THE SOURCE, POSSIBILITY AND BOUNDARIES OF KNOWLEDGE IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT

Knowledge problem is one of the basic subjects that human being has been dealing with from past to present. Whether the knowledge is possible or not, it’s content, source, value, theme etc. have been always put on the agenda and always been discussed. The concept of “ilm”(science) is used both as an attribute of God and to express the science of creatures. In this context, it is possible to separate the science into two parts: one is the God’s endless and comprising knowledge, the other one is the limited knowledge of the creatures. Prophets have knowledge related to human life; they also have their own wisdom and experiences together with the special information that is only given to prophets obtained by means of divine inspiration. As for human beings, they have two types of knowledge: one comes with the birth and one acquired during the worldly life. Some claim that “İlm Ledun”(divi ne inspiration) is a kind of knowledge that is given to a special person chosen by the God and again given by the God himself without the mediation of a prophet or any angel. And only that particular person is responsible for that knowledge. Emotional information is the result of the senses human beings get by means of their sensory organs, but the information related to the unknown world- we call this world as “gayb”- can not be obtained by sensory organs. This information is beyond our senses. Some of this information is only known by God. However, there also may be some kind of information that can be felt or known by certain people, but others can not perceive it.