The basic course of the School of Humanology is like the first grade of elementary school, an opportunity to learn basic concepts, to learn letters and symbols that we read and write with in higher grades. Although we do not truly understand the importance of learning these symbols and letters until we become proficient in reading. In the basic course of the School of humanology, we embark on a journey that begins with self-knowledge. We are going to learn what the concepts like self-knowledge, humanology, knowledge, perfection, wish, desire, and love are.
However, answering this question is not so simple. We do not know ourselves well and as a result, we doubt the reason for the existence of human and become under illusion. We have tried to find the answer to this question with the limited knowledge we have of ourselves, relying on human knowledge and intellect and have presented various theories and hypotheses in response to this question.
Interestingly, Islam claims that the only way for humans to know God is to know themselves. “Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord.” This sentence may be the most fascinating claim of Islam. The hidden meaning in this sentence is that true self-knowledge is not a difficult and complicated task, and anyone can gain knowledge by contemplating about himself, which elevates him to the recognition of God. Now the question is that, if that is the case, why human knowledge has never been able to achieve a comprehensive and practical knowledge of human beings?
Nothingness and none-existence are the end some people believe in. Does human being turn into nothing following the days of life and is destroyed with the death of their bodies?
What is love? Who is the lover? and what are the attributes of the True Beloved of the human being? How can we reach our True Beloved and achieve lasting peace and happiness?
Is religion a set of rules and dos and don'ts that limit us in life? Why do we need religion at all?
Knowing ourself, knowing God, knowing different stages of life with its beginning and its end is impossible without having a complete knowledge of the human being. But what is a human being? Is our current knowledge about ourselves perfect and enlightening?
Various fields of human knowledge have long been striving to know the world and regulate the relationship between humans and nature. However, no field of knowledge can claim to have fully understood even one natural phenomenon or discovered its relationship within the ecosystem with other creatures. Nevertheless, is it not a great expectation to expect humans to know themselves, while we have the least resources to study the human body and have the least information about our own existence among the phenomena of the world? There are so many ambiguities and questions about human beings that modern knowledge has set aside anything beyond the natural realm and declared helpless in understanding anything beyond the material realm. But is human existence limited only to this material dimension?
If we say that with the progress of sciences and over time, the unknowns of human existence are being unveiled, we must accept that Islam, as it claims, is not a comprehensive religion for all eras, but rather specific to an advanced human who will come in the future. Until the time when technology advances us to a complete and comprehensive knowledge of ourselves, generations will be born and die without even reaching a satisfying answer to the very question of “what death is!”
Perhaps we should set aside prejudice and accept that humans have truly gone astray in their self-knowledge. The hypotheses and theories in various branches, from empirical sciences to humanities, are revised day by day. The theories that once gave meaning to human life and gave direction to the lives of millions of humans have now turned into childish assumptions and are no more reliable. Human lives have found specific meanings affected by scientists’ theories in different periods and have failed other meanings to the extent that today, the understanding of human sciences about humans is limited to their bodies, needs, and experiences related to them; any experience that does not fit into these dimensions are disregarded.
In the basic course of the School of Humanology, we intend to shine light on the existence of humans. We want to leave all our assumptions and knowledge outside of this school and study humans without any bias. Not as a natural species, but we want each of us to study our own existence. In the basic course of the School of Humanology, we want to see ourselves in the mirror of our own existence. Because the most comprehensive knowledge that we can acquire is in our own existence and finds meaning within ourselves. In the basic course of the School of Humanology, we want to learn to become friends and reconcile with ourselves, and every lasting reconciliation requires knowledge. So here, we want to know ourselves.
We want to know what is our status in the wide world of life. What is death and what is the meaning of life? The basic course of the School of Humanology has six grades, and in each grade, we learn some part of the initial knowledge to confront ourselves. We are humans. Now what is a human?
