Islam and Modern Life — Page 7
7 Islam’s Encouragement of Knowledge and Learning Now at the very outset of our examination of these questions, we are struck by the contrast between the attitude of Islam and the attitude of the medieval church towards such matters as knowledge, learning, philosophy, science, research, etc. When I say kn owledge, I mean secular knowledge, as it used to be described during the Middle Ages, not knowledge of scripture or religious knowledge. Now the church claimed to control all such activities and impose rigid conditions and restrictions upon their pursuit. As a matter of fact, not only upon these, because up to a certain point in the development of the study of religion also, the strict orthodox church attitude was that even the study of scripture must not be permitted freely, must be permitted only to the c lerical section of the populace and should not be everybody’s business. The church took its stand on authority. This is so because the church says so, the interpretation. This should not be done because the church prohibits it. This may be done because the church permits it. Now at a certain period of its development, particularly in Spain and also in the Italian states, this strictness sometimes became even ruthless. This is not the issue we are discussing. It is again a passing phase to which I wish to dr aw attention. But the annals of the Holy Office of the Inquisition would bear out the statement to what degree this control was