现代的知识观是一种反常。认为知识可以存在于一张纸上、一本书里、一块硬盘中，或是数字云端，这并不是伊斯兰传统所依托的那种知识。

The modern concept of knowledge is an anomaly. The notion that knowledge is something that can be found on a sheet of paper, in a book, in a hard drive, in the digital cloud, this is not the kind of knowledge that the Islamic tradition is based on.

真正的知识无法脱离活生生的人而存在。例如，安拉借天使吉卜利勒向使者ﷺ降示启示。先知ﷺ通过陪伴传承他的知识，也就是教导他的同伴们，同伴们不仅从他的言语中学习，也从他的行为、他的举止和他崇高的品德等方面获得教导。因此，人是知识的承载者和传递者，伊斯兰传统通过“伊斯纳德”（isnad）这一概念将其制度化，即传述链。

True knowledge cannot be abstracted away from living, breathing people. For example, Allah sent revelation by way of the angel Jibril to the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم passed on his knowledge through companionship — namely, by teaching his companions, who took instruction not only from his words but also his actions, his behavior, his blessed manners, etc. Human beings are thus the conduits of knowledge and the Islamic tradition has operationalized that through the concept of isnad, i.e., chain of transmission.

要声称真正掌握了“علم”（知识），也就是真主所启示的知识，一个人就必须知道这份知识在数百年间经过的每一位传授者，直到它通过自己的老师传到自己这里。仅仅阅读书籍或网络内容并不能替代这一点。充其量，这只是在熟悉文本，这当然也有其益处，前提是读法得当。但要成为一名“عالم”（学者），要就某个存在争议的宗教问题作出权威性的论断，往往需要“إسناد”（传承链）。正是通过这一传承，真主保全了宗教。

To claim to truly know something of `ilm, i.e., what Allah has revealed, one has to know all the persons through which that knowledge has passed over the centuries until it arrived at you by way of your teacher. Reading from a book or the internet is not a substitute for this. At most, one is merely familiarizing oneself with texts, which, don’t get me wrong, has its own benefits if done correctly. But to be an `alim, to speak authoritatively about a religious issue of contention often requires isnad. This is how Allah has preserved the deen.

正因如此,先知穆罕默德ﷺ说道:

And this is why the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said,

我们可以将此与现代的知识观加以对比。现代知识通常没有道德层面的内涵，并且可以被抽象出来，与具体的人相分离。你可以去大学的物理课堂看看，教授是否会提及任何历史，讲到这些公式来自何处、由谁传授给了谁，等等。也许这种与历史的割裂对于科学而言尚可接受，但对于一个人的宗教而言则不然。一切宗教知识的源头都在过去，因此，若与过去割裂，便是与那些知识割裂。穆斯林必须小心，不要把现代科学的知识观与真正的宗教知识混为一谈。

We can contrast this with the modern conception of knowledge, which usually has no moral component and can be abstracted as separate from people. Go to a university physics class and see if the professor mentions any history, where those formulas have come from, who taught them to whom, and so on. Perhaps that disconnect with history is fine for the sciences, but not for one’s religion. The source of all deeni knowledge is in the past, so to cut ourselves off from the past is to cut ourselves off from that knowledge. Muslims have to be careful not to conflate the modern, scientific understanding of knowledge with true religious knowledge.