Islam and science
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Muslim scholars have developed a spectrum of viewpoints on science within the context of
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
.Seyyed Hossein Nasr. "Islam and Modern Science" Scientists of medieval Muslim civilization (e.g.
Ibn al-Haytham Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham (Latinization of names, Latinized as Alhazen; ; full name ; ) was a medieval Mathematics in medieval Islam, mathematician, Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world, astronomer, and Physics in the medieval Islamic world, p ...
) contributed to the new discoveries in science. Haq, Syed (2009). "Science in Islam". Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. . Retrieved 2014-10-22. From the eighth to fifteenth century, Muslim mathematicians and astronomers furthered the development of mathematics. Concerns have been raised about the lack of scientific literacy in parts of the modern Muslim world. Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially
medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
,
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
,
astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
,
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
as well as
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
,
economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
,
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
and
optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...
. Aside from these contributions, some Muslim writers have made claims that the Quran made prescient statements about scientific phenomena as regards to the structure of the
embryo An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sp ...
, the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
, and the development of the universe.Cook, Michael, ''The Koran: A Very Short Introduction,'' Oxford University Press, (2000), p. 30


Terminology

According to
Toby Huff Toby E. Huff (born April 24, 1942) is an American academic and emeritus professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He was born in Portland, Maine. He was trained as a sociologist but has research interests in the history, philosophy ...
, there is no true word for
science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
in Arabic as commonly defined in English and other languages. In Arabic, "science" can simply mean different forms of knowledge. This view has been criticized by other scholars. For example, according to Muzaffar Iqbal, Huff's framework of inquiry "is based on the synthetic model of Robert Merton who had made no use of any Islamic sources or concepts dealing with the theory of knowledge or social organization" Each branch of science has its own name, but all branches of science have a common prefix, ''ilm''. For example, physics is more literally translated from Arabic as "the science of nature", ; arithmetic as the "science of accounts" .https://giftsofknowledge.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/hans-wehr-searchable-pdf.pdf Searcheable PDF of the Hans Wehr Dictionary (if that doesn't work check https://archive.org/details/HansWehrEnglishArabicDctionarySearchableFormat/page/n607/mode/2up ) The religious study of Islam (through Islamic sciences like Quranic exegesis,
hadith studies Hadith studies is the academic study of hadith, a literature typically thought in Islamic religion to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators. A major area of inter ...
, etc.) is called "science of religion" (), using the same word for science as "the science of nature". According to the Hans Wehr Dictionary of Arabic, while علم’ ''ilm'' is defined as "knowledge, learning, lore," etc. the word for "science" is the plural form علوم’ ''ulūm''. (So, for example, , the Faculty of Science of the Egyptian University, is literally "the Faculty of Sciences ...")


