AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY OF ILM AL-WAHY; IN THE LIGHT OF QUR’ANIC VERSES

Abstract

Allah (SWT) has elevated man to the highest position in all creation and bestowed upon him the bounty of reason and knowledge. An in-depth study of knowledge itself reveals that there are two forms and ranks of knowledge in the universe; one is the divinely revealed instinctive level of awareness about reality, and the other is the earned and learned behavior based upon knowledge, that is gained through urge, effort, and experience. Human beings, apart from the innate divine blessing of knowledge, learn through sense experience, reason, and intuitive thinking. The higher form of knowledge is divine transmission through revelation to the Prophets. The heavenly revealed knowledge has been preserved by a human being in the form of Sacred Books, especially a body of knowledge about reality in the form of religion, namely in the Holy Bible and the Holy Qur’an.