Muslims...

Muslims, during their periods of stagnation and decline, confined themselves to theology as the only obligatory knowledge, an attitude which is generally but wrongly attributed to al-Ghazali’s destruction of philosophy and sciences in the Muslim world. Al – Ghazali, of course, passed through a turbulent period of skepticism, but he was really in search of certainty, which he found not in discursive knowledge but in mystic experience.

In his favour it must be said that he paved the way for liberating the believer from blind imitation and helping him approach the goal of certain knowledge. In the Islamic world, gnosis ( ma’rifah ) is differentiated from knowledge in the sense that the latter is the acquisition of information through a logical processes. In the non-Islamic world dominated by the Greek tradition, hikmah (wisdom) is considered higher than knowledge.

But in Islam, ‘ilm is not mere knowledge, it is synonymous with gnosis ( ma’rifah ). Islam and Intellect Knowledge is considered to be derived from two sources: ‘aql and ‘ilm huduri (in the sense of unmediated and direct knowledge acquired through mystic experience). It is important to note that there is much emphasis on the exercise of the intellect in the Qur’an and the traditions, particularly in the matter of ijtihad .

In the Sunni world, qiyas (an analogical deduction) -as declared by Abu-Hanifah- is accepted as an instrument of ijtihad , but his teacher and spiritual guide, Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (PBUH), gave preference to ‘aql in this matter. Thus, in the entire Shi’i literature of Fiqh and U sul al-Fiqh , ‘ aql is much more emphasized, because qiyas is only a form of quasi – logical argument, while ‘ aql embraces all rational faculties of human beings.

Even intuition or mystic experience are regarded as a higher stage of ‘ aql . In Shi’i literature in particular, and Sunni literature in general, ‘ aql is considered to be a prerequisite for knowledge. Starting from al-Kafi , the Shi’i compendium of hadith devote their first chapter to the merits of ‘ aql and the virtues of ‘ilm .

In Sunni compendia of hadith , including al-Sihah al-sittah and up to al-Ghazali’s Ihya ‘Ulum , a chapter is devoted to this issue, though it is not given a first priority. This shows that there is a consensus among the Muslims on the importance of ‘ aql, which is denoted by such words as ta’aqqul , tafaqquh and tadabbur in the Qur’an.