History


Classical science in the Muslim world

One of the earliest accounts of the use of science in the Islamic world is during the eighth and sixteenth centuries, known as the
Islamic Golden Age The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific, economic, and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign o ...
. It is also known as "Arabic science" because of the majority of texts that were translated from Greek into
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
. The mass translation movement, that occurred in the ninth century allowed for the integration of science into the Islamic world. The teachings from the Greeks were now translated and their scientific knowledge was now passed on to the Arab world. Despite these conditions, not all scientists during this period were
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
or
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
, as there were a number of notable non-Arab scientists (most notably
Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...
), as well as some non-Muslim scientists, who contributed to scientific studies in the Muslim world. A number of modern scholars such as Fielding H. Garrison, Sultan Bashir Mahmood, Hossein Nasr consider modern
science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
and the
scientific method The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and ...
to have been greatly inspired by Muslim scientists who introduced a modern
empirical Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how t ...
,
experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
al and quantitative approach to scientific
inquiry An inquiry (also spelled as enquiry in British English) is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ...
. Certain advances made by medieval Muslim astronomers,
geographers A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" ...
and mathematicians were motivated by problems presented in Islamic scripture, such as
Al-Khwarizmi Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi , or simply al-Khwarizmi, was a mathematician active during the Islamic Golden Age, who produced Arabic-language works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography. Around 820, he worked at the House of Wisdom in B ...
's (c. 780–850) development of
algebra Algebra is a branch of mathematics that deals with abstract systems, known as algebraic structures, and the manipulation of expressions within those systems. It is a generalization of arithmetic that introduces variables and algebraic ope ...
in order to solve the Islamic inheritance laws, and developments in
astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
,
geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
,
spherical geometry 300px, A sphere with a spherical triangle on it. Spherical geometry or spherics () is the geometry of the two-dimensional surface of a sphere or the -dimensional surface of higher dimensional spheres. Long studied for its practical applicati ...
and
spherical trigonometry Spherical trigonometry is the branch of spherical geometry that deals with the metrical relationships between the edge (geometry), sides and angles of spherical triangles, traditionally expressed using trigonometric functions. On the sphere, ge ...
in order to determine the direction of the
Qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...
, the times of Salah prayers, and the dates of the
Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar (), also known in English as the Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the Ramad ...
. These new studies of math and science would allow for the Islamic world to get ahead of the rest of the world. ‘With these inspiration at work, Muslim mathematicians and astronomers contributed significantly to the development to just about every domain of mathematics between the eight and fifteenth centuries" The 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 God's creation. In al- Bukhari's and Muslim's collection of sahih hadith it is said: "There is no disease that God has created, except that He also has created its treatment." (Bukhari 7-71:582). This culminated in the work of Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288), who discovered the
pulmonary circulation The pulmonary circulation is a division of the circulatory system in all vertebrates. The circuit begins with deoxygenated blood returned from the body to the right atrium of the heart where it is pumped out from the right ventricle to the lun ...
in 1242 and used his discovery as evidence for the orthodox Islamic doctrine of bodily resurrection. Ibn al-Nafis also used Islamic scripture as justification for his rejection of
wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
as self-medication. Criticisms against
alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
and
astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
were also motivated by religion, as orthodox Islamic theologians viewed the beliefs of alchemists and astrologists as being superstitious. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149–1209), in dealing with his conception of physics and the physical world in his ''Matalib'', discusses Islamic cosmology, criticizes the Aristotelian notion of the Earth's centrality within the universe, and "explores the notion of the existence of a multiverse in the context of his commentary," based on the
Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
ic verse, "All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds." He raises the question of whether the term "
world The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...
s" in this verse refers to "multiple worlds within this single
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...
or
cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...
, 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 worlds be bigger and more massive than this world as well as having the like of what this world has." Ali Kuşçu's (1403–1474) support for the
Earth's rotation Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own Rotation around a fixed axis, axis, as well as changes in the orientation (geometry), orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in progra ...
and his rejection of Aristotelian cosmology (which advocates a stationary Earth) was motivated by religious opposition to
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
by orthodox Islamic theologians, such as Al-Ghazali. According to many historians, science in the Muslim civilization flourished during the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, but began declining at some time around the 14th to 16th Ahmad Y Hassan
Factors Behind the Decline of Islamic Science After the Sixteenth Century
/ref> centuries. At least some scholars blame this on the "rise of a clerical faction which froze this same science and withered its progress."''Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History'' by Ahmad Y. al-Hassan and Donald Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1986, . Examples of conflicts with prevailing interpretations of Islam and science – or at least the fruits of science – thereafter include the demolition of Taqi al-Din's great
Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...
in
Galata Galata is the former name of the Karaköy neighbourhood in Istanbul, which is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn. The district is connected to the historic Fatih district by several bridges that cross the Golden Horn, most nota ...
, "comparable in its technical equipment and its specialist personnel with that of his celebrated contemporary, the Danish astronomer
Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, ; 14 December 154624 October 1601), generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer of the Renaissance, known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations. He ...
." But while Brahe's observatory "opened the way to a vast new development of astronomical science," Taqi al-Din's was demolished by a squad of Janissaries, "by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of the Chief Mufti," sometime after 1577 CE.


Science and religious practice

Scientific methods have been historically applied to find solutions to the technical exigencies of Islamic religious rituals, which is a characteristic of Islam that sets it apart from other religions. These ritual considerations include a lunar calendar, definition of prayer times based on the position of the sun, and a direction of prayer set at a specific location. Scientific methods have also been applied to Islamic laws governing the distribution of inheritances and to Islamic decorative arts. Some of these problems were tackled by both medieval scientists of the Islamic world and scholars of Islamic law. Though these two groups generally used different methods, there is little evidence of serious controversy between them on these subjects, with the exception of the criticism leveled by religious scholars at the methods of astronomy due to its association with astrology.


