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{{Short description|Relationship between Islam and science}} | |||
:''This is a sub-article to ] and ]. | |||
{{Redirect|Science and Islam|the historical development of science in the Islamic world|Science in the medieval Islamic world|the documentary|Science and Islam (documentary)}} | |||
This article is about the relationship between '''Islam''' and '''Science'''. | |||
{{Islam |culture}} | |||
Muslim scholars have developed a spectrum of viewpoints on science within the context of ].<ref name="Seyyed Hossein">Seyyed Hossein Nasr. "Islam and Modern Science"</ref> Scientists of ] (e.g. ]) contributed to the new discoveries in science.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7810846.stm|title=The 'first true scientist'|date=January 4, 2009|via=news.bbc.co.uk}}</ref><ref name="Haq">] (2009). "Science in Islam". Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. {{ISSN|1703-7603}}. Retrieved 2014-10-22.</ref><ref>Robert Briffault (1928). ''The Making of Humanity'', {{pp.|190|202}}. G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.</ref> From the eighth to fifteenth century, Muslim mathematicians and astronomers furthered the development of mathematics.<ref name="Islam and Science"/><ref>Egyptian Muslim geologist Zaghloul El-Naggar quoted in | Discover magazine| 06.21.2007| quote: "Modern Europe's industrial culture did not originate in Europe but in the Islamic universities of Andalusia and of the East. The principle of the experimental method was an offshoot of the Islamic concept and its explanation of the physical world, its phenomena, its forces and its secrets." From: Qutb, Sayyad, ''Milestones'', p. 111, https://archive.org/stream/SayyidQutb/Milestones%20Special%20Edition_djvu.txt</ref> Concerns have been raised about the lack of ] in parts of the modern Muslim world.<ref name=Hoodbhoy-2006>{{cite journal|last1=Hoodbhoy|first1=Perez|title=Islam and Science – Unhappy Bedfellows|journal=Global Agenda|date=2006|pages=2–3|url=http://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2014/02/Islam-and-Science-unhappy-bedfellows.pdf|access-date=1 July 2015}}</ref> | |||
Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially ], ], ], ] as well as ], ], ] and ].<ref>]. 1994. ''A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam''. New York: ]. {{ISBN|0-8147-8023-7}}. pp. 245, 250, 256–57.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=King |first=David A. |year=1983 |title=The Astronomy of the Mamluks |journal=] |volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=531–55 |doi=10.1086/353360 |s2cid=144315162}}</ref><ref>Hassan, Ahmad Y. 1996. "." Pp. 351–99 in ''Islam and the Challenge of Modernity'', edited by S. S. Al-Attas. Kuala Lumpur: ]. Archived from the on 2 April 2015.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Contributions of Islamic scholars to the scientific enterprise|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ854295.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The greatest scientific advances from the Muslim world|website=] |date=February 2010 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/feb/01/islamic-science}}</ref> | |||
'''Islam''' is a ] ] based upon the ], which adherents believe was sent by ] (Arabic: الله) through ]. Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the literal word and the final revelation of God for the guidance of humankind. Islam, like other religions, has got its own worldview system including beliefs about "ultimate reality, epistemology, ontology, ethics, purpose, etc". <ref name="Golshani"> ], ''Can Science Dispense With Religion?'' </ref> ''']''' in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means.<ref>See, e.g., the entry ''Science'' in the Oxford English Dictionary ISBN 0-19-522217-2</ref> In a more restricted sense, ''science'' refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on ], ]ation, and methodological ], as well as to the organized body of ] humans have gained by such ]. | |||
Aside from these contributions, some Muslim writers have made claims that the Quran made ] statements about scientific phenomena as regards to the structure of the ], the ], and the ].<ref name=cook-2000-30>Cook, Michael, ''The Koran: A Very Short Introduction,'' Oxford University Press, (2000), p. 30</ref><ref>see also: Ruthven, Malise. ''A Fury For God''. London; New York: Granta (2002), p. 126.</ref> | |||
]s maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the ], a process for evaluating ] ] that explains ] events in ] as results of natural causes, rejecting ] notions. | |||
==Terminology== | |||
== Relation between Modern Science and Religion == | |||
=== Great influence of Biblical worldview in development of Science === | |||
According to ], there is no true word for ] in Arabic as commonly defined in English and other languages. In Arabic, "science" can simply mean different forms of knowledge.<ref name="The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West">{{cite book |last1=Huff |first1=Toby |title=Islam and Science |date=2007 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe, Inc |location=Armonk, Ny |isbn=978-0-7656-8064-8 |pages=26–36}}</ref> This view has been criticized by other scholars. For example, according to ], Huff's framework of inquiry "is based on the synthetic model of ] who had made no use of any Islamic sources or concepts dealing with the theory of knowledge or social organization"<ref name="Islam and Science">{{cite book |last1=Iqbal |first1=Muzaffar |title=Islam and Science |date=2003 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Aldershot, UK |isbn=978-0754608004 |pages=140–51}}</ref> 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", {{Lang|ar|علم الطبيعة}} {{Transliteration|ar|‘ilm aṭ-ṭabī‘a}}; arithmetic as the "science of accounts" {{Lang|ar|علم الحساب}} {{Transliteration|ar|ilm al-hisab}}.<ref name=wehr-searchable>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 )</ref> The religious study of Islam (through ] like ], ], etc.) is called {{Lang|ar|العلم الديني}} "science of religion" ({{Transliteration|ar|al-ilm ad-dinniy}}), using the same word for science as "the science of nature".<ref name=wehr-searchable/> | |||
The biblical worldview (also shared by Muslims) has had a "great role" in development of Science: The science in west was constructed within the framework of a Christian (and also Quranic) worldview being largely influenced by the following Biblical (and also Qura'nic) conceptions: <ref name="Golshani"/> | |||
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, {{Lang|ar|كلية العلوم}} {{Transliteration|ar|kullīyat al-‘ulūm}}, the Faculty of Science of the Egyptian University, is literally "the Faculty of Sciences ...")<ref name=wehr-searchable/> | |||
== History == | |||
*"The conception of an omniscient and omnipotent personal God, Who made everything in accordance with a rational plan and purpose, contributed to the notion of a rationally structured creation." | |||
*"The notion of a transcendent God, Who exists separate from His creation, served to counter the notion that the physical world, or any part of it, is sacred. Since the entire physical world is a mere creation, it was thus a fit object of study and transformation." | |||
*"Since man was made in the image of God (Gen.1:26), which included rationality and creativity, it was deemed possible that man could discern the rational structure of the physical universe that God had made." | |||
*"The cultural mandate, which appointed man to be God's steward over creation (Gen1:28), provided the motivation for studying nature and for applying that study towards practical ends, at the same glorifying God for His wisdom and goodness." | |||
===Classical science in the Muslim world=== | |||
=== Alleged conflict between science and religion === | |||
{{See also|Science in the medieval Islamic world|Cosmology in medieval Islam|Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world|Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world|Physics in the medieval Islamic world|Medicine in the medieval Islamic world}} | |||
Prof. ] believes that there is no conflict between science and religion: | |||
]]] | |||
One of the earliest accounts of the use of science in the Islamic world is during the eighth and sixteenth centuries, known as the ].<ref name=Hassan-Decline/> It is also known as "Arabic science" because of the majority of texts that were translated from Greek into ]. 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 ] or ], as there were a number of notable non-Arab scientists (most notably ]), as well as some non-Muslim scientists, who contributed to scientific studies in the Muslim world. | |||
A number of modern scholars such as ], ], ] consider modern ] and the ] to have been greatly inspired by ] who introduced a modern ], ]al and ] approach to scientific ].{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} Certain advances made by medieval ], ] and ] were motivated by problems presented in Islamic scripture, such as ]'s (c. 780–850) development of ] in order to solve the ],<ref>{{Citation|last=Gandz|first=Solomon|year=1938|title=The Algebra of Inheritance: A Rehabilitation of Al-Khuwārizmī|journal=Osiris|volume=5|pages=319–91|doi=10.1086/368492|s2cid=143683763|postscript=.|issn=0369-7827}}</ref> and developments in ], ], ] and ] in order to determine the direction of the ], the ] prayers, and the dates of the ].<ref>{{Citation|last=Gingerich |first=Owen |date=April 1986 |url=http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/PHYS/alshukri/PHYS215/Islamic_astronomy.htm |title=Islamic astronomy |journal=] |volume=254 |issue=10 |page=74 |access-date=2008-05-18 |bibcode=1986SciAm.254d..74G |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0486-74 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101211150/http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/PHYS/alshukri/PHYS215/Islamic_astronomy.htm |archive-date=2011-01-01 }}</ref> 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"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eisen |first1=Laderman |last2=Huff |first2=Toby |title=Science, Religion and Society, an Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Controversy: Islam and Science |publisher=M.E. Sharpe Inc. |location=Armonk, New York}}</ref> | |||
