Islam always commends knowledge and encourages Muslims to learn. The Almighty Allah in Quran says, “…Say: Are those equal, those who know and those who do not know? It is those who are endued with understanding that receive admonition.” The commandments of our beloved Prophet (SAW) also states that, “Even if knowledge is in China, go and learn it.” “There is Islam where there is knowledge.” “It is and learn it.” “It is Farz for Muslim me and Muslim Women to look for knowledge and learn it.” Islam holds knowledge equal with worshiping and the link used by the scholars equal with the blood of Muslims. Islam is not a regressive religion, but on the contrary it commands to follow all the renovations, to explore new facts daily, and to always make progress. It is for this reason that from the earliest days of Islam great value was attached to men of knowledge, the Muslim Arabs reached the highest summits in medicine, in chemistry, in astronomy, in geography, in history, in literature, in mathematics, in engineering, in architecture, and in ethical and social sciences, which are the basis for all those sciences, educated valuable scholars, judges, experts and masters, who are still being remembered with deep reverence today, and became the teachers of the entire world and the guides of civilization. Our religion has separated religious knowledge from scientific knowledge. It has vehemently forbidden making a slightest alteration in religious teachings, in Islamic ethical principles or in the modes of worship. When it comes to worldly affairs and scientific knowledge, however, Islam commands us to keep pace with all the improvements, to learn and utilize all the new inventions. Islamic scholars state that Islamic knowledge consists of two parts: Religious Knowledge and Scientific knowledge.
Almighty Allah promises to give the wishes of those who exert themselves to obtain the blessings of this world and the next. He declares that he will give anyone who works Muslims and Non-Muslims alike. In short we can say that the Islamic religion is productive and it has never been destructive or separative.
Being an Islamic scholar it is necessary to learn both these parts. Every Muslim has to learn and practice the religious knowledge. So far as the scientific knowledge is concerned it is to be learned, as much as necessary, only by those Muslims whose professions are necessitate to do so. A nation which carries out these two precepts will certainly make progress and attain civilization. Almighty Allah purports in the Quran, “To any that desires the tilth of the Hereafter, We give increase in his tilth; and to any that desires the tilth of this world, we grant somewhat thereof, but he has no share or lot in the Hereafter.”Desires are not obtained with mere words. It is necessary to hold fast to the causes, i.e. to work. Almighty Allah promises to give the wishes of those who exert themselves to obtain the blessings of this world and the next. He declares that he will give anyone who works Muslims and Non-Muslims alike. In short we can say that the Islamic religion is productive and it has never been destructive or separative.
