The knowledge which Muslims have to acquire and learn is called “Ulûm-i Islâmiyya” (Islamic knowledge). It is fard to learn some of this knowledge. It is sunnat to learn some other branches of it, and it is mubâh to learn even more of it. Islamic knowledge is mainly divided into two branches. The first one is Ulûm-i naqliyya. This is also called “religious knowledge.” This originates from four sources called “Adilla-i Shar’iyya.” Religious knowledge is also divided into two: the Zâhirî (external) branches of knowledge and the bâtinî (internal) branches of knowledge. The first ones are called the Knowledge of Fiqh or Ahkâm-i islâmiyya; the second ones are called the knowledge of Tasawwuf or Ma’rifat. The Ahkâm-i-islâmiyya is learned through murshids and through the books of Fiqh. Ma’rifat flows from murshids’ hearts into (other Muslims’) hearts.
The second branch of Islamic knowledge is Ulûm-i ’aqliyya (experimental sciences). The branch dealing with living creatures is called Ulûm-i tıbbiyya (science of medicine), and the branch dealing with non-living creatures is called Ulûm-i hikemiyya. The branch dealing with the sky and stars is called Ulûm-i falakiyya. The knowledge dealing with the earth is called Ulûm-i tabî’iyya. The subdivisions of Ulûm-i ’aqliyya are mathematics, logic and experimental knowledge. They are acquired by perceiving through the five senses, by observing through mind, experimentation and calculation. These fields of knowledge help us to understand and better practise religious knowledge. They are necessary for this reason. They change, increase and improve in the course of time. For this reason, it has been said, “Takmîl-i s›nâ’ât is fulfilled by talâhuk-› afkâr,” which means, “improvement in arts, science and technology is realized by adding to one another’s ideas and experiments.”
The knowledge which is acquired through tradition, i.e., religious knowledge, is very exalted. It is beyond and above mind’s grasp, the power of human brains. It can never be changed by any person at any time, and this is the meaning of the statement, “There can be no reform in the religion.” Islam has not prohibited or limited the knowledge which is acquired through mind; yet it has commanded us to learn it together with religious knowledge and to utilize its results compatibly with the Ahkâm-i-islâmiyya. It has also commanded us to make it useful for people and not to use it as a medium for cruelty, torture and ruination. Muslims accomplished and used many scientific productions. The compass was invented in 687 [1288 A.D.]. The rifle with a trigger was invented in 1282 [1866 A.D.]. The cannon was invented in 762 and used by Sultan Muhammed, the conqueror. Islam prohibits the teaching and learning of immorality, false history and lies against Islam, which enemies of Islam, enemies of morality, put forward as education and give the name “lessons” or “duties”. Islam wants useful and good things to be learned and abstinence from bad and harmful propaganda.
Islam is a religion which encourages every branch of knowledge, every branch of science and every sort of experimentation. Muslims like science and believe in the experiments of scientists. But, they cannot be deceived by the slanders and lies of false scientists, who pass themselves as scientists.]
Disbelievers destroy and annihilate Muslims when they are able. Or, they mislead Muslims onto a path which they have made up.
As a matter of fact, it is written in the hundred and second page of the minutes of a meeting held by Masons in 1900: “It is not enough to overcome the pious and their temples. Our ultimate purpose is to annihilate religions.”
