“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” — Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher

Knowledge is information acquired from external sources. Knowing, on the other hand, emerges from within and determines how facts are comprehended. Knowledge has no value without knowing, while knowing can exist without knowledge.

A child knows how to recognise parents, communicate and play without any formal instructions. Village wisdom knows the right time to sow plants, or cure with herbs without knowledge of botany or biology, relying on collective memory and connection to nature. Most of us know how to change a lightbulb or operate a computer without knowledge of how electricity is produced or how binary technology works.

In Europe, knowledge gained priority over knowing around the scientific revolution of the 17th century, believing rational knowledge was superior to subjective experience. Other civilisations, such as that of India or the Muslim world, continued to see both knowledge and knowing as deeply connected.

The very first Quranic verse revealed was about the centrality of knowledge to human existence: Allah taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not. Yet the Truth of the message was to be understood by intuition, knowing,........

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