From: kam@philabs.philips.com (Khalid A Shahzad)
Subject: Can science come back to Islam? [Part 3]
Organization: Philips Laboratories, Briarcliff Manor, NY.
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 00:56:40 GMT

If Muslim scientists were capable of such achievements, it is
legitimate to ask, what caused the demise of Islamic science and the
consequent colonization of the Muslim world? Was it something
inherent in Islam? Or was it purely a result of certain historical
coincidences?

The rise of the Muslims to the zenith of civilization in a period
of less than a hundred years and the development of contemporary
Islamic science was based on Islam's insistence, indeed
over-insistence, on learning. The Qur'an and the traditions of the
Prophet Muhammed (p.b.u.h.) are saturated with references to learning,
education, observation, and the use of reason. The very essence of 
Islam is summed up in the first verse of the Qur'an revealed to the
Prophet (p.b.u.h.) on the fateful night of 27th Ramadan, 611:

	   Read: In the Name of thy Lord who created,
	   created Man of a blood clot.

	   Read: And thy Lord is the Most Generous
	   Who taught by the Pen
	   taught Man, that he knew not. (96:1-5)

"The Pen" has THE most exulted place in Islam. Some samples of the
Qur'anic teachings: 

	   And they shall say, had we but listened or 
	   used reason, we would not be among the inmates
           of the burning fire. (67:10)

	   Are those who have knowledge and those who have
	   no knowledge alike? Only the men of understanding
	   are mindful. (39:9)

	   He causes to grow for you thereby herbage and the
	   olives and the palm trees and the grapes and of
	   all the fruits; surely there is sign in this for a
	   people who reflect. And he has made subservient to
	   you the night and the day and the Sun and the Moon,
	   and the stars are made subservient by His command;
	   surely there are signsin this for a people who 
	   ponder. And what he has created for you in the early
	   of varied hues; surely there is a sign in this for
	   a people who have sense. (16: 11-13)


The Prophetic traditions supplement these teachings of the Qur'an.
For example:

	   The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the
	   blood of the martyr.

	   Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.

	   An hour's study of nature is better than a 
	   year's adoration.

	   To listen to the words of the learned and to instil
	   unto others the lessons of science is better than
	   religious exercises.

	   Acquire knowledge: it enables its possessor to
	   distinguish right from wrong; it lights the way 
	   to Heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our
	   society in solitude, our companion when friendless;
	   it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery;
	   it is an ornament amongst friends and armour against
	   enemies.

The teachings drove many great natural philosophers to their
accomplishments: For example,

al-Khawarizmi (d. 850) whose KITAB AL-JABR
WAL'L MUQABALA laid the foundations of modern algebra;

al-Battani (d. 928) who measured the solar year as being only
24 seconds longer than the currently accepted value;

al-Khazini (d. 971) whose THE BOOK OF THE BALANCE OF WISDOM
first introduced the concept of center of gravity;

ibn Sina (d. 1037) whose CANNONS OF MEDICINE was the standard
medical text in Europe for 800 years;

and Jabir ibn Hayyan (d. 815) who introduced scientific method
into chemistry.

For them, science was integral to Islam and equivalent to piety.
Some of the best and most eloquent praises of science ever written
come from the pens of the Muslim scientists who considered their
work to be acts of worship; such as the great Andalusion scholar
Abu Umar Yusuf al-Qurtubi (d. 1071) whose book THE COMPREHENSIVE
ACCOUNT OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND VIRTUES OF SCIENCE AND OF THE
PRE-REQUISITES OF TELLING ITS TRUTHS AND OF CARRYING ITS MISSION
has no contemporary parallel. The same motives led to the
establishment of al-azhar (c.800), the first university in the world;
the Shammasiyah observatory (c. 828), the first in the world;
and the celebrated House of Wisdom (c. 815) of Baghdad.

Clearly there is nothing in the teachings of Islam that militates
against learning, against science and against technology!


