TRUE AND FALSE KNOWLEDGE*

Syed Muhammad a/-Na quib a/-Attas

Every cult ure has a "view of the world"
which it infuses int o knowledge. Knowl edge
is not something neut ral. It is possibl e for
a culture to imprint it s own concepts and
values into t he body of knowl edge. It is
for t his reason that Christian missionari es
and West ern cult ure have sought t o under-
mine Islam through a mor e subtle weapon
- knowledge. They know that Muslims are
constant ly int erest ed in seeking knowledge.
In fact Holy Qur' an makes more t han 800
references to Ilm, and t here is no ot her reli-
gion and culture which emphasises the im-
port ance of knowledge in human life and
in percepti on of the truth to t he same ex-
t ent . It is fundamental for Muslims to dis-
tinguish and understand t he Islami c con-
cept of knowledge.
One could compare the West ern con-
cepts, whi ch come under disguise of knowl-
edge, to false currency. If you spread this
about, it will gradually undermine t he econ-
omy of t he count ry. False currency pr e-
-t ends t o possess true value whereas in re-
ality it has no value. The same wit h con-
cepts. What to the Muslims may appear to
be the truth may in fact have no value for
him - t hough he does not know it .
The false concepts infiltrated Muslim
count ries when t he West ern powers suc-
ceeded in conquering and colonising them.
Those not colonised were controlled and in-
fluenced t hrough t heir trade and education.
I would like to give t he example of the coun-
tries of South East Asia , because of all the
Muslim lands, t hey did not have time to de-
velop t heir own Muslim hist or ians, t hinkers
and wri t ers before arrival of the Western
"This is a compos it ion of extract s from an ex-
tempore talk delivered by Prof. Syed M. Al Naquib
al Attas to t he FOS IS Conference in June 1975
in Manchester , England. This composit ion is pr e-
pared from t he tapes of t he t al k by t he organisers
of the confe ren ce, Ed .
1
imp erialism. Of cour se, the hist orians and
interpret ers of culture that lat er arose were
West ern influenced, so t he Muslims were
cut-off entirely from t heir underst anding of
Islam as a civilisation. They were left only
with the pr actice of Islam in it s simplest
form. On top of t his the West attempted
a cult ural policy - to de-Islamise t he Mus-
lims so that they would be mor e receptive
t o their ideas. For them South East Asia
was an experiment. However , it goes on in
all Muslim count ries in varying degrees.
I would like to give an example of t he sort
of confusion t hat has arisen in t he minds of
Muslims. "Is t here an economic system in
Islam", t he West erners have asked. They
have also posed t he problem of banking
and int erest whil e t he Muslims st and agape
with no valid answer. The Muslim lead-
ers, themselves pr oduct s of Western impe-
rialism, are not able to reply. When t hey
asked t he Muslim scholars t hey received no
answer. But it is an error to conclude from
this t hat t here is no economic system in Is-
lam. It is also unwise not to ans wer the
persist ent and challenging quest ion. I think
t he answer should be that first , it is not pos-
sible for Islam not to have an economic sys-
t em because it has been cont rolling world
trade for mor e than a t housand years ; sec-
ond, it has a monet ar y system. In fact t he
cheque was originated by the Muslims, and
t his is a fundament al of banking. All t his
reveals that there must have been a great
economic system sust aini ng t his activity for
a t housand years or more. We must then
proceed to say that we have not defined
the nature of t he system because we have
not yet made t he study and have not been
given opportunity to do so. The oriental-
ist s have written a lot about theology, phi-
losophy, t assawuf and hist ory, but none of
t hem have wri t t en very much about the Is-
lamic economic syst em. That is why it now
appears as if t here was none. So now it is
up t o us to undertake study and resear ch
- but to do t his we must have some peace
and freedom. Vie have to decide upon the
structure of t he university t hat must be es-
tablished and how t he research is t o be con-
duct ed. Then perhaps we will put forward
the answer. I think this is a rat ional and
acceptable approach. It is an answer which
does not give Mus lims an inferiority com-
plex.
If t he education system is not set up in
a way which is acceptable to Islam, then
the result will be chaos. There will be
zulm (injust ice) . The conception of knowl-
edge is very closely connected wit h t he con-
cept of justi ce, responsibility and duty. We
must distinguish between what Islam and
t he West mean by t hese terms and con-
cepts.
I t hink it is important to point out dis-
tinctions when things appear similar or am-
biguous; For example; t here is no heed t o
make a dist inction between a lamb and a
dog because we can see the difference. How-
ever, we have to make a distinction between
a cat and a wild-cat because though they
appear the same, the species are di fferent.
Similarly, in Western civilisation there are
many t hings which appear to be t he same
as t hose in Islam which are in reality .not
so.
