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ISLAMIC MEDICAL EDUCATION RESOURCES

3.3 METHODOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE, manhajiyat al maarifat

By Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr.

3.3.1 CONCEPTS

Methodology started with Adam naming and classifying all things followed by trial and error discoveries and later by systematic methodological investigation. Inspired by the Qur’an, Muslims developed the empirical scientific methodology that triggered the European reformation, renaissance, and scientific and technological revolution starting in the early 16th century CE. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) knew Arabic, learned from Muslims, and was the first European to write about the empirical methodology. Europeans copied the empirical methodology without its tauhidi context, rejected wahy as a source of knowledge, and later imposed badly-copied secularized science on the Muslim world. Ancient Muslim scientists had shown that wahy, ‘aql, and empiricism were compatible and had used methodological tools from the Qur’an to correct deficiencies and improve Greek science before passing it on to Europeans. They replaced Aristotelian deductive logic and definitions with an Islamic inductive logic inspired by the Qur’an.

 

3.3.2 METHODOLOGY FROM THE QURAN, manhaj qur’ani

The Qur’anic provides general guiding principles and is not a substitute for empirical research. It enjoins empirical observation; liberates the mind from superstition, blind following, intellectual dependency, and whims. Its tauhidi paradigm is the basis for causality, rationality, order, predictability, innovation, objectivity, and natural laws. Laws can be known through wahy, empirical observation and experimentation. The Qur’anic teaches the inductive methodology, empirical observation, nadhar and tabassur; interpretation, tadabbur, tafakkur, i’itibaar &  tafaquhu; and evidential knowledge, bayyinat and burhan. It condemns blind following, taqliid, conjecture, dhann; and personal whims, hiwa al nafs. The Qur’anic concept of istiqamat calls for valid and un-biased knowledge. The Qur’anic concepts of istikhlaf, taskhir, and isti’imar are a basis for technology. The concept of ‘ilm nafei underlies the imperative to transform basic knowledge into useful technology.

 

3.3.3 METHODOLOGY FROM THE CLASSICAL ISLAMIC SCIENCES

Classical sciences and their concepts are applicable to S&T. Tafsir ‘ilmi and tafsir mawdhu’e parallel data interpretation in empirical research. ‘Ilm al nasakh explains how new data updates old theories without making them complety useless. ‘Ilm al rijaalcan ascertain the trustworthiness of researchers. ‘Ilm naqd al hadith can inculcate attitudes of critical reading of scientific literature. Qiyaas is analogical reasoning. Istihbaab is continued application of a hypothesis or scientific laws until disproved. Istihsan is comparable to clinical intuition. Istislah is use of public interest to select among options for example medical technologies. Ijma is consensus-building among empirical researchers. Maqasid al shariat are conceptual tools for balanced use of S&T. Qawaid al shariat are axioms that simplify complex logical operations by using established axioms without going through detailed derivations.

 

3.3.4 ISLAMIC CRITIQUE OF THE EMPIRICAL METHOD, naqd al manhaj al tajribi

Using methodological tools from the Qur’an and classical Islamic sciences, Muslims developed a new empirical and inductive methodology in the form of qiyaas usuuli and also pioneered the empirical methods by experimentation and observation in a systematic way as illustrated by the work on Ibn Hazm on optics. They criticize ancient Greek methodology as conjectural, hypothetical, despising perceptual knowledge, and based on deductive logic. They accept the European scientific method of formulating and testing hypothesis but reject its philosophical presumptions: materialism, pragmatism, atheism, rejection of wahy as a source of knowledge, lack of balance, rejection of the duality between matter and spirit, lack of human purpose, lacks of an integrating paradigm like tauhid, and being Euro-centric and not universal. European claims to being open-minded, methodological, accurate, precise, objective, and morally neutral have been observed not to hold in practice. In its arrogance it treats as absolute probabilistic and relativistic empirical knowledge based fallible human observation and interpretation.

 

3.3.5 TOWARDS AN ISLAMIC METHODOLOGY

A tauhidi universal, objective and unbiased methodology must replace the Euro-centric and philosophically biased context and not the practical experimental methods. The precepts of tauhidi science are: unity of knowledge, comprehensiveness; causality is the basis for human action, human knowledge is limited, investigation of causal relations is based on constant and fixed natural laws, harmony between the seen and the unseen, 3 sources of knowledge (wahy, aql & empirical observation); khilafat; moral accountability; creation and existence have a purpose, truth is both absolute and relative, human free will is the basis of accountability, and tawakkul.

(c) Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. 2004