Quran and Science Essay

Islam and cognizance describes the relationship between Islamic communities and science in general. From an Moslem standpoint, science, the study of nature, is consumeed to be linked to the concept of Tawhid (the Oneness of beau ideal), as are all other branches of knowledge.1 In Islam, nature is not seen as a unwrap entity, but rather as an integral image of Islams holistic outlook on divinity fudge, humanity, and the world.This link implies a heavenly aspect to the pursuit of scientific knowledge by Muslims, as nature itself is viewed in the Quran as a compilation of signs pointing to the Divine.2 It was with this understanding that the pursuit of science was tolerated in Muslim civilizations, specifically during the eighth to sixteenth centuries, prior to the colonization of the Muslim world.3According to theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili, the forward-looking scientific method was pi unrivalledered by Islamic scientist Ibn Al-Haytham (know to the west as al-Haytham ) whose comp binglent parts are resemblingned to those of Isaac Newton.4 Alhazen helped shift the emphasis on abstract theorizing onto systematic and repeatable experimentation, followed by careful criticism of premises and inferences.5 Robert Briffault, in The Making of Humanity, asserts that the real existence of science, as it is understood in the red-brick sense, is rooted in the scientific thought and knowledge that emerged in Islamic civilizations during this time.6Muslim scientists and scholars have afterward developed a spectrum of viewpoints on the place of scientific learning within the context of Islam, none of which are universally accepted.7 However, most maintain the view that the encyclopaedism of knowledge and scientific pursuit in general is not in disaccord with Islamic thought and religious principle.17 Physicist Taner Edis argues this is beca character about Muslims are reading into the figurative language of the Holy books what is not on that point, in cluding recent scientific discoveries.8 OverviewThe religion Islam has its own worldview system including beliefs about ultimate reality, epistemology, ontology, ethics, purpose, etc.9 Muslims believe that the Quran is the final disclosure of immortal for the guidance ofhumankind.Science is the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.10 It is a system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation, and methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research. Scientists maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the scientific method, a process for evaluating empirical knowledge that explains observable events in nature as results of natural ca functions, rejecting supernatural vox populis. Islam, like all religions, believes in the supernatural that is accessible or interacts with Man in this life.One of the most importan t features of Science is the fine quantitative prediction. In this aspect it differs from many religious texts where physical phenomena are depicted in a very qualitative way, often by the use of words carrying several meanings. HistoryClassical Islamic scienceScience in medieval Islam, Islamic cosmology, Astronomy in medieval Islam, Mathematics in medieval Islam, Physics in medieval Islam, and Medicine in medieval IslamIn the history of science, Islamic science refers to the science developed under Islamic civilization between the 8th and 16th centuries,11 during what is known as the Islamic Golden Age.It is also known as Arabic science since the majority of texts during this plosive speech sound were written in Arabic, the lingua franca of Islamic civilization. Despite these terms, not all scientists during this period were Muslim or Arab, as there were a number of famed non-Arab scientists (most notably Persians), as well as some non-Muslim scientists, who contributed to scien tific studies in the Islamic world.A number of modern scholars such as Fielding H. Garrison,13 Abdus Salam and Hossein Nasr consider modern science and the scientific method to have been greatly inspired by Muslim scientists who introduced a modernempirical, experimental and quantitative approach to scientific inquiry. Some scholars, notably Donald Routledge Hill, Ahmad Y Hassan,14 Abdus Salam,15 and George Saliba,16 have referred to their achievements as a Muslim scientific revolution,17 though this does not contradict the traditionalistic view of the scientific mutation which is still supported by most scholars.181920It is believed that it was the empirical attitude of the Quran and Sunnah which inspired medieval Muslim scientists, in particular Alhazen (965-1037),2122 to develop the scientific method.232425 It is also known that certain advances made by medieval Muslim astronomers, geographers and mathematicians was motivated by problems presented in Islamic scripture, such as Al-Khwarizmis (c. 780-850) ontogeny of algebra in put up to solve the Islamic inheritance laws,26 and developments in astronomy, geography, spherical geometry and spherical trigonometry in order to determine the direction of the Qibla, the times of salah prayers, and the dates of the Islamic calendar.27The increased use of dissection in Islamic medicine during the 12th and 13th centuries was influenced by the writings of the Islamic theologian, Al-Ghazali, who encouraged the study of anatomy and use of dissections as a method of gaining knowledge of divinitys creation.28 In al-Bukharis and Muslims collection of sahih hadith it is saidThere is no disease that Allah has created, except that He also has created its treatment. (Bukhari 7-71582). This culminated in the work of Ibn al-Nafis (12131288), who discovered the pulmonary circulation in 1242 and used his discovery