Concept of Knowledge in Quranic Perspective

Knowledge or act of knowing in its literal sense may be understood to have (something) in one’s mind or memory as a result of experience or learning or information. The word knowledge in its literal or etymological sense can hardly explain the various levels of certitude involved in the numerous claims to knowledge. At times, these claims can be a posteriori, i.e subject to a thorough rational or/ and empirical scrutiny and at times a priori, i.e., self-evident or true in themselves like the fundamental principles of mathematics. So for as knowledge in its conceptual or epistemological framework is concerned, various theories of knowledge have been put forth from time to time, in the intellectual paradigms of both the West and the East, which either lay emphasis on rationale or lay more emphasis on intuition. The Quranic concept of knowledge is neither exclusively rational in the classical sense of the word, nor empirical in its modern-Western sense. It is not even exclusively mystical. It is progressive and an evolutionary one which stems out of an ever-growing human urge for a more definite and certain knowledge of Reality. The present paper will try to study the holistic concept of knowledge as propounded in the Quran vis-à-vis other concepts of knowledge like ancient Greek or Indian and Modern western concepts of Knowledge.