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to gain knowledge is worship. The practice of knowl-edge is connected with ethics and morality - with pro-
moting virtue and combatting vice, enjoining right andforbidding wrong.
Knowledge is pursued and practiced with modesty andhumility and leads to beauty and dignity, freedom and
justice.
The main purpose of acquiring knowledge is to bring uscloser to Allah. It is not simply for the gratification of the
mind or the senses. It is not knowledge for its own sakeor science for its own sake. Knowledge accordingly
must be linked with values and goals.
One of the purpose of acquiring knowledge is to gainthe good of this world, not to destroy it through
wastage, arrogance and shamelessness in the reck-less pursuit of higher standards of material comfort.
Another purpose of knowledge is to spread freedomand dignity, truth and justice. It is not to gain power and
dominance for its own sake.
The essential therefore to acquire a knowledge of theQur'anis our most important link with reality. It is
Qur'anknowledge of the and its essential guidance. We need to have aSunnah of the Prophet Muhammad
[s] too. This is because his method or path for implementing Islam. The Sunnah is the practicalSunnah
includes what the noble Prophet [s] said, what he didand what he agreed to. We also need to have a knowl-
edge of the System which regulates man's actions. We need toShari'ah or the Islamic Moral and Legal
know its purposes and how it categorises life's transac-tions, that is, what is lawful and what is unlawful and the
principles and values that govern each.
Knowledge or knowledge, such as Tafsir (Qur’anic Exegesis), Fiqh'ilmrefers primarily to the Islamic fields of
(Islamic Jurisprudence), and Kalam (Islamic ScholasticTheology). One effect of the claim now made by many
people that modern disciplines such as engineeringand business studies also count as ‘ilmis that the tra-
ditional disciplines are being neglected, with the resultthat the Muslim world is losing its spiritual and intellec-
tual leadership. Muslims therefore have to remindthemselves that to seek true knowledge is not simply
recommended, it is an obligation, for the Prophet [s]taught that “The quest for knowledge is a duty upon
every Muslim man and woman.”