Is Epistemology in Vogue in the Muslim/Arab World a Real Hurdle in Knowledge Production?
- A turning point in the intellectual history of the Arab world came in 1967, following the devastating defeat of Arab armies in the Six-Day War against Israel
- The intellectual elite began to reexamine the Muslim intellectual legacy in order to trace the causes of collective failure
Naveed Sandeelo
Epistemology traditionally refers to the philosophy or theory of knowledge. Its origin lies in the Greek word theoria, from which the English word theory is derived. Epistemology presents itself as a vast and complex academic discipline whose object of study is knowledge itself—its nature, sources, and limits. It is often regarded as a difficult subject, and its difficulty arises from the very nature of its object: it calls upon us to study knowledge through knowledge.
Dr. Mulyadhi Kartanegara, a prolific writer and distinguished scholar of Islamic thought, observes that there is a serious dearth of epistemological inquiry in his country, Indonesia. He laments that epistemology has not yet reached a sufficient level of development there, and that good books on the subject written by local scholars are rare. He further emphasizes that modern science, with its epistemological framework, cannot be disregarded. Its contributions to discovery and advancement are undeniable. Through the help of modern scientific methods, many questions and problems have reached fruitful resolutions, and numerous diseases once considered incurable have been successfully treated. Although all scientific knowledge is dependent on sense experience and observation, its restriction to empirical fields is not without value and advantage (Mulyadhi, 2014).
However, when we turn to the Muslim and Arab world, we find several obstacles to knowledge production resulting from the persistence of traditional epistemological frameworks. Along with these, other factors—such as the fixation of meaning, opposition to rational sciences, and the formation of closed cognitive circles—have also become major causes behind the intellectual stagnation of Muslim societies.
Among the most influential and insightful contemporary Arab philosophers, Mohammad Abed Al-Jabri stands out. In his monumental work Critique of Arab Reason, Al-Jabri analyzes key structural and epistemological factors responsible for the failure of enlightenment and modernization in the Muslim Arab world—factors that have widened the gulf between tradition and modernity. According to him, the epistemological and grammatical structures in vogue in the Arab-Islamic tradition are primary obstacles to progress. These structural boundaries have historically hindered scientific inquiry, rational thinking, and philosophical discourse. To uncover their roots, Al-Jabri examined the grammar of the Arabic language along with theology, jurisprudence, mysticism, rhetoric, and philosophy—fields which, he argues, share similar epistemological patterns and modes of reasoning. He points out that the analogical method (qiyas) is deeply embedded in Arab-Islamic intellectual culture and has been extended from jurisprudence to nearly all branches of knowledge.
Pakistani philosopher Dr. Sobia Tahir notes that “intellectual activities have remained suspended in the world of Islam for the past five hundred years. There has been practically no movement in the realms of thought, science, or philosophy; even law and jurisprudence have seen no substantial change since the fourteenth century” (Tahir, 2012, p. 6). In the domain of religious interpretation, the unknown is generally regarded as inferior to the already known. This epistemological conservatism has left little room for inductive reasoning, which plays a vital role in the natural sciences. Mysticism, meanwhile, has withdrawn thought into the private sphere, further impeding collective intellectual development and modernization.
An important question arises: Why do many Muslim thinkers continue to adhere to outdated and inadequate epistemological systems? What possible intellectual benefit or insight do they still find in them?
According to Mohammad Arkoun, the problem lies in a specific version of Islamic thought that became dominant during the late classical period under the influence of al-Shafi‘i. Since then, Muslim intellectuals have been constrained by fixed categories of meaning established centuries ago. In contrast, the early Muslim thinkers demonstrated remarkable adaptability to changing historical contexts through creative reinterpretations. Without the careful application of the critical methodologies of modern philosophy, social sciences, and linguistics, Muslims risk remaining trapped within closed cognitive systems that are increasingly irrelevant to contemporary challenges.
The Syrian philosopher Tayyib Tizini agrees with Al-Jabri on several points. He identifies additional causes of Muslim intellectual decline: fundamentalist thinking, the rise of political Islam, the effects of globalization, and the limitations of structural functionalism. These factors have collectively restricted societal development and rendered Muslim societies intellectually stagnant (Tizini, 2005, p. 53). The advent of postmodernism, the erosion of local cultures, and the so-called “end of history” and “death of ideology” further contributed to this paralysis. An ambivalent attitude toward Western philosophy and thought has also hindered the progress of Islamic modernism. When a small elite class imposes its outdated ideological hegemony, the masses are denied access to new knowledge, and societies remain in the darkness of ignorance and intellectual inertia.
