INTELLECT (AQL)

Last week we discussed the first source of knowledgerevelation, this week well discuss
the second and the third source of knowledge which is aql and the five senses (hawas
khamsah). While we are discussing the sources, it should be clear that the absolute
knowledge belongs to Almighty Allah only. One of the asma ul-husna of Almighty Allah is
Alm. The Knowledge of Almighty is further explained in the Quran (Al-Anam 6: 59):

And with Him are the keys of the Invisible. None but He knoweth them. And He knoweth
what is in the land and the sea. Not a leaf falleth but He knoweth it, not a grain amid the
darkness of the earth, naught of wet or dry but (it is noted) in a clear record.

And in Chapter Saba (34: 26), it is stated:

Say: Our Lord will bring us all together, then He will judge between us with truth. He is the
All-knowing Judge.

Despite the presences of different sources of knowledge, all knowledge ultimately originates
from Allah. It is impossible to separate the context of knowledge from the context of being.
For this reason al-Juwayni established a semantic link between the alam and lam by
defining that alam is an indication set up to indicate the existence of the owner of the
lam who is Allah (F. Rosenthal, Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in
Medieval Islam, 1970, p. 19). So in Islamic epistemology (or theory of knowing) the basic
principle is the assumption of harmony between the sources of knowledge. This assumption
is consistent with the supreme principle of Unity (Tawhid). (Davutoglu Ahmet, Civilizational
Transformation and the Muslim World, p. 70)

The above tells us that the revelation (wahy) is the only source of absolute knowledge. The
demarcation in Islam between the Quran as the revealed knowledge and the personality of
the Prophet as only the Messenger of this knowledge prevented after his death, any claim to a
spirituality able to attain absolute knowledge. The same epistemological value of revelation is
not given to any other source of knowledge even to the hadith. No personality or institution
can claim any epistemological authority equivalent or continuous of revelation.

All other sources of knowledge in Islam are complimentary and not categorical and
alternative. The rational capacity is necessary to understand revelation. The relative
judgments of the senses and reason and their possible misuses might be guided and controlled
only by revelation (Davutoglu, p. 72).

This is not the case of the secularization of knowledge in the Western intellectual history.
Absolute dogmatism, absolute rationalism, absolute empiricism monopolizes the truth. This
led to categorical differentiation accelerating the process of epistemological crisis. Then this
resulted to Endism on their various epistemological foundations. End of each foundation
opened ways to another foundation.
Definition of Aql
According to Imam Ibn Taymiyah in his Bughyat al-Murtad, aql is reference to an
instinctive, inherent quality in a person that allows him, her to understand and grasp matters,
a faculty, similar to the ability of hearing through the ears, and seeing through the eyes (p.
250). In another work it is described as an instinctive faculty given to humans by Allah, by
which we comprehend the reality of our existence and his world (Ibn Taymiyah, 2005, The
Decisive criterion between the friends of Allah and the friends of shaytan, Birmingham, UK:
Daar Us-Sunnah Publishers, p. 217).

According to Imam al-Ghazali: Reason (aql) is the essence of the soul, while desire and
anger are its accidental states, Reason is a quality of the angels; following the philosophic
tradition he proves that reason is mans essence: the essence of each species is that which is
peculiar to it; what is peculiar in man is reason; so it must be his essential nature. The task of
the intellect is to know realities outside the senses, and consequences of the actions. (The
Ethics of al-Ghazali, pp. 4950)
 SENSES (AL-AWS AL-HIRAH)
Al-Nahl (16: 78):

It is He who brought you forth from the wombs of your when ye knew nothing; and He gave
you hearing and sight and intelligence and that ye may give thanks (to Allah..

Al-Sajdah (32: 9):

But He fashioned Him in due proportion, and breathed into Him something of His spirit. And
He gave you (the faculties of) hearing and sight and feeling (and understanding): Little thanks
do ye give!