<blockquote> "Much of the perceived conflict between science and religion is due to the erroneous belief that science has no need of any metaphysical or epistemological assumptions. It is widely believed that science is factual, rational and objective, whereas religion is mythical, irrational and subjective. This myth of scientific neutrality fails to properly distinguish between observational facts and theoretical speculations. It overlooks the highly subjective aspects of science. We note, first, that the same data can be explained by many different theories. For example, galactic red-shifts can be explained in terms of the expansion of space, motion through space, gravitational red-shifts, "tired light", and so on. As noted by Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and others, scientific theories are not simply derived from data. Rather, the construction of theories involves a large dose of creativity. Second, the same mathematical equations can often be interpreted in many different ways. Consider, for example, the various different interpretations of quantum mechanics (e.g., Bohr's positivism, Bohm's neo-realism, the many-worlds view, etc.). Third, assessing the veracity of competing theories involves the subjective application of subjective criteria for theory selection. We may prefer theories that are simple or beautiful but why should simple or beautiful theories be more likely to be true? Ultimately, we construct and choose theories that best reflect our basic beliefs about the nature of the world...In short, science is by no means worldview neutral. What is widely perceived as a conflict between science and religion is in actuality usually a clash between two opposing worldviews, generally naturalism versus theism." <ref name="Golshani"> </ref> </blockquote> | |||
The increased use of dissection in ] during the 12th and 13th centuries was influenced by the writings of the ], ], who encouraged the study of anatomy and use of dissections as a method of gaining knowledge of God's creation.<ref name=Smith>{{citation|first=Emilie|last=Savage-Smith|author-link =Emilie Savage-Smith|title=Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam|journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences|year=1995|volume=50|issue=1|publisher=]|pages=67–110|doi=10.1093/jhmas/50.1.67|pmid=7876530}}</ref> In al-]'s and ] collection of ] hadith it is said: "There is no disease that God has created, except that He also has created its treatment." | |||
== Arrival of Modern Science in Muslim world == | |||
(Bukhari 7-71:582). This culminated in the work of ] (1213–1288), who discovered the ] in 1242 and used his discovery as evidence for the orthodox Islamic doctrine of bodily ].<ref>{{Citation |last=Fancy |first=Nahyan A. G. |year=2006 |title=Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288) |journal=Electronic Theses and Dissertations |publisher=] |url=http://etd.nd.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-11292006-152615 |pages=232–33 |access-date=2008-06-17 |archive-date=2015-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404020329/http://etd.nd.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-11292006-152615 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Ibn al-Nafis also used Islamic scripture as justification for his rejection of ] as ].<ref>{{Citation |last=Fancy |first=Nahyan A. G. |year=2006 |title=Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288) |journal=Electronic Theses and Dissertations |publisher=] |url=http://etd.nd.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-11292006-152615 |pages=49–59, 232–33 |access-date=2008-06-17 |archive-date=2015-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404020329/http://etd.nd.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-11292006-152615 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Criticisms against ] and ] were also motivated by religion, as orthodox Islamic theologians viewed the beliefs of ] and ] as being ].<ref>{{Citation|last=Saliba |first=George |author-link=George Saliba |year=1994 |title=A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-8147-8023-7 |pages=60, 67–69}}</ref> | |||
] (1149–1209), in dealing with his ] and the physical world in his ''Matalib'', discusses ], criticizes the ] of the ] within the universe, and "explores the notion of the existence of a ] in the context of his commentary," based on the ]ic verse, "All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds." He raises the question of whether the term "]s" in this verse refers to "multiple worlds within this single ] or ], 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."<ref name=Setia>{{citation|title=Fakhr Al-Din Al-Razi on Physics and the Nature of the Physical World: A Preliminary Survey|author=Adi Setia|journal=Islam & Science|volume=2|year=2004|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QYQ/is_2_2/ai_n9532826/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710164222/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QYQ/is_2_2/ai_n9532826/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-10|access-date=2010-03-02}}</ref> ]'s (1403–1474) support for the ] and his rejection of ] (which advocates a stationary Earth) was motivated by religious opposition to ] by orthodox ], such as ].<ref>{{Citation|last=Ragep |first=F. Jamil |year=2001a |title=Tusi and Copernicus: The Earth's Motion in Context |journal=Science in Context |volume=14 |issue=1–2 |pages=145–63 |publisher=] |doi=10.1017/s0269889701000060|s2cid=145372613 }}</ref><ref>F. Jamil Ragep (2001), "Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of Islamic Influence on Science", ''Osiris'', 2nd Series, {{vol.|16}}, Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions, {{pp.|49|64}}, 66–71.</ref> | |||
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Modern science arrived in the Muslim world but it wasn't 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 impact on some Islamic theological doctrines." There were different responses to this among the Muslim scholars: <ref> Mehdi Golshani, ''Does science offer evidence of a transcendent reality and purpose?'', June 2003 </ref> These reactions, in words of Professor ], was the following: | |||
According to many historians, science in the Muslim civilization flourished during the ], but began declining at some time around the 14th<ref>Islam by Alnoor Dhanani in ''Science and Religion'', 2002, {{p.|88}}.</ref> to 16th<ref name=Hassan-Decline>], </ref> centuries. At least some scholars blame this on the "rise of a clerical faction which froze this same science and withered its progress."<ref name="IslamicTechnology">''Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History'' by Ahmad Y. al-Hassan and Donald Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1986, {{p.|282}}.</ref> Examples of conflicts with prevailing interpretations of Islam and science – or at least the fruits of science – thereafter include the demolition of ]'s great ] ] in ], "comparable in its technical equipment and its specialist personnel with that of his celebrated contemporary, the Danish astronomer ]." 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 ], "by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of the Chief Mufti," sometime after 1577 CE.<ref name="IslamicTechnology" /><ref>Aydin Sayili, The Observatory in Islam and its place in the General History of the Observatory (Ankara: 1960), {{pp.|289|ff}}.</ref> | |||
<blockquote> (1) Some rejected modern science as corrupt foreign thought, considering it incompatible with Islamic teachings, and in their view, the only remedy for the stagnancy of Islamic societies would be the strict following of Islamic teachings.</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>(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 stagnation of Muslim societies would be the mastery of modern science and the replacement of the religious worldview by the scientific worldview.</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>(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 motivation 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 Qur'an 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, ], 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.</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>(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 knowledge 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 framework--consistent with the Muslim worldview--in which higher levels of knowledge are recognized and the role of science in bringing us closer to God is fulfilled. <ref name="Golshani"/> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
=== The view that scientific discoveries had been predicted in the Qur'an and traditions === | |||
{{totallydisputed-section}} | |||
Some Muslim scholars have tried to show that the Qur'an and Islamic tradition had predicted many important scientific discoveries. This section is dedicated to the arguments made by supporters and critics of such view. | |||
==== |
==== 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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences|volume=1|editor=I. Grattan-Guinness | |||
Researchers have written about the relationship between the contents of the Qur'an and the findings of science. ], the Frenchborn Saudi royal physician, claims in ''The Bible, the Qur'an and Science'' that this relationship "turns out to be one of harmony and not of discord", to the surprise of most scientists "bound up in materialist theories", and notes that Islam often encouraged scientific acquisition of knowledge.<ref name="bucaille">Maurice Bucaille. . </ref> | |||
|publisher=JHU Press|year=2003|title=Mathematics applied to aspects of religious ritual in Islam|author=David A. King|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hDvzITtfdAC&pg=PA80|page=80|isbn=9780801873966}}</ref> | |||
===Modern science in the Muslim world=== | |||
====Criticisms of Qur'an Scientific Claims==== | |||
Some skeptics, such as historian and philosopher ], counter that certain scientific facts which are said to be detailed in the Qur'an were known in the Middle East centuries before it was written, or were "predicted" also by other people with no claims of divine inspiration, or are found in passages that are clearly rephrasals of the ]. He also presents criticisms based on the translations and context of the verses presented as scientific facts <ref>Richard Carrier (2001). .</ref> | |||
<ref>Richard Carrier (2004). .</ref> | |||
Others, such as physicist Taner Edis, also counter that the Qur'an offers "vague descriptions of natural phenomena" which are shown to be in agreement with modern science by using "stretched or arbitrary" interpretations. | |||
<ref>Taner Edis. </ref> | |||
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 ] and ]. This had a profound effect on the minds of Muslim scientists and intellectuals and also had a noticeable impact on some Islamic theological doctrines.<ref name="MehdiGolshani">Mehdi Golshani, ''Does science offer evidence of a transcendent reality and purpose?'', June 2003</ref> | |||