Another example of this confusion is the
rise of t he Modernists, who have been
claiming more t han can be justified. They
have not brought anything new except their
claim. Their claim is false and t hey too
contribute to t he confusion of t he Muslims.
They have compared Islam with science,
culture, and with other religions. The Mod-
ernists have made statements regarding ij ti-
had and taqlid. However , one does not per-
form ijtihad on simple pr oblems. In Islamic
history ijtihad is concerned wit h t he general
nature and aspects of Islam. For example,
it is not ijtihad to correct the direction of
t he qibla in a mosque. That is correction
of an error , not an ijtihad, because, t here
is no int ellectual struggle involved and it is
too trivial , and it does not refer to a gen-
2
eral religious problem of the Muslims which
require a solution that can be generally ap-
plied to them. Simil arl y they have int er-
preted taqlid to mean "following blindly"
whereas , it is acceptance knowingly - so it
is not blind. The acceptance by Christ ians
of t heir, doctrines is blind, because they do
not know what they accept.
Some of t he values of the Age of Enlight-
enment began to creep into the int erpre-
tation of the Modernists on Islam. What
t hey mean by ij tihad is what some human-
ists consider (as t he individualistic spirit -
t hat every man decides for himself. This
is not what ijtihad means. Not everyone
can decide what should be done. Certainly
not every man should decide for himself on
matters he does hot know about He should
decide on the aut hority of those who know,
because part of knowledge is based on au-
t hority.
On top of t his is the raising of false pr ob-
lems which continues to t his day - prob-
lems whi ch are in fact trivial. They do not
discuss t he nature of Islam, or the ques-
tion of education, or economics but whether
t ransplants are allowed or not , or whether
it is permitted to use the water of a cer-
tain coconut for ablution. None of t hese
t hings are real problems , nor can verdicts
applicab le in t he case of ijtihad or taqlid be
passed on t hem. It is an insult to the great
ulama of t he past to consult t heir books
. on such things. Unfortunat ely t hese t hings
still happen in t he Muslim world today.
Consider t he question of pork. People
still ask as if it is a problem - but it is not
many people have answered t his quest ion.
There is one answer which ought to be unas-
sailable, from the point of kalam and logic.
Non-Muslims ask why, if pork has now been
cleansed wit h t he help of science, it is still
not eaten? We will t hen answer t hat t he
very fact that pigs have t o summon t he help
of science to cleanse them while cows, goats,
etc . do not , means t hat t he pig is a rather
exceptionally uncl ean animal. This means
that the Qur'an is stating t he truth about
it. What is said about t he pig cannot be de-
nied, and since t hat is t he case we still do
not eat the pork t hat has now been cleans ed
by science and presented before us simply
because we respect t he truth.
Then of course t here are pr oblems whi ch
are more difficult to answer , like t hat of
qada and qadr. This question has arisen
among the Muslims after a few hundred
years of colonisat ion and West ern influence.
Some of t he ulama no longer underst and
the bas is of Islam. But only a lit tl e bit of
fiqh. As a result our enemies now hurl at
us the same questions which were hurled
about in t he t ime of Hasan- al Basri , Al-
Ashari, and AI-Ghazzali - but with the
difference t hat the Muslims now are igno-
rant and t here are no such personalities to
answer t hem. The Muslims being already
cut-off from t heir t radit ional underst anding
of t hese things and t heir sources are not
able to answer. They t hink it is a new prob-
lem and are not able t o refer back to see if
t his had been pr eviously dealt with.
Some of these matters like qtula and
qadar cannot be answered simply by any
phi losophi cal method or rational enquiry.
Ult imately it can only be grasped when
t he person has understood certain aspects
of t he Attributes of Allah, regarding t he
tawhid and t he nature of man 's dut y in t his
world. When he understands that , he will
automatically not raise the question, nor be
confused by it .
Due to t he pr opagati on of false, knowl-
edge t here has risen among us t he modern
j ahi liya. There are two types of t he j ahi l ac-
cor ding to t he way in which t he Ar abs un-
derstand the term j ahil. One is simple void
of knowledge in the mind. This is an inno-
cent kind of j ahi l and the voidness of knowl-
edge can be filled. The person can be in-
structed and educate himself. But it is the
second type t hat we are referring to when
we speak of t he modern j ahi liya - t hat is,
t hey who believe in falsehood, and consider
what is false t o be t rue . They persist in t hat
and fight for it and defend it . Such people
have become an impediment to any form
of refor m of t he Muslims at both the indi -
vidual and collect ive levels. The real ene-
mies of t he Muslims are not t he Christ ians ,
but t he enemy wit hin t hemselves. They are
like toys which have in t he past been wound
3
up by t he springs and coils of West ern con-
cepts, and when t he count ries gained inde-
pendence t hese toys are left playing, carry-
ing on t he business of the past .
