Islamic science

The relationship between true science and Islam is a matter of extreme controversy. In the Muslim world, many believe that modern science was first developed in the Muslim world rather than in Europe and Western countries, that "all the wealth of knowledge in the world has actually emanated from Muslim civilization," and what people call "the scientific method", is actually "the Islamic method."Egyptian Muslim geologist Zaghloul El-Naggar quoted in Science and Islam in Conflict Discover magazine 06.21.2007"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 Muslims often cite verse 239 from Surah Al-Baqara —- He has taught you what you did not know. —- in support of their view that the Qur'an promotes the acquisition of new knowledge. 
In contrast, some people worry that the contemporary Muslim world suffers from a "profound lack of scientific understanding," and lament that, for example, in countries like Pakistan 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.""Islam and science – unhappy bedfellows", Pervez Hoodbhoy, 2006. Formerly at http://www.globalagendamagazine.com/2006/Hoodbhoy.asp (dead link can be accessed in the Internet archive)
The development of scientific thought and knowledge has caused differing reactions among Muslims. In the Muslim world today, most of the focus on the relation between Islam and science involves scientific interpretations of the Quran (and sometimes the Sunna) that claim to show these sources make prescient statements about the nature of the universe, biological development and other phenomena later confirmed by scientific research, and proof of the divine origin of the Qur'an. This effort has been criticized by some scientists and philosophers as containing logical fallacies,Secular Web Kiosk and Bookstore being unscientific, likely to be disproven by evolving scientific theories.Cook, Michael, The Koran: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, (2000), p.30see also: Ruthven, Malise, A Fury For God, London ; New York : Granta, (2002), p.126
==Overview==
The religion Islam has its own worldview system including beliefs about "ultimate reality, epistemology, ontology, ethics, purpose, etc." Mehdi Golshani, Can Science Dispense With Religion? Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the literal word and the final revelation of God for the guidance of humankind. 
Science in the broadest sense refers to any falsifiable system of knowledge attained by verifiable means,See, e.g., the entry Science in the Oxford English Dictionary ISBN 0-19-522217-2 and in a narrower sense to a system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation, and methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research. Scientists maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the scientific method, a process for evaluating empirical knowledge that explains observable events in nature as results of natural causes, rejecting supernatural notions.
One of the most important features of Science, notably Physics is the precise quantitative prediction based on its current level understanding of a phenomenon. In this aspect it differs from many religious texts where physical phenomena are depicted in a very qualitative way, often by the use of words carrying several meanings.
==History==
===Classical Islamic science===
In the history of science, Islamic science refers to the science developed under Islamic civilization between the 8th and 16th centuries, during what is known as the Islamic Golden Age.
 It is also known as Arabic science since the majority of texts during this period were written in Arabic, the lingua franca of Islamic civilization. Despite these terms, 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 Islamic world. 
A number of modern scholars such as Fielding H. Garrison,Fielding H. Garrison, History of Medicine Bertrand Russell,Prof. Osman Bakar (Georgetown University), Islam's Contribution to Human Civilization: Science and Culture, CIC's annual Ottawa dinner, October 15, 2001. Abdus Salam and Hossein Nasr consider modern science and the scientific method to have been greatly influenced by Muslim scientists who introduced a modern empirical, experimental and quantitative approach to scientific inquiry. Some scholars, notably Donald Routledge Hill, Ahmad Y Hassan,Ahmad Y Hassan and Donald Routledge Hill (1986), Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History, p. 282, Cambridge University Press. Abdus Salam,Abdus Salam, H. R. Dalafi, Mohamed Hassan (1994). Renaissance of Sciences in Islamic Countries, p. 162. World Scientific, ISBN 9971507137. and George Saliba,George Saliba (1994), A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, p. 245, 250, 256-257. New York University Press, ISBN 0814780237. have referred to their achievements as a Muslim scientific revolution,Abid Ullah Jan (2006), After Fascism: Muslims and the struggle for self-determination, "Islam, the West, and the Question of Dominance", Pragmatic Publishings, ISBN 978-0-9733687-5-8.Salah Zaimeche (2003), An Introduction to Muslim Science, FSTC. though this does not contradict the traditional view of the Scientific Revolution which is still supported by most scholars.Grant, Edward. The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1996.Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800. Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution, (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1957), p. 142.