Modern science in the Muslim world

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, modern science arrived in the Muslim world, bringing with it "the transfer of various philosophical currents entangled with science" including schools of thought such as
Positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...
and
Darwinism ''Darwinism'' is a term used to describe a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others. The theory states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural sel ...
. This had a profound effect on the minds of Muslim scientists and intellectuals and also had a noticeable impact on some Islamic theological doctrines.Mehdi Golshani, ''Does science offer evidence of a transcendent reality and purpose?'', June 2003 While the majority of Muslim scientists tried to adapt their understanding of Islam to the findings of modern science, some rejected modern science as "corrupt foreign thought, considering it incompatible with Islamic teachings", others advocated for the wholesale replacement of religious worldviews with a scientific worldview, and some Muslim philosophers suggested separating the findings of modern science from its philosophical attachments. Among the majority of Muslim thinkers, a key justification for the use of modern science was the benefits that modern knowledge clearly brought to society. Others concluded that science could ultimately be reconciled with faith. A further apologetic trend saw the emergence of theories that scientific discoveries had been predicted in the Quran and Islamic tradition, thereby internalizing science within religion. According to 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center asking Muslims in different Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa if there was a conflict between science and religion few agreed in Morocco (18%), Egypt (16%), Iraq (15%), Jordan (15%) and the Palestinian territories (14%). More agreed in Albania (57%), Turkey (40%), Lebanon (53%) and Tunisia (42%). The poll also found a variance in how Muslim population in some countries are at odds with current scientific theories about biological
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
and the origin of man. Only four of the 22 countries surveyed that at least 50% of the Muslims surveyed rejected evolution (Iraq 67%, Tajikistan 55%, Indonesia 55%, Afghanistan 62%). Countries with relatively low rates of disbelief in evolution (i.e. agreeing to the statement "humans and other living things have always existed in present form") include Lebanon (21%), Albania (24%), Kazakhstan (16%). As of 2018, three Muslim scientists have won a Nobel Prize for science ( Abdus Salam from Pakistan in physics, Ahmed Zewail from Egypt and Aziz Sancar from Turkey in Chemistry). According to Mustafa Akyol, the relative lack of Muslim Nobel laureates in sciences per capita can be attributed to more insular interpretations of the religion than in the golden age of Islamic discovery and development, when Islamic society and intellectuals were more open to foreign ideas. Ahmed Zewail who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and is known as the father of femtochemistry said that "There is nothing fundamental in Islam against science." However, according to an Islamic scholar from Indonesia, Harun Nasution, said that the stagnation and decline of Islamic civilization in the fields of science and technology was caused by none other than the type of theology that was widely accepted in Islamic society. He blamed Ash'arite theology, which is widely accepted by Muslim society, as the cause of scientific stagnation in the Muslim world. According to him, Ash'arite teachings prioritize occasionalism and
fatalism Fatalism is a belief and philosophical doctrine which considers the entire universe as a deterministic system and stresses the subjugation of all events, actions, and behaviors to fate or destiny, which is commonly associated with the cons ...
which create a distance between science and Muslim society. On the contrary, he advocated the revival of Mu'tazila thought, known for its rationality, as a potential solution for scientific revival in Muslim society.


