Knowledge\r\n Society
\r\n Al-Zumar (The Throngs) Sura 39: Verse 9\r\n (partial)
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The Quran seeks to establish a society of 'those who know', a knowledge\r\n society, a society where reason and reflection, thought and learning, are\r\n not only valued but grounded in everyday reality. The situation in the\r\n Muslim world today, where science and learning are conspicuous by their\r\n almost total absence, where irrationality and fanaticism are the norms,\r\n indicates just how far many Muslims have deviated from the teachings of\r\n the Quran.
\r\nThe world of faith that the Quran implies is one of reasoned argument\r\n among multiple points of view between Muslims as well as people of other\r\n faiths and no faith. Knowledge derives from seeking to transcend the\r\n limitations of our narrow perspectives. But knowledge like everything else\r\n has to be sought and exists within moral and ethical parameters. The\r\n search for knowledge can neither liberate nor exonerate us from careful\r\n consideration of consequences and risks, of the means and purpose by and\r\n for which it is sought.
\r\nThe pursuit of knowledge is a basic requirement. However, that does not\r\n necessarily mean all enquiries, all techniques, all objectives for seeking\r\n knowledge are good or blameless in and of themselves. It is not merely\r\n that the search for knowledge needs to be conducted with humility, but\r\n we also have to recognise that ignorance is a constant companion of\r\n knowledge: our ignorance of the questions we do not ask. We need to\r\n appreciate the fact that as human knowledge has accumulated, so has our\r\n ignorance. The quest for knowledge is a challenge to seek to comprehend\r\n that which serves the purpose of achieving greater justice and equity for\r\n all, while accepting that however much we know, we remain limited, finite\r\n and fallible beings who do not know all. In a Quranic perspective, knowledge\r\n does not confer mastery and it always carries responsibilities and\r\n obligations to distinguish between what we can do and whether it ought\r\n to be done.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n \"Reading the Qur'an: The Contemporary Relevance of the Sacred Text of\r\n Islam\" - Ziauddin Sardar, pp.253, 254