Theosophical Principals of Religious Knowledge from the Viewpoint of Seyyed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas

As a remarkable achievement of Islamic philosophy, the theory of religious knowledge has had its opponents and proponents since its conception. Seyyed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas is one of the proponents and theoreticians of Islamization of knowledge. He, first, adapted philosophy and worldview to the Quran, belief in the ranks of existence, and absolute dependence of existence on God. He went on to shed light on the unbreakable relation between human and the world, stating that human is the most important part of existence and an immortal being whose nature is best described in the Quran. Al-Attas, finally, defined the structure and goals of an effective educational system. For him, the true goal of education is to realize the truth of the Quran in human; therefore, the language and knowledge of the Quran should constitute the most important part of education. Moreover, al-Attas raised the issue of Westernization of knowledge to clarify the Islamization of knowledge. In his belief, Westernization of knowledge covers (a) Western culture and civilization (b) key elements of natural sciences and (c) humanities and applied sciences. On the other hand, Islamization of knowledge, according to al-Attas, requires (a) recognizing the key elements of Islamic knowledge (b) replacing Western key elements with Islamic ones (c) basing natural and applied sciences on Islamic foundations and (d) revising these sciences in accordance with Islamic elements.