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TRUE AND FALSE KNOWLEDGE *
Syed Muhammad a/-Na quib a/-Attas
Every cult ure has a "view of the world"
which it infuses int o knowledge. Knowledge
is not something neutral. I t is possible for
a culture to imprint its own concepts and
values into the body of knowledge. It is
for this reason that Christian missionaries
and Western culture have sought to under
mine Islam th rough a more subtle weapon
- knowledge. They know that Muslims are
constantly interested in seeking knowledge.
In fact Holy Qur 'an makes more than 800
references to Ilm , and t here is no other reli
gion and culture which emphasises the im
portance of knowledge in human life and
in percepti on of the truth to the same ex
tent . It is fundamental for Muslims to dis
tinguish and understand t he Islamic con
cept of knowledge.
One could compare the West ern con
cepts, which come under disguise of knowl
edge, to false currency. I f you spread this
about, it will gradually undermine the econ
omy of the count ry. False currency pre-
-t ends to possess true value whereas in re
ality it has no value. The same with con
cepts. What to the Muslims may appear to
be the truth may in fact have no value for
him - though he does not know it .
The false concepts infiltrated Muslim
count r ies when the Western powers succeeded in conquering and colonising th em.
Those not colonised were controlled and in
fluenced t hrough t heir tr ade and education.
I would like to give t he example of the coun
tr ies of South East Asia , because of all the
Muslim lands, they did not have time to de
velop their own Muslim historians, t hinkers
and writers before arrival of the Western
"This is a composition of extract s from an ex
tempore talk delivered by P rof. Syed M. Al Naquib
al Attas to t he FOS IS Conference in June 1975in Manches ter , En gland . This composition is pre
par ed from the tapes of t he talk by t he organisers
of th e confe ren ce, Ed .
1
imp erialism. Of course, the historians and
interpreters of culture that lat er arose were
Western influenced , so the Muslims were
cut-off ent irely from their understanding of
Islam as a civilisation. They were left only
with the pr actice of Islam in its simplest
form. On top of t his the West attempted
a cultura l policy - to de-Islamise the Mus
lims so that they would be more receptive
to their ideas. For them South East Asia
was an experiment . However , it goes on in
all Muslim countr ies in varying degrees.
I would like to give an example of the sort
of confusion that has arisen in t he minds of
Muslims. "Is there an economic system in
Islam", t he Westerners have asked. They
have also posed the problem of banking
and interest while t he Muslims stand agape
with no valid answer. The Muslim leaders, themselves product s of Western impe
rialism, are not ab le to reply. When they
asked the Muslim scholars t hey received no
answer. But it is an error to conclude from
th is that t here is no economic system in Is
lam. I t is also unwise not to answer the
persistent and challenging quest ion. I think
t he answer should be that first , it is not pos
sible for Islam not to have an economic sys
tem because it has been cont rolling world
trade for mor e th an a thousand years; second , it has a monet ary system. In fact the
cheque was originated by the Muslims, and
t his is a fundamental of banking. All this
reveals that there must have been a great
economic system sust aini ng t his activity for
a thousand years or more. We must then
proceed to say that we have not defined
the nature of the system because we have
not yet made the study and have not been
given oppo rtunity to do so. The oriental
ist s have written a lot about theology, phi
losophy, t assawuf and history, bu t none of
them have writ t en very much about the Is-
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lamic economic system. That is why it now
appears as if there was none. So now it is
up to us to undertake study and research
- bu t to do this we must have some peace
and freedom. Vie have to decide upon th e
structure
of the un iversity tha t must be established and how the research is to be con
ducted. Then perhaps we will pu t forward
the answer. I th ink this is a rational and
acceptable approach. I t is an answer which
does not give Mus lims an inferiority com
plex.
I f t he education system is not se t up in
a way which is acceptable to Islam, th en
th e result will be chaos. There will be
zulm (injust ice) . The conception of knowl
edge is very closely connected with the concept of justice, responsibility and duty. We
must distinguish between what Islam and
t he West mean by t hese terms and con
cepts.
I t hink it is important to point out dis
tinctions when things appear similar or am
biguous; For example; there is no heed t o
make a distinction between a lamb and a
dog because we can see the difference. How
ever, we have to make a distinction between
a cat and a wild-cat because though they
appear the same, the species are different.
Similarly, in Western civilisation there are
many things which appear to be the same
as t hose in Islam which are in reality .not
so.
