The Quran

أَمَّن هُوَ قانِتٌ آناءَ اللَّيلِ ساجِدًا وَقائِمًا يَحذَرُ الآخِرَةَ وَيَرجو رَحمَةَ رَبِّهِ ۗ قُل هَل يَستَوِي الَّذينَ يَعلَمونَ وَالَّذينَ لا يَعلَمونَ ۗ إِنَّما يَتَذَكَّرُ أُولُو الأَلبابِ

Ali Unal

Is he who worships God devoutly in the watches of the night, prostrating and standing, who fears the Hereafter and hopes for the mercy of his Lord (to be likened to that other)? Say: “Are they ever equal, those who know and those who do not know?”¹ Only the people of discernment will reflect (on the distinction between knowledge and ignorance, and obedience to God and disobedience,) and be mindful.

Though the verse declares the general truth that knowledge and ignorance cannot be alike, and those who know and those who do not know are never equal, here it draws particular attention to the fact that those who have true knowledge of God and act accordingly, and those who are devoid of knowledge of Him and, therefore, either disbelieve in Him or associate partners with Him, cannot be equal. Any knowledge based on knowledge of God is true knowledge, and in both worlds, it is beneficial to those who have it. However, anyone who lacks (true) knowledge of God, and cannot find a point of confirmation in his or her heart through which any knowledge that he or she obtains from the outer world and the inner world adds to or strengthenshis or her faith, is ignorant. And even if he or she has absorbed thousands of branches of science, his or her ignorance is only compounded by that science. (Also see 33: 72, note 38.)