Publicly and shamelessly they reveal their hostility in their books and speeches. Knowing nothing about knowledge and science, they say childish things. For example, they say: “Ancient people were ignorant; being defenceless and weak against natural forces, they believed in imaginary things. They exposed their inferiority by worshipping and begging things which they themselves had made. However, we are in the atomic age today. Dominating nature, we can do whatever we want. There is nothing other than natural powers. Paradise, Hell, genies, and angels are things fabled by ancient people. Is there anyone who has gone and seen them? Can anyone believe things that are not seen or experienced?” These words of the irreligious show that they know nothing of history either. In the course of history, ignorant people in each century thought of themselves as wise and learned, and the people coming before them as ignorant. Since Hadrat Âdam, they changed and denied the religions revealed in every century by saying that they were the words of ignorant primitive people. Such assertions made by disbelievers are quoted, and answered in many parts of the Qur’ân al-kerîm. For example, Allâhu ta’âlâ says after the thirtieth âyat of Sûrat-ul-mu’minûn: “They didn’t believe Hadrat Nûh (Noah), so We drowned them in water. For the people We created after them, We sent a Prophet from amongst them and said, ‘Worship Allâhu ta’âlâ. There is nobody other than Him to be worshipped. Fear His torment!’ Many of those who didn’t obey, who didn’t believe in the rising after death, and yet whom we had given plenty of worldly blessings, said to others, ‘This Prophet eats and drinks like you. If you believe someone who needs many things like you, you will be deceived and suffer a loss. The Prophet tells you that after dying and after your bones have rotted and turned into dust and soil you will be resurrected and get up from your graves. Is that ever possible? Whatever exists is in this world. Paradise and Hell are all in this world. This is the way it has been and this is the way it goes. There is no rising after death.” In communist countries, in order to demolish the faith and morals of the people, teachers in schools and officers in the army say to the boys, girls and soldiers, “If Allah existed, we would see Him. He would hear us and give us what we want. If you ask me for candy, I will immediately hear you and give you what you want. Ask Him, you see He doesn’t respond. Then, He doesn’t exist. Your parents are ignorant. They are backwards and old-fashioned. They are retrogressive. But, you are open-minded, modern youngsters. Never believe such superstitions! Paradise, Hell, angels and genies are fables.” Through such lies, they try to annihilate youngsters’ îmân, manners and sense of shame, which they acquired in their fathers’ homes. Deceiving these poor children, they sacrifice youngsters for the sake of their base desires, pleasures,and evil earnings. By saying, “Who on earth has seen Paradise and Hell? One simply shouldn’t believe things that are not seen.” They expose the fact that they follow their organs of perception. However, animals too follow their organs of perception. Imâm-i Ghazâlî says: “Human beings follow reason. Human organs of perception are lower than those of animals. Man cannot smell as well as cats or dogs do. Neither can he see in the dark as well as they do. Moreover, how can one rely on one’s eyes in everything while many times wisdom proves the eyes to be wrong? For example, the eyes, seeing the sun through the window, may consider it smaller than the window; but reason says it is larger than the earth.” I wonder if these disbelievers deny reason by saying, “We believe what we see; is it possible that the sun is larger than the earth?” No! Here they also believe reason as Muslims do. It is seen that men differ from animals by conducting worldly affairs not according to their perception, but according to their reason. Instead of saying, “We don’t believe in the things of the next world,” and thus remaining dependent on the organs of perception, why don’t they follow their reason and thus ascend to the degree of being human here, too? Islam declares that human beings will be recreated in the next world and will live eternally, and animals, after having their accounts settled, will be annihilated. By promising human beings an eternal life, it differentiates them from animals. But these disbelievers want to be deprived of eternal life like animals. Today, thousands of medicines, household appliances, industrial and commercial goods, electronic instruments, and weaponry are manufactured in factories. Most of them are manufactured after sophisticated calculations and hundreds of experiments are conducted. Do they say, even about one of them, that it is self-created? On the one hand, they say all those above-mentioned things have been manufactured consciously and willingly by a certain manufacturer; on the other hand, they claim that so many millions of substances and phenomena that are seen on living and lifeless beings, and new and more subtle ones of which are being explored in each century, so that we do not know the structures of most of them yet, are selfcreated. How can this hypocrisy be explained except as extreme obstinacy or explicit stupidity?
A coummunist teacher in Russia told his students during the lesson, “I can see you. You can see me, too. This means to say that we exist. The mountains over there exist because we can see them, too. Something non-existent cannot be seen. What we cannot see can not be said to exist. My words come from our scientific knowledge. One who is educated and progressive depends on scientific knowledge. Reactionists claim that there is a creator of all the creatures. It is wrong to believe the existence of a creator. It is not compatible with science. It is reactionary to claim the existence of something which cannot be seen.” Asking permission to respond, a Turkoman boy said, “Are you talking with your intellect? Since we cannot see the existence of your intellect, it would be incompatible with science to accept that you have an intellect and that you are talking with it.” The teacher was unable to answer these statements and kicked him out of the class after beating him harshly with a hatred arising from defeat. The boy was never seen again.
Source: Endless Bliss (Se’âdet-i Ebediyye) by Hüseyn Hilmi Işık, Nineteenth Edition, Hakikat Kitabevi, 20014