Conflict with religion

The conflicts between Islam and science can become quite complicated. It has been argued that "Muslims must be able to maintain the traditional Islamic intellectual space for the legitimate continuation of the Islamic view of the nature of reality to which Islamic ethics corresponds, without denying the legitimacy of modern science within their own confines". While the natural sciences have not been "fully institutionalized" in predominantly Islamic countries, engineering is considered an applied science that can function in conjunction with religion, and it is one of the most popular career choices of Middle Eastern students. Islamic academic Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi has noted that important technological innovations—once "considered to be bizarre, strange,
haram ''Haram'' (; ) is an Arabic term meaning 'taboo'. This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowledge; or, in direct cont ...
(religiously forbidden), bidʻah (innovation), against the tradition" in the Muslim world, were later accepted as "standard". An issue for accepting scientific knowledge rises from the supposed origin: For Muslims, absolute truth comes from God, not from the flawed human pursuit of knowledge. Islamic values hold that "knowledge of reality sbased not on reason alone, but also on revelation and inspiration". A passage in the Quran encourages congruency with the truth attained by modern science: "hence they should be both in agreement and concordant with the findings of modern science". This passage was used more often during the time where "modern science" was full of different discoveries. However, many scientific thinkers through the Islamic word still take this passage to heart when it comes to their work. There are also some strong believers that modern viewpoints, such as social Darwinism, challenged all medieval world views, including that of Islam. Some did not even want to be affiliated with modern science, and thought it was just an outside look into Islam. Many followers tend to see problems regarding the integration of Islam with science, and there are many that still stand by the viewpoints of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, that the pursuit of science is still the pursuit of knowledge:
One of the main reasons the Muslim world was held behind when Europe continued its ascent was that the printing press was banned. And there was a time when the Ottoman Sultan issued a decree that anybody caught with a printing press shall be executed for heresy, and anybody who owns a printed book shall basically be thrown into jail. And for 350 years when Europe is printing, when enéDescartes is printing, when
Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
is printing, when saacNewton is printing, the only way you can get a copy of any book in the Arab world is to go and hand write it yourself.Yasir Qadhi on video clip linked to Twitter by Abdullah Sameer
The reluctance of the Muslim world to embrace science is manifest in the disproportionately small amount of scientific output, as measured by citations of articles published in internationally circulating science journals, annual expenditures on research and development, and numbers of research scientists and engineers. Concerns have been raised that the contemporary Muslim world suffers from scientific illiteracy. Skepticism of science among some Muslims is reflected in issues such as the resistance in Muslim northern Nigeria to
polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...
inoculation Inoculation is the act of implanting a pathogen or other microbe or virus into a person or other organism. It is a method of artificially inducing immunity against various infectious diseases. The term "inoculation" is also used more generally ...
, 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." In
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
, a small number of post-graduate physics students have been known to blame earthquakes on "sinfulness, moral laxity, deviation from the Islamic true path", while "only a couple of muffled voices supported the scientific view that earthquakes are a natural phenomenon unaffected by human activity." In the early twentieth century, Iranian Shia ''
Ulama In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...
'' forbade the learning of foreign languages and the dissection of human bodies in the medical school in Iran. On the other hand, contrary to the current cliché concerning the opposition of the Imamate Shiite ''Ulama'' to modern astronomy in the nineteenth century, there is no evidence showing their literal or explicit objection to modern astronomy based on Islamic doctrines. They showed themselves the advocates of modern astronomy with the publication of Hibat al-Dīn Shahristānī's ''al-Islām wa al-Hayʾa'' (''Islam and Astronomy'') in 1910. After that, Shia ulama not only were not against the modern astronomy but also believed that the Quran and Islamic hadiths admit it. During the twentieth century, the Islamic world introduction to modern science was facilitated by the expansion of educational systems. For example, in 1900 and 1925,
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
and
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
opened universities. In these universities, new concerns have emerged among the students. One major issue was naturalism and social Darwinism, which challenged some beliefs. On the other hand, there were efforts to harmonize science with Islam. An example is the nineteenth-century study of Kudsî of Baku, who made connections between his discoveries in astronomy and what he knew from the Quran. These included "the creation of the universe and the beginning of like; in the second part, with doomsday and the end of the world; and the third was the resurrection after death".


