Classification of the Sciences in Ibn Khaldun's Era


An important distinction among the sciences in Ibn Khaldun's time was that between the natural (tabbiyya) sciences and the transmitted (naqaliyya) sciences. The former were also known as the philosophic sciences which were those that man progressed in through imagination, induction and deduction. They involved creating a mental model of reality to explain phenomena in the real world. In his era, logic, mathematics, physics and metaphysics were considered part of these rational sciences. 

In the philosophy or history that Ibn Khaldun created, he used observation of historical events to create insights through which he induced broad generalizations, i.e. about how many generations it takes for a nation to rise and fall. He also used deductive logic for predicting the course of history, Thus, the sociology that he introduced was strictly a tabbiyya / philosophic science.

In contrast, the other main branch of knowledge, naqqaliyya was the sacred knowledge of the deen. It covered information that reached us through divine communication in the form of revelation and the sayings/practices of the Prophet (SWAS). The use of reason in these sciences was limited and only possible after one accepted its tenets (aqaid). 

Whereas, the possibility of following faulty line of reasoning to come to an incorrect conclusion has always been a problem with philosophic sciences to this day, this was less so in this naqqaliyya / legal (sharii) science. Thus, if evidence from sharii science negated a conclusion from philosophic science, it always complied with the divine law. Philosophic sciences could only try to investigate elements of the legal science from behind a curtain as the latter science dealt with issues of the unseen which are only in divine knowledge.

Ibn Khaldun describes religious sciences being specific to different religious communities of the world to be like the native languages of different cultural communities. Whereas, the philosophic sciences were the common heritage of all of humanity (like English being a global language today), They did not belong to any one community, as anyone can contribute to them and anyone can benefit from them. 


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