Another example of th is confusion is the
rise of the Modern ists, who have been
claiming more than can be justified. They
have not brought anything new except their
claim. Their claim is false and they toocontribute to the confusion of the Muslims.
They have compared Islam with science,
culture, and with other religions. The Mod
ernists have made st atements regarding ijti-
had and taqlid. However, one does not per
form ijtihad on simple problems. In Islamic
history ijtihad is concerned with the general
natu re and aspects of Islam . For example,
it is not ijtihad to correct the directio n of
the qibla in a mosque. That is correction
of an error , not an ijtihad, because, t hereis no intellectual struggle involved and it is
too trivial , and it does not refer to a gen-
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eral religious problem of the Muslims which
requ ire a solut ion that can be generally ap
plied to th em. Similarly they have inter
preted taqlid to mean "following blindly"
whereas, it is acceptance knowingly - so it
is not blind. T he acceptance by Christians
of their, doctrines is blind, because they do
not know what they accept .
Some of the values of the Age of Enlight
enment began to creep into the interpre
tation of the Modernists on Islam. What
t hey mean by ijtihad is what some human
ists consider (as the individualistic spir it
tha t every man decides for himself. This
is not wha t ij tihad means. Not everyone
can decide what should be done. Certainly
not every man should decide for himself onmatters he does hot know about He should
decide on the authority of those who know,
because part of knowledge is based on au
thority.
On top of t his is the raising of false prob
lems which continues to this day - prob
lems which are in fact tr ivial. They do not
discuss the natu re of Islam , or the ques
tion of education, or economics bu t whether
t ransplants are allowed or not , or whether
it is pe rmitted to use the water of a cer
tain coconut for ablution. None of t hese
things are real problems, nor can verdicts
applicab le in t he case of ijtihad or taqlid be
passed on them. I t is an insult to the great
ulama of the past to consult the ir books
. on such things. Unfortuna tely these things
still happen in t he Muslim world today.
Consider t he question of pork. People
still ask as if it is a problem - but it is not
many people have answered this question.There is one answer which ought to be unas
sailable, from the point of kalam and logic.
Non-Muslims ask why, if pork has now been
cleansed with t he help of science, it is still
not eaten? We will then answer tha t the
very fact that pigs have to summon t he help
of science to cleanse them while cows, goats,
etc . do not , mean s that t he pig is a rather
exceptionally unclean animal. T his means
that the Qur'an is stating t he truth about
it. What is said about t he pig cannot be denied , and since tha t is the case we still do
not eat the pork t h at has now been cleansed
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by science and presented before us simply
because we respect t he truth.
Then of course there are problems which
are more difficult to answer , like tha t of
qada and qadr. This quest ion has arisen
among the Muslims after a few hundredyears of colonisat ion and West ern influence.
Some of t he u lama no longer understand
the bas is of Islam. But only a lit tl e bit of
fiqh. As a result our enemies now hurl at
us the same quest ions which were hurled
about in t he t ime of Hasan-al Basri, Al
Ashari, and AI-Ghazzali - but with the
difference that the Muslims now are igno
rant and t here are no such personalities to
answer them. The Muslims being already
cut-off from their t raditional understanding
of these things and their sources are not
able to answer. They think it is a new prob
lem and are not able to refer back to see if
t his had been previously dealt with.
Some of these matters like qtula and
qadar cannot be answered simply by any
philosophical method or rational enquiry.
Ult imately it can only be grasped when
t he person has understood cert ain aspects
of the Att ributes of Allah , regarding t hetawhid and the natu re of man's duty in this
world. When he understands that , he will
automatically not raise the question , nor be
confused by it .
Due to the propagation of false, knowl
edge there has risen among us the modern
j ahiliya. There are two types of the j ahil ac
cording to the way in which the Ar abs un
derstand the te rm j ahil. One is simple void
of knowledge in the mind. This is an inno
cent kind of j ahil and the voidness of knowl
edge can be filled . The person can be in
structed and educate himself. But it is the
second type tha t we are referring to when
we speak of t he modern j ahiliya - t hat is,
t hey who believe in falsehood, and consider
what is false to be t rue. They persist in tha t
and fight for it and defend it . Such people
have become an impediment to any form
of reform of the Muslims at both the indi
vidual and collect ive levels. The real enemies of t he Muslims are not t he Christians,
but the enemy within themselves. They are
like toys which have in t he past been wound
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up by the springs and coils of Western con
cepts, and when the countries gained inde
pendence these toys are left playing, carry
ing on the business of the past .