====History of relationship between Quran and Science==== | |||
] references a document produced by the Office for Non-Christian Affairs at the Vatican, which gives a history of the relationship between the Qur’an and science. | |||
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.<ref name="Golshani" /> 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.<ref name="Golshani" /> | |||
{{cquote|It would nevertheless be wrong to imagine that, in the history of Islam, certain believers had never harboured a different attitude towards science. It is a fact that, at certain periods, the obligation to educate oneself and others was rather neglected. It is equally true that in the Muslim world, as elsewhere, an attempt was sometimes made to stop scientific development. All the same it will be remembered that at the height of Islam, between the Eighth and Twelfth centuries A.D., i.e. at a time when restrictions on scientific development were in force in the Christian world, a very large number of studies and discoveries were being made at Islamic universities. It was there that the remarkable cultural resources of the time were to be found. The Calif's library at Cordoba contained 400,000 volumes. Averrowas teaching there, and Greek, Indian and Persian sciences were taught. This is why scholars from all over Europe went to study at Cordoba, just as today people go to the United States to perfect their studies. A very great number of ancient manuscripts have come down to us thanks to cultivated Arabs who acted as the vehicle for the culture of conquered countries. We are also greatly indebted to Arabic culture for mathematics (algebra was an Arabic invention), astronomy, physics (optics), geology, botany, medicine (Avicenna) etc. For the very first time, science took on an international character in the Islamic universities of the Middle Ages.}} | |||
====Harun Yahya's view on encouragement of scientific thinking in the Qur'an==== | |||
{{cquotetxt|Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day there are signs for men who understand.|]|{{Quran-usc|3|190}}||}} | |||
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%).<ref name="Pew-7-2013">{{cite web |title=Chapter 7: Religion, Science and Popular Culture |url=https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-science-and-popular-culture/ |website=Pew Research Center, Religion and Public Life |access-date=29 August 2020 |date=30 April 2013}}</ref> | |||
{{cquotetxt|Travel through the earth and see how Allah did originate creation; so will Allah produce a later creation: for Allah has power over all things.|]|{{Quran-usc|29|20}}||}} | |||
The poll also found a variance in how Muslim population in some countries are at odds with current ] about biological ] and ].<ref name="Pew-7-2013"/> 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 ] (i.e. agreeing to the statement "humans and other living things have always existed in present form") include Lebanon (21%), Albania (24%), Kazakhstan (16%).<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10052937&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0007087415000618|title=The British Journal for the History of Science V48:4|journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |date=December 2015 |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=565–582 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0007087415000618 |last1=Bilgili |first1=Alper |pmid=26337528 }}</ref> | |||
In his article "The Islamic Origins of Modern Science" Turkish thinker and author, ] states that:<ref>], ''''</ref> | |||
As of 2018, three Muslim scientists have won a Nobel Prize for science (] from Pakistan in physics, ] from Egypt and ] from Turkey in Chemistry). According to ], the relative lack of Muslim ] 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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Why Muslims have only few Nobel Prizes |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/why-muslims-have-only-few-nobel-prizes.aspx?pageID=449&nID=52473&NewsCatID=411|access-date=21 October 2014|work=]|date=14 August 2013}}</ref> ] who won the 1999 ] and is known as the father of ] said that "There is nothing fundamental in Islam against science."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dr Ahmed Zewail "There is nothing fundamental in Islam against science."|date=15 March 2017 |url=https://rahyafteha.ir/en/1602/dr-ahmed-zewail-nothing-fundamental-islam-science/}}</ref> | |||
<blockquote>The genesis of scientific thought is the sense of curiosity. Because people wonder how the universe and nature work, they investigate and become interested in science. But most people lack this curiosity. For them, the important things are not the secrets of the universe and nature but their own small worldly profits and pleasures. In communities where people who think in this way are in charge, science does not develop. Idleness and ignorance rule. | |||
However, according to an Islamic scholar from Indonesia, ], 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 ] theology, which is widely accepted by Muslim society, as the cause of scientific stagnation in the Muslim world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mir'atun |first=Nisa |date=2023-03-06 |title=Harun Nasution's Theological View |url=https://ajesh.ph/index.php/gp/issue/view/6 |journal=Asian Journal of Engineering, Social and Health |language=en-US |volume=2 |issue=2 |doi=10.46799/ajesh.v2i2 |issn=2980-4841}}</ref> According to him, Ash'arite teachings prioritize ] and ] which create a distance between science and Muslim society. On the contrary, he advocated the revival of ] thought, known for its rationality, as a potential solution for scientific revival in Muslim society.<ref>{{Citation |last=Aljunied |first=Khairudin |title=Harun Nasution: The Rationalist |date=2022-12-16 |work=Shapers of Islam in Southeast Asia: Muslim Intellectuals and the Making of Islamic Reformism |pages=0 |editor-last=Aljunied |editor-first=Khairudin |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/44507/chapter-abstract/376967609?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2024-12-19 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-751441-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Saleh |first=Fauzan |title=Modern Trends in Islamic Theological Discourse in Twentieth Century Indonesia: A Critical Survey |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/221593737 |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=www.proquest.com |language=en}}</ref> | |||
The Arab community before the Qur’an was of this type. But the verses of the Qur’an called upon them to think, to investigate and to use their minds, perhaps for the first time in their lives. In one of the first revealed verses of the Qur’an, God drew the attention of the Arabs to the camel, a part of their everyday lives: | |||
====Conflict with religion==== | |||
{{cquotetxt|Do they not look at the Camels, how they are made?- And at the Sky, how it is raised high?- And at the Mountains, how they are fixed firm?- And at the Earth, how it is spread out? Therefore do thou give admonition, for thou art one to admonish.|]|{{Quran-usc-range|88|17|21}}||}} | |||
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".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Huff |first1=Toby |title=Science, Religion, and Society: Islam and Science |date=2007 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |location=Armonk, New York}}</ref> Islamic scholar ] has noted that important technological innovations—once "considered to be bizarre, strange, ] (religiously forbidden), ] (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, 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 based not on reason alone, but also on revelation and inspiration".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |last1=Clayton |first1=Philip |last2=Nasr |first2=Seyyed |title=The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science: Islam and Science |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, New York}}</ref> | |||
In many other verses of the Qur’an, people are instructed to examine nature and learn from it because people can know God only by examining His creations. Because of this, in one verse of the Qur’an Muslims are defined as people who think about the creation of the heavens and the earth: | |||
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".<ref name="Oxford University Press">{{cite book |last1=Brooke |first1=John |last2=İhsanoğlu |first2=Ekmeleddin |title=Science and Religion Around the World: Modern Islam |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, New York |isbn=978-0-19-532-820-2 |page=168}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Oxford University Press"/> Many followers tend to see problems regarding the integration of Islam with science, and there are many that still stand by the viewpoints of ], that the pursuit of science is still the pursuit of knowledge: | |||
{{cquotetxt|Men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (With the thought): "Our Lord! not for naught Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the penalty of the Fire."|]|{{Quran-usc|3|191}}||}} | |||
<blockquote>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 ] 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 Descartes]] is printing, when ] is printing, when 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.<ref name=printing-press>Yasir Qadhi on video clip linked to Twitter by Abdullah Sameer {{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/abdullahadam/status/1298318437882765317 |author=Yasir Qadhi |time=12:56 PM |date=25 August 2020 |title=Abdullah Sameer |access-date=28 August 2020}}</ref></blockquote> | |||
In many verses of the Qur'an, God instructs Muslims to investigate the heavens, the earth, living things or their own existence and think about them. When we look at the verses, we find indications of all the main branches of science in the Qur’an. For example, in the Qur’an, God encourages the science of astronomy: | |||
