Hundred Questions - End of Knowledge
End of Knowledge
Q1 During your lecture you said that knowledge comes to an end at a certain place. How is it possible?
A1 If you study verses 16:70 and 22:5 of the Qur'an deeply and reflectively, you will come to know that upon reaching the extreme end of the old age of knowledge, a faithful servant becomes idle in the spiritual world. That is to say, in crossing the vast and unfathomable ocean of knowledge he reaches at that time a place where nothing remains to be learnt. That is, nothing remains for him to make any new scientific analysis, for during the lengthy period of his spiritual life he has learnt everything and therefore, with respect to him, knowledge, which was an intellectual and reflective journey, has been completed and has thus come to an end.
The other point in this connection is that "Everything except the Divine Essence is perishable, that is to say that it comes to an end" (28:88). Here it is evident that knowledge also comes to an end [as it is included in everything]. However, it is a different matter that God repeatedly creates everything [and it is because of this that they seem to exist continuously]. For example, the succession of day and night, which in fact perish like all other things, seem infinite only because God creates them over and over again. Thus, it is because of this that the chain of day and night and time becomes infinite.
Further, since knowledge means to know things [through their analysis], hence as long as the world survives, things survive and the chain of knowledge continues. However, when according to the abovementioned verse, the world comes to an end and nothing remains, knowledge will also come to an end, which used to be the result of the analysis of things. For, knowledge (`ilm) is the attribute of the knower (`alim) and which can be obtained by knowing the knowable, i.e. the universe (`alam). All this discussion leads to the conclusion that knowledge (`ilm), the knowable (`alam, i.e. the universe) and the knower (`alim) come to an end time and again, and also come into existence time and again. This means that with respect to every time knowledge comes to an end, while with respect to the chain of time and again, it never ends.
Further, it is mentioned in the Qur'an in verse (13:8): "And everything with Him is in a quantity". This signifies that although today due to lack of knowledge some things seem to be infinite to human beings, when they will reach the heights of spirituality and will begin to see them through the Divine light and observe them with the eye of certainty (`aynu'l-yaqin) the real state will be revealed to them, which is that things in their entirety – spiritual as well as material – are confined within a specific quantity (13:8). This includes the life of the universe as well as practical knowledge, which is based on this external world (11:107). This is the explanation of the annihilation of everything and the cessation of the duration of the age of space, i.e. the time span of the survival of the world.
Thus, it must be understood properly that the aspect of reality according to which God's things never come to an end, is that despite their coming to an end they are recreated constantly, or after intervals like the seasons of summer and winter etc., which come again and again alternatively.
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