as evidence for the orthodox Islamic doctrine of bodily resurrection.29 Ibn al-Nafis also used Islamic scripture as justification for his rejection of wine as self-medication.30 Criticisms against alchemy and astrology were also motivated by religion, as orthodox Islamic theologians viewed the beliefs of alchemists and astrologers as being superstitious.31Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (11491209), in dealing with his conception of physics and the physical world in his Matalib, discusses Islamic cosmology, criticizes the peripatetic notion of the Earths centrality within theuniverse, and explores the notion of the existence of a multiverse in the context of his commentary, based on the Quranic verse, All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds.He raises the disbelief of whether the term worlds in this verse refers to multiple worlds within this single universe or cosmos, or to many other universes or a multiverse beyond this known universe. On the basis of this verse, he argues that God has created more than a thousand thousand worlds (alfa alfi awalim) beyond this world such that each one of those wo rlds be larger and more massive than this world as well as having the like of what this world has.32 Ali Kuus (14031474) support for the Earths rotation and his rejection of Aristotelian cosmology (which advocates a stationary Earth) was motivated by religious opposition to Aristotle by orthodox Islamic theologians, such as Al-Ghazali.3334According to many historians, science in Islamic civilization flourished during the Middle Ages, but began declining at some time around the 14th35 to 16th11 centuries. At least some scholars blame this on the scrape of a clerical faction which froze this same science and withered its progress.36 Examples of conflicts with prevailing interpretations of Islam and science or at least the fruits of science thereafter include the demolition of Taqi al-Dins great Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din in Galata, comparable in its technical equipment and its specialist personnel with that of his celebrated contemporary, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brah e.But while Brahes observatory opened the way to a vast sweet development of astronomical science, Taqi al-Dins was demolished by a squad of Janissaries, by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of the Chief Mufti, sometime after 1577 AD.3637Arrival of modern science in Islamic worldAt the beginning of the nineteenth century, modern science arrived in the Muslim world but it wasnt the science itself that affected Muslim scholars. Rather, it was the transfer of various philosophical currents entangled with science that had a profound effect on the minds of Muslim scientists and intellectuals. Schools like Positivism and Darwinism penetrated the Muslim world and dominated its academic circles and had a noticeable impacton some Islamic theological doctrines. There were different responses to this among the Muslim scholars38 These reactions, in words of Professor Mehdi Golshani, were the following 1. Some rejected modern science as pervert foreign thought, considering it incompat ible with Islamic teachings, and in their view, the only remedy for the stagnancy of Islamic societies would be the strict following of Islamic teachings.38 2. Other thinkers in the Muslim world saw science as the only source of real enlightenment and advocated the complete adoption of modern science. In their view, the only remedy for the doldrums of Muslim societies would be the mastery of modern science and the replacement of the religious worldview by the scientific worldview. 3. The majority of faithful Muslim scientists tried to adapt Islam to the findings of modern science they can be categorized in the following subgroups (a) Some Muslim thinkers attempted to justify modern science on religious grounds.Their pauperization was to encourage Muslim societies to acquire modern knowledge and to safeguard their societies from the criticism of Orientalists and Muslim intellectuals. (b) Others tried to show that all important scientific discoveries had been predicted in the Quran and Islamic tradition and appealed to modern science to explain various aspects of faith. (c) Yet other scholars advocated a re-interpretation of Islam. In their view, one must try to construct a new theology that can establish a viable relation between Islam and modern science.The Indian scholar, Sayyid Ahmad Khan, sought a theology of nature through which one could re-interpret the basic principles of Islam in the light of modern science. (d) Then there were some Muslim scholars who believed that empirical science had reached the same conclusions that prophets had been advocating several thousand years ago. The revelation had only the privilege of prophecy. 4. Finally, some Muslim philosophers separated the findings of modern science from its philosophical attachments.Thus, while they praised the attempts of Western scientists for the discovery of the secrets of nature, they warned against various empiricist and materialistic interpretations of scientific findings. Scientific know ledge can reveal certain aspects of the physical world, but it should not be identified with the alpha and omega of knowledge. Rather, it has to be integrated into a metaphysical frameworkconsistent with theMuslim worldviewin which higher levels of knowledge are recognized and the role of science in bringing us closer to God is fulfilled.9 Compatibility of Islam and the development of scienceWhether Islamic culture has promoted or hindered scientific advancement is disputed. Islamists such as Sayyid Qutb argue that since Islam appointed Muslims as representatives of God and made