Learning Theories by Various Muslim Scholars - Zahoor Ahmad zahoorbk@hotmail.com

1. Zahoor Ahmad

2.  Islam prefers learning through insight and
considered it powerful inspire of learning
through conditioning, trial and error,
initiation and reasoning.
 Hazarat Ali (RA) said “ You should preach the
people according to their mental caliber so
that the wrong things about Allah and His
apostle are not convinces( Sahih Al Bukhari).

3.  The Quran repeatedly asks the believers to
use their reasons, observation and senses to
get at the true spirit of the religion instead
of blindly following pour dogma.
 Quran does not make it binding on the
believers to adopt a way of blind acceptance
and ask them time and again to use their
own reason.

4.  Asharites’ Theory of Learning
 Mutazilites’ Theory of Learning
 Mystic theory of Learning
 Ibn Khadun Theory of Learning

5.  Asharism is the name of a
philosophico-religious school of thought in
Islam that developed during the fourth and
fifth/tenth and eleventh centuries. This
movement was “an attempt not only to
purge Islam of all non-Islamic elements
which had quietly crept into it but also to
harmonize the religious consciousness with
the religious thought of Islam.”
 It laid the foundation of an orthodox Islamic
theology or orthodox Kalam.
 Ali bin Isma`il al-Ashari

6.  The Asha'irah are a tradition of mainstream (i.e
Sunni) Muslim theologizes who use the rational
sciences (philosophy, logic etc.) to prove the
existing beliefs of Islam.
 The Asha’irtes maintained that revelation is the
only source to learning, but the latter
considered learning have three degrees:
1. Learning of common man who is restricted by
sense experience and is satisfied by whatever
the people of authority tell him.
2. Scientific learning which does not accept
anything as valid expect that which is
established by rational proofs.

7. 3. Mystical learning which is achieved after a
long period of training and ends in a vision
of ultimate truth.
 This stage , in Al Ghazali’s view , cannot be
reached by reason but through illumination.

8.  Mu'tazilites are in opposition to the extreme
orthodox class, it made use of the dialectical
method for the defence of the authority of
divine revelation as applied to theological
subjects.
 The Mu'tazilah were philosophers with
heterodox/heretical beliefs. Their beliefs
were composed of absurdities like: “It is
obligatory for God to do X or Y” or claim that
the actions of the created beings are not
creations of God etc

9.  Mu'tazilite rationalists began to study the
Arabic translations of the works of Greek
physicists and philosophers made available to
them by the early 'Abbasid Caliphs,
particularly by al-Mansur and al-Mamun, they
began to apply the Greek philosophical
methods and ideas to the interpretation of
the basic principles of Islam as well.

10.  They divide the learning into two main
branches
 the learning of the external world
 The knowledge of that which is beyound the
physical phenomenon.
 It means learning is
1. sensory
2. Para sensory

11.  Sensory Learning: is acquired through five
senses. Every sense as Abdul Hadhail
maintains , is different from the other but
not opposite to them.( opposite- not
contradict)
 Sense perception results from the effect of
stimuli of the senses.
 They use three different terms, sensor, sense
and sensed.

12. Mu’tazilites considered
 learning through physical senses as the first
stage, which is followed by what they call
rational learning.
 did not agree with Plato in treating learning
recollection.
 learning is acquired gradually rather than
being instinctive.

13.  Al Ghazali represents the mystics who
philosophized their system, which was partly
against rationalists and partly against rigid
theologians.
 Learning is real end of life.
 The sources are not to be sought in sense
perception or reason but in direct
communication with Allah.
 Rumi out rightly rejects the efficacy of
learning through senses of reasons.

14.  According to it. Our learning is either
conveyed by senses or acquired by the
reason: that which lies between them- fancy
or imagination- is called mediating faculty.
 The sense then apprehend the particular or
the material from and reason conceives the
universal- the species and genera or the
spiritual form.

15.  All learning starts from sensations
transforming themselves gradually into
perceptions.
 Early stages of learning are completely
conditioned by an external reality or the
physical world, which acts as a stimulus.
 But the progress of learning in his view, is
that man should be able to think without
being conditioned by matter.

16.  Learning to be proceeding from the senses,
which are of two kinds: external and
internal.
 The external senses are five .corresponding
to these are internal senses of faculties,
retention of images, conception, imagination
and memory.
 These internal senses in man enable the soul
to manifest itself as progressive reason,
developing from human to angelic and then
to prophetic reason.

17.  Learning is attained in four stages
1. Acquiring of sensations of the external
objects and formations of their images.
2. Recognition of the sensed objects.
3. Arriving at the inner significance of the
meaning of the sense objects and finally.
4. Apprehending their nature in abstract.
According to him cognition results from the
action of senses, through the help of active
reason.

18.  He does not admit that senses may deceive
us in giving true knowledge like error of
parallax in case of sight. To correct these
mistakes, active reasons comes into action.
 Ikhwan consider that learning occurs in three
ways.
1. By speculation
2. By hearing as in the case of language
3. By insight-through seeing and rational
deduction.

19.  He considered three factors responsible for
social dynamics
 State
 Geographical environment
 Religion
 In addition to these education is an
important factor which affect the life of the
community.
 In his view what differentiate man from
animals in his social attitude, which is
achieved through thinking.

20.  Ibn Khaldun has three different position in
relation to the nature of human:
 By nature man is good and society corrupt
him.
 God has created both good and evil
tendencies in human being. But if man does
not culture his soul by accepting the
guidance of religion, he is prone to fall a
victim to the evil.
 Man is more inclined towards the good.

21.  In his theory of learning he gives due
consideration to sensation and sense
perceptions as well as human intellect as
agent of learning.
 He believes in the limitation of human
intellect.
 Reason cannot aptly deal with matters like
the oneness of God , nature of Prophet hood,
nature of God’s Attributes, etc.