= Late Ottoman Empire and Turkey

= Ahmet Hamdi Akseki, supported by the official institute for religious affairs in Turkey (Diyanet), published various articles about the creation of humanity. He emphazises that the purpose of the Quran is to offer parables and moral lessons, not offering scientific data or accounts of history. To demonstrate the ambiguity of the Islamic tradition in regards to the Earth's age he brings forth several narratives embedded in Islamic exegesis. First, he recounts several narratives about creatures preceding the creation of Adam. Such species include ''hinn'', ''binn'', ''timm'', ''rimm''. A second one adds the belief that, before God has created Adam, thirty previous races were created, each with a gap of thousand years in between. During that time, the earth has been empty, until a new creation began to be formed. Lastly, he offers a dialogue between the Andalusian scholar ibn Arabi and a strange man:
During his visit to Mecca, he came across a person in strange cloths. When he asked the identity of the strange man, the man said: "I am from your ancient ancestors. I died forty thousand years ago!" Bewildered by this response, Ibn al-‘Arabı¯ asked, "What are you talking about? Books narrate that Adam was created about six thousand years ago." The man replied "What Adam are you talking about? Beware of the fact that there were a hundred thousand Adams before Adam, your ancestor."
The latter, so Akseki, underlines that the idea of Young Earth creationism is a challenge of the Judeo-Christian tradition. He admits that material of a young earth does exists among Muslim commentators, as in the case of ibn Arabi himself, but these are used as supplementary materials borrowed from Jewish sources (''Isra'iliyyat'') and are not part of the Islamic canon. Süleyman Ateş, who was president of the Directorate of Religious Affairs in 1976-1978 and issued a tafsir (Interpretation of the Quran), employed similar arguments to that of Aksesi, while using references to Quranic verses to support his arguments. Pointing at 32:7, stating "He began the creation of man from clay.", he points out that humanity was not, in contrast to the Biblical interpretation, created an instant, but emerged as a process. To further support his argument to be in line with Islamic tradition, rather than a secular one, he looked at the Islamic heritage of previous scholars evoking the idea of an evolutionary process, such as the 9th century theologian Jahiz and the 18th century Turkish scholar İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi, both utilized as references of pre-Darwinian accounts of evolution. Hasan Karacadağ in his movie Semum, features the trope of conflict between science and religion. When the victim of the movie (Canan) is possessed by a demon, her husband brings her to a psychiatrist (Oğuz) and later to an excorcist (Hoca). A discussion starts between them, those practise is more beneficial to help Canan. While the psychiatrist symbolizes an antitheism, anti-theistic attitude, Hoca represents a Mumin, most faithful believer. The psychiatrist calls the Hoca a charlatan and dismisses his belief-system entire, while the Hoca affirms the validity of science, but asserts that science is limited to the knowable world, thus impotent in supernatural matters (i.e. the "unknown"). The Hoca, by his reconciling approach, is depicted as superior, when the demonic cause of Canan's illness is shown. Yet, the film makes clear that the psychiatrist does not fail on behalf of being a scientist, but by his anti-theistism. Exercised properly, science and religion would go hand in hand. When the director was asked if he himself believes in the existence of demons, he said that in such a "chaotic space" it is unlikely that humans are alone. His popular cultural depiction of demons might be seen as a representation of what lies beyond the limits of science, Islam being a tool to guide people to the unknown and unexplainable.


= Islamist movements

= Islamist author Muhammad Qutb (brother, and promoter, of Sayyid Qutb) in his influential book ''Islam, the misunderstood religion'', states that "science is a powerful instrument" to increase human knowledge but has become a "corrupting influence on men's thoughts and feelings" for much of the world's population, steering them away from "the Right Path". As an example, he gives the scientific community's disapproval of claims of telepathy, when he claims that it is documented in hadith that Umar, Caliph Umar prevented commander Sariah from being ambushed by communicating with him telepathically. Muslim scientists and scholars have subsequently developed a spectrum of viewpoints on the place of scientific learning within the context of Islam. Until the 1960s, Saudi Sunni ulama opposed any attempts at modernisation, considering them as innovations (''bidah''). They opposed the spread of electricity, radios, and TVs. As recently as 2015, Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari rejected the fact that the Earth orbits the Sun, instead claiming that the Earth is "stationary and does not move". In Afghanistan, Sunni Taliban have turned secular schools into Islamic madrasas, prioritizing religious studies over material science.