them answerable for learning all the sciences,39 science cannot but prosper in a society of true Muslims. Many classical and modern sources agree that the Quran condones, even encourages the acquirement of science and scientific knowledge, and urges humans to reflect on the natural phenomena as signs of Gods creation. Some scientific instruments produced in classical times in the Islamic world were inscribe d with Quranic citations.Many Muslims agree that doing science is an act of religious merit, even a collective duty of the Muslim community.40 Others claim traditional interpretations of Islam are not compatible with the development of science. Author Rodney Stark, argues that Islams lag behind the West in scientific advancement after (roughly) 1500 AD was imputable to opposition by traditional ulema to efforts to formulate systematic explanation of natural phenomenon with natural laws.He claims that they believed such laws were blasphemous because they limit Allahs liberty to act as He wishes, a principle enshired in aya 144 Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will, which (they believed) applied to all of creation not just humanity.41 DeclineIn the early twentieth century ulema forbade the learning of foreign languages and dissection of human bodies in the medical school in Iran.42In recent years, the lagging of the Muslim world in science is manifest in the dis proportionately small amount of scientific output as mensurable by citations of articles published in internationally circulating science journals, annual expenditures on research and development, and numbers of research scientists and engineers.Skepticism of science among some Muslims is reflected in issues such as resistance in Muslim northern Nigeria to polio inoculation, which some believe is an imaginary thing created in the West or it is a ploy to get us to submit to this evil agenda.44 Scientific issues in the Quran and HadithThe belief that the Quran had prophesied scientific theories and discoveries has become a strong and widespread belief in the contemporary Islamic world these prophecies are often offered as evidence of the divine origin of the Quran 45 see scientific foreknowledge in sacred texts for further discussion of this issue.Taner Edis wrote An Illusion of Harmony Science and Religion in Islam.46 Edis worries that secularism in Turkey, one of the most westernize d Muslim nations, is on its way out he points out that Turkey rejects evolution by a large majority. To Edis, many Muslims appreciate technology and respect the role that science plays in its creation.As a result, he says there is a great deal of Islamic pseudoscience attempting to reconcile this respect with other respected religious beliefs. Edis maintains that the motivation to read modern scientific truths into holy books is also stronger for Muslims than Christians.8 This is because, according to Edis, true criticism of the Quran is almost non-existent in the Muslim world. While Christianity is less prone to see its Holy Book as the direct word of God, fewer Muslims will compromise on this idea causing them to believe that scientific truths simply must appear in the Quran.However, Edis opines that there are endless examples of scientific discoveries that could be read into the Bible or Quran if one would like to.8 Edis qualifies that Muslim thought certainly cannot be understo od by looking at the Quran alone cultural and political factors play large roles.8Russel Glasser (Skeptic on The Atheist Experience TV show with Matt Dillahunty and Jeff Dee) argues that interpreting the Quran like this is cherry picking and risks simply confirming the biases of the investigator.47 Conception and inherited characteristicsThe most prominent of the ancient Greek thinkers who wrote on medicine were Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen. Hippocrates and Galen, in contrast with Aristotle, wrote that the part of females to children is equal to that of males, and the vehicle for it is a substance similar to the semen of males.48 Basim Musallam writes that the ideas of these men were widespreadthrough the pre-modern Middle East Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen were as much a part of Middle Eastern Arabic culture as anything else in it.48 The sayings in the Quran and those attributed to Muhammad in the Hadith influenced generations of Muslim scientists by siding with Galen an d Hippocrates.Basim Musallam writes the statements about parental contribution to generation in the hadith paralleled the Hippocratic writings, and the view of fetal development in the Quran agreed in detail with Galens scientific writings.48 He reports that the exceedingly influential medieval Hanbali scholar Ibn Qayyim, in his book Kitab al-tibyan fi aqsam al-quran, cites the following statement of the prophet, when asked the question from what is man created, He is created of both, the semen of the man and the semen of the woman. The mans semen is thick and forms the bones and the tendons. The womans semen is fine and forms the flesh and blood.49 Creation and evolutionThe Quran contains many verses describing creation of the universe God created heavens and earth in six heavenly days754 the earth was created in two days419, and in two other days (into a total of four) God furnished the creation of the earth with mountains, rivers and fruit-gardens 4110. Then heavens and earth f ormed from one mass which had to be split 2130, the seven heavens were created from smoke 4111, forming layers, one above the other 673. The angels inhabit the seventh heavens. The lowest heaven is adorned with lights 4112, the sun and the moon (which follow a regular path) 71161433, the stars 376 and the constellations of the Zodiac.