Faith and its position in the human thought

Falah Al-Aabidi

Summary

Human thought contains a great number of concepts and issues related to various topics, and to make use of which, scholars and researchers have paid too much attention to classifying them into groups of sciences according to their subject matter and the way of studying them, trying to discover the hierarchy between these sciences due to the order of their subjects; to get at a coherently cognitive system, including what is former and what is later according to reality and possibility, or according to learning and evidence.

No doubt that among those concepts and matters, there is what is related to man’s perceptions and visions about the cause of the world and its characteristics and actions, which has been classified as world view or faith. In these pages, we want to show the conception of faith and its position in this human cognitive system, and its rank among all sciences in that system.

Faith, in its two rational and religious dimensions, is at the top of theoretical sciences as to honor; for the honor of science is due to the honor of its facts and subject matters, and surely the science of faith is related to the most honorable and most perfect being at all; it is Almighty Allah, and His attributes and doings. So science of faith is prior to all sciences in terms of reality, and its subject matter are prior to all subject matters in terms of reality; for it is the starter and founder of them all.

Thus, we can infer the following:

Firstly, the sciences that one learns and holds form a cognitive system, and this means that they are cognitively interconnected in a way or another, and have a natural hierarchy among themselves. Some of them are earlier and others are later. The understanding of this hierarchy and system is of great benefit to learners; for they can know in which rank their specialization lies within this system, and thus can determine the sciences that precede the specialization they study and the sciences that come later.

This matter is useful to a scholar to know from where to take the prerequisites of his specialty as established fundamentals, and which sciences can take their established fundamentals from his specialty; for when sciences have developed and been branched, it has become difficult for one person to know all specializations to make a scientific encyclopedia as it might have happened in the past. So it has become necessary for one to choose only one specialty to be creative in it. But in order to be realistic in his studies, one should take the prerequisites of his studies from one whom he trusts in and relies on in the specialties that have been before his one, and gives the results of his specialty to the people of specialties that come after him. He should not interfere in determining what has preceded, nor the results of what may come after his specialty, because this is not a specialized act, and may not lead to a realistic result.

Secondly, there are some sciences that all scholars- in various specialties- should learn and know well, because they have common advantage in all specialties, and those sciences are the cognitive sciences.

Thirdly, all sciences in their nature represent perfection for man, and involve in providing his welfare and happiness. However, they may be directed and used by evildoers and the unjust to achieve their interests and goals, and thus, their consequences would be against the happiness of mankind.

Fourthly: the science of faith is the best and most important among all sciences; for it concerns the most exalted fact; it is the Creator and Maker of this world with all it has, and this is in terms of reality. Studying of faith may be delayed, in terms of evidencing, until after knowing some sciences that prove some prerequisites of faith questions, such as cognitive and natural sciences.

The vision that one gets to has a great impact on the way of man’s life and fate. So it is a must for every one - whatever his/her specialty is - to learn the path that can be followed in order to get out of his/her own specialty into the research about the Creator in an objectively scientific way, as common to the people of sciences and scientific professions. So, if one gets to proving that, he would make his specialty as a path and a guidepost for others to promote and prove it in the hearts of people, and not to remain in the circle of the subject matter of his specialization, knowing nothing else.

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