Shared Knowledge In Research

In numerous languages, the verb “to know” has two discrete first person forms: “I know” and “we know”. “I know” denotes the ownership of knowledge by one individual whereas “we know” refers to knowledge possessed by a group, a community. These two forms essentially draw the distinctive line between personal and shared knowledge. Personal knowledge is vitally dependent on personal experiences and is closely bound up with the certain circumstances of the individual such as special interests, values and so on. It contributes to, and is in turn influenced by, an individual’s own perspective. On the other hand, shared knowledge is, the upshot of more than one individual’s contribution and is possessed by groups of people (Dombrowski et al.). The

Throughout history, there have been two conflicting views about the way in which the message of Islam was conveyed to the world. One view states that the Prophet of Islam fought offensive wars and people were converted by force during the spread of Islam, whereas another view states that the only violence that was involved was for defensive purposes. Abul Ala Maududi was a highly influential Indian political philosopher and Islamic scholar in the 20th century. His view on the spread of Islam advocated that Muhammad had to use offensive force to spread Islam because no other way was effective enough: “The Messenger of Allah invited the Arabs to accept Islam for 13 years. He used every possible means of persuasion, gave them incontrovertible arguments and proofs, showed them miracles… …he used every possible means of communication, but his people refused to accept Islam. When every method of persuasion had failed, the Prophet took to the sword” (Ahmad). Conversely, the well-renowned British orientalist De Lacy O'Leary wrote the following: "History makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated” (O'Leary). Muhammad’s actions create guidelines for the way a Muslim should behave, thus the way these are described by influential key thinkers is vital. In a pool of shared knowledge, it is inevitable to encounter conflicting ideas, such as the ones above, and this may distort the accurate acquisition of personal knowledge. If a part of the pool of shared knowledge is stating that Islam was spread with swords by the Prophet, is it not