Science and the Quran

Many Muslims agree that doing science is an act of religious merit, even a collective duty of the Ummah, Muslim community. According to M. Shamsher Ali, there are around 750 verses in the Quran dealing with natural phenomena. According to the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, ''Encyclopedia of the Quran'', many verses of the Quran ask mankind to study nature, and this has been interpreted to mean an encouragement for scientific inquiry, and the investigation of the truth. Some include, "Travel throughout the earth and see how He brings life into being" (Q29:20), "Behold in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding ..." (Q3:190) Mohammad Hashim Kamali has stated that "scientific observation, experimental knowledge and rationality" are the primary tools with which humanity can achieve the goals laid out for it in the Quran. Ziauddin Sardar argues that Muslims developed the foundations of modern science, by "highlighting the repeated calls of the Quran to observe and reflect upon natural phenomenon". The physicist Abdus Salam believed there is no contradiction between Islam and the discoveries that science allows humanity to make about nature and the universe; and that the Quran and the Islamic spirit of study and rational reflection was the source of extraordinary civilizational development. Salam highlights, in particular, the work of
Ibn al-Haytham Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham (Latinization of names, Latinized as Alhazen; ; full name ; ) was a medieval Mathematics in medieval Islam, mathematician, Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world, astronomer, and Physics in the medieval Islamic world, p ...
and Al-Biruni as the pioneers of empiricism who introduced the experimental approach, breaking way from Aristotle's influence, and thus giving birth to modern science. Salam differentiated between metaphysics and physics, and advised against empirically probing certain matters on which "physics is silent and will remain so," such as the doctrine of "creation from nothing" which in Salam's view is outside the limits of science and thus "gives way" to religious considerations. Islam has its own world view system including beliefs about "ultimate reality, epistemology, ontology, ethics, purpose, etc." according to Mehdi Golshani.Mehdi Golshani, ''Can Science Dispense With Religion?'' Toshihiko Izutsu writes that in Islam, nature is not seen as something separate but as an integral part of a Holism, holistic outlook on God, humanity, the world and the cosmos. These links imply a sacred aspect to Muslims' pursuit of scientific knowledge, as nature itself is viewed in the Quran as a compilation of signs pointing to the Divine. It was with this understanding that the pursuit of science, especially prior to the colonization of the Muslim world, was respected in Islamic civilizations. The astrophysicist Nidhal Guessoum argues that the Quran has developed "the concept of knowledge" that encourages scientific discovery. He writes:
The Qur'an draws attention to the danger of conjecturing without evidence (''And follow not that of which you have not the (certain) knowledge of...'' Q17:36, 17:36) and in several different verses asks Muslims to require proofs (''Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful'' Q2:111, 2:111), both in matters of theological belief and in natural science.
Guessoum cites Ghaleb Hasan on the definition of "proof" according the Quran being "clear and strong... convincing evidence or argument." Also, such a proof cannot rely on an argument from authority, citing Q5:104, verse 5:104. Lastly, both assertions and rejections require a proof, according to Q4:174, verse 4:174. Ismail al-Faruqi and Taha Jabir Alalwani are of the view that any reawakening of the Muslim civilization must start with the Quran; however, the biggest obstacle on this route is the "centuries old heritage of ''tafseer'' (exegesis) and other classical disciplines" which inhibit a "universal, epistemiological and systematic conception" of the Quran's message. The philosopher Muhammad Iqbal considered the Quran's methodology and epistemology to be empirical and rational. Guessoum also suggests scientific knowledge may influence Quranic readings, stating that "for a long time Muslims believed, on the basis on their literal understanding of some Qur’anic verses, that the gender of an unborn baby is only known to God, and the place and time of death of each one of us is likewise ''al-Ghaib'' [unknown/unseen]. Such literal under-standings, when confronted with modern scientific (medical) knowledge, led many Muslims to realize that first-degree readings of the Quran can lead to contradictions and predicaments." Islamists such as Sayyid Qutb argue that since "Islam appointed" Muslims "as representatives of God and made them responsible for learning all the sciences,"Qutb, Sayyid, ''Milestones'', science cannot but prosper in a society of true Islam. (However, since Muslim majority countries governments have failed to follow the ''sharia'' law in its completeness, true Islam has not prevailed and this explains the failure of science and many other things in the Muslim world, according to Qutb.) Others claim traditional interpretations of Islam are not compatible with the development of science. Author Rodney Stark argues that Islam's lag behind the West in scientific advancement after (roughly) 1500 CE was due 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 "God's freedom to act" as He wishes, a principle enshired in Q14:4, aya 14:4: "God sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will," which (they believed) applied to all of creation not just humanity. Taner Edis wrote ''An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam''. Edis worries that secularism in Turkey, one of the most westernized Muslim nations, is on its way out; he points out that the population of Turkey rejects
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
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. 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 argues that there are endless examples of scientific discoveries that could be read into the Bible or Quran if one would like to. Edis qualifies that Muslim thought certainly cannot be understood by looking at the Quran alone; cultural and political factors play large roles.


