Comparative Investigation of Definition and Importance of Knowledge in Islamic and Western Viewpoints

According to the Western’s viewpoint, achieving a competitive advantage is the aim of acquiring and managing of knowledge. Conversely in Islamic viewpoint, perfection and approaching Allah is the goal of knowledge acquisition. This research studies differences between these viewpoints through two aspects of them i.e. importance and definition of knowledge. Therefore, using content analysis and inferential methods, 100 ayahs of the holy Quran and 1200 Hadith are investigated. Next, the studied parameters in Islamic viewpoint are classified in two category titled “Importance of Knowledge” and “Definition of knowledge management”. Then, the parameters are compared with their correspondent in western literature. The results showed that according to the Western, knowledge matures by applying them and commons in a skillful and specialize manner. Moreover, in some cases absolute ignorance is considered as knowledge. On the contrary, in Islam, knowledge is defined as light and absolute truth that can guide people. Then in Islam, acquiring knowledge is mentioned as a duty and worship.