Throughout history, the Muslim world has repeatedly faced such stagnation. Romanticized accounts of Muslim contributions to science have often remained apologetic, lacking critical historical analysis of the complex relationship between religion and science in Islam. Up to Shah Waliullah, even the greatest Muslim scholars—despite their revolutionary insights—tended to reinforce orthodox and congested ideas that curtailed innovation. Their independent and original thoughts were often marginalized, forgotten, or suppressed.
Iftikhar Malik argues that Muslims have generally accepted modernity, though often reluctantly. In many cases, disorganized modernization efforts have generated tension, anxiety, and even violent fundamentalist reactions. Modernizing yet non-representative regimes have sometimes encouraged such reactions themselves, co-opting fundamentalist elements for political purposes.
A turning point in the intellectual history of the Arab world came in 1967, following the devastating defeat of Arab armies in the Six-Day War against Israel. Karen Armstrong notes that during the 1970s and 1980s, fundamentalist movements across the Middle East sought to reshape their societies in new ways (Armstrong, 2003, pp. 145–146). The humiliation of 1967 led to a widespread return to religion; secular policies associated with Nasserism were discredited. Many concluded that Muslims had failed because they had been unfaithful to their religion. While secularism and democracy worked in the West, in the Islamic world they seemed to benefit only the elite, not the common people.
According to Al-Jabri (2009), after 1967 many Arab intellectuals lamented the “end of ideologies” and “decline of all standards.” Some believed the defeat stemmed from abandoning fundamental religious principles. This reaction signaled the decline of secular, socialist, and nationalist ideologies throughout the Arab world. Fundamentalism thus emerged as a postmodern phenomenon—rejecting certain aspects of modernity, including colonialism—while at the same time attempting to redefine identity in religious terms.
Following this shift, the intellectual elite began to reexamine the Muslim intellectual legacy in order to trace the causes of collective failure. Radical forms of Islam gained ground, socialism was denounced as atheistic, and political Islam filled the resulting ideological vacuum. Religious conservatism once again deepened the rift between Islam and modernity. Traditional scholars promoted rigid and exclusionary interpretations of Islam, insulating it from intellectual and scientific inquiry. As a result, creative and artistic voices were silenced, and independent thought was marginalized.
In his seminal work The Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought, Mohammad Arkoun vividly describes this condition:
“A number of ideas, values, explanations, horizons of meaning, artistic creations, initiatives, institutions and ways of life are hereby discarded, rejected, ignored or doomed to failure by the long-term historical evolution called tradition or ‘living tradition’ according to dogmatic theological definitions. Voices are silenced, creative talents are neglected, marginalized, or obliged to reproduce orthodox frameworks of expression and established forms of aesthetics…” (Arkoum, 2002, pp. 11–12)
This passage highlights the ongoing dialectical tension in all societies—traditional or democratic—between defenders of sacred tradition and advocates of reformist change. When a single tradition of thought dominates for centuries, the intellectual horizons of reason narrow, its critical function weakens, and the realm of the “unthought” becomes increasingly determinate, leaving no space for the “thinkable.”
References and Citations
Al-Jabri, Mohammad Abed. (2009). Democracy, Human Rights and Law in Islamic Thought. I.B. Tauris Publishers.
Arkoun, Mohammad. (2002). The Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought. Saqi Books, in association with The Institute of Islamic Studies.
Armstrong, Karen. (2003). Islam: A Short History. Great Britain: A Phoenix Paperback.
Mulyadhi Kartanegara. (2014). Epistemology: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Foundation of Knowledge. Brunei Darussalam: UBD Press.
Tahir, Sobia. (2012). “Lack of Enlightenment in the Muslim World: A Philosophical Analysis.” Aligarh Journal of Islamic Philosophy, p. 6.
Tizini, Tayyib. (2005). A Declaration in Arabic Renaissance and Enlightenment. Damascus: Dar Al-Faridi.
Read: Revivalist Movements and the Muslim World
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Naveed Sandeelo is a poet, writer and critic, and Lecturer at Department of Philosophy University of Sindh Jamshoro. He is author of five books: three books are on the subject of philosophy. Doing PhD at the department of Philosophy University of Karachi.