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.<ref>Abdus Salam, ''Ideals and Realities: Selected Essays of Abdus Salam'' (Philadelphia: World Scientific, 1987), {{p.|109}}.</ref> Concerns have been raised that the contemporary Muslim world suffers from scientific illiteracy.<ref name=Hoodbhoy-2006 /> Skepticism of science among some Muslims is reflected in issues such as the resistance in Muslim northern Nigeria to ] ], which some believe is "an imaginary thing created in the ] or it is a ploy to get us to submit to this evil agenda."<ref>Nafiu Baba Ahmed, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for ] in Nigeria, telling the ] his opinion of polio and vaccination. In northern Nigeria "more than 50% of the children have never been vaccinated against polio", and as of 2006 where more than half the world's polio victims live. </ref> In ], a small number of post-graduate physics students have been known to blame ] 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."<ref name=Hoodbhoy-2006 /> | |||
{{cquotetxt|He Who created the seven heavens one above another: No want of proportion wilt thou see in the Creation of (Allah) Most Gracious. So turn thy vision again: seest thou any flaw?|]|{{Quran-usc|67|3}}||}}</blockquote> | |||
In the early twentieth century, Iranian Shia '']''{{who|date=February 2023}} forbade the learning of foreign languages and the dissection of human bodies in the medical school in Iran.<ref>Mackey, ''The Iranians : Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation'', 1996, {{p.|179}}.</ref> 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 ]'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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gamini |first1=Amir Mohammad |title=Imamate Shiite Ulama and the Modern Astronomy in Qajar Period |journal=Tarikh-e Elm |date=23 August 2018 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=65–93 |doi=10.22059/jihs.2019.288941.371519 |url=https://jihs.ut.ac.ir/article_72849.html |issn=1735-0573}}</ref> | |||
] further illustrate that in many other verses God also encourages the study of botany, zoology, sciences of archaeology, anthropology and so on. | |||
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, ] and ] 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".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brooke |first1=John |last2=İhsanoğlu |first2=Ekmeleddin |title=Science and Religion Around the World: Modern Islam |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University press}}</ref> | |||
====Astronomy ==== | |||
===== |
===== Late Ottoman Empire and Turkey ===== | ||
], supported by the ] (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. | |||
]''', a typical spiral galaxy in the ] ], is about 56,000 light years in diameter and approximately 60 million light years distant.]] | |||
'''Qur'an:''' | |||
{{cquotetxt|Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke.|]|{{Quran-usc|41|11}}||}} | |||
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 ] and a strange man: <blockquote>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."<ref>Kaya, Veysel. "Can the Quran support Darwin? an evolutionist approach by two Turkish scholars after the foundation of the Turkish Republic." The Muslim World 102.2 (2012): 357-370.</ref></blockquote> The latter, so Akseki, underlines that the idea of ] is a challenge of the ]. 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 ] (''Isra'iliyyat'') and are not part of the Islamic canon.<ref>Kaya, Veysel. "Can the Quran support Darwin? an evolutionist approach by two Turkish scholars after the foundation of the Turkish Republic." The Muslim World 102.2 (2012): 357-370.</ref> | |||
'''Science:''' Scientists say that before the galaxies in the Universe were formed, celestial matter was initially in the form of huge gaseous matter or clouds. | |||
], who was president of the ] 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.<ref>Kaya, Veysel. "Can the Quran support Darwin? an evolutionist approach by two Turkish scholars after the foundation of the Turkish Republic." The Muslim World 102.2 (2012): 357-370.</ref> 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.<ref>Kaya, Veysel. "Can the Quran support Darwin? an evolutionist approach by two Turkish scholars after the foundation of the Turkish Republic." The Muslim World 102.2 (2012): 357-370.</ref> 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 ] and the 18th century Turkish scholar ], both utilized as references of pre-Darwinian accounts of evolution.<ref>Kaya, Veysel. "Can the Quran support Darwin? an evolutionist approach by two Turkish scholars after the foundation of the Turkish Republic." The Muslim World 102.2 (2012): 357-370.</ref> | |||
Commentary by ]:<ref name="bucaille_2">Maurice Bucaille.</ref> | |||
] in his movie ], features the trope of conflict between science and religion.<ref>Erdağı, D. Evil in Turkish Muslim horror film: the demonic in “Semum”. SN Soc Sci 4, 27 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00832-w</ref> 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 ], Hoca represents a ]. 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.<ref>Erdağı, D. Evil in Turkish Muslim horror film: the demonic in “Semum”. SN Soc Sci 4, 27 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00832-w</ref> 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.<ref>Erdağı, D. Evil in Turkish Muslim horror film: the demonic in “Semum”. SN Soc Sci 4, 27 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00832-w</ref> | |||
{{cquote|The Qur'an presents in two verses a brief synthesis of the phenomena that constituted the basic process of the formation of the Universe i.e. verse {{Quran-usc|21|30}} and {{Quran-usc|41|11}}. The important things to remember at present are the following: | |||
===== Islamist movements ===== | |||
* The statement of the existence of a gaseous mass with fine particles, for this is how the word 'smoke'(dukan in Arabic) is to be interpreted. Smoke is generally made up of a gaseous substratum, plus, in more or less stable suspension, fine particles that may belong to solid and even liquid states of matter at high or low temperature; | |||
Islamist author ] (brother, and promoter, of ]) 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 ], when he claims that it is documented in hadith that ] prevented commander Sariah from being ambushed by communicating with him telepathically.<ref name="M_Qutb_2000-9-10">{{cite book |last1=Qutb |first1=Muhammad |title=Islam the Misunderstood Religion |date=2000 |publisher=Markazi Maktaba Islami |pages=9–10 |url=https://archive.org/details/IslamTheMisunderstoodReligion.pdf/mode/2up |access-date=14 April 2020}}</ref> Muslim scientists and scholars have subsequently developed a spectrum of viewpoints on the place of scientific learning within the context of Islam.<ref name="Seyyed Hossein"/> | |||
* The reference to a separation process (fatq) of an primary single mass whose elements were initially fused together (ratq). It must be noted that in Arabic 'fatq' is the action of breaking, diffusing, separating, and that 'ratq' is the action of fusing or binding together elements to make a homogenous whole. | |||
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".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://english.alarabiya.net/amp/variety/2015/02/16/Saudi-cleric-Sun-revolves-around-stationary-Earth | title=Saudi cleric rejects that Earth revolves around the Sun | date=16 February 2015 }}</ref> In Afghanistan, Sunni ] have turned secular schools into Islamic ]s, valuing religious studies over modern science.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rferl.org/amp/taliban-secular-schools-converted-madrasahs-education/31914672.html | title='War on Education': Taliban Converting Secular Schools into Religious Seminaries }}</ref> | |||
This concept of the separation of a whole into several parts is noted in other passages of the Book with reference to multiple worlds. The first verse of the first sura in the Qur'an proclaims, after the opening invocation, the following: "In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful", "Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds." The terms 'worlds' reappears dozens of times in the Qur'an. The Heavens are referred to as multiple as well, not only on account of their plural form, but also because of their symbolic numerical quantity: 7.}} | |||
==Science and the Quran== | |||
===== Existence of life other then Earth ===== | |||
{{Quran|expanded=content}} | |||
'''Quran:''' | |||
{{cquotetxt|See ye not how Allah has created the seven heavens one above another, And made the moon a light in their midst, and made the sun as a (Glorious) Lamp?|]|{{Quran-usc-range|71|15|16}}||}} | |||
Many Muslims agree that doing science is an act of religious merit, even a collective duty of the ].<ref>Qur'an and Science, ]</ref> | |||
'''Commentary by Dr. ]''' <ref name="bucaille_2"/> | |||
According to M. Shamsher Ali, there are around 750 verses in the Quran dealing with natural phenomena. According to the ], many verses of the Quran ask mankind to study nature, and this has been interpreted to mean an encouragement for scientific inquiry,<ref name=Leaman>{{cite book | chapter=Science and the Qur'an |title=The Qurʼan: An Encyclopedia |chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedias.biz/dw/Encyclopedia%20of%20Quran.pdf |editor=Oliver Leaman |page=572 |last1=Ali |first1=Shamsher |access-date=13 May 2018}}</ref> and the investigation of the truth.<ref name=Leaman/>{{additional citation needed|date=November 2017}} Some include, "Travel throughout the earth and see how He brings life into being" (]), "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 ..." (]) | |||
{{cquote|The terms 'worlds' reappears dozens of times in the Qur'an. The Heavens are referred to as multiple as well, not only on account of their plural form, but also because of their symbolic numerical quantity: 7. This number is used 24 times throughout the Qur'an for various numerical quantities. It often carries the meaning of 'many' although we do not know exactly why this meaning of the figure was used. The Greeks and Romans also seem to have used the number 7 to mean an undefined idea of plurality. In the Qur'an, the number 7 refers to the Heavens themselves (samawat). It alone is understood to mean 'Heavens'. The 7 roads of the Heavens are mentioned once. The commentators on the Qur'an are in agreement on all these verses: the number 7 means no more than plurality. There are therefore many Heavens and Earths, and it comes as no small surprise to the reader of the Qur'an to find that earths such as our own may be found in the Universe, a fact that has not yet been verified by man in our time.}} | |||
