Description:
<jats:p>The question of knowledge presents itself as one of the most importantissues for human thought and society because it is through knowledge thatwe establish a bond with God, ourselves, other human beings, the world, itsmeaning and purpose. We establish sociopolitical systems and civilizationson the basis of it. Defined as such, no society can dispense with knowledge.Knowledge, however, transcends the limits of social function and revealssomething of the deepest nature of the human being. Our state of being-inthe-world and being-created-by-God is revealed to us in our knowledge ofourselves. More importantly, we do not simply exist but also know that weexist. It is this knowledge that enables us to make sense of the world, conceiveit as an intelligible state of being, and realize our place and role in it.Knowledge, however, is always the knowledge of something. Everymeaningful statement is the affiition or negation of something. In knowinga physical entity, a concept, or a feeling, we affirm or negate the existenceof that “thing” which has become the subject of our knowledge. This“thing” and the “of” of our judgments ultimately hark back to the allencompassingreality of being, because what can be affirmed or negatedcannot be other than being. In this regard, there is no knowledge that precedesbeing. Every cognitive act directed toward ourselves or other thingsthat can be the subject of human knowledge is grounded in the all-inclusiveand penetrating reality of being. This aspect of being has been called inIslamic philosophy the in&@ al-wujud, “expansion of being,” and sometimesal-sarayun al-wujiid, “penetration of being.” In sharp contrast to theepistemologies of subjectivism, one is before one knows. Our existencealways precedes our knowledge of it, even though the latter may effect andmode the former in a myriad of ways. Said differently, the reality of beingis not exhausted in the deliverances of conceptual thought.’ ...</jats:p>