A Quranic Response to Scientism: Reclaiming the Spiritual Dimensions of Knowledge

Abstract

Scientism - the view that only empirically verifiable knowledge counts as genuine knowledge - has increasingly shaped contemporary intellectual discourse, often relegating metaphysical, moral, and spiritual claims to the status of subjective opinion. This article offers a systematic Quranic response to scientism by reconstructing an Islamic epistemology that affirms empirical inquiry while rejecting epistemic exclusivism. Using qualitative hermeneutic analysis of selected Qur’anic passages alongside comparative philosophical critique, the study first traces the philosophical roots of scientism from logical positivist verificationism to contemporary ontological naturalism and then identifies key explanatory limits that arise when empirical method is treated as a total worldview particularly in relation to teleology, normative ethics, and consciousness. The article then articulates a multidimensional Qur’anic framework grounded in tawhid as epistemic integration, mapping a hierarchy of being (mulk/malakut) and a hierarchy of knowing that integrates the senses (hawas), reason ('aql), and the heart (qalb), with revelation (khabar sadiq) as an authoritative source for the unseen (ghayb). It argues that the Qur’anic “Signs Approach” (ayat) re-situates nature as a semiotic field that discloses meaning rather than inert data, and that tazkiyah functions as an epistemic virtue shaping the quality of knowledge attained. Finally, the paper extends this critique to contemporary technicism by distinguishing data-processing intelligence from hikmah (wisdom), proposing a Sacred Science orientation that aligns scientific and technological development with amanah, khilafah, and maqasid-guided moral purpose.