The Role of Science in the World of Islam

The Role of Science in the World of Islam

1989 2 February 13-22 The Role of Science in the World of Islam (3657)

Regaining Lost Ground

I once met an atheist who was primarily a scientist by education, but who was also well-versed in history and religion. In the course of our conversation, he asked me if I thought that there would really be any great gap in world history if the Islamic revolution could be subtracted from the sum total of its events. My answer was: “The same great gap will remain which was there in human history before Islam.”

Prior to the advent of Islam, man’s thinking had been dominated in every age by polytheism, a philosophy according to which the phenomena of nature were considered to be objects, not of scientific enquiry and experimentation, but of unquestioning reverence. If the polytheist thought of the moon as a god, he could not then conceive of man’s setting foot upon it. Floods, for him, were aspect’ of divinity, so that there could be no question of controlling them in order to produce electricity or to irrigate the drought-stricken soil. Although man has inhabited the earth for thousands of years, it is only very recently that he has made any progress in those departments of learning which come under the heading of modern science. And this could never have happened if Islam had not demolished polytheism, setting up monotheism in its place. It propagated the idea that there is only one God and that all else is His creation. In doing so, Islam opened the way to the investigation of nature and to the inevitable progress which accompanied its conquest. Where science had been hindered by polytheism, It was now given a great impetus by monotheism.

Although the bringing of science to mankind was not the main objective of Islam, it must be conceded that if Islam had not gained ground in the greater part of the world, there could have been no such development as a scientific revolution. The door to scientific progress would have remained closed – perhaps for thousands of years. Historians of the calibre of Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) have paid due tribute to the prominent role played by monotheism in our overall scientific development.

Science Born Out of the Islamic Revolution

A major consequence of the monotheistic revolution was that man began not only to see nature as a mere creation of God, divested of all divinity, but also to realize that human beings had the right to explore it and to harness it to their needs. This tendency began in the Umayyad period (661-750) in Damascus. Where ancient Greek philosophers had dabbled in alchemy, the art of transmitting baser metals into silver or gold, Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiya was probably the first person to attempt to develop alchemy into a physical science. We now see alchemy as the forerunner of chemistry, but, in those early days it took a superior way of thinking to recognize its true potential. During the Abbasid Caliphate, this science was further developed in Baghdad, after which it reached Spain and Sicily. This period has been called the Dark Ages by European historians. But it was dark only for Europe, and not for the Muslim world, for at this time, the Muslims were far ahead of the rest of the world in cultural and academic affairs. The world Book Encyclopaedia states that “the term ‘dark-age’ cannot be applied to the splendid Arab culture which spread over north Africa and into Spain,” (p.30).

To appreciate fully what monotheism achieved, we have to understand the nature of the obstacles which polytheism placed in the way of scientific investigation. For instance, in ancient Greece, two conflicting theories had been put forward as to the shape and movement of the earth and the sun. Aristarchus, a Greek philosopher of the second century B.C. had advanced the theory that the earth rotated on its own axis and also revolved around the sun. Almost four centuries later, Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer, geographer and mathematician, postulated the flatness of the earth and its fixity at the centre of the universe. After the conversion of Constantine (272-337 A.D.) and the ensuing Christian domination of Europe, Ptolemy’s theory was given credence, while that of Aristarchus was forcibly suppressed. The reason for what now appears an irrational and ill-considered judgement was that Aristarchus’ theory undermined Christian doctrine. Christians believed that Jesus Christ was God and that the earth, being the birthplace of God, was of the utmost sanctity. How then could the astral body which was God’s birthplace be a mere satellite to some other globe?

It was this concept of the sacredness of the earth which largely blocked normal inquiry into the workings of nature. The clash between science and polytheistic religion is well analysed and illustrated in the Conflict Between Science and Religion by Drapier (1811-1882).

During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph, AI-Mamun (786-833), the Bait al-Hikmah (house of wisdom) was established, where, with the special patronage of the government, books dealing with both kinds of theories regarding the earth were translated. In connection with his Bait al-Hikmah, AI-Mamun also erected at Baghdad, near the Shamasayah gate, an astronomical observatory. Muslims, free of doctrinal complexities, found that the concept of the earth revolving around the sun was closer to reality. Caliph AI-Mamun, himself a great scholar, understood the importance of this issue, and gave orders to his astronomers to measure the length of a terrestrial degree, the object being to determine the volume and circumference of the earth, on the assumption that the earth was round.