] 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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nidhal Guessoum|title=Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science|page=63|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1848855175|date=2010-10-30}}</ref> ] argues that Muslims developed the foundations of modern science, by "highlighting the repeated calls of the Quran to observe and reflect upon natural phenomenon".<ref>{{cite book|author=Nidhal Guessoum|title=Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science|page=75|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1848855175|date=2010-10-30}}</ref> | |||
=====Space===== | |||
]''' <ref name="bucaille_2"/> writes that: | |||
<blockquote>Another observation which may surprise the Twentieth century reader of the Qur'an is the fact that verses refer to three groups of things created, i.e. | |||
# Things in the Heavens | |||
# Things on the Earth | |||
# Things between the Heavens and the Earth | |||
Here are several of these verses: | |||
{{cquotetxt|To Him belongs what is in the heavens and on earth, and all between them, and all beneath the soil.|]|{{Quran-usc|20|6}}||}} | |||
The physicist ] 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 ] and ] 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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nidhal Guessoum|title=Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science|pages=132, 134|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1848855175|date=2010-10-30}}</ref> | |||
{{cquotetxt|He Who created the heavens and the earth and all that is between, in six days, and is firmly established on the Throne (of Authority): Allah Most Gracious: ask thou, then, about Him of any acquainted (with such things).|]|{{Quran-usc|25|59}}||}} | |||
Islam has its own world view system including beliefs about "ultimate reality, epistemology, ontology, ethics, purpose, etc." according to Mehdi Golshani.<ref name="Golshani">], ''Can Science Dispense With Religion?''</ref> | |||
{{cquotetxt|It is Allah Who has created the heavens and the earth, and all between them, in six Days, and is firmly established on the Throne (of Authority): ye have none, besides Him, to protect or intercede (for you): will ye not then receive admonition?|]|{{Quran-usc|32|4}}||}} | |||
] writes that in Islam, nature is not seen as something separate but as an integral part of a ] 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.<ref>Toshihiko Izutsu (1964). ''God and Man in the Koran''. Weltansckauung. Tokyo.</ref> It was with this understanding that the pursuit of science, especially prior to the colonization of the Muslim world, was respected in Islamic civilizations.<ref>A. I. Sabra, ''Situating Arabic Science: Locality versus Essence''.</ref> | |||
{{cquotetxt|We created the heavens and the earth and all between them in Six Days, nor did any sense of weariness touch Us.|]|{{Quran-usc|50|38}}||}} | |||
The astrophysicist ] argues that the Quran has developed "the concept of knowledge" that encourages scientific discovery.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nidhal Guessoum|title=Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science|page=174|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1848855175|date=2010-10-30}}</ref> He writes: | |||
The reference in the Qur'an to ''"what is between the Heavens and the Earth"'' is again to be found in verses:{{Quran-usc|21|16}}, {{Quran-usc|44|7}}, {{Quran-usc|44|38}}, {{Quran-usc|78|37}}, {{Quran-usc|15|85}}, {{Quran-usc|46|3}}, and {{Quran-usc|43|85}}. | |||
<blockquote>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...'' ]) and in several different verses asks Muslims to require proofs (''Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful'' ]), both in matters of theological belief and in natural science.</blockquote> | |||
Hence Quran give following concepts. | |||
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 ], citing ]. Lastly, both assertions and rejections require a proof, according to ].<ref name=Guessoum-56>{{cite book|author=Nidhal Guessoum|title=Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science |page=56 |publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1848855175|date=2010-10-30}}</ref> ] and ] 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 '']'' (exegesis) and other classical disciplines" which inhibit a "universal, epistemiological and systematic conception" of the Quran's message.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nidhal Guessoum|title=Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science|pages=117–18|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1848855175|date=2010-10-30}}</ref> The philosopher ] considered the Quran's methodology and epistemology to be empirical and rational.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nidhal Guessoum|title=Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science|pages=58–59|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1848855175|date=2010-10-30}}</ref> | |||
# Existence of six periods for the Creation in general. | |||
# Interlocking of stages in the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth. | |||
# Creation of the Universe out of an initially unique mass forming a block that subsequently split up. | |||
# Plurality of the Heavens and of the Earths | |||
# Existence of an intermediary creation 'between the Heavens and the Earth'.</blockquote> | |||
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 '']'' . 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."<ref name="Guessoum-2008-413">{{cite journal |last1=Guessoum |first1=Nidhal |title=The QUR'AN, SCIENCE, AND THE (RELATED) CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM DISCOURSE |journal=Zygon |date=June 2008 |volume=43 |issue=2 |page=413 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9744.2008.00925.x |url=https://www.academia.edu/1447032 |access-date=15 April 2019 |issn=0591-2385|doi-access=free }}</ref> | |||
] such as Sayyid Qutb argue that since "Islam appointed" Muslims "as representatives of God and made them responsible for learning all the sciences,"<ref name="ReferenceB">Qutb, Sayyid, ''Milestones'', {{p.|112}}</ref> science cannot but prosper in a society of true Islam. (However, since Muslim majority countries governments have failed to follow the '']'' law in its completeness, true Islam has not prevailed and this explains the failure of science and many other things in the ], according to Qutb.)<ref name="ReferenceB"/> | |||
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 ] 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 ]: "God sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will," which (they believed) applied to all of creation not just humanity.<ref>Stark, Rodney, ''The Victory of Reason'', Random House: 2005, {{pp.|20|21}}.</ref> | |||
====Fossils of ancient humans==== | |||
]'', a representative of the extinct species believed to be the nearest ancestor of ''Homo sapiens'', '']''.]] | |||
There are three basic verses in Qur'an which are related to human creation:<ref name="sal">{{cite journal | quotes = | author = Saleem, Shehzad | date = | year = 2000 | month = May | title = The Qur’anic View on Creation | journal = ] | volume = 10 | issue = 5 | pages = | doi = | id = ] | url = http://www.renaissance.com.pk/maytitl20.htm | format = | accessdate = 2006-10-11 }}</ref> | |||
{{cquotetxt|The similitude of Jesus before Allah is that of Adam. He created him from clay<ref>The Arabic word تُرَابٍ is usually translated as "dust" or "soil"</ref>.|]|{{Quran-usc|3|59}}||}} | |||
{{cquotetxt|O mankind fear your Lord who created you from one person and created his mate from his kind and from these two scattered countless men and women.|]|{{Quran-usc|4|1}}||}} | |||
{{cquotetxt|He began the creation of man with clay; then made his progeny from the essence of an ordinary fluid; then he perfected him and breathed into him something of his spirit and gave you the faculties of hearing and sight and the heart.|]|{{Quran-usc-range|32|7|9}}||}} | |||
According to the first two verses, ] were directly created by God from clay. They did not descend from any other species as proposed by ]. The rest of mankind is the progeny of ]. The third verse implies that there were three stages in their creation, and can be interpreted in two ways:<ref name="sal"/> | |||
*'''First possibility:''' | |||
**Adam and Eve were created from clay | |||
**They subsequently developed the ability to reproduce at a later age | |||
**Finally, after some more time elapsed, they entered the third phase in which they were perfected both physically and spiritually, and received the divine spirit from God. | |||
*'''Second possibility:''' All these three phases did not pass on the first humans created, rather each of the phases lasted for many years during which many life forms were created from clay having the characteristic of their respective periods together with that of the previous one. | |||
**'''Human forms were initially directly created from clay''' because they did not have the ability to reproduce. This first stage may have lasted for millions of years, and in it, the humans forms' physical forms after passing through various stages culminated in the homo sapiens of today. Millions of species may have been created from clay like this. Among them, many went extinct and the others lived to enter the second phase, the first of which were Adam and Eve. | |||
**The human forms now had the ability to reproduce and direct creation was no longer required. '''] were the first directly created pair from clay which had this ability to reproduce'''. In the second phase, except ] all other pairs who had the ability to reproduce pairs were not perfected and later died away. | |||
** It was this very pair which entered the third phase and was perfected physically so that it could receive the divine spirit from the God and be blessed with the faculties of sense and reason as is specified by the last part of the verse. | |||
] wrote ''An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam''.<ref>{{cite book|title=An Illusion of Harmony: Science And Religion in Islam: Taner Edis: 9781591024491: Amazon.com: Books |isbn = 978-1591024491|last1 = Edis|first1 = Taner|year = 2007}}</ref> 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 ] 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 ] 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.<ref name=TanerEdis>{{cite web |url=http://castroller.com/podcasts/ReasonableDoubtsPodcast/1625411-rd09%20Islam,%20Science%20and%20Modernity%20Part%20One%20with%20Guest%20Taner%20Edis |title=Reasonable Doubts Podcast |publisher=CastRoller |date=2014-07-11 |access-date=2014-07-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523101850/http://castroller.com/podcasts/ReasonableDoubtsPodcast/1625411-rd09%20Islam,%20Science%20and%20Modernity%20Part%20One%20with%20Guest%20Taner%20Edis |archive-date=2013-05-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref name="TanerEdis"/> Edis qualifies that Muslim thought certainly cannot be understood by looking at the Quran alone; cultural and political factors play large roles.<ref name="TanerEdis"/> | |||
