Knowledge & Knowing continued
from page 8 “How many truths do I hold
based on information known to
me through others?” You will
of your senses or reasoning,
continued on page 30
liar. Imam al-Nasafi divided the true
narration into two types. He writes,
“The first is the mass-transmitted; it
is the narration established by people
from whom it is inconceivable that
they would all collude on falsehood.
This type of true narration creates
necessary knowledge such as
knowledge of kings in the past times
and of distant countries” (al-Nasafi).
For example, no one denies the
existence of George Washington or
the Ottoman Empire. We accept the
existence of both, even though none
of us have directly witnessed either
one with any of our senses and no
amount of reasoning necessitates
their existence. Rather, we accept
them based on a multitude of sources
and different narratives about them.
The strength of this information is in
its great numbers. Such that its being
false becomes impossible. Instead of
a lengthy discussion on the merits
of mass transmission, I will suffice
by asking the reader to evaluate his
own daily activities with a pertinent
question: “How many truths do I hold
based on information known to me
through others?” You will find that
the basic truths are known to you not
because of your senses or reasoning,
but because you were informed of
it by others. Similarly, you are more
likely to believe news that is reported
by multiple media outlets than if
it had been reported by only one
source. You believe it because the
knowledge has reached you in a way
that to reject it is both unreasonable
and inconsistent with how you
function in your daily life.
The True Narration – Single
Transmission
Next, Imam al-Nasafi turns his
attention to the single-transmission
narration.1 Unlike mass transmission,
the single-transmission narration
is dependent on one or a few
individuals only. Generally, if
information is conveyed to you by
a single person, its authenticity is
only as good as its transmitter. In
other words, the strength of a single
transmitted narration relies on
the credibility and veracity of the
transmitter. In our day to day life,
we generally accept and rely on such
information knowing that it may be
incorrect because even an intelligent,
knowledgeable, reliable, and honest
person can be mistaken. That being
said, we routinely consider such
information to be indispensable. Even
the most skeptic or empiric of people
rely upon it when taking information
from experts and textbooks simply
because they either lack the expertise
or access to verify every piece of
information on their own directly. So,
we accept some narrations as absolute
fact if conveyed to us by trusted
experts.
As our discussion has focused
on knowledge that is certainly
true, Imam al-Nasafi does single
out a situation in which a single
transmission narration provides
absolute knowledge without the
possibility of mistake. He says,
“The second (true narration) is the
narration of a single Messenger
aided by a miracle, and it brings about
deductive knowledge. The knowledge
established by it resembles the
knowledge established by necessity, in
certainty and in permanence.” Briefly,
a miracle (i.e., mu`jiza) is a sign of
divine approval and protection of
the Messenger. One who is afforded
such protection must be veracious
and either protected from mistakes
or one who is corrected immediately
upon making a mistake. InshaAllah,
this idea will be further explored in a
future article.
Putting It Together
Everything we know falls into one
of these three sources of knowledge
(unimpaired senses, sound intellect,
and true narrations). Whether Muslim
or non-Muslim, in religious or secular
matters, we rely upon this framework
1Although termed single, it refers to anything not meeting the criterion for mass transmission.
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