Al-Risala fi Tahqiq al-'Ilm wa-al-Ma'lum الرسالة في تحقيق العلم والمعلوم

Al-Risalah fi Tahqiq al-'Ilm wa al-Ma'lum (Epistle on the Investigation of Knowledge and the Known) is a celebrated treatise on Islamic philosophy and theology by the renowned nineteenth-century scholar, logician, and philosopher Allamah Mulla Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi (d. 1278 AH / 1861 CE). This critical edition, prepared by Shaykh Ghulam Haydar Khairabadi, makes a classic work of the Khairabadi intellectual tradition accessible to modern students and researchers.

The Author

A leading authority in the rational sciences (al-ma'qulat), Mulla Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi was among the foremost scholars of logic (mantiq), philosophy (hikmah), and scholastic theology (kalam) in the Indian Subcontinent. The Khairabadi school became renowned for its rigorous analytical approach to complex philosophical and theological questions through precise logical reasoning.

The Book

The treatise examines one of the central issues in Islamic epistemology: the nature of knowledge ('ilm) and its relationship to the object known (al-ma'lum). It discusses the definition and reality of knowledge, the relationship between mental cognition and external reality, the concept of mental existence (al-wujud al-dhihni), and the classical debates among philosophers and theologians concerning the nature of human and divine knowledge. The author critically engages the views of the Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophers, as well as Ash'ari and Maturidi theologians, while also responding to later commentators such as al-Dawwani and Mulla Sadra.

Who is This Book For?

Edited by Shaykh Ghulam Haydar Khairabadi, this edition is based on a careful comparison of manuscript sources and is supplemented with explanatory annotations, biographical notes, and an informative introduction that places the work within the broader Khairabadi tradition of Islamic rational sciences. It is an important resource for advanced students of logic, kalam, philosophy, and the intellectual history of the Indian Subcontinent.