Under the second interpretation, the fossils which we find today belong to the millions of people created from clay in the first and second phases. | |||
===Miracle literature (''Tafsir'ilmi'') === | |||
==== Embryology ==== | |||
Starting in the 1970s and 1980s, the idea of the presence of scientific evidence in the Quran became popularized as '']'' (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 ], whose works have been distributed through Muslim bookstores and websites, and discussed on television programs by Islamic preachers.<ref name="SARDAR">{{cite journal |last1=SARDAR |first1=ZIAUDDIN |title=Weird science |journal=New Statesman |date=21 August 2008 |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/08/quran-muslim-scientific |access-date=11 April 2019}}</ref><ref name=cook-2000-30/> 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.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} By asserting the presence of scientific truths stemming from the Quran, it also overlaps with ]. 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.<ref>Johanna Pink (2010). Sunnitischer Tafsīr in der modernen islamischen Welt: Akademische Traditionen, Popularisierung und nationalstaatliche Interessen. Brill, ISBN 978-9004185920, pp. 120–121</ref> | |||
{{under construction}} | |||
{{citecheck}} | |||
According to author ], the ''ijaz'' movement has created a "global craze in Muslim societies", and has developed into an industry that is "widespread and well-funded".<ref name="SARDAR"/><ref name=cook-2000-30/><ref name=MCKaVSI2000:29>]: p.29</ref> Individuals connected with the movement include ], who established the ]; ], the Indian televangelist; and ], the Turkish creationist.<ref name="SARDAR"/> | |||
It is widely recognized that the Qur'an and hadith contain a number of verses pertaining to human reproduction and development. In his book ''A History of Embryology,'' Professor ] dismisses some of the embryological surahs in the Quran, surahs {{Quran-usc|23|14}} (discussed below), {{Quran-usc|24|45}}, {{Quran-usc|35|11}}, {{Quran-usc|75|36}}, {{Quran-usc|75|37}}, {{Quran-usc|75|38}}, {{Quran-usc|75|39}}, and {{Quran-usc|76|2}} as "a seventh century echo of ] and ],"<ref name="needham"> Joseph Needham, ''A History of Embryology''</ref>{{request quote}}<!--, and in referring to the wider Arabic contribution to embryology, he concludes that: "Arabic science, so justly famed for its successes in certain fields such as optics and astronomy, was not of great help to embryology."--> According to ], ] ] of ] at the ], the scientific meaning of certain surahs in the Quran has become clear only recently.<ref name="imoore">{{cite journal | last=Moore | first=Keith L. | title=A scientist's interpretation of references to embryology in the Qur'an | journal=Journal of the Islamic Medical Association, | volume=18 | year=1986 | month=January | pages=15—16 }}</ref> An example cited by him is: | |||
Enthusiasts of the movement argue that among the miracles found in the Quran are "everything, from ], ], ], ] and ], ], ], modern ], ], even the ] and ]".<ref name="SARDAR"/> | |||
{{cquotetxt|He created you (all) from a single person: then created, of like nature, his mate; and he sent down for you eight head of cattle in pairs: He makes you, in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness. such is Allah, your Lord and Cherisher: to Him belongs (all) dominion. There is no god but He: then how are ye turned away (from your true Centre)?|]|{{Quran-usc|3|96}}||}} | |||
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.<ref name="Exegesis-92">{{cite journal |last1=Ansari |first1=Zafar Ishaq |title=Scientific Exegesis of the Qur'an / {{rlo}}التفسير العلمي للقرآن{{popdf}} |journal=Journal of Qur'anic Studies |date=2001 |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=92 |doi=10.3366/jqs.2001.3.1.91 |jstor=25728019 }}</ref> | |||
An example is the verse: "So verily I swear by the stars that run and hide ..." (]),<ref>{{cite web |title=BLACK HOLES |url=https://miraclesofthequran.com/scientific_37.html |website=miracles of the quran |access-date=16 April 2019 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713061949/https://www.miraclesofthequran.com/scientific_37.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> which proponents claim demonstrates the Quran's knowledge of the existence of ]s; or: " the Moon in her fullness that ye shall journey on from stage to stage" (]) refers, according to proponents, to human ].<ref name="SARDAR"/> | |||
Moore suggests that the verse phrase may describe the following three physiological barriers:<ref name="imoore"/> | |||
# The ] ]; | |||
# The ] wall; and | |||
# The ]. | |||
====Embryology in the Quran==== | |||
Moore notes that there may be other interpretations of this verse, but does not elaborate. ] quotes the ] ] scholar ] (1291-1351) as reporting a different interpretation: "Most commentators explain, it is the darkness of the belly, and the darkness of the womb, and the darkness of the placenta."<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, ''Sex and Society in Islam''</ref>The extent of human knowledge of embryology stretches back to the second century, when ] doctor ] described the ] and fetal membranes. Basim Musallam writes that the scienfitic tradition of ], ], and Galen "was native to the Middle East for centuries before Islam."<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, ''Sex and Society in Islam''</ref> He further opines that "the Quran described the development of the foetus in the language of the biological sciences of the time. There was little difference between the language of the Quran and that of Galen on the stages of foetal development."<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, ''Sex and Society in Islam''</ref> Discussing the "stages" mentioned in this verse, Moore argues that it was probably known to the seventh century doctors that the human ] developed within the uterus, though their knowing of human embryos developing in stages would have been unlikely. Moore claims that though ] noted the developmental stages of a ] embryo during the fourth century, it was not until the fifteenth century that developmental stages of human embryo had been the subject of discourse.<ref name="imoore"/> However, Musallam writes that this had been described long before Muhammad: | |||
One claim that has received widespread attention and has even been the subject of a medical school textbook widely used in the Muslim world <ref name=AARAM2016:121>], 2016: p.121</ref> is that several Quranic verses foretell the study of ] 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."<ref name="Saadat-2009">{{cite journal |last1=Saadat |first1=Sabiha |title=Human Embryology and the Holy Quran: An Overview |journal=International Journal of Health Sciences |date=January 2009|volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=103–109 |pmid=21475518 |pmc=3068791 }}</ref> | |||
{{cquotetxt|The stages of development which the Quran and and hadith established for believers agreed perfectly with Galen's scientific account. In ''De Semine,'' for example, Galen spoke of four periods in the formation of the embryo: (1) as seminal matter; (2) as a bloody form (still without flesh, in which the primitive heart, liver, and brain are ill-defined); (3) the foetus acquires flesh and solidity (the heart, liver, and brain are well-defined, and the limbs begin formation); and finally (4) all the organs attain their full perfection and the foetus is quickened.|}} | |||
In 1983, an authority on embryology, ], 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, ]. This edition, ''The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology with Islamic Additions'',<ref name="additions">{{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Keith L. |title=The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Emryology with Islamic Additions |publisher=Abul Qasim Publishing House (Saudi Arabia) |url=https://www.islamicbookstore.com/b6147.html |date=1983 |access-date=8 August 2020 |archive-date=29 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200129125717/http://www.islamicbookstore.com/b6147.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> interspersed pages of "embryology-related Quranic verse and hadith" by al-Zindani into Moore's original work.<ref name=AARAM2016:120-1>], 2016: p.120-1</ref> | |||
Further occurances of verses pertaining to supposed embryological development are as follows: | |||
At least one Muslim-born physician (]) 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 ] and the '']'',<ref>Joseph Needham, revised with the assistance of Arthur Hughes, ''A History of Embryology'' (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1959), p.82</ref> and/or easily explained by "common sense".<ref name=AARAM2016:121/>{{#tag:ref| non-Muslim scientists have also found the case for Quranic ] explanation about embryology lacking. {{cite web |last1=Pharyngula |title=Islamic embryology: overblown balderdash |url=https://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/11/23/islamic-embryology-overblown-b |website=science blogs |access-date=10 August 2020}} |group=note}} | |||
{{cquotetxt|Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed.|]|{{Quran-usc|23|13}}||}} | |||
Some of the main verses are | |||
The word "''nutufah''" (]: {{lang|ar|نطفة}}) here has been interpreted as the "]" or "]", although Moore suggests that a more meaningful rendering would be "]", which divides to form a ] before embedding itself in the uterus — possibly what is referred to in the verse as "a place of rest". This interpretation, he claims, is supported by a different verse in the Qur'an describing the human being as created from a "mixed drop", to which the zygote would correspond, being "the union of a mixture of the sperm and the ]."<ref name="imoore"/> | |||
*(]) 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.<ref name="Islam 101">{{cite web |last1=Moore |first1=Keith L. |title=A Scientist's Interpretation of References to Embryology in the Qur'an |url=http://www.islam101.com/science/embryo.html |website=Islam 101 |access-date=11 August 2020}}</ref><ref name=AARAM2016:121-2>], 2016: p.121-2</ref> | |||
*Verse ] identifies the order of organ development of the embryo—ears, then eyes, then heart.<ref name=AARAM2016:124>], 2016: p.124</ref>{{#tag:ref|The site "Miracles of the Quran" quotes four verses: | |||