Miracle literature (''Tafsir'ilmi'')

Starting in the 1970s and 1980s, the idea of the presence of scientific evidence in the Quran became popularized as ''ijaz'' (miracle) literature. The genre of interpreting the Quran as revealing scientific truths before mankind's discovery is also known as ''Tafsir'ilmi''. This approach gained much popularity through French author Maurice Bucaille, whose works have been distributed through Muslim bookstores and websites, and discussed on television programs by Islamic preachers. The movement contends that the Quran abounds with "scientific facts" that appeared centuries before their discovery by science and which "could not have been known" by people at the time. By asserting the presence of scientific truths stemming from the Quran, it also overlaps with Islamic creationism. This approach has been rejected by orthodox theologians who argue that the purpose of the Quran is religious guidance and not for proposing scientific theories. According to author Ziauddin Sardar, the ''ijaz'' movement has created a "global craze in Muslim societies", and has developed into an industry that is "widespread and well-funded".#MCKaVSI2000, Cook, ''The Koran'', 2000: p.29 Individuals connected with the movement include Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, who established the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and Sunnah; Zakir Naik, the Indian televangelist; and Adnan Oktar, the Turkish creationist. Enthusiasts of the movement argue that among the [scientific] miracles found in the Quran are "everything, from Principle of relativity, relativity, quantum mechanics, Big Bang theory, black holes and pulsars, genetics, embryology, modern geology, thermodynamics, even the laser and hydrogen fuel cells". Zafar Ishaq Ansari terms the modern trend of claiming the identification of "scientific truths" in the Quran as the "scientific exegesis" of the holy book. An example is the verse: "So verily I swear by the stars that run and hide ..." (Q81:15–16), which proponents claim demonstrates the Quran's knowledge of the existence of black holes; or: "[I swear by] the Moon in her fullness that ye shall journey on from stage to stage" (Q84:18–19) refers, according to proponents, to human Spaceflight, flight into outer space.


Embryology in the Quran

One claim that has received widespread attention and has even been the subject of a medical school textbook widely used in the Muslim world Rizvi, Atheist Muslim, 2016: p.121 is that several Quranic verses foretell the study of embryology and "provide a detailed description of the significant events in human development from the stages of gametes and conception until the full term pregnancy and delivery or even post partum." In 1983, an authority on embryology, Keith L. Moore, had a special edition published of his widely used textbook on embryology (''The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology''), co-authored by a leader of the scientific miracles movement, Abdul Majeed al-Zindani. This edition, ''The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology with Islamic Additions'', interspersed pages of "embryology-related Quranic verse and hadith" by al-Zindani into Moore's original work.Rizvi, Atheist Muslim, 2016: p.120-1 At least one Muslim-born physician (Ali A. Rizvi) studying the textbook of Moore and al-Zindani found himself "confused" by "why Moore was so 'astonished by the Quranic references, which Rizvi found "vague", and insofar as they were specific, preceded by the observations of
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
and the ''Ayr-veda'', and/or easily explained by "common sense". Some of the main verses are *(Q39:6) God creates us "in the womb of your mothers, creation after creation, within three darknessess," or "three veils of darkness". The "three" allegedly referring to the abdominal wall, the wall of the uterus, and the chorioamniotic membrane.Rizvi, Atheist Muslim, 2016: p.121-2 *Verse Q32:9 identifies the order of organ development of the embryo—ears, then eyes, then heart.Rizvi, Atheist Muslim, 2016: p.124 *Verses referring to "sperm drop" (''an-nutfa''), and to ''al-3alaqa'' (translated as "clinging clot" or "leech like structure") in (Q23:13-14); and to "sperm-drop mixture" (''an-nuṭfatin amshaajin'') in (Q76:2). The miraculousness of these verse is said to come from the resemblance of the human embryo to a leech, and to the claim that "sperm-drop mixture" refers to a mixture sperm and egg. *(Q53:45-46) "And that He creates the two mates—the male and female—from a sperm-drop when it is emitted," allegedly refers to the fact that the sperm contributes X and Y chromosomes that determine the gender of the baby. However, *The "three darknesses" or three walls (Q39:6) could easily have been observed by cutting open of pregnant mammals, something done by human beings before the revelation of the Quran ("dissections of human cadavers by Greek scientists have been documented as early as the third century BCE").Rizvi, Atheist Muslim, 2016: p.122 *Contrary to the claims made about Q32:9, ears do not develop before eyes, which do not develop before heart. The heart begins development "at about 20 days, and the ears and eyes begin to develop simultaneously in the fourth week". However, the verse itself does not mention or claim the order of how the embryo will form first in the womb. "Then He proportioned him and breathed into him from His [created] soul and made for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you grateful." *The embryo may resemble a leech (ala "clinging clot" or "leech like structure" of ''al-3alaqa'' in Q23:13-14), but it resembles many things during the eight week course of its development—none for very long. *While it is generally agreed the Quran mentions sperm (''an-nutfa'' in several verses), "sperm-drop mixture" (''an-nuṭfatin amshaajin'' in Q76:2) of a mixture of sperm and egg is more problematic as nowhere does the Quran mention the Egg cell or ovum—a rather glaring omission in any description of embryo development, as it the ovum the source of more than half the genetic material of the embryo. *With mention of male sperm but not female egg in the Quran, it seems likely Q53:45-46—"And that He creates the two mates, the male and female, from a sperm-drop when it is emitted"—is talking about the erroneous idea that all genetic material for offspring comes from the male and the mother simply provides a womb for the developing baby (as opposed to the sperm contributing the X and Y chromosomes that determine the gender of the baby). This idea originated with the ancient Greeks and was popular before modern biology developed. In 2002, Moore declined to be interviewed by ''The Wall Street Journal'' on the subject of his work on Islam, stating that "it's been ten or eleven years since I was involved in the Qur'an." Some researchers have proposed an evolutionary reading of the verses related to the creation of man in the Qur'an and then considered these meanings as examples of scientific miracles.


