. Post, "Godelian Theorem of Rationality", in G. Radnitzky &
W.W. Bartley, III (eds.) Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and
the Sociology of Knowledge.

J. Veitch, R.H.M. Elwesand G. Montgomery (trs.) The Rationalists,

Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz (New York: Double Day & Co. 1974).
17. A similar concept of knowledge acquired in intrinsic form but with
growth in it, is given by K.E. Boulding, "Evolution and Revolution in the
Developmental Process", in Social Change and Economic Growth
(Paris, France: Development Centre of the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development, 1967).

18. R. Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1976).
104 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

19. Al-Quran, sura xxxviii, verse 72.

20. This is a state of entropy in the socio-scientific order. An entropic

s y s t e m will for ever b e e x p l o s i v e a n d d i s o r d e r l y . S e e , N.
Georgescu-Roegen, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process
(Harvard University Press, 1971).

21. A.N. Whitehead's masterpiece, Process and Reality, D.A. Griffin &
D.W. Sherburne (eds.) (New York, USA & London, Rng.: The Free Press,
1978) is a technical exposition on these issues. Also refer to D. Hume,
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Buffalo, New York:
Prometheus Books, 1988); D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
(Penguin Books, reprinted 1984).

22. A good account of these rationalist thoughts is provided by S.H.

Nasr, Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines (Boulder, Co.:
Shambhala, 1978). See also, C.A. Qadir, Philosophy and Science in
the Islamic World (London, Eng.: Routledge, 1989).

23. Husserl's phenomenology is treated extensively in M. Hammond, J.

Howarth & R. Keat, Understanding Phenomenology (Oxford, Eng.:
Basil Blackwell, 1991).

24. I.R. al-Faruqi & A.O. Nasseef (eds.) Social and Natural Sciences:
The Islamic Perspective (King Abdulaziz University & Hodder &
Stoughton, 1981).

25. The ethico-economic general equilibrium is elaborately developed

in M.A. Choudhury & U.A. Malik, The Foundations of Islamic Political
Economy (London, Eng.: Macmillan & New York, NY: St. Martin's,
1992).

26. I.R. al-Faruqi, Islamization of Knowledge: General Principles and

Workplan (Herndon, Va.: International Institute of Islamic Thought,
1982).

27. J.S. Idris, "The Islamization of the Sciences: Its Philosophy and
Methodology", The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences,
Vol. 4, No. 2, 1987.

28. I.R. al-Faruqi, Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and Life
(Herndon, Va.: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1982).
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 105

29. Ibn al-Arabi's work is treated at length in W.C. Chittick, Sufi Path of
Knowledge (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York, 1989).
30. I. Ba-Yunus, "Al-Faruqi and Beyond: Future Directions in Islamization
of Knowledge", The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences,
Vol. 5, No. 1,1988.
31. For a criticism of the neo-classical methodology in contrast with
ethico-economic methodology s e e , M.A. Choudhury, "Islamic
Economics as a Social Science", International Journal of Social
Economics, Vol. 16, No. 2, 1990.
32. This can be noted invariably from the many papers published in
Islamic economic and sociological journals and other journals
publishing Islamic economic articles. M.A. Choudhury, Contributions
to Islamic Economic Theory: A Study in Social Economics (London,
Eng.: Macmillan & New York: St. Martins, 1986), S.H. Naqvi, Ethics and
E c o n o m i c s : An Islamic S y n t h e s i s (Leicester, Eng.: Islamic
Foundations, 1983) are further examples of the neo-classical
entrappings of Islamic economists. However, the book by M.A.
Choudhury & U.A. Malik, The Foundations of Islamic Political
Economy, is a first attempt to steer away Islamic economics from a
purely neo-classical flavour.
33. Al-Quran, sura lxxii, verse 26-28.
34. The c o n c e p t of Tawhidi-topology is brought out in M.A.
Choudhury's, "The Tawhidi Precept in the Sciences", one of the lectures
in the series, The Tawhidi Episteme; now appearing in the Journal of
Islamic Science, Vol. 7, No. 1, June 1991.
35. F. Rahman, Prophecy in Islam, Philosophy and Orthodoxy
(George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1958).
36. Islam and Modernity (Chicago & London: The University of
Chicago Press, 1982).
37. J. Schacht, Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1950).
38. Al-Quran, sura xxix, verse 19, 20; sura c, verse 19.
39. S. Hawking, A Brief History of Time (Bantam Books, 1988).
106 Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992

A Quranic theory of the structure of universe can be developed by

deep contemplation and effort on areas emanating from sura xxi, verse
30; sura lxxvii, verse 8, 9.

40. For an original contribution in the area of Islamic theory of

embryology see, K.L. Moore, the Developing Human (W.B. Saunders,
Inc., 1982).

An introductory idea of creation theory in the mould of evolutionary

cosmology can be found in J. Charon, Cosmology (McGraw Hill Book
Co., Inc.: 1975), Chapter 11: The Continuous Creation of Matter.

See also for a Western concept of the realization of God in the

scientific order, P. Davies, God and the New Physics (Penguin Books,
1990).

41. A. Einstein, Relativity, the Special and General Theory, tr. by R.W.
Lawson (London: Methuen, 1960).

42. N. Rosen, "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality

be Considered Complete?" in P.C. Aichelburg & R.U. Sexl (eds.) Albert
Einstein, His Influence on Physics, Philosophy and Politics
(Weisbaden, W. Germany: Feidr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1979).

43. F. Rahman, "Sources of Dynamism in Islam", in Muhammad:

Encyclopaedia of Seerah, Vol. vii, A. Rahman (ed.) (London, Eng.:
Seerah Foundation, 1989).

44.—— , "Islamization of Knowledge: A Response", The American

Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1988.

45. M.A. Choudhury, "Islamic Futures after the Desert Storm", Hamdard
Islamicus, Vol. 14, No. 4, 1991.

46. For assessing the weakness in effect of economic cooperation

among Islamic countries see, M.A. Choudhury, Islamic Economic
Co-operation (London: Macmillan & New York: St. Martin's, 1989).

47. This formalization is developed in detail in M.A. Choudhury, "Toward

an Islamic Theory of Social Contract", a lecture in the series, The
Tawhidi Episteme.
Humanomics Volume 8 Number 3/4 1992 107

48. On the idea of Taqlid, see A. Ali, The Spirit of Islam (Lahore,
Pakistan: Islamic Book Services, 1989) Chapter VIII.
Also refer to T.J. al-Alwani, "Taqlid and Ijtihad", The American
Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 8, No. 1, March 1991.
49. The idea of Shuratic process in Islamic political economy is
formalized in M.A. Choudhury's The Principles of Islamic Political
Economy: A Methodological Enquiry (Macmillan, London, 1992).
50. On the concept of a process see, A.N. Whitehead, Process and
Reality.