Although are
submissions are edited, the views espressed by the author
are not necessarily the views of the Khwarzimic Science
Society as an Organization.
-------- KSS Note.
Also by Salman
Khalid: Jalal-ud-Din
Rumi
About 700 years ago, Islamic civilization almost
completely lost the will and ability to do science. Since
that time, apart from attempts during the Ottoman period
and in Mohammed Ali's Egypt, there have been no
significant efforts at recovery. Many Muslims acknowledge,
and express profound regret at, this fact. Indeed, this
is the major preoccupation of the modernist faction in
Islam. But most traditionalists feel no regret -- in fact,
many welcome this loss because, in their view, keeping a
distance from science helps preserve Islam from
corrupting, secular influences. This was the sort of
thinking which led to the downfall of scientific thought
and discovery within the Islamic world in the first place,
the ever present clash between religion and Science. It
can be safely stated that the last 500 year have been the
age of reason and logic. This is true, at least for the
western world. It has been an age when scientific
reasoning has become a gauge by which all other beliefs
and practices have been judged. In this paper, I shall
try to address some very basic issues coming to life out
of this state of affairs with respect to Islam as a
religion and its responses to the new age of reason. My
second thrust, would be to point out the dangers arising
from judging Islam in the light of science, or vice versa.
Lastly but most importantly I shall attempt to harmonize
religious beliefs in Islam with secular scientific
thought.
The Age Of Reason
and the Islamic World’s Response
Also see Muslims in Science
Around the 17th
century, the Islamic world was in chaos. Muslim armies
were being routed around the planet. From the gates of
Vienna to the South East Asia, Islamic power was receding.
The Muslims still fought just as bravely as they always
did, but their adversary, in the form of a Europe which
was experiencing a scientific renaissance was vastly
superior to it in science and technology. What seemed to
be a slow rot quickly turned into a complete rout. And
within a span of two centuries, nearly every Muslim state
on the planet was either colonized or was indirectly
under Colonial rule of the European powers.
The shock was bitter,
very bitter. A civilization which had been a super power
in its own right for almost 800 years now found itself in
a bottomless chasm. The response was twofold. Among the
orthodoxy, the response was to find a form of Islam
‘Uncorrupted’ by scientific reason for
scientific reason now represented the West. Hence Infidel
knowledge, hence ‘haram’.
In fact this mode of
thinking was nothing new. It had started long way back
and was probably the main reason for the impasse Muslims
found themselves at the beginning of the 18th century. In
the 12th century, Muslim orthodoxy reawakened,
spearheaded by the Arab cleric Imam
Al-Ghazali. Al-Ghazali
championed revelation over reason , predestination over
free will. He damned mathematics as being against Islam,
an intoxicant of the mind that weakened faith. Science
chocked to death in the Islamic world. The last great
Muslim thinker, Abd-al Rahman Ibn
Khaldun, belonged to the 14th
century.
But rather then
learn from this mistake there remains today a very
significant school of thought in the Islamic world which
regards scientific reasoning & thought as a
corrupting influence. More importantly, it considers it
‘Unimportant’ to the ultimate aim of being a
good Muslim and is happy and content with just
concentrating on religious studies. The further away from
‘corrupt’ reasoning, the better it is.
Happily, this is not
the majority’s view. The second response of the
Islamic world was to try to establish the authenticity
and the greatness of the religion of Islam by trying to
prove that Islam and science are totally in harmony with
each other. But that was not where people stopped .Some
even went further on and started claiming the Quran as a
book of scientific discovery. This mode of thinking was
spearheaded by a French surgeon who turned into a
spiritualist. Monsieur Maurice Bucaille shot into
prominence thorough out the Islamic world with the
publication of his exegesis, "The Bible, The
Qur'an and Science". Bucaille's method
is simple. He asks his readers to ponder on some Qur'anic
verse and then, from a variety of meanings that could be
assigned to the verse, he pulls out one which is
consistent with some scientific fact. He thereupon
concludes that, whereas the Bible is often wrong in the
description of natural phenomena, the Qur'an is
invariably correct and that it correctly anticipated all
major discoveries of modern science. Observe that in
Bucaille's book there is not a single prediction of any
physical fact which is unknown up to now, but which could
be tested against observation and experimentation in the
future. This is not to doubt the Qur’an in anyway.
