It is chic nowadays to
berate Islam not only as the source of problems faced by Muslims, but also of
ALL problems. According to the proponents of this absurdity, Islam
must be abandoned and replaced by secular humanism in order for Muslims to
survive. A recent posting in an e-forum stated: "Muslims
saw the light of science and glory exactly when they were living under liberal
and progressive rulers like those Abbasid kings, i.e. when Muslims were away
from the Islamic bondage and were allowed to think freely. Likewise, Christian
Europe saw the light of science and modernity when they came out of the bondage
of orthodox Christianity (through renaissance) and were allowed to think freely.
And Muslims lost its science and glory when Muslims entered again in the bondage
of religion Islam and lost the power of free thinking."
How
accurate are such assertions? Is Islam against science? Is it responsible for
the current sad state of affairs prevalent in many Muslim nation-states?
Before
answering these questions, let me state at the outset that science, as the
totality of human knowledge regarding natural phenomena, is as old as human
civilization. However, as an organized body of systematic knowledge, based
consciously on certain principles, it is a recent phenomenon. Modern science is
based on the assumptions that (i) Nature is a self-contained system and for it
to work, the principle of Godhead is not to be invoked (Nietzsche even proclaimed
'God is dead'), and that (ii) natural process exhibits universal laws of uniform
behavior.
Without
going into a detailed discussion about the philosophy of science and the
divergent opinions around its building blocks, the underlying hypothesis of
modern science had been the belief in universal causation, viz., the belief that
there is a cause and effect relationship. That is certain phenomena are the
effect of certain other phenomena that are the causes of the former, and that
the same cause produces the same effect. Philosophers,
in general, and philosophers of science, in particular, have been busy
explaining the notion of 'cause.'
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The
Muslim Scripture and Science:
The
Quran - is not a book of science, and this, in spite of so many verses that
incite people to think, to observe, to rationalize, to use sound mind. Nor is it
a book of philosophy. It does not propound the Theory of Relativity or Quantum
Mechanics, or other scientific facts that are recently discovered. To look for
scientific treatises in the Quran, or indeed in any Scripture, is futile. As
rightly pointed out by Professor Shamsi in his lecture at the International
Conference on Science in Islamic Polity in Islamabad (1983), Quran is not even a
book in the ordinary sense of the word, for it is not meant to be read as one
would read al-Bairouni's Qanun al-Masudi or Newton's Principia,
nor is it meant to adorn the bookshelves. [1]
The
Quran embodies an open talk between man and his creator. It suggests a cause and
effect relationship, that a law of requital is at work at every sphere of life,
and that he has only to keep it in view if he has to avoid the pitfalls of life,
and live in peace with his own self and at peace with his world of external
relations. [2]
In other words, the Quran's main purpose is to tell us about the
relationships between: God and man, man and man, and man and his subconscious.
It is a Book that guides us to conduct our lives in this world. Its ideology
instills the spirit of humanism into man and protects him from every form of
exclusiveness, as is summed up in the directive, 'Believe and act righteously.'
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