According to many historians, science in Islamic civilization flourished during the Middle Ages, but began declining at some time around the 14thIslam by Alnoor Dhanani in Science and Religion, 2002, p.88 to 16thAhmad Y Hassan, Factors Behind the Decline of Islamic Science After the Sixteenth Century centuries. At least some scholars blame this on the "rise of a clerical faction which froze this same science and withered its progress."Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History by Ahmad Y. al-Hassan and Donald Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.282 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 Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din 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 AD.Aydin Sayili, The Observatory in Islam and its place in the General History of the Observatory (Ankara: 1960), pp. 289 ff.Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History by Ahmad Y. al-Hassan and Donald Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.282
It is believed that it was the empirical attitude of the Qur'an and Sunnah which inspired medieval Muslim scientists, in particular Alhazen (965-1037),Bettany, Laurence (1995), "Ibn al-Haytham: an answer to multicultural science teaching?", Physics Education 30: 247-252 [247]) (cf. ) to develop the scientific method.Ahmad, I. A. (June 3, 2002), The Rise and Fall of Islamic Science: The Calendar as a Case Study, Faith and Reason: Convergence and Complementarity, Al Akhawayn University. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.C. A. Qadir (1990), Philosophy and Science in the lslumic World, Routledge, London) It is also known that certain advances made by medieval Muslim astronomers, geographers and mathematicians was 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.
Other such examples include 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. Ali Kuşçu's (1403-1474) support for the Earth's rotation and his rejection of Aristotelian cosmology (which advocates a stationary Earth) was also motivated by religious opposition to Aristotle by orthodox Islamic theologians such as Al-Ghazali.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, p. 49-64, 66-71. Criticisms against alchemy and astrology were also motivated by religion, such as the views of astrologers conflicting with orthodox Islam.
=== Arrival of modern science in Islamic world ===
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: Mehdi Golshani, Does science offer evidence of a transcendent reality and purpose?, June 2003 These reactions, in words of Professor Mehdi Golshani, were the following:
===Compatibility of Islam and the development of science===
Whether Islamic culture has promoted or hindered scientific advancement is disputed. Islamists such as Sayyid Qutb argue that since "Islam appointed" Muslims "as representatives of God and made them responsible for learning all the sciences,"Qutb, Sayyid, Milestones, p.112 science cannot but prosper in a society of true Muslims. Many "classical and modern [sources] agree that the Qur'an condones, even encourages the acquisition of science and scientific knowledge, and urges humans to reflect on the natural phenomena as signs of God's creation." Some scientific instruments produced in classical times in the Islamic world were inscribed with Qur'anic citations. Many Muslims agree that doing science is an act of religious merit, even a collective duty of the Muslim community. Qur'an and Science, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an 
Others say traditional interpretations of Islam are not compatible with the development of science. Author Rodney Stark, explains Islam's lag behind the West in scientific advancement after (roughly) 1500 AD to opposition by traditional ulema to efforts to formulate systematic explanation of natural phenomenon with "natural laws." They believed such laws were blasphemous because they limit "Allah's freedom to act" as He wishes. This principle was enshired in aya 14:4: "Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will," which (they believed) applied to all of creation not just humanity.Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason, Random House, 2005, p.20-1
===Decline===
In the early twentieth century ulema forbade the learning of foreign languages and dissection of human bodies in the medical school in Iran.Mackey, The Iranians : Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation, 1996, p.179 The ulama at the Islamic university of Al-Azhar in Cairo taught the Ptolemaic astronomical system (in which the sun circles the earth) until compelled to adopt the Copernican system by the Egyptian government in 1961.In the Path of God : Islam and Political Power by Daniel Pipes, c1983 p.113 
In recent years, the lagging of the Muslim world in 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.Abdus Salam, Ideals and Realities: Selected Essays of Abdus Salam (Philadelphia: World Scientific, 1987), p. 109. Skepticism of science among some Muslims is reflected in issues such as 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."Nafiu Baba Ahmed, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, telling the BBC 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 and more than half the world's polio victims live. Nigeria's struggle to beat polio, BBC News, 31 March 20
==Qur'an and Science==
The belief that Qur'an had prophesied scientific theories and discoveries has become a strong and widespread belief in the contemporary Islamic world; these prophecies are often provided as a proof of the divine origin of the Qur'an.
