Islamic attitudes towards science

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Muslim scholars have developed a spectrum of viewpoints on science within the context of Islam.^[1] The Quran and Islam allows much interpretation when it comes to science. Scientists of medieval Muslim civilization (e.g. Ibn al-Haytham) contributed to the new discoveries in science.^[2][3][4] From the eighth to fifteenth century, Muslim mathematicians and astronomers furthered the development of almost all areas of mathematics.^[5][6] At the same time, concerns have been raised about the lack of scientific literacy in parts of the modern Muslim world.^[7]

Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially medicine, mathematics, astronomy, agriculture as well as physics, economics, engineering and optics.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} Aside from these contributions, some Muslim writers have stated that the Quran made prescient statements about scientific phenomena that were later confirmed by scientific research as regards to the structure of the embryo, the solar system, and the development of the universe.^[13][14]

Terminology

Science is often defined as the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.

According to Toby Huff, there is no true word for science in Arabic as commonly defined in English and other languages. In Arabic, "science" can simply mean different forms of knowledge.^[16] 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"^[5] 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", علم الطبيعة ‘ilm aṭ-ṭabī‘a; arithmetic as the "science of accounts" علم الحساب ilm al-hisab.^[17] The religious study of Islam (through Islamic sciences like Quranic exegesis, hadith studies, etc.) is called العلم الديني "science of religion" (al-ilm ad-dinniy), using the same word for science as "the science of nature".^[17] 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, كلية العلوم kullīyat al-‘ulūm, the Faculty of Science of the Egyptian University, is literally "the Faculty of Sciences ...")^[17]

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

A number of modern scholars such as

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.[32]

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 and Darwinism. This had a profound effect on the minds of Muslim scientists and intellectuals and also had a noticeable impact on some Islamic theological doctrines.^[33]

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.^[34] 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.^[34]

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%).^[35]

The poll also found a variance in how Muslim population in some countries are at odds with current scientific theories about biological evolution and the origin of man.^[35] 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%).^[36]

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.^[37] 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."^[38]

Conflict with religion

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".^[39] 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.^[39] 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.

An issue that concerns those who don't believe in the study of Western science, is where the knowledge originated. For Muslims, knowledge comes from God, not from human definition of forms of knowledge. An example of this in the Islamic world is that of modern physics, which is considered to be Western instead of an international study. Islamic values claim that "knowledge of reality [is] based not on reason alone, but also on revelation and inspiration".^[40]

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 Caliph Umar prevented commander Sariah from being ambushed by communicating with him telepathically.^[41] Muslim scientists and scholars have subsequently developed a spectrum of viewpoints on the place of scientific learning within the context of Islam.^[1]

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".

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 [René] Descartes is printing, when Galileo is printing, when [Isaac] Newton 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.^[43]

In the early twentieth century, Iranian Shia Ulama^[who?] forbade the learning of foreign languages and the dissection of human bodies in the medical school in Iran.^[44] 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.^[45]

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 and Cairo 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".^[46]

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".^[47] In Afghanistan, Sunni Taliban have turned secular schools into Islamic madrasas, valuing religious studies over modern science.^[48]

The reluctance of the Muslim world to embrace science in 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.

Many Muslims agree that doing science is an act of religious merit, even a collective duty of the Muslim community.^[51] According to M. Shamsher Ali, there are around 750 verses in the Quran dealing with natural phenomena. According to the

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.^[53] 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".^[54]

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 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.^[55]

Islam has its own world view system including beliefs about "ultimate reality, epistemology, ontology, ethics, purpose, etc." according to Mehdi Golshani.^[34]

Toshihiko Izutsu writes that in Islam, nature is not seen as something separate but as an integral part of a 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.^[56] It was with this understanding that the pursuit of science, especially prior to the colonization of the Muslim world, was respected in Islamic civilizations.^[57]

The astrophysicist Nidhal Guessoum argues that the Quran has developed "the concept of knowledge" that encourages scientific discovery.^[58] 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...

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

Taner Edis wrote An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam.^[65] 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 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.^[66] 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.^[66] Edis qualifies that Muslim thought certainly cannot be understood by looking at the Quran alone; cultural and political factors play large roles.^[66]

Miracle literature (Tafsir'ilmi)

Starting in the 1970s and 80s, the idea of presence of scientific evidence in the Quran became popularized as

• (
  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.^[77][78]
• Verse
  Q32:9 identifies the order of organ development of the embryo—ears, then eyes, then heart.^{[79][note 2]}
• Verses referring to "sperm drop" (an-nutfa), and to al-3alaqa (translated as "clinging clot" or "leech like structure") 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.^[77][81]
• (
  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.^[77][81]

• 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").^[82][81]
• 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 doesn't 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."^[83][79]
• 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.^[81]
• 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.^[79]
• 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.^[81]

Critics argue, verses that proponents say explain modern scientific facts, about subjects such as biology, the origin and history of the Earth, and the evolution of human life, contain fallacies and are unscientific.^[85][86]

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

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.^[88][87]

Giving the example of the roundness of the earth and the invention of the television,^{[note 3]} a Christian site ("Evidence for God's Unchanging World") complains the "scientific facts" are too vague to be miraculous.^[87]

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);^[67]
• 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);^{[70][need quotation to verify]} and that "Science is ever-changing ... the Copernican revolution overturning polemic models of the universe to Einstein's general relativity overshadowing Newtonian mechanisms".^[13] So while "Science is probabilistic in nature" the Quran deals in "absolute certainty". (Ali Talib);^[91]

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.^[62]

Mustansir Mir argues for a proper approach to Quran with regard to science that allows multiple and multi-level interpretations.^[92][93] 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

Wikiquote has quotations related to Qur'an on science.

• 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? Archived 2016-05-29 at the Wayback Machine 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
• How Islam Won, and Lost, the Lead in Science
• Radicalism among Muslim professionals worries many