Keywords
Doctor Faustus, Ethics of Knowledge, Islamic Thought, Tragedy
Abstract
This study aims to read this dramatic text through an ethical framework of knowledge, drawing upon interpretations from the Islamic intellectual tradition and beyond. The play presents epistemic growth not as an unqualified virtue but as a double-edged weapon: Faustus’s pursuit of ultimate perfection and absolute power ultimately leads him to ruin, for he overlooks that no end can be achieved without submission to divine will and acknowledgment of human limitations. By comparing this with the Islamic conception of knowledge as inherently tied to morality, responsibility, and piety, the analysis highlights both convergences and divergences in the transformation of knowledge—from mere contemplation to articulated discourse, and vice versa. The study also emphasizes the Sufi perspective, as seen in the works of al-Ghazālī and Ibn ʿArabī, which stresses the ethical and spiritual boundaries of knowledge. Moreover, the Qurʾānic narrative, particularly Sūrat al-Fajr, is examined as a textual entry point affirming the ethical limits of human knowledge. In this way, the research underscores how literary texts, when read alongside religious thought, can provide renewed intellectual insights and critical approaches to the interplay between knowledge and ethics.