The scientific facts claimed to be in the Qur'an exist in different subjects, including creation, astronomy, the animal and vegetables kingdom, and human reproduction.
"a time is fixed for every prophecy; you will come to know in time" (). Islamic scholar Zaghloul El-Naggar thinks that this verse refers to the scientific facts in the Qur'an that would be discovered by the world in modern time, centuries after the revelation.
This belief is, however, arguable in the Muslim world, while some support it, other Muslim scholars oppose the belief, claiming that the Qur'an is not a book of science; al-Biruni, one of the most celebrated Muslim scientists of the classical period, assigned to the Qur'an a separate and autonomous realm of its own and held that the Qur'an "does not interfere in the business of science nor does it infringe on the realm of science." Ahmad Dallal, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Quran and science These scholars argued for the possibility of multiple scientific explanation of the natural phenomena, and refused to subordinate the Qur'an to an ever-changing science.
==Specific science-related issues in the Quran and the Hadith==
===Fossils of ancient humans===
There are three specific verses in the Qur'an concerning human creation:
(, , )
According to the first two verses, Adam and Eve were directly created by God from clay that give sound, they did not descend from any other species as proposed by Charles Darwin and the rest of mankind is the progeny of Adam and Eve. The third verse implies that there were three stages in their creation, and can be interpreted as follows:
**Adam and Eve were created from clay that gives sound
**They subsequently developed the ability to reproduce at a later age 
**Finally, after an additional period of time, there was a third phase in which they were perfected both physically and spiritually, and received the divine spirit from God
===Conception and inherited characteristics===
The most prominent of the ancient Greek thinkers who wrote on medicine were Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen. Hippocrates and Galen, in contrast with Aristotle, wrote that the contribution of females to children is equal to that of males, and the vehicle for it is a substance similar to the semen of males. Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam. Cambridge University Press. Basim Musallam writes that the ideas of these men were widespread through the pre-modern Middle East: "Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen were as much a part of Middle Eastern Arabic culture as anything else in it." Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam Cambridge University Press. The sayings in the Quran and those attributed to Muhammad in the Hadith influenced generations of Muslim scientists by siding with Galen and Hippocrates. Basim Musallam writes: "... the statements about parental contribution to generation in the hadith paralleled the Hippocratic writings, and the view of fetal development in the Quran agreed in detail with Galen's scientific writings." Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam. Cambridge University Press. He reports that the highly influential medieval Hanbali scholar Ibn Qayyim, in his book Kitab al-tibyan fi aqsam al-qur'an, cites the following statement of the prophet from the Sahih Muslim: 
Ibn Qayyim also quotes a different hadith from the same collection, which is quoted by other Muslim authors as well. Having been asked the question "from what is man created," the Prophet replies:
==See also==
*Islamic science
*Relationship between religion and science
*Bahá'í Faith and science
*Criticism of the Qur'an
*Qur'an and science
*Qur'an and miracles
==References==
==External links==
* Science and the Islamic world—The quest for rapprochement - by Pervez Hoodbhoy
* Islamic Science by Ziauddin Sardar, 2002
; By Professor Mehdi Golshani
* Can Science Dispense With Religion? 
* Does science offer evidence of a transcendent reality and purpose?
* Some important questions concerning the relationship between science and religion 
; By Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr
*Islam, science and Muslims 
*Islam, Muslims, and modern technology
===Others===
*Center for Islam and Science
*Explore Islamic achievements and contributions to science
*Commission on Scientific Signs
*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
*Islamology the science of peace
 
Category:Religion and science