AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NEW AGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ISLAMIC EPISTEMOLOGY: A STUDY OF THE WORK INSIDE THE NEW AGE BY RANDALL BAER
al-Qanatir International Journal of Islamic Studies April 27, 2026 Mohd Aiman Barudin, Mohamad Hasmimie Mohd Yusof
The New Age Movement (NAM) is a modern spiritual phenomenon promoting self-development, non-religious spirituality, consciousness science, and holistic health. Analyzing Randall Baer's Inside the New Age through Islamic epistemology, the study finds that NAM's epistemology is subjective: it rejects revelation as a source of knowledge and instead elevates inner experience as the absolute truth. It promotes pantheism, monism, and self-deification, which contradict Islamic principles of tawhid, revelation, and the hierarchy of knowledge. According to Al-Attas, this represents an epistemological crisis and loss of adab, placing humans as the center of truth and denying God as the absolute source of knowledge. The movement's foundations cannot be Islamized and fundamentally conflict with Islamic creed and worldview, addressing challenges of modern spirituality for the Muslim community in Malaysia.