Through t he ages meanings of certain
words and concepts have changed. How-
ever, it is not permissible to change t he
meanings of t he terms whi ch are fundamen-
t al t o Islam. Certainly one of t he cardinal
point s discussed in t he Qur'an is t hat t he
Chr ist ians and Jews had changed t he words
of their Books, and had caused t he t ruth to
become falsehood. I would like to mention
two point s from Al-Ghazzali on t his. One is
t he restricti on of t he application of a t erm,
for example Ilm. He said t hat in t he early
period , and in the Qur 'an, t he term fiqh
also meant Ilm. It means discernment . It
did not mean knowing what ot hers t hink
of a certain legal pr oblem, as it lat er came
to be understood. It does not mean t he
obite r dicta of a modern lawyer. It means
discernment between truth and falsehood.
So it can be seen how such a wide con-
cept is harrowed down to something par-
ti cular: The second point is the restricti on
of t he people t o whom t he t erm is applied.
For example, the te rm is used for people
who do not necessarily possess Ilm in t he
way it was meant . It did not refer only
t o t he people who underst ood fi qh. In t he
past t he word ul ama meant t he people who
pr acticed Islam, understood it as a total-
ity and were able to guide the Muslims in
times of crises. They must show t heir quali-
ti es by t heir writi ngs, dialogues and debat es
- because in t his way ot her Muslims can
judge whether t hey can be given the t rust
of Islam, it is not sufficient just to have a
dipl oma from a university.
AI-Ghazzali saw t his same problerri of the
ulama a t housand years ago. He saw for
examp le t hat there was a short age of doc-
tors among the Muslims , most of t he physi-
cians being J ews and Christians , even in
the cour ts of t he Caliphs . Yet, he said, ev-
erybody raves in jurisprudence. So for him
it was more import ant in te rms of, f ard-
kif ayah t o seek knowledge of medicine t han
t hat of fiqh , when the Muslim community
requires t hat medical knowledge.
4
States and governments change from
t ime to t ime, and if loyalty were t o be di-
rect ed to t hem t hen t he values will also
change. So in Western society change is
something natural. They say t hat society
which docs not change is strange and un-
Justice is closely connect ed with fi ira-
a state of nature, t hough not of t he type
preached by Rousseau. In West ern philoso-
phy t hey mean jasmania nature. But what
we mean is t he state when we made a Con-
t ract wit h God. Allah has asked t he souls
"Am I not your Lord?" And we all answered
"Yes", thus we have made a Covenant. In
t his world, those who have iman have con-
tinued to 'abide by that Contract, while
t hose who do not are denying themselves
their rightful state.
Therefore the holy Qur' an uses t he ex-
pr ession zulm. According to t he holy
Qur' an you can be zalim to yourself. In
it lies a very imp ort ant distinction between
t he concept of just ice in Islam, and in Greek
philosophy and West ern civilisat ion. What
they mean by justice is emphasised more
on what I would call t he two-person rela-
t ion - for example between a person and
another , to rul er and his subj ects. Only in
this two person relation can justice of in-
justi ce operate. But in Islam, first justi ce
t o t he self is mentioned. It concerns t he
Contract each soul has sealed with Allah.
If t hat Cont ract is not fulfilled then there
will be a state of zulm and man will be do-
ing injust ice to himself. He will be in a
state in which he ought not t o be, therefore
he will be in a state of chaos. He will not
Some Muslim philosophers say that it have peace and security. This is perhaps
is ridiculous to define knowledge. But the basi c idea of justice and knowledge. It
it is necessary to show at least some of is based on the idea of Covenant which each
t he facto rs involved. One of them is the UndividuaLsouLhas_made_wit h_G_Qd.'
l c!2.se connection between knowledge and This of course affects t he relationship be-
just ice. Briefly, we define justice as the tween the and the State . He will no
-st ate wherebY. things are in their correct longer consider the ultimate source of his
places - where t here is harmony. This is loyalty 't o be the St at e. In West ern philos-
also connected with fitra and iman. With- ophy, the possibilit y of certain knowledge
out know-ledge how ar e we to know whether about spiritual matters has been deni ed and
t hings are in their right places or not? people are forced t o ' seek happiness, and
When we say "how are we to know" we to set t hings right , in a secular manner.
are already using t he concept of knowledge. Therefore t hey are forced only to formu-
Hence knowledge becomes an integral part late values within t he context of the st at e.
of t he meani ng of justice. We must exert They believe each man could be happy if he
ourselves to find out what should be where, can be put in the right secular place : the
who should be what , and so on. This is t he citizens in the right kind of j ob, etc. The
duty of the Ummah, which it has not ful- educat ional system is also geared to t hat
filled and has left to only a few t o whom it end.