*It is He Who has created hearing, sight and minds for you. What little thanks you show! (]) | |||
*Allah brought you out of your mothers' wombs knowing nothing at all, and gave you hearing, sight and minds so that perhaps you would show thanks. (]) | |||
*Say: "What do you think? If Allah took away your hearing and your sight and sealed up your hearts, what god is there, other than Allah, who could give them back to you?" (]) | |||
*We created man from a mingled drop to test him, and We made him hearing and seeing. (]) | |||
and notes that: "The above verses refer to a number of senses given to human beings by Allah. ''These are always referred in a specific order in the Qur'an: hearing, sight, feeling and understanding.''" <br> | |||
and further claims that: "The information only recently obtained about the formation of the baby's organs inside the mother's womb is in complete agreement with that revealed in the Qur’an."<ref name="sequences">{{cite web |title=THE SEQUENCE IN DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN ORGANS |url=https://www.miraclesofthequran.com/scientific_63.html |website=Miracles of the Quran |access-date=29 August 2020}}</ref>|group=note}} | |||
*Verses referring to "sperm drop" (''an-nutfa''), and to ''al-3alaqa'' (translated as "clinging clot" or "leech like structure") in (]); and to "sperm-drop mixture" (''an-nuṭfatin amshaajin'') in (]). 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.<ref name="Islam 101"/><ref name=AARAM2016:122/> | |||
*(]) "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.<ref name="Islam 101"/><ref name=AARAM2016:122/> | |||
However, | |||
{{cquotetxt|Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create! |]|{{Quran-usc|23|14}}||}} | |||
*The "three darknesses" or three walls (]) 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").<ref name="von Staden">{{cite journal |last1=von Staden |first1=H. |title=The discovery of the body: human dissection and its cultural contexts in ancient Greece |journal=Yale J Biol Med |date=May–Jun 1992 |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=223–41|pmid=1285450 |pmc=2589595 }}</ref><ref name=AARAM2016:122>], 2016: p.122</ref> | |||
*Contrary to the claims made about ], 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 soul and made for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you grateful."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Surah As-Sajdah |url=https://quran.com/|access-date=2020-08-30|website=Surah As-Sajdah |language=en}}</ref><ref name="AARAM2016:124"/> | |||
*The embryo may resemble a leech (ala "clinging clot" or "leech like structure" of ''al-3alaqa'' in ]), but it resembles many things during the eight week course of its development—none for very long.<ref name=AARAM2016:122/> | |||
*While it is generally agreed the Quran mentions sperm (''an-nutfa'' in several verses), "sperm-drop mixture" (''an-nuṭfatin amshaajin'' in ]) of a mixture of sperm and egg is more problematic as nowhere does the Quran mention the ] 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.<ref name=AARAM2016:124/> | |||
*With mention of male sperm but not female egg in the Quran, it seems likely ]—"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.<ref name=AARAM2016:122/> | |||
In 2002, Moore declined to be interviewed by '']'' 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."<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Golden|first1= Daniel|author-link= Daniel Golden|title= Western Scholars Play Key Role In Touting 'Science' of the Quran|journal= ]|date= 23 January 2002|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1011738146332966760|access-date=27 January 2013}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
The word "''alaqah''" (]: {{lang|ar|علقة}}), rendered by ] as a "clot of congealed blood", is translated as "a ]-like structure" by ], professor of ] at the ].<ref name="imoore"/> Moore claims that the meaning of ''alaqah'' is "leech" or "bloodsucker", which he states is an appropriate description of the relationship between the embryo and the ] in which it is implanted, between days 7 and 24 of human embryological development. This is because the human embryo derives blood from the endometrium, in the same way a leech draws blood from its host. Morphologically, too, the embryo at this stage resembles that of a leech, he notes, unobservable by anyone in the seventh century without a ].<ref name="imoore"/> | |||
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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rohani Mashhadi |first1=Farzaneh |last2=Hasanzadeh |first2=Gholamreza |date=2022 |title=An Evolutionary Reading of Adam's Creation in the Qur'an with Emphasis on the Concepts of Creation and Selection |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.37264/jiqs.v1i1.4 |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary Qur'anic Studies |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=63–76 |doi=10.37264/jiqs.v1i1.4}}</ref> | |||
The next stage referred to is "''mudhgah''" (]: {{lang|ar|مضغة}}), which Moore suggests means "chewed substance or chewed lump." This, he believes, corresponds to around the fourth week of development where the embryo resembles the appearance of a chewed lump, a key characteristic of which being indentations or "teeth-marks" signalling the beginnings of the ], the precursor to the ]. Continuing in his analysis of this verse, he states that the next stage (which mentions formation of ]s and flesh) is also in accordance with the stages of embryological development, as first the bones form as ] models, after which ] develop from the surrounding ] ]. The phrase "then We developed out of it another creature" may allude to the resemblance of a human figure by the end of the eighth week, by which time the embryo (now known as the ]) has gained distinctive human characteristics and possesses the primordia of all external and internal organs.<ref name="imoore"/> | |||
====Criticism==== | |||
Other perceived verses referring to human development cited by Moore include: | |||
Critics argue, verses that proponents say explain modern scientific facts, about subjects such as ], the origin and history of the Earth, and the ], contain fallacies and are unscientific.<ref name="MCKVSI2000:30">]: p.30</ref><ref name="Ruthven 2002. p. 126">see also: ]. 2002. ''A Fury For God''. London: Granta. p. 126.</ref> | |||
* "''... And He gave you hearing and sight and feeling and understanding''".<ref>Qur'an {{Quran-usc|32|9}}</ref> This verse, he suggests, refers to the development of the ]s in the order of ], ], and ]. According to Moore, this is the correct order of development in the embryo: the primordia of the ]s develop first, followed by the beginning of the ]s, with the differentiation of the ] (which he refers to as the "site of understanding") occuring last of these.<ref name="imoore"/> | |||
*"''Then out of a piece of chewed flesh, partly formed and partly unformed.''"<ref>Qur'an {{Quran-usc|22|5}}</ref> Moore states that this verse seems to indicate that the embryo is comprised of both ] and undifferentiated tissues. He cites the example of undifferentiated ] present around the differentiated cartilage bone models. This mesenchyme then differentiates to form the muscles and ]s attached to the bone. <ref name="imoore"/> | |||
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 ], Muslim historian ], ], president of Center for Islam and Science in Alberta, Canada, and Egyptian Muslim scholar Khaled Montaser.<ref name="beyond"/> | |||
==References== | |||
<div class="references-small"> | |||
<references /> | |||
</div> | |||
Pakistani theoretical physicist ] 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.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=When Science Teaching Becomes A Subversive Activity |pages=215–219 |first=Pervez |last=Hoodbhoy |title=Scientific Values and Civic Virtues Get access Arrow |editor-first=Noretta |editor-last=Koertge |location= |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |doi=10.1093/0195172256.003.0014 |isbn=0195172256 }}</ref><ref name="beyond">{{cite web |title=Beyond Bucailleism: Science, Scriptures and Faith |url=https://www.unchangingword.com/science-scripture-faith/ |website=Evidence for God's Unchanging World |date=21 July 2014 |access-date=9 August 2020}}</ref> | |||
==External links== | |||
Giving the example of the roundness of the earth and the invention of the television,{{#tag:ref| Claims of the Quran foretelling the roundness of the earth can be found at Windows of Islam.com, citing as evidence | |||
* "He created the heavens and earth in truth. He wraps the night over the day and wraps the day over the night and has subjected the sun and the moon, each running for a specified term".<ref name="woi-roundness">{{cite web |title=Scientific Miracles of the Quran, 19 – Roundness of the Earth |url=https://www.windowsofislam.com/scientific-miracles-of-the-quran-19-roundness-of-the-earth.html |website=Windows of Islam |access-date=9 August 2020 |time=0:55s}}</ref> | |||
The site Miracles of the Quran.com lists "THE INVENTION OF TELEVISION" as one of the "Mathematical Miracles of the Quran", citing | |||
*Surat an-Naml, "He who possessed knowledge of the Book said, ‘I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you.’ And when he saw it standing firmly in his presence, he said, ‘This is part of my Lord's favor to test me to see if I will give thanks or show ingratitude... "<ref name="MMotQ">{{cite web |title=Mathematical miracles of the Quran |url=https://www.miraclesofthequran.com/mathematical_14.html |website=Miracles of the Quran.com |access-date=10 August 2020}}</ref>|group=note}} | |||
a Christian site ("Evidence for God's Unchanging World") complains the "scientific facts" are too vague to be miraculous.<ref name="beyond"/> | |||
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);<ref name="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);<ref name="Exegesis-92"/>{{request quotation|reason=does the source talk about imam or iman?|date=July 2020}} and that "Science is ever-changing ... the Copernican revolution overturning polemic models of the universe to Einstein's general relativity overshadowing Newtonian mechanisms".<ref name=cook-2000-30/> So while "Science is probabilistic in nature" the Quran deals in "absolute certainty". (Ali Talib);<ref name="TALIB-Deconstructing">{{cite web |last1=TALIB |first1=ALI |title=Deconstructing the "Scientific Miracles in the Quran" Argument |url=https://traversingtradition.com/2018/04/09/deconstructing-the-scientific-miracles-in-the-quran-argument/ |website=Transversing Tradition |access-date=16 April 2019 |date=9 April 2018}}</ref> | |||
