Addition to knowledge is an individual’s duty (Fardh Ain) while its propagation is the collective responsibility (Fardh Kifayah).
Knowledge is a set (Group of Unique Items) of principles (Universal Facts) that reveals the truth (Design of Allah) and guide human behaviour. When Allah created man, He made it special. That specialty was the knowledge. The question arises what was special in the knowledge which was so far not given to any other creature. The fact was that none of the creatures was able to add up to the knowledge given to them. Angels were having specific knowledge to do certain acts and they performed their deeds in full conformity to the knowledge given to them and as per the desire and will of Allah similar to a computer or robot performing without any flaw the act designed for them.
But the major distinction in their knowledge and human knowledge was that the earlier one could not be flourished or developed farther than what was granted while the later had the capability of flourishing, growing, propagating and developing. We can see in this world that it is mankind only which not only has adapted to the changing times but has shown the brilliance of mind by developing knowledge in stages. If we recall the fire age, even igniting fire was a wonder. It might have been thought as a pleasure and gift of Allah. Today we still believe that fire is caused by the mercy of Allah but we know how it happens or what the factors of its ignition are.
This shows that the human mind has added knowledge from time to time revealing the design of Allah thereby approaching closer to All-knowledgeable Allah. In this context producers-product theory may be elucidated to understand what Al-Ghazali meant by “Allah ki Marzi” when he emphasised that all the action emanated from Allah and humans were agent only and what Kurt Godel meant by inconsistencies of the complete system. Producers-product theory as opposed to causal theory beautifully explains this phenomenon. The theory proposed by Singer and propagated by Churchman and Ackoff explains that it is not a single cause which creates effect. A number of factors are required to produce an effect. For example, a corn seed cannot be the only factor of the corn plant.
The required soil, temperature, and water as well as other factors are relevant for the germination of the corn plant. It is the very object of human being to identify those producers to reveal the design of Allah. But one may get a doubt that at a point of time we may know all the producers and thus the entire design of Allah may be known to us, assuming the different producers as parts of a pie chart. So once the entire pie is known, one may be all-knowledgeable making Allah and His Marzi to vanish. But this may never happen because the circle of pie will extend further as the next spiral of a spring and again the Marzi of Allah will prevail though in the next spiral. This is what Ghazali had thought when he expressed that there will always be the Marzi of Allah and Kurt Godel had thought when he expressed that a system to be consistent must be incomplete.
By knowing the design of Allah, one does not tread into the domain of Allah rather inches closer to Allah. Allah is not shorn of our increase in knowledge. His greatness and attributes are beyond our comprehension. With increase in knowledge, however, we better ourselves in appreciation of Allah’s attributes and their magnificence.
This special faculty of the human being, therefore, mandates it to strive for making additions to the knowledge through reflections and descending these additions for furtherance. Even though these reflections can never be at par with the revelation, one should not forget that all the knowledge flows from All-knowledgeable Allah and the test of its propriety is on the intention of the pursuer not on the knowledge itself.