has entrusted much. c::-------- ki
If we ask t hem t he purpose of see mg

knowledge, t hey would say it is to produce a

good cit izen. The Muslim will answer that
t he pur ose of seeking,knowledge is to.pro-
duce a go.mLma.n. There is an
difference good cit i-
zen and producing a g<2.o.j. Producing
'a good man is more fund ament al , because
invariably he will be a good citizen. But it
is not so the other way around. A good cit-
izen may be a tyrant The Nazis claimed in
t heir heyday that they were good citizens of
Germany and t hat what they did was right
Islam's posit ion in this matter is more fun-
dament al and t he Muslim must recognise
this. He must know that his ultimate loy-
alty is not t o the st ate, nor even t o t he soci-
ety; not t he "social cont ract II of Rousseau -
it is to the indi vidual cont ract between him
and God. States and governments change
from t ime t o time, and if loyalty were to be
directed to t hem t hen t he values will also
change. So in Western society change is
something natural. They say t hat society
which does not change is strange and un-
natural.

natural. Obviously if you will place your

loyalty with Allah , He does not change -so
t hose values t oo do not change. That is
what is meant by t he validity of absolute
values. We deny t he possi bility of relati ve
values except in certain domains. Qbol4tc
Change is regar ded as a value in West ern
society. They cannot endure bei ng what
t hey call II static"; static means stagnancy.
The fund ament al bas is of t his constant
change is that t here is tension in t he spirit
t hat has broken the Cont ract . In order to
forget t his big problem which constantly
nags in the core of their soul, t hey have
to go on doing somet hing, changing t hings.
It is a distraction from t he disenchantment
of religion t hat has brought about this no-
t ion of change in t he West . The notion of
death is something which West ern philos-
ophy does not want t o t ackle. They talk
about life and pr et end as if death does not
exist. This is surely an unrealistic way of
life, because t he reali ty is t here. Before t he
egg hat ches you can preve nt t he hat ching
of the chick by das hing t he egg to pieces;
but once it has hatched you cannot .prevent
the chick from dying. In other words , one
is cert ain and the ot her is not . They must
surely see that the first problem to grap-
ple with is death. Religion has grappled
wit h death. A Muslim does not see death
as the tragedy of humanity. You will no-
tice t hat in Western civilisation tragedy is
a very import ant value. It is found in t heir
lit erat ure. It is t he very basis of t heir val-
ues . The nobility of man is manifested in
tragedy. However, in Muslim lite rature, or
in Eastern lit erat ur e, you will not find the
concept of tragedy. Tr agedy is not a value.
Layla and Majnun is not a tragedy. Even
if somebody dies, it is not a t rage dy. Be-
cause the western world is t ragic it reflect s
itself in its tragic world-view. That human
life is a t ragedy, and t hat t his is a value
which we must all accept is after all a fatal-
isti c view. Muslims are not fat alist s. Allah
has created t his worl d for us. It is good .
He sent down rain so t hat plants may grow
from t he earth, and he creates animals for
us to make use of. The world is not evil. It.
is the people who do not fulfill the Contract
5
who are evil.
In t he universities of the West it has been
t hought t hat cult ure is somet hing sacred
which ought to be emulated and preserved.
They have said t hat religion is par t of cul-
t ur e. Some of us have been confused by
this. Islam is not part of culture. It is cul-
t ur e which came out of Islam - what we
call Islamic culture. But in Western history
it may be right that religion is cultural -
something which is created by man and t he
forces of tradition and history.
I t hink t here should be research on what
exactly is the Islamic concept of knowledge.
From t his, we will see what is t he philo-
sophical basis for our educational system.
Having formulated the philosophical basis
for t he uni versity and t he system of educa-
tion, we should t hen restruct ure t he univer-
sity system. From the Islamic point of view
there are types of knowledge which are not
necessarily open to everyone. Now, under
t he guise of freedom, t he door of t he uni-
versity is open to all, regardless of whether
t he person has completed the fard-ain as-
pect of acquiring knowledge of Islam. It is
t hus poss ible for people to get degrees and
lat er hold import ant positions and become
zalim, because they do not understand Is-
lam. I do not believe that everybody has
t he freedom to seek t he same kind of knowl-
edge. Otherwise Muslims would never have
divided knowledge into [ord-ain and fard-
kif ayah. The reason for t his is that one
must first complete one step before mov-
ing to the other. Not everybody needs to
seek fard-kifaya.
In the fard-kifaya also we need a list of
pri oriti es. Obviously Psychology, for exam-
ple, may not be a priority for Muslims in
comparison to History. If we do not have
our own pri orities we will be following t he
needs of the West .