Qur’anic Research Methodology: Deriving the Process of Knowledge from the Qur’an

The Qur’an, described within itself as Umm al-Kitāb (“the Mother of the Book,” Qur’an: 13:39), is not only a compendium of divine revelation but also a complete epistemological and research framework that has yet to be fully explored by contemporary scholarship. While Muslim theologians and philosophers such as Al-Ghazālī, Al-Fārābī, and Ibn Rushd addressed aspects of Islamic epistemology, no comprehensive model has been systematically derived directly from the Qur’an’s own linguistic and conceptual structure. This study, therefore, reconstructs a Qur’anic Research Methodology by extracting its embedded scientific process—Observation (naẓar), Reflection (tafakkur, tadabbur), Validation (burhān, bayyina), Synthesis (ḥikmah), and Application (ʿamal, īmān). Using a qualitative hermeneutic methodology based on thematic exegesis, the study analyses relevant Qur’anic terms and verses to identify an internally coherent logic of discovery, reasoning, and verification. The findings reveal that the Qur’an promotes critical inquiry, empirical observation, and ethical verification as divine imperatives, linking faith, reason, and ethics in a continuous process of knowledge (ʿilm → yaqīn → ḥaqq al-yaqīn). It also uncovers the Qur’an’s cyclical model of knowledge, where understanding leads to conviction, and conviction leads to actionable wisdom (ḥikmah). This research contributes by proposing an integrated Qur’anic epistemological framework, offering a foundational paradigm for contemporary Islamic education, scientific thought, and research methodology. Future studies should operationalise this model across disciplines—bridging revelation and empirical science—to revive the Qur’an’s original vision of knowledge as both a spiritual pursuit and a systematic scientific inquiry.