The classification of knowledge is a recurring theme in Islamic scholarship. Successive generations of Muslim scholars – al-Kindi (d. 873 AD), al-Ghazali (d. 1111 AD), Shah Waliullah of Delhi (d. 1762) and Prof Osman Bakar (born 1946) – have devoted considerable efforts to the exposition of this theme.
The speaker will discuss the Islamic traditional division of sciences, which considers philosophy (especially metaphysics) as the queen of sciences, as it provides the principles for other sciences. He will also address the prevailing view in modern academia that divides and orders sciences based on their level of empirical certainty, with experimental sciences being considered the most scientific and certain, followed by social sciences like economics and psychology, then humanities such as philosophy and history, and finally, other relative sciences like religion.
The speaker will review the historical, social, and philosophical reasons for the shift from the traditional method of dividing and ordering sciences to the modern one. He will conclude by discussing the impact of this shift on the perception of Islamic religious sciences and the ongoing debate regarding the scientific validity of religious sciences.
