Theory of Knowledge

Abstract

It is faith in this sense of a living assurance in the existence of God that lies at the helm of, presides over, and determines the modusoperandi of all the recognized sources of knowledge enunciated by the Qur’an, i.e., sense experience, reason, and revelation. It is not difficult to see how revelation derives its entire justification and authority from faith in God. Faith in God is not a ‘subject-object relationship’ in the ordinary sense of this phrase. It is appropriately faith-in-God. The equivalent Qur’anic word iman does have its verbal derivatives but all these ultimately behave like substantive nouns. Iman remains a matter of existential concern—an I-Thou, a person-to-person, experience, as said above, rather than a recognizable activity towards an objective something. Despite the express Qur’anic position spelled out here there has been a heated controversy among Muslim theologians regarding the relationship between faith and action. The one held that good actions are a part of faith whereas the other were of the opinion that faith has nothing to do with good actions. The Controversy was kept alive on extraneous grounds, that is, without the fullest realization of the inherent dynamics of faith. The dialecticians could not take account of these dynamics because of their preoccupation with purely rational methods. One has to rise above logicalities and to understand the Quranic theory of knowledge in order to grasp the true significance of spiritual and moral concepts of Islam.