                 
		 MUTAZILITES versus ASHARITES

But though Islam exalts the use of reason, it also places reason
under the control of revelation. In other words, in Islam, the use
of reason is not divorced  from the ethics and morality of the
exercise. When the great physician al-Rhazi was asked to make
poisons he refused saying that while he was quite capable of doing
so, his profession demanded that he made only those drugs that would
be  used for curing people and his religion forbade doing anything
that could possibly harm other members of society. Al-Biruni, most
exact of scientists insisted that his experimental work was subject
to the moral principles of Islam; for him revelation was the supreme
authority. The ethics and morality of Islam are all prevasive;
theoretical and experimental sciences must both be guided by them.
Yet it was the excessive use of reason which, ironically led to the
fall of Islamic science. Revelation in Islam is above reasoning,
but not above reason. Neither is reason above revelation. This rather
subtle relationship was overlooked by a movement of Muslim scientists
and scholars, the Mutazilites (who emerged c. 700) who believed
that not just the mysteries of nature but also the profundities
of religious belief could be explained and expressed in terms of 
human reason. The Mutazilites provoked the emergence of counter-
movement the Asharites who emerged c. 900 and contested the
adulterations of religious dogma by over-zealous use of reason and
condemned BIDAH, or innovation in religious belief. Both sides had
powerful advocates. The Mutazilites boasted al-Kindi (d. 873),
al-Firabi (d. 950),ibn-sina (d. 1037) and ibn-Rushd (d. 1198)
among their ranks. In the Asharites, al-Rhazi (d. 924), al-Ghazali
(d. 1111) and ibn-Khuldoon (d. 1406) stand out prominently. The
debate between the Mutazilites and the Asharites spreads over
several centuries reaching a climax with the publication of
al-Ghazali's THE INCOHERENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS, a remarkably
articulate defence of the Asharites position, and ibn-Rushd's 
THE INCOHERENCE OF THE INCOHERENCE, an equally remarkable defence
of the Mutazilites philosophy. But in the end, the Asharites had
an edge over the Mutazilites. 

The Asharite victory had rather serious
consquences for the Muslim civilization: a new paradigm enveloped
the Muslim scholars. This paradigm was TAQLID---- the tyrannical
attitude of passive acceptance. It is worth noting that TAQLID
was NOT a tenet of the Asharites' philosophy but their success
over the Mutazilites created an atmosphere for its wide acceptance.

The initial use of TAQLID was confined to religious areas. The 
antithesis of TAQLID is IJTIHAD----to exert the utmost effort,
to struggle, to do ones best to know something. IJTIHAD, after
the Qur'an and Prophetic traditions, is the third source of Islamic
law. At the end of the 14th century, when the Muslim civilization
was recovering from the aftermaths of the Mongol invasion, the
pious scholars, fearing a massive misuse of IJTIHAD by the 
unqualified, and consequent deviation from the true teachings of
Islam, closed the gates of IJTIHAD. This was not achieved by a 
conference or a meeting, but over a period of several decades the
learned scholars reached consensus that it was not allowed for any
one to exercise independent reasoning in matters of religion. As
Islam does not separate the scared from the profane, it was only
natural for such an injunction to be generalized. When TAQLID was
accepted as the dominant paradigm, Islamic science became a matter
of history.

The rediscovery of Islamic science in our times is an intellectually
formidable tas  requiring a sustained effort over several generations.
While the IFIAS study and the Islamic science summit will undoubtedly
increase our understanding of Islamic science, it has to be
appreciated that Islamic science cannot be discovered outside a
living, dynamic, thriving civilization of Islam. No serious study of 
Islamic science can be carried out outside the circumference of the
teachings of Islam. Essentially, the rediscovery of Islamic science
is the rediscovery of the moral and ethical principles of Islam.
As such, it is irrevocably linked to the cultural and religious
awakening of the Muslim people.

( TO BE CONTINUED)

KHALID SHAHZAD
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