Man’s curiosity is the origin of all human knowledge. Knowledge refers to bodies of facts and hypotheses that enables one to understand phenomena and to solve problems. Islam actively immensely encourages Muslims to seek knowledge.
The Almighty Allah in almost every page of the holy Quran praises knowledge and invites people to seek and learn the truth. Seeking knowledge in Islam is an obligation upon every Muslim. Therefore, a mature Muslim must personally seek the truth in the matter of principles in his/her religion.
Nonetheless, in early times a large body of human understanding was based on unsystematic, unreliable and unverified sources. The inadequacies of accumulating knowledge through these sources forced scholars to develop what is presently known as ‘scientific methods in research.’
1) ‘Research Methods’: Etymology and Definition
The term ‘research’ in English is from a French term ‘recercher’ to seek. The Oxford English dictionary defines research as: “the study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusion.”
The term used in Arabic is ‘al Bahth’ which means to search. It is also called ‘al-Tahqiq’ which is derived (driven) from the root ‘Haqqaqa’, to discover and confirm the truth. Therefore, research is a diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover a truth or revise facts.
