The term knowledge, ‘ilm, can be understood at three different levels: the object, the process, and the mental image of knowledge. At the first level, the term knowledge refers to the ‘object’ that is knowable; the object may be material and concrete or could be an idea or a concept. At the second level, the term knowledge may refer to the process of knowing or cognition. Cognition, the process or act of knowing, covers all mental processes and experiences involved in knowing which are: perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, reasoning, and judgment. Cognition ideally should be systematic since the human mind is systematic in acquiring, processing, storing, and retrieving information all under the guidance of the nafs or ruh. In reality humans have ‘drives’ or ‘biases’ within them that prevent them from being systematic in the processes of cognition and we shall discuss these in due course. Science is part of knowledge and is defined as systematic collection, analysis, and understanding of empirical knowledge about the physical world based on observation and experimentation. Science, as a systematic methodology, can be used to cover other types of cognition beyond empirical observation and experimentation but this may be treading on soft ground because human biases increase whenever cognition moves away from the concrete. At the third level the term knowledge can also be used to refer to the mental image of the object to be known. This image as will be discussed later may not be the same among different people knowing the same object because they use different processes of knowing and each process produces a different mental image.
Two reasons may lead us to doubt whether human knowledge exists as an absolute or concrete reality. First of all each human has a different mental image of the object of knowledge depending on the cognitive process used to reach that knowledge. Secondly we know from daily experience that human knowledge is imperfect and is prone to distortion. We are however absolutely certain of divine knowledge as absolute, perfect, and complete. The problem is that divine knowledge revealed to humans through prophets may not be fully perceived by humans because of their innate limitations in sensual perception or in intellectual analysis. We may conclude that knowledge does exist in its absolute and perfect form but that is only with the creator. Humans make cognitive efforts to get this knowledge but are incapable of reaching its highest levels. The Creator in His mercy reveals some of this knowledge to humans but they cannot get what is revealed in its perfection because of their innate intellectual and sensual capabilities. The revelation of knowledge by the Creator can be through human mediums, called prophets. The revelation could also be more direct because humans if they observed their bodies or the physical environment in which they live they could get some knowledge.
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© Professor Omar Hasan Kasule April 2011
© Professor Omar Hasan Kasule April 2011
