Islamization or Rehabilitation of Knowledge?: Tackling the Adulteration of Knowledge

By Leslie Terebessy

The present condition of the umma is far from satisfactory. There is poverty, illiteracy, and misery. There is extremism and terrorism. There is a culture of denial. There is a tendency to take refuge in the past. Muslims focus more on the past than the future. Actions of extremists trigger retribution and expose the umma to risk of disproportionate retaliation. Jurisprudence sank to the point where wayward preachers treat terrorism as "martyrdom operations." The situation is urgent. The challenges facing the umma require attention. The epistemology of revelation requires a reformation. For it is tainted by unwarranted presuppositions, in defiance of the teaching of revelation. The repression of reason triggered a paralysis of interpretation. The repression of reason was justified by treating its use to understand revelation as kufr. The repression of reason prevented the umma from understanding revelation. The repression of reason was tantamount to "intellectual suicide." It enabled the replacement of revelation by tradition. Hence, thought requires reconstruction. This requires the rehabilitation and the engagement of thought. It is through reason that we attain knowledge of revelation. But rather than endeavoring to rehabilitate knowledge, Islamists aim to "Islamize" it. This proposal is less than rational in itself. It is analogous to suggesting putting out a fire in a neighbour's house before extinguishing a bigger fire at home. Anti-rationalism is entrenched in traditionalism. Islamists urge the "Islamization" of empirical knowledge because they perceive it as "un-Islamic," tainted by "secular" perceptions. But the corruption of the knowledge of Islam is worse. "Un-Islamic" knowledge is a bogeyman. The relevant distinction in the epistemology of revelation is not the difference between knowledge that is Islamic and knowledge that is unIslamic; it is between knowledge and ignorance. Empirical knowledge is not unIslamic; it is descriptive. To refer to this knowledge as unIslamic is to refer to the knowledge of Allah's creation as un-Islamic. What requires Islamisation are the arts. There is a requirement to articulate a usury-free economic paradigm. But contrary to what we would expect from the efforts to Islamise knowledge, we encounter a plethora of efforts to replicate usury-based finance, a conventionalization of Islamic finance. This is an expression of Westoxication, the replication of Western practices, for example usury-based finance. The umma fell because it drifted from the Book of Allah to books of traditions, akin to hearsay. Revelation says that Allah never changes the condition of people until they first change what is inside themselves. What did the umma change? It turned from revelation to tradition and from ethics to rituals. It began to "judge" by what Allah did not reveal. This was a "tragedy." It turned to following man-made laws derived from reports by transmitters rather than revelation transmitted by the prophet. Instead of following revelation, the umma follows tradition. There was a reorientation from revelation to tradition, a paradigm shift from a revelation-centric paradigm to a tradition-centric paradigm. Regrettably, the tradition-centric paradigm is riddled with aberrant perceptions, for example the perception that tradition is revelation. They replaced revealed rulings by rulings from traditions, using the teaching of abrogation as a justification. They assert that "tradition judges revelation," and that "revelation requires tradition more than tradition requires revelation." They turned the relationship between revelation and tradition, and that between Allah and His prophet upside down. In this way they flouted tauhid, tampered with the teaching of the Book of Allah and corrupted the knowledge of revelation. Hence, knowledge of revelation requires rehabilitation. This requires the re-engagement of reason and critical analysis.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B094GQN6WR
• ISBN13: 9798501311589
• Release Date: May 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"