Through the ages meanings of certa in
word s and concepts have cha nged. However , it is not permissible to change the
meanings of the te rms which are fundamen
t al t o Islam . Certainly one of the cardinal
points discussed in the Qur'an is that t he
Christians and Jews had changed the words
of their Books, and had caused the t ru th to
become falsehood. I would like to mention
two points from Al-Ghazzali on this. One is
t he restriction of the application of a t erm,
for example Ilm. He said tha t in t he early
period , and in th e Qur 'an, t he te rm fiqh
also meant Ilm. It means discernment. I t
did not mean knowing what ot hers think
of a cert ain legal problem, as it later came
to be understood. I t does not mean the
obiter dicta of a modern lawyer. It means
discernment between tru th and falsehood .
So it can be seen how such a wide con
cept is harrowed down to something par
ticular: The second poin t is the restriction
of the people to whom t he term is applied.For example, the te rm is used for people
who do not necessarily possess Ilm in t he
way it was meant. It did not refer only
to the people who understood fi qh. In the
past t he word ulama mean t the peo ple who
pract iced Islam , understood it as a to tal
ity and were able to guide the Muslims in
times of crises. They must show their quali
ties by their writings, dialogues and debates
- because in this way other Muslims can
judge whether t hey can be given the t rust
of Islam, it is not sufficient just to have a
dipl om a from a university.
AI-Ghazzali saw t his same problerri of the
ulama a thousand years ago. He saw for
example that there was a shor tage of doc
to rs among the Muslims , most of the physi
cians being Jews and Christ ians , even in
the courts of t he Ca liphs. Yet, he said , ev
erybody raves in jurisprudence. So for him
it was more important in te rms of, f ard-kifayah to seek knowledge of medicine t han
t hat of fiqh , when the Muslim community
requires that medical knowledge.
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4
States and governments change from
t ime to time, and if loyalty were to be di
rected to t hem then the values will also
change . So in Western society chan ge issomething natural. They say tha t society
which docs not change is strange an d un-
Justice is closely connected with fiira-
a state of nature, t hough not of the type
preached by Rousseau. In Western philoso
phy t hey mean jasmania natu re. Bu t what
we mean is t he state when we ma de a Con
t ract wit h God . Allah has asked the sou ls
"Am I no t your Lord?" And we all answered
"Yes", thus we have made a Covenant. Inthis world, those who have iman have con
tinued to 'abide by that Cont ract, while
those who do not are denying themselves
their rightful state.
Therefore th e holy Qu r 'an uses t he ex
pression zulm. According to the holy
Qu r 'an you can be zalim to yourself. In
it lies a very import an t distinction between
t he concept of justice in Islam, and in Greek
philosophy and West er n civilisation. Wh atthey mean by justice is emphasised more
on what I would call the two-person rela
t ion - for example between a person and
another , to ruler and his subjects. Only in
this two person relation can justice of in
justice operate. But in Islam, first justice
t o t he self is ment ioned. I t concerns the
Contract each soul has sealed with Allah.
I f tha t Cont ract is not fulfilled then there
will be a state of zulm and man will be do
ing injustice to himself. He will be in astate in which he ought not to be, therefore
he will be in a state of chaos. He will no t
Some Muslim philosophers say th at it have peace and security. Th is is perhaps
is ridiculous to define knowledge. But th e basic idea of ju stic e and knowledge. I t
it is necessary to show at least some of is based on the idea of Covenant which each
the facto rs involved. One of them is th e U ndividuaLsouLhas_made_with_G_Qd.'l c!2.se connection be tween knowledge and This of course affects t he relationship be-
justice. Briefly, we define justice as the tween th e M s l i ~ an d the St ate . He will no
-state wherebY. things are in their correc t longer consider the ultimate source of his
places - where t he re is har mony. This is loyalty 'to be the State. In Western philos
also connected with fitra and iman. With- ophy, the possibility of certain knowledge
out know-ledge how are we to know wheth er about spiritual matters has been denied an d
things are in their right places or not? people are forced to 'seek happiness, and
When we say "how are we to know" we to se t things right, in a secu lar man ner.
are already using the concept of knowledge. Therefore t hey are forced only to formu
Hence knowledge becomes an integral par t late values within t he context of the st ate.
of the meaning of justice. We must exert They believe each ma n could be happy if he
ourselves to find ou t what should be where, can be put in the right secular place: th e
who shou ld be what , and so on . This is t he citizens in the right kind of job, etc. Theduty of th e Ummah, which it has not ful- educ ational system is also geared to tha t
filled an d has left to only a few to whom it end .
