Why does it take so long to rediscover lost knowledge?

Because all knowledge is a search into the hidden. What we discover was always there, only unknown, and this search takes time but is never wasted.

One might think that what was once known should be easy to find again. It is not so simple. Knowledge that survives in no book and no formula has to be searched for just like knowledge that no one has ever had. The buildings of the ancients stand before us, but the path to them is buried.

The Holy Qur’an describes knowledge as a path into the hidden, in Arabic ghaib. This means what exists but what we cannot yet see. Whoever does research reaches into this hidden realm and brings a piece of it into the present. We then call it new knowledge.

Looked at closely, no knowledge is truly new. The laws by which a stone falls or a star moves always existed. We simply could not grasp them. So it is no surprise that rediscovery takes a long time. Every discovery is a step out of the unknown, and such a step cannot be forced.

The second verse above shows that people grasp of God’s knowledge only as much as He allows. That does not make the search pointless. On the contrary, we are taught to ask for more knowledge and to keep searching. The search into what seems empty keeps bringing something forth. It is never wasted time.