The passing of knowledge

There is a famous Hadith that warns of a latter time, when knowledge will begin its exodus from the world. In that time, God:

...does not withdraw knowledge by extracting it from the hearts of men, rather He takes away the religious scholars. When no religious scholar remains, people take the ignorant as their leaders; these ignorant ones are questioned and give religious verdicts without knowledge. They are astray and lead others astray. [1]

It is instructive that the departure of knowledge is not the result of a literal taking away of knowledge from the hearts of ordinary men and women, for there is little knowledge there to begin with. What thirst-quenching sustenance is there in empty water-skins?

Knowledge is a combination of data and understanding. Data is abundant, understanding is not. Data grows exponentially, understanding retreats. Data is revered, methodology is scorned. With the departure of religious scholars, goes the distillation of data. Nobody to qualify and quantify data. All that remains is data, and the only methodology that laymen and laywomen can resort to in interpreting the data is a kind of half-hearted literalism and confused absolutism.

There is no more mortal blow than this.

---

Notes:
1. Bukhari, Hadith number 100, 7307