ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Truth and Islamic Thought Interpretations Validity as affirmation of conformity with reality was referred to as sidq (veracity, truth) or tasdiq (certification of truth). The "actuality of affairs" to which our knowledge conforms was comprehended also as a sort of "authenticity," and the corresponding term haqiqa may be rendered into English as "truth" as well.

Thus verification is carried out by comparing our knowledge to the "truth of things," and if the result is positive, knowledge is "true ( sadiq ); if not, it is "false" ( kadhib). Knowledge is valid by virtue of its coincidence with the truth of things, while the truth of the latter needs no verification. It follows from the fact of their "being affirmed": they just "are there" as "fixed" and "true." The ideas of truth, fixity and thing are closely linked in Arabic.

The term "thing" ( shay' ) is usually explained as "something that is established" ( thabit), and the root h-q-q, from which "truth" (haqiqa) is derived, renders the same meaning. (For example, haqq means both "true" and "unshakable.") The problem of truth was raised rather early in Islamic thought, and already the al-Rawafid discussed it. As al-Ash'ari informs us, most of them maintained that all human knowledge is "necessitated" ( idtirar).

From their point of view, a person is not free to acquire true knowledge or to reject the false; moreover, knowledge about the falsity or validity of our knowledge also cannot be obtained at our will. This [438] argument proceeded from the general assumption that all human deeds are "forced" ( idtirar).

At the same time, some of the al-Rawafid considered the human mind able to receive true knowledge independently, for example, to learn of God's unity ( tawhid ) before the prophets inform people of it. Knowledge gained independently, they argued, is obtained with the help of qiyas (literally "co-measuring").

The term designates rational epistemological procedures that produce new knowledge "by measure" of the old one and was used not only in Kalam, but in other sciences as well, denoting analogous judgment in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and the syllogism in logic. However, al-Rawafid who affirmed the independent ability of reason to gain new knowledge were in the minority (al-Ash`ari, 1980, pp. 51-3). The discussion of truth was deepened by the Mu'tazila.

First, they were concerned with determining the types of propositions that can be true or false.