has en trusted much. c:: -------- kiI f we ask t hem the purpose of see mg
knowledge, t hey would say it is to produce a
good cit izen. The Muslim will answer that
t he pur ose of seeking ,knowledge is to .pro
duce a gomLma.n . There is an p r t a n tdifference ; ~ p o l l c i n g good cit i
zen and producing a g<2.o.j. ! l l a ~ P roducing
'a good man is more fund amental, because
invariably he will be a good citizen. Bu t it
is no t so th e other way around . A good cit
izen may be a t yr an t T he Nazis clai med in
their heyday that they were good citizens of
Germany and tha t wha t they did was right
Islam's position in this matter is more fun
damental and the Muslim must recognise
this. He must know that his ult imate loy
alty is not to the state, nor even to the soci
ety; not the "social cont ract II of Rousseau
it is to the individual cont ract between him
an d God. States an d governments change
from time to ti me, and if loyal ty wer e to be
directed to t hem then the values will also
change . So in Western society change is
some thing natural. They say tha t society
which does not change is strange and un
natural.
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natural. Obviously if you will place your
loyalty with Allah , He does not change - so
t hose values too do not change . That is
what is meant by the validity of absolute
values . We deny the possibility of relative
values except in certain domains.Qb£ol4tc
Change is regarded as a value in Western
society. T hey cannot endure being what
they call II static"; static means stagnancy.
The fund ament al bas is of this constant
change is that there is tension in the spirit
that has broken the Cont ract . In orde r to
forget this big problem which constantly
nags in the core of their soul, t hey have
to go on doing something, changing things.
It is a dis trac tion from the disenchantmentof religion tha t has brought about th is no
t ion of change in t he West . The notion of
death is something which Western ph ilos
ophy does not want to tackle. They talk
about life and pretend as if death does not
exist. This is surely an unrealist ic way of
life, because the reality is there. Before the
egg hat ches you can prevent the hatching
of the chick by das hing the egg to pieces;
but once it has hat ched you cannot .prevent
the chick from dying. In other words , oneis certain and the ot her is not . They must
su rely see that the first problem to grap
ple with is death. Religion has grappled
wit h death . A Muslim does not see death
as the tragedy of humanity. You will no
tice that in Western civilisation tragedy is
a very important value. I t is found in their
literature. I t is t he very basis of their val
ues . The nobili ty of man is manifested in
tragedy. However , in Muslim lite rature, or
in Eastern literature, you will not find the
concept of tragedy. Tragedy is not a value.
Layla and Majnun is not a tragedy. Even
if somebody dies, it is not a t ragedy . Be
cause the western world is t ragic it reflects
itself in its tragic world-view. That human
life is a t ragedy, and that t his is a value
which we must all accept is after all a fatal
isti c view. Muslims are not fatalists. Allah
has created t his world for us. It is good .
He sent down rain so tha t plants may grow
from the earth, and he creates animals for
us to make use of. The world is not evil. It.
is the people who do not fulfill the Contract
5
who are evil.
In t he universities of the West it has been
thought tha t cu lture is something sacred
which ought to be emu lated and preserved.
They have said tha t religion is par t of cul
t ure. Some of us have been confused bythis . Islam is not part of culture. It is cul
ture which came out of Islam - what we
call Islamic culture. But in Western history
it may be right that religion is cultural
something which is created by man and the
forces of tradition and history.
I t hink there should be research on what
exactly is the Islamic concept of knowledge.
From this, we will see what is t he philo
sophical basis for our educational system.
Having formulated the ph ilosophical basisfor the university and t he system of educa
tion , we should then restructure t he un iver
sity system. From the Islamic point of view
there are types of knowledge which are not
necessarily open to everyone. Now, under
the guise of freedom, t he door of the uni
versity is open to all, regardless of whether
the person has completed the fard-ain as
pect of acquiring knowledge of Islam. It is
thus poss ible for people to get degrees and
lat er hold important positions and become
zalim , because they do not understand Is
lam. I do not believe that everybody has
the freedom to seek the same kind of knowl
edge . Otherwise Muslims would never have
divided knowledge into [ord -ain and fard
kifayah. The reason for this is that one
must firs t complete one step before mov
ing to the other. Not everybody needs to
seek fa rd-kifaya.
In the fard-kifaya also we need a list of
priorities. Obviously Psychology, for exam
ple, may not be a priority for Muslims in
comparison to History. I f we do not have
our own pri orit ies we will be following the
needs of the West .