Rather it is an appeal to the rationale of Muslims of the
world not to treat a book which brought a complete code
of life to humanity as a textbook of science.
In fact, this mode
of thinking is not a monopoly of Muslims. Other major
religions are also bent upon proving the ‘Authenticity’
and the ‘Science friendliness’ of their
religions as well. Let me quote from a recently published
book on the sciences of ancients India. The author, who
appears to be an ardent believer in the Hindu faith as
well as Hindu supremacy, asks his readers to ponder on
Bhagavad Gita 2-16 which says: 'What
does not exist cannot come into existence, and what
exists cannot be destroyed'.
This line, proclaims the author triumphantly, is a
definitive proof that a pillar of modern physics - the
law of conservation of matter and energy - was also known
to the Ancients thousands of years ago. It establishes
the divine nature of the Gita, and proves that there is
nothing new which has been added to the stock of human
wisdom since the time the scriptures were set down. Where
is this all taking us?
The Dangers
Having pointed out the present situation in the
Islamic world, I shall try to point out the dangers
arising out of our present course of action. On one hand
we have a minority, antagonistic to rational scientific
thinking and on the other a majority, which is adamant on
comparing Faith against rationality.
The tenets of science include rational thinking and
experimental data. Its laws are ever changing, based upon
newer and better experimental data and theoretical
inference. Yet people insist upon ‘Using’
present factual laws to demonstrate the science
friendliness of Islam as well as the ‘authenticity’
of the religion. They are carrying out a terrible mistake.
The reason is threefold:
1. When we start gauging Islam as a faith against an ever
changing world of science, we are bound to create
dilemmas where one day a certain popular law of science,
which we claim is in the Qur’an, is overturned by
another one.
2. By doing so we are effectively opening the door for
people to attack the very tenants of Islam. If we are
ready to use certain scientific facts to prove the
authenticity of our religion then we should also be ready
for a day when by the mere over turning of a law of
physics, people start attacking the authenticity of our
religion. Hanging an eternal truth on to the changeable
theories of science is a dangerous business.
3. All of this has led to a situation in the Islamic
world where though genuine scientific achievement is rare,
pseudo-science is in generous supply.
Coming to the third postulate and looking at the problem
of comparing religion and science with each other from
the opposite direction, it is not very helpful either to
start gauging science with religious beliefs. Though many
would insist on using the ever ‘Absolute’ and
‘Divine’ religion to gauge the ‘Non-absolute’
world of science, it misses the point. The point lies in
the fact that both are creatures of a different world.
Religion is faith and faith for a majority of cases
demands and requires blind belief. Science is the
antithesis of that. It is a creature of logic and
reasoning.
My Conclusion: We should start doing real science.
The Solution
Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all
that exists)
The very first verse of the Quran exhalts Mankind to read,
acquire knowledge, study, research, think!
At the heart of the dispute is the fundamental issue:
science is a secular pursuit, and it is impossible to for
it to be otherwise. The secular character of science does
not mean that it repudiates the existence of Divine. But
it does mean that the validation of scientific truths
does not rely on any form of spiritual authority;
observation, experimentation, and logic are the sole
arbiters which decide what is true or false. Scientists
are free to be as religious as they please, but science
recognizes no laws outside its own.
Having proved the dangers of using either science or
religion as a gauge against the other in the preceding
paragraphs, we come to the conclusion that the spheres of
science and religion should be kept separate as far as
interpretation of each other is concerned. At the same
time it is high time that we as Muslims should start
giving the exaltations of the Almighty regarding the
value of knowledge, learning, logic their due importance.
May Allah guide us to be able to regain our lost glory as
a civilization by the way of the Pen .
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