Science: The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.

There have been so many writings about Islam and science that one would think Islam is more akin to biology and astronomy than it is to spirituality. The list of writings and books is so endless, that it seems obvious that Muslims find it extremely comforting to read about the congruencies within Islam and science. Many verses are used to demonstrate that scientific concepts that our Prophet(Peace be upon him), could not have known of in his day and age.

“(God is) the One Who created the night,and day, the sun and the moon. Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion.”
–sura 21, verse 33

“Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder and We got every living thing out of the water. Will they not then believe?”
—sura 41, verse 11 (Cited in relationship to the Big Bang and the fact our bodies are mostly made of water)

There are many more verses that are used in terms of embryonic studies to show that the Quran describes, in detail, the formation of a human being from a sperm and egg cell. I’ll quote them later on. Although I find them remarkable, it’s especially important to realize the problems that come about when trying to relate specific scientific principles to prove the Quran’s authenticity.

It seems that in today’s age, science has become the validator of religion. This is unfortunate, because it reflects the strongly held beliefs by todays common-man that reality as we experience it is something that is fixed and results can be expected by obvious mathematic principles. Modern man has found his comfort and satisfaction, not in knowing the future fate of his soul, but in the reliability that 2+2 will always equal 4.

This type of thought only shows a lack of awareness over how little science really knows. Current scientific theories and debates are struggling to describe repeatable events that break every physics rule we know of. The engaging field of quantum physics has created some theories which require as much faith as religion.

For example, Scientific American recently ran an article on the theory of the Holographic Universe, where our reality might actually be a projection of quantum fields onto a sort of canvas. This and other theories are attempting to define what they have demonstrated as gaps in the theories of relativity and newtonian principles at subatomic levels. In such a theory, matter does not exist except as information! These are ideas which question the fundamentals of our reality, this to me is quite significant as a Muslim.

It seems that knowing the paltry laws of physics and of biology is similar to spending a lifetime learning great detail about the Mona Lisa, while ignoring the brilliant life of Leonardo. By burying ourselves in the beauty of the insignificant, we have forgotten all about the creator. Indeed, with another stroke, the Mona Lisa could have changed but the nature of the Leonardo as a human being with a brush would not.

With such basic questions floating about, it seems obvious that science cannot be used, yet, to describe our reality as a whole. What is reality except what we can percieve with our eyes, our hands, our ears, or our brains?

The great Muslim Philosopher, who is titled Hujjat-al Islam (The Proof of Islam), Imam Al-Ghazali (1058-1111), ran into special problems with relying on rationality and sense-perception to understand reality. This is an excellent excerpt from an article on his philisophical issues:

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Such was the courage of al-Ghazālī to know. He was free from the parochialism of the dogmatic theologians of his day who would rather consign the books of the atheists and philosophers to flames than read them. But prepared though he was to listen to every creed and doctrine, he would accept none and doubt all. For one thing, he came to the conclusion that the greatest hindrance in the search for truth was the acceptance of beliefs on the authority of others and blind adherence to the heritage of the past. He remembered the traditional saying of the Prophet: ?Every child is born with a sound disposition (fitrah); it is his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian?18 and he was anxious to know what that sound disposition was before it suffered the impress of the unreasoned convictions imposed by others. Indeed, he wanted to reconstruct all his knowledge from its very foundation and was led to make the following reflections: ?The search after truth being the aim which I propose to myself, I ought in the first place to ascertain what are the bases of certitude. In the second place I ought to recognize that certitude is the clear and complete knowledge of things, such knowledge as leaves no room for doubt, nor any possibility of error.?19 As one might foresee, this proposed test for certitude only led him to a series of doubts. No part of the knowledge he had acquired {588} hitherto could stand this rigorous test. He further observed, ?We cannot hope to find truth except in matters which carry their evidence in themselves, i. e., in sense-perception and necessary principles of thought; we must, therefore, first of all establish these two on a firm basis.? But he doubted the evidence of sense-perception; he could see plainly as Descartes did later that they so often deceive us. No eye can perceive the movement of a shadow, still the shadow moves; a small coin would cover any star yet the geometrical computations show that a star is a world vastly larger than the earth

Al-Ghazālī?s confidence in sense-perception having been shaken, he turned to the scrutiny of what he called the necessary principles, but he doubted even these. Is ten more than three? Can a thing both be and not be at the same time or be both necessary and impossible? How could he tell? His doubt withregard to sense-perception made him very hesitant to accept the infallibility of reason. He believed in the testimony of senses till it was contradicted by the verdict of reason. Well, perhaps there is above reason another judge who if he appeared would convict reason of falsity and if such a third arbiter is not yet apparent it does not follow that he does not exist.

Al-Ghazālī then considers the possibility that life in this world is a dream by comparison with the world to come; and when a man dies, things may come to appear differently to him from what he now beholds.20 There may be an order of reality different from this spatio-temporal order which may be revealed to a level of consciousness other than the so-called normal consciousness such as that of the mystics or the prophets. Such was the movement of al-Ghazālī?s thought, which though formulated a little artificially in the Munqidh was dramatic enough to make out a case for the possibility of a form of apprehension higher than rational apprehension, that is, apprehension as the mystic?s inspiration or the prophet?s revelation.
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Imam Ghazali went through such a phase of doubt that he had actually made himself physically sick over the problems that rationality and perception proposed. Could he trust his eyes, his ears, his mind? How he came out of this riddle of philosophy was acknowledging that God is the author of this and any other reality.

Though I’ve spent some time discussing the problems with relying on science alone, Islam has nevertheless established a dynamic relationship with the scientific process, not one of confrontation that has existed with Christianity. In fact, Islam, by abstracting reality itself, never created barriers with which science cannot cross. For example, although Quranic verses exist which hint that the Earth is a round sphere, no one would have been accused of committing heresy by asserting that it is flat. We are free to use our minds and senses to come to conclusions about the world which we inhabit.

Furthermore, Islamic religious scholars have never relied on ’secret knowledge’ in coming to conclusions, the scientific method has been applied to all aspects of Islamic Law. Fatwa’s (legal declarations) are often riddled with proofs from the various traditions of the Prophet (S) and the Quran.

The only difference between today’s scientists and the great Islamic astronomers, philosophers, and scientists of yesterday is that they devoted themselves to understanding the painting, as well as developing a personal relationship with the Artist.

I’ll update this later on, depending on feedback. I already wrote a lot!