Thread by @ArnoldYasinMol

All the disinformation going around among Muslims on so many issues, Islam, world politics, and now #Corona , whereby people forward anything blindly, shows that Muslims really must learn critical engagement to information.

A small thread on Asbāb al-ʿilm

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Classical epistemology is discussed in works on creed/philosophical theology (ʿaqīda/ʿilm al-kalām) and philosophy of law (uṣūl al-fiqh), as “causes of knowledge” (asbāb al-ʿilm). These were first discussed in early Kalām, and were connected to the discussion on prophethood.

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Epistemology was directly linked to prophethood, as why would we need “revelation” as a source of knowledge? Can humans attain full truth about the world on their own? So theologians started to divide up different forms and causes of knowledge.

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The physical world and its physical workings is observable with the senses (ḥiss), and understandable through the intellect (ʿaql), i.e. natural knowledge. Humans also create knowledge, customs, and technology, i.e. cultural knowledge.

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Part of the natural and cultural knowledge is constantly generated anew (“innovation”), others are lost, but in general there is a form of knowledge accumulation within cultures which are shared through “reports”, i.e. related knowledge. Some are doubtful, others trustworthy.

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So there are grades of trustworthiness of related knowledge, in the same way prophetic traditions (ḥadīth) were graded, in general reports which generate speculate/possible knowledge, and undeniable knowledge (like knowledge of the existence of a city like London).

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So we have constant newly generated knowledge about the world around us, and shared accumulated knowledge, which provide us several possibilities in how to explain the world. But does this provide us with a total explanation of the world? Is there existence beyond the physical?7/

How do we attain certain knowledge about the non-physical? Is there a purpose to the world and can we know its end? These all lie within speculative knowledge and are difficult to provide certain ways of life. What are things that a theologian sees as logical knowledge?

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Theologians therefore believed a certain minimal theology and ethics was knowable to humans through senses, intellect, and shared knowledge. This minimal theology and ethics (contingency world=existence God=purpose life=ethical responsibility) opened the door to prophethood.

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This minimal theology formed out of human knowledge leaves a lot of questions open. We want a maximal theology of course. How do we attain this? Humans are already on their maximal ability (although certain philosophers believed highly intelligent humans can attain the maxim)
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Here God steps in. We already know of His existence through our minimal theology, and we know He is a good and rational being, as He created the world without any need of His own. Existence is a gift. But existence also gives ethical responsibility, of which some we can know.
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To fully know our ethical responsibility, what God expects from us how to be in this world, we need help. He needs to share information with us. But how do we know what information is truly from Him? Many people claim prophethood. There are many religions.

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To know who is sent by God, to know his information is truly from God, we need signs of authenticity only God could generate. Miracles, supernatural events, could only be generated by the controller of the world. How do we recognize them and know about them?

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We end up again in our human limitations of senses (observe miracles), intellect (recognize true from false and think about their meaning), and shared knowledge (we tell others about them). Also prophets bring information, revelation, which we need to maximize our theology.
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So we also then need to distinguish possible from certain knowledge in relation to shared knowledge about prophets and their revelations. We need to check if they fit with our minimal theology, and we need to grade the shared reports.

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The shared reports need to be graded from unreliable to possible to certain knowledge as different aspects of our lives demand different levels of certainty. If a certain act must be punished with the death penalty we want to have maxim certainty God said this and meant this. 16/

So the level of certainty required of the attained knowledge is equal to the impact it has on our lives. So minimal theology is dependent on empiricism, reason and logic, and historicity, and so is maximal theology dependent on them:

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This critical epistemology (asbāb al-ʿilm) is for example stated in the famous 13th century Māturīdī creedal tract ‘Aqā’id al-Nasafī:

(1.) sound senses (al-ḥawās al-salīm),
(2.) reliable reports (al-khabar al-ṣādiq),
(3.) intellect/reasoning (‘aql).

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And now we return to why I started this thread: Information on Islam, world politics, or on #Corona can have immense impact on our lives. It therefore requires high reliability before it is accepted, applied, and shared around with others. Always check sources & experts!

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