Document Type : Research Paper
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Abstract
Knowledge in the absolute sense of awareness is divided into two kinds of presential and acquired. Three criteria for this division are: intervention of the human faculties or lack of such intervention, the existence or lack of a mediator, and with respect to the meaningfulness or existence of knowledge. It was Farabi who first divided acquired knowledge intotwo further categories of conception and perception. Other Islamic thinkers have advocated Farabi's classification and have studied it more than other taxonomies. Acquired knowledge is also classified into certain and non-certaintypes. Denotatively, certain knowledge means removal of doubt, and as an expression, it has several meanings all of which share the notion of stability and continuity. Illusion and doubt are the preliminary concepts guiding us to the meaning of certainty, and are not of equal significance compared to the notion of certainty; they are mostly applied in rational sciences. Dogma is a word closely related to certainty and denotes a preponderant belief. However, in some views, its being susceptible to distortion and the fact that its opposite may also be possible accord unreliability to it and a lower status compared to certainty. For Islamic thinkers, reliable knowledge is one that is comprehensive, cannot be falsified and will not fall into decline. Many of Islamic thinkers deem knowledge and certainty to be the same. Religious documents such as the holy Qur'an and the narrations of the immaculate Imams accord a high status to certainty. The Qur'an does not consider non-certain argument as valid and strongly insistson reasoning and certain evidence. The narrations on this subject also emphasize the importance of certainty and its value. The holy Qur'an and the narrations have identifieddifferent ranks of certainty all of which enjoy the status of certainty, but at the same time have some features that distinguish them from other ranks. Intellectual certainty, intuitive certainty and real certainty are three ranks of certainty.
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