Knowledge and Knowing in Islam (Comparative Study between Nursi and al-Attas)
One of the most fundamental aspects in the issue of Islamic civilization is the problem of knowledge. The problem is not only confined to the external factors that include the spread of the doctrine of secularism that desacralize Islamic knowledge, but also the complex internal factors that dwindled knowledge pursuance and development. The impact of these two problems has pervasively influences social, economical, cultural and political field in the Muslim world. Badiuzzaman Said Nursi and Syed Mohammad Naquib al-Attas are two prominent Muslim thinkers in the contemporary world who are concerned in explaining, explicating and formulating the process of knowing in sciences according to Islamic perspective. The two thinkers embark upon the conviction that modern sciences has been dominated by theories and principles derived from Western doctrine of secularism or by naturalist-secularist-atheist philosophers. This comparative study reveals that although they have the same concern they sho