Criticism

Critics argue, verses that proponents say explain modern scientific facts, about subjects such as biology, the origin and history of the Earth, and the Acceptance of evolution by religious groups#Islam, evolution of human life, contain fallacies and are unscientific.#MCKVSI2000, Cook, ''The Koran'', 2000: p.30see also: Malise Ruthven, Ruthven, Malise. 2002. ''A Fury For God''. London: Granta. p. 126. As of 2008, both Muslims and non-Muslims have disputed whether there actually are "scientific miracles" in the Quran. Muslim critics of the movement include Indian Islamic theologian Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi, Muslim historian Syed Nomanul Haq, Muzaffar Iqbal, president of Center for Islam and Science in Alberta, Canada, and Egyptian Muslim scholar Khaled Montaser. Pakistani theoretical physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy criticizes these claims and says there is no explanation that why many modern scientific discoveries such as quantum mechanics, molecular genetics, etc. were discovered elsewhere. Giving the example of the roundness of the earth and the invention of the television, a Christian site ("Evidence for God's Unchanging World") complains the "scientific facts" are too vague to be miraculous. Critics argue that while it is generally agreed the Quran contains many verses proclaiming the wonders of nature, *it requires "considerable mental gymnastics and distortions to find scientific facts or theories in these verses" (Ziauddin Sardar); *that the Quran is the source of guidance in right faith (''iman'') and righteous action (''alladhina amanu wa amilu l-salihat'') but the idea that it contained "all knowledge, including scientific" knowledge has not been a mainstream view among Muslim scholarship (Zafar Ishaq Ansari); and that "Science is ever-changing ... the Copernican revolution overturning polemic models of the universe to Einstein's general relativity overshadowing Newtonian mechanisms". So while "Science is probabilistic in nature" the Quran deals in "absolute certainty". (Ali Talib); Nidhal Guessoum says that the central issue in the Islam-science discourse is the hierarchical positioning or place of the Quran in the scientific enterprise. Mustansir Mir argues for a proper approach to Quran with regard to science that allows multiple and multi-level interpretations. He writes:
From a linguistic standpoint, it is quite possible for a word, phrase or statement to have more than one layer of meaning, such that one layer would make sense to one audience in one age and another layer of meaning would, without negating the first, be meaningful to another audience in a subsequent age.


See also


References


Notes


Citations


Further reading

* Huff, Toby. ''The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West'' (Cambridge University Press, 1993). * Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. "Islam, Muslims, and modern technology." ''Islam and Science'' 3.2 (2005): 109–126
online
* Stearns, Justin. "The Legal Status of Science in the Muslim World in the Early Modern Period: An Initial Consideration of Fatwās from Three Maghribī Sources." in ''The Islamic Scholarly Tradition'' (Brill, 2011) pp. 265–290
online


External links


Islam & Science

Science and the Islamic world—The quest for rapprochement
by Pervez Hoodbhoy.
Islamic Science
by Ziauddin Sardar (2002).
Can Science Dispense With Religion?
by Mehdi Golshani.
Islam, science and Muslims
by Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
Center for Islam and Science

Explore Islamic achievements and contributions to science

Is There Such A Thing As Islamic Science? The Influence Of Islam On The World Of Science


* [http://iht.com/articles/2007/07/14/africa/14doctors-web.php Radicalism among Muslim professionals worries many] {{Authority control Islam and science,