As we mentioned earlier, knowledge is with Allah, who revealed what He wanted to of this knowledge to us through information in the Quran, sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH), and His creation. We are all familiar with the nature of knowledge revealed in the Quran and the sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH). What we are less familiar with is the nature of the knowledge revealed through His creations. The following verses from the Quran describe this:
“He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in truth. In the day when He saith: be! it is. His Word is the Truth, and His will be the Sovereignty on the day when the trumpet is blown. Knower of the Invisible and the Visible, He is the Wise, the Aware.” (Quran, 6:73).
“And Our word unto a thing, when We intend it, is only that We say unto it: be! and it is.” (Quran, 16:40).
We learn from the verses that in the beginning there was Allah, He who has no end or beginning, who started creation with the “word” Be! His word we are further told is “truth”, which in fact is knowledge. One may ask why Allah did not simply then use the term knowledge. This is because truth is the presentation of information in a manner that can be understood and verified; therefore Allah’s “word” is referred to as ‘truth” because it is knowledge presented to us in a way that can be understood, and verified through our experiences and what is around us.
Understanding and verifying the truth of the “word” is possible because it is information based on laws that occur in sequence or stages. Hence, Information, laws and stages are the three attributes of His knowledge. This is similar to a person conveying information through speech. If the information is delivered using the guidelines or rules of the language in which it is been conveyed, then and only then can the listener understand it and verify it. Otherwise it amounts to what we call gibberish even if it is the truth or makes sense to the person conveying it.
For example; if you have not left your house all day and you receive a visitor who tells you that “the weather today is hotter than yesterday”, you understand what he or she has said because it follows the guidelines or rules of grammar for English including in the sequence of the words. You can then verify what the visitor is claiming by stepping outside to feel it for yourself.
However, if the visitor comes to you and says: “today yesterday is than weather hotter” you may have difficulty figuring out what the message is, let alone verifying it. Therefore, Allah’s word is the truth because it is information based on laws that occur in stages that we can study, learn from and understand. This is why, in many instances in the Quran, He exhorts us to go out and verify the truth of His knowledge:
“Look, therefore, at the prints of Allah's mercy (in creation): how He quickeneth the earth after her death. Lo! He verily is the Quickener of the Dead, and He is Able to do all things.” (Quran 30:50)
“Say (O Muhammad): Travel in the land and see how He originated creation, then Allah bringeth forth the later growth. Lo! Allah is Able to do all things.” (Quran, 29:20)
“And in your creation, and all the beasts that He scattereth in the earth, are portents for a folk whose faith is sure.” (Quran, 43:19)
“He it is Who sendeth down water from the sky, and therewith We bring forth buds of every kind; We bring forth the green blade from which We bring forth the thick-clustered grain; and from the date-palm, from the pollen thereof, spring pendant bunches; and (We bring forth) gardens of grapes, and the olive and the pomegranate, alike and unlike. Look upon the fruit thereof, when they bear fruit, and upon its ripening. Lo! herein verily are portents for a people who believe.” (Quran 6:99)
“And in the earth are portents for those whose faith is sure.” (Quran 51:20)
Elsewhere in the Quran Allah further elaborates how He creates and maintains His creation through the law aspect of His Knowledge, giving order and harmony to all that He created. Providing us with a glimpse into how His laws operate.
“And He it is Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. They float, each in an orbit.” (Quran, 21:33)
“Allah (Himself) is Witness that there is no Allah save Him. And the angels and the men of learning (too are witness). Maintaining His creation in justice, there is no Allah save Him the Almighty, the Wise. Quran.”(Quran, 3:18)
“And if thou wert to ask them: Who created the heavens and the earth, and constrained the sun and the moon (to their appointed work)? they would say: Allah. How then are they turned away?” (Quran, 29:61)
“He hath created the heavens and the earth with truth. He maketh night to succeed day, and He maketh day to succeed night, and He constraineth the sun and the moon to give service, each running on for an appointed term. Is not He the Mighty, the Forgiver? (Quran, 39:5)
The verses above make it clear that it is He who created and maintains His creation through justice. The laws aspect of His knowledge serves the purpose of regulating the behavior of creation so that night does not over take day and day does not take over night. This is similar in nature to laws in the Quran, also meant to regulate our behavior for the better.
We learn also in the Quran that creation occurs through stages, and all creations live their existence through stages, as we can see from the following verses:
“And verily We created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in six days, and naught of weariness touched Us.” (Quran, 50:38)
“When He created you by (divers) stages?” (Quran, 71:14)
“He it is Who appointed the sun a splendour and the moon a light, and measured for her stages, that ye might know the number of the years, and the reckoning. Allah created not (all) that save in truth. He detaileth the revelations for people who have knowledge.” (Quran, 10:5)
“ O mankind! if ye are in doubt concerning the Resurrection, then lo! We have created you from dust, then from a drop of seed, then from a clot, then from a little lump of flesh shapely and shapeless, that We may make (it) clear for you. And We cause what We will to remain in the wombs for an appointed time, and afterward We bring you forth as infants, then (give you growth) that ye attain your full strength. And among you there is he who dieth (young), and among you there is he who is brought back to the most abject time of life, so that, after knowledge, he knoweth naught. And thou (Muhammad) seest the earth barren, but when We send down water thereon, it doth thrill and swell and put forth every lovely kind (of growth).” (Quran, 22:5)
Days refer to intervals or stages in the creation itself as verse 10:5 confirms. Thus from the above we learn that the creation of the universe or heaven and earth occurred in six stages. We also learn that in the universe, creations such as the sun and moon live their existence in stages, up to the end of all existence or the reckoning. We further learn that human life in the womb occurs in stages. Therefore from the above and from the very meaning of “in truth” we know that God created from His knowledge using information and laws, through stages.
Hence creation itself occurred “in truth” in a manner that allows us to investigate, understand and verify it against our corresponding experiences so that we may learn from it. Thus we were able to learn about gravity because of the systematic nature of the information by which it was created, which allows us to investigate and learn about its characteristics. We are able to verify the truth of this information because we can see that what goes up must come down. This is one of the marvels and miracles of the Quran; every word is precisely used to convey what was intended as intended. Therefore the word (Be!) connotes God’s intention, which contained the knowledge needed for fulfilling what was intended in the form of information and laws through stages derived from this knowledge, and it is the means by which everything was created, functions, and its existence managed...(From, The Theory of Knowledge and Human Behavior, The al ummah project)