It worthies stating that the ideology connects knowledge with faith, as knowledge without faith is like a plant without fruit. Knowledge calls to faith and faith prompts to knowledge. To separate one from the other leads to serious dangers. The martyr Murtaza Mutaharri says:
“Historical practices proved that separating knowledge from faith had resulted in damages which couldn’t be made up, faith must be known in the light of knowledge faith draws for a way from legends in the light of knowledge. By separating knowledge from faith, faith changed into languidness and blind fanaticism,
moving Quickly round itself without reaching anywhere. In the place which is empty of science and knowledge the ignorant believers are turned into a tool at the hand of the big hypocrites and this was what we had seen of the examples of “Khawaarij” in the first period of Islam and the following ages in different forms.
Knowledge without faith is a torch at the hand of a thief at midnight to steal the best merchandise, so the person of knowledge without faith today doesn’t differ from the ignorant person without faith yesterday in the least difference concerning the nature of manners, practices and their essence” 81
So knowledge needs faith as the body needs spirit because knowledge alone is unable -by its nature-to build the perfect human being, pure scientific education builds a half human not a perfect human, it can make a human being who may be powerful and able but he is not necessarily virtuous, it creates a human being with one dimension which the material dimension. As to faith it molds one’s personality in its different dimensions.
Europeans’ deception by science has reached the limit of deification and worshipping although they did not perform its rituals in their churches and because religion depends on unseen foundations outside the extent of material they considered it to be an unscientific phenomenon.
On this basis the disease of separation between religion and knowledge appeared, this is a strange inclination to Islam “Nothing gives more evidence to this cohesion between religion and science than this urgent call by religion to get knowledge and to get more of it in all stages of the age and in all circumstances… and from this high evaluation of knowledge and Scholars by religion.
If there had been a conflict between religion and science in some eras of history, as it happened with the history of Christianity, that conflict had no connection with religion. Rather it had been a sort of deviation from religion, and religion is not responsible for the deviations people commit by its name” 82
It is sorrowful that some voices rise here and there calling to separate religion from knowledge on the pretext that Europe had shun religion then it developed and we adhered to religion we failed. The minds of those people are either incapable of realizing the function of science which is a tool to uncover the objective truths and to give a neutral,
precise and deep interpretation of the reality, or that those minds are ignorant of the Islamic procedure which doesn’t cease to inspire people to get knowledge. Most probably that they are mercenaried minds echoing the allegations of the grudged enemies of Islam and they overlook the serious spiritual results which stemmed from separating science from religion:
“The clearest example of that is the age in which we live, the age in which the scientific and material development has reached its summit, and in which humanity had reached its lowest point in brutal fighting and enmity which severs the relations of humanity and makes it live in a lasting horror and fear of destruction, as it also has reached the lowest level in their depiction of the aims of life and the raise d’être of humanity restricting them to lust and enjoyments, reaching its lowest level -as a result of that thinking- of moral corruption and sexual disorder from which the animal abstains.” 83
So the procedures of education bear a big obligation to the Islamic ideology for its insistence on the role of faith and knowledge in building Man’s personality. By separating knowledge from faith Man becomes like a magnetic needle swinging between the north and the south; therefore he needs a power which can stimulate a revolution in his conscience and give him a moral course that can actualize his humanity, this is a task which science can not perform without religion.
“Historical practices proved that separating knowledge from faith had resulted in damages which couldn’t be made up, faith must be known in the light of knowledge faith draws for a way from legends in the light of knowledge. By separating knowledge from faith, faith changed into languidness and blind fanaticism,
moving Quickly round itself without reaching anywhere. In the place which is empty of science and knowledge the ignorant believers are turned into a tool at the hand of the big hypocrites and this was what we had seen of the examples of “Khawaarij” in the first period of Islam and the following ages in different forms.
Knowledge without faith is a torch at the hand of a thief at midnight to steal the best merchandise, so the person of knowledge without faith today doesn’t differ from the ignorant person without faith yesterday in the least difference concerning the nature of manners, practices and their essence” 81
So knowledge needs faith as the body needs spirit because knowledge alone is unable -by its nature-to build the perfect human being, pure scientific education builds a half human not a perfect human, it can make a human being who may be powerful and able but he is not necessarily virtuous, it creates a human being with one dimension which the material dimension. As to faith it molds one’s personality in its different dimensions.
Europeans’ deception by science has reached the limit of deification and worshipping although they did not perform its rituals in their churches and because religion depends on unseen foundations outside the extent of material they considered it to be an unscientific phenomenon.
On this basis the disease of separation between religion and knowledge appeared, this is a strange inclination to Islam “Nothing gives more evidence to this cohesion between religion and science than this urgent call by religion to get knowledge and to get more of it in all stages of the age and in all circumstances… and from this high evaluation of knowledge and Scholars by religion.
If there had been a conflict between religion and science in some eras of history, as it happened with the history of Christianity, that conflict had no connection with religion. Rather it had been a sort of deviation from religion, and religion is not responsible for the deviations people commit by its name” 82
It is sorrowful that some voices rise here and there calling to separate religion from knowledge on the pretext that Europe had shun religion then it developed and we adhered to religion we failed. The minds of those people are either incapable of realizing the function of science which is a tool to uncover the objective truths and to give a neutral,
precise and deep interpretation of the reality, or that those minds are ignorant of the Islamic procedure which doesn’t cease to inspire people to get knowledge. Most probably that they are mercenaried minds echoing the allegations of the grudged enemies of Islam and they overlook the serious spiritual results which stemmed from separating science from religion:
“The clearest example of that is the age in which we live, the age in which the scientific and material development has reached its summit, and in which humanity had reached its lowest point in brutal fighting and enmity which severs the relations of humanity and makes it live in a lasting horror and fear of destruction, as it also has reached the lowest level in their depiction of the aims of life and the raise d’être of humanity restricting them to lust and enjoyments, reaching its lowest level -as a result of that thinking- of moral corruption and sexual disorder from which the animal abstains.” 83
So the procedures of education bear a big obligation to the Islamic ideology for its insistence on the role of faith and knowledge in building Man’s personality. By separating knowledge from faith Man becomes like a magnetic needle swinging between the north and the south; therefore he needs a power which can stimulate a revolution in his conscience and give him a moral course that can actualize his humanity, this is a task which science can not perform without religion.
Notes:
81. man and faith: the martyr Murtaza Mutahhiri 1: 15 published by Ershaad Islami ministry.
82. The role of religion in Man’s life, Shakh Ala’asifi, 69-Darelta’aruf pub.2.
83. Menhaj Al-Tarbiyah Al-Islamiyah, by Mohammad Qutb, p. 115.