ILM broadly translates into knowledge but the translation of the root word in Arabic علم made of the root characters ع - ل - م has a much wider connotation than its synonyms in English and other Western languages. ‘Knowledge’ falls short of expressing all the aspects of 'ilm. Knowledge in the Western world means information about something, divine or corporeal, while 'ilm is an all-embracing term covering theory, action and education.
The importance of this term in Muslim civilisation and Islam is far-reaching and affects every aspect of a Muslim’s life.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: “A servant of God will remain standing on the Day of Judgment until he is questioned about his (time on earth) and how he used it; about his knowledge and how he utilised it; about his wealth and from where he acquired it and in what (activities) he spent it; and about his body and how he used it.” Hadith - Al-Tirmidhi
Allah ﷻ has given all humans the faculty of reason and argument and He ﷻ orders humans to spend time thinking carefully and pondering upon His creation as a sign of His power and glory. Thus ‘ilm is the foundation on which a Muslim professes true faith.
We are encouraged to seek ‘ilm and to spread ‘ilm to others repeatedly and the total number of verses in the Quran in which ‘ilm or its derivatives and associated words are used is 704.
Some of the words which are derived from the root word ‘ilm and give deeper meaning to the work of ILM UK are:
Ta’lim meaning Education, the primary objective of International Learning Network (ILM)
Mu’allim meaning a teacher. We have numerous teachers at our schools sharing knowledge with thousands of students.
‘Aalim meaning scholar or scientist which are our intended outputs from many of our schools throughout the world. The plural is ‘Ulama which is another derivative of ‘ilm
‘Alamia meaning world and ILM UK is working throughout the world spreading ‘ilm
‘Uloom meaning school or place of learning where ILM UK is teaching thousands of students
So ‘ilm is not just our name but also one of the key motivations for the work we do here at International Learning Movement (ILM).
We have numerous educational programmes for you to support. Please support our work and become part of this movement today to spread ‘ilm throughout the world.