] says that the central issue in the Islam-science discourse is the hierarchical positioning or place of the Quran in the scientific enterprise.<ref name="Guessoum-2008-413"/> | |||
Mustansir Mir argues for a proper approach to Quran with regard to science that allows multiple and multi-level interpretations.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Scientific exegesis of the Qur'an--a viable project?|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA119627485&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=17037603&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E9a6f061e}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Religious perspectives on the science of Human Origins - Dr. Mustansir Mir, Ph.D|url=https://humanorigins.si.edu/sites/default/files/transcript_pdfs/Religious%20perspectives%20on%20the%20science%20of%20Human%20Origins%20-%20Dr.%20Mustansir%20Mir%2C%20Ph.D.pdf}}</ref> He writes: | |||
<blockquote>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.</blockquote> | |||
== See also == | |||
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== References == | |||
===Notes=== | |||
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=== Citations === | |||
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== 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. | |||
* 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. | |||
== External links == | |||
{{Wikiquote|Qur'an on science}} | |||
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* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529080309/http://www.csc.twu.ca/byl/golshani.doc |date=2016-05-29 }} by Mehdi Golshani. | |||
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* ''A New Astronomical Quranic Method for The Determination Of The Greatest Speed C by Dr. ]'' | |||
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Latest revision as of 00:09, 24 December 2024
Relationship between Islam and science "Science and Islam" redirects here. For the historical development of science in the Islamic world, see Science in the medieval Islamic world. For the documentary, see Science and Islam (documentary).Part of a series on |
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Muslim scholars have developed a spectrum of viewpoints on science within the context of Islam. Scientists of medieval Muslim civilization (e.g. Ibn al-Haytham) contributed to the new discoveries in science. 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, mathematics, astronomy, agriculture as well as physics, economics, engineering and optics.
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, the solar system, and the development of the universe.
Terminology
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. 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", علم الطبيعة ‘ilm aṭ-ṭabī‘a; arithmetic as the "science of accounts" علم الحساب ilm al-hisab. 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". 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 ...")
History
Classical science in the Muslim world
See also: Science in the medieval Islamic world, Cosmology in medieval Islam, Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world, Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world, Physics in the medieval Islamic world, and Medicine in the medieval Islamic worldOne 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. It is also known as "Arabic science" because of the majority of texts that were translated from Greek into Arabic. 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 or Arab, as there were a number of notable non-Arab scientists (most notably Persians), 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 and the scientific method to have been greatly inspired by Muslim scientists who introduced a modern empirical, experimental and quantitative approach to scientific inquiry. Certain advances made by medieval Muslim astronomers, geographers and mathematicians were motivated by problems presented in Islamic scripture, such as Al-Khwarizmi's (c. 780–850) development of algebra in order to solve the Islamic inheritance laws, 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. 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 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 as self-medication. Criticisms against alchemy and astrology 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 Quranic verse, "All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds." He raises the question 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 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 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.
According to many historians, science in the Muslim civilization flourished during the Middle Ages, but began declining at some time around the 14th to 16th centuries. At least some scholars blame this on the "rise of a clerical faction which froze this same science and withered its progress." 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 observatory in Galata, "comparable in its technical equipment and its specialist personnel with that of his celebrated contemporary, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe." 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 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.
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 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 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 scholar Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi has noted that important technological innovations—once "considered to be bizarre, strange, haram (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, 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 based 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 Descartes is printing, when Galileo is printing, when 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.
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 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." In Pakistan, 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 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 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".
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 anti-theistic attitude, Hoca represents a 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 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, valuing religious studies over modern science.
Science and the Quran
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Many Muslims agree that doing science is an act of religious merit, even a collective duty of the Muslim community. According to M. Shamsher Ali, there are around 750 verses in the Quran dealing with natural phenomena. According to the 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 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.
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. 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... 17:36) and in several different verses asks Muslims to require proofs (Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful 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 verse 5:104. Lastly, both assertions and rejections require a proof, according to 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 . 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," 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 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 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". 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 miracles found in the Quran are "everything, from 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: " the Moon in her fullness that ye shall journey on from stage to stage" (Q84:18–19) refers, according to proponents, to human 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 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.
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 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.
- Verse Q32:9 identifies the order of organ development of the embryo—ears, then eyes, then heart.
- 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").
- 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 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 evolution of human life, contain fallacies and are unscientific.
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 Thanvi, 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
- Quran and miracles
- Relationship between religion and science
- Religious interpretations of the Big Bang theory
- Ahmadiyya views on evolution
- Christianity and science
- Buddhism and science
- Baháʼí views on science
- Education in Islam
- Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences
- Superstitions in Muslim societies
References
Notes
- non-Muslim scientists have also found the case for Quranic prescient explanation about embryology lacking. Pharyngula. "Islamic embryology: overblown balderdash". science blogs. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
- The site "Miracles of the Quran" quotes four verses:
- It is He Who has created hearing, sight and minds for you. What little thanks you show! (Qur'an 23:78)
- Allah brought you out of your mothers' wombs knowing nothing at all, and gave you hearing, sight and minds so that perhaps you would show thanks. (Qur'an, 16:78)
- Say: "What do you think? If Allah took away your hearing and your sight and sealed up your hearts, what god is there, other than Allah, who could give them back to you?" (Qur'an 6:46)
- We created man from a mingled drop to test him, and We made him hearing and seeing. (Qur'an 76:2)
and further claims that: "The information only recently obtained about the formation of the baby's organs inside the mother's womb is in complete agreement with that revealed in the Qur’an." - Claims of the Quran foretelling the roundness of the earth can be found at Windows of Islam.com, citing as evidence
- verse 39:5 "He created the heavens and earth in truth. He wraps the night over the day and wraps the day over the night and has subjected the sun and the moon, each running for a specified term".
- Surat an-Naml, Q.27:40 "He who possessed knowledge of the Book said, ‘I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you.’ And when he saw it standing firmly in his presence, he said, ‘This is part of my Lord's favor to test me to see if I will give thanks or show ingratitude... "
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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? 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