“AI-Mamun’s astronomers performed one of the most delicate geodetic operations – the measuring of the length of a terrestrial degree. The object was to determine the size of the earth and its circumference on the assumption that the earth was round. The measurement, carried out on the plain of Sinjar north of the Euphrates and also near Palmyra, yielded 56 2/3 Arabic miles as the length of a degree of the meridian – a remarkably accurate result, exceeding the real length of the degree at that place by about 2877 feet. This would make the circumference of the earth 20,400 miles and its diameter 6500. Among those who took part in this operation were the sons of Musa ibn-Shakir and perhaps al-Khwarizmi, whose tables (zij), revised a century and a half later by the Spanish astronomer Maslamah al-Majriti (+ca. 1007) and translated into Latin in 1126 by Adelard of Bath, became the bases for other works both in the East and the West. Such Arab astronomical tables replaced all their Greek and Indian predecessors and came to be used even in China.” (Philip Hitti, History of the Arabs, p. 375)

There was continuous progress of this kind in various fields of knowledge until, as a result of strife among Muslims themselves, it came to an end along with the Arab Caliphate. The centre of political representation of Islam was then transferred in the sixteenth century to Turkey, where the banner of Islam was borne aloft by the Ottoman Turks (1517-1922). This came about at a time when there was a serious danger of its falling into weak hands. The services the Turks performed in defending Islam against Christian onslaughts for several hundred years are unforgettable. But it was these same Turks who caused the Muslim world to give up all scientific investigation, thus diverting precious intellectual talent to Europe instead. It is a tragic irony of history that those who perform the most valuable of services in one respect may cause the greatest of calamities in another. For example, in suppressing all intellectual activity, those very same Turks, who had been like an iron wall against Christianity, took an even more ill-fated step than that taken by the otherwise exemplary Umayyad Caliph, Sulayman bin Abdul Malik who, in sentencing important Arab military commanders to death, or to life imprisonment,’ halted the advance of Islam into Asia and Africa. There were only five Caliphs who have gone down in history as having been rightly guided. It goes to his credit that he nominated such a worthy successor, Umar ibn Abdul Aziz who became the fifth rightly guided Caliph. Yet his ill-conceived treatment of these military commanders caused an inestimable setback to the progress of Islam.

The Turks, for their part, were extremely brave and courageous people, and were jealous guardians of the principles of Islam, but they had one fatal weakness – their lack of education. Not only were they incapable of grasping the significance of scientific research, but they feared that the rise in literacy would impair the loyalty of their subjects, thus rendering them more difficult to control than an illiterate population. This being their outlook, they could not tolerate the academic work which was in progress.

When the Muslim political centre moved from Baghdad to Turkey, the scientists and philosophers who had been working in Baghdad and other cities gathered in the Turkish Capital, Astana. Where the Abbasid Caliphs had appreciated their work and been generous patrons, the Turks reviled them as a threat to their rule. Seeing that their future was bleak in the Turkish empire, they left in great discouragement for Italy and France. The work of scientific investigation was thus transferred from the Muslim to the western world. The treatment meted out to academicians and scholars by the Turks is described in agonizing details in Tarikh Al-Hadharat Al-Arabia by Muhammad Kurd Ali Shami.

These scientists were given a hearty welcome by the western world, for European Christians were naturally anxious to make up for their academic backwardness as compared to Muslim enlightenment. When Muslim scholars reached Christian countries, they, therefore, found their intellectual counterparts eager to co-operate with them. One field in which Europeans wished to gain ground with the help of Muslim technology was that of military weaponry. For example, the Muslims had developed a device to counter the ‘Greek Fire’ which had been effectively used against them by Roman forces. Where ‘Greek fire’, a kind of sprinkler filled with combustible material, was a formidable enough weapon, the Muslim device, containing mineral oil, was longer in range and more highly destructive.

The academic research of Europe then greatly outpaced that of the Muslim world. A three-hundred year struggle, from the 16th to the 19th century, finally brought into existence the scientific and industrial revolution. The part played by Muslims in the scientific progress of the west has been particularized in Briffault’s book, The Making of Humanity.

Up till the 16th century, Muslims had been masters in the field of knowledge, but the subsequent advances made over the centuries by European countries left Muslims lagging far behind. In a world which they themselves had ushered in, the Muslim teachers found themselves reduced to the position of students. However, there still remained the possibility of their turning the tables. They could use the results of European research to forge ahead once again and be in the intellectual forefront. Where Europe had profited from Muslim enlightenment, Muslims could now profit from Western science. It was just a question of seizing the opportunity. But this Muslim potential was never fully developed. Two reasons for this are recorded in the annals of Islamic history.

Present-day Muslims’ Neglect of Science

For centuries, Muslims remained disassociated from science. When they were brought back into contact with it, it was through colonization. The very people who brought them science were those who deprived them of their power and grandeur, and offended their religious traditions, the Muslims, naturally, regarded them as enemies. Unfortunately, they had not the wisdom to make the distinction between western politics and western science. For them, hating the colonizers meant also hating science. While other nations familiarized themselves with the latest scientific developments and benefited from them, Muslims closed their minds to them and were, in consequence, left lagging, one hundred years behind everyone else. Now there is no question of their gaining academic supremacy over other nations.

The situation, if anything, was worsened by so-called Muslim champions of learning, who, after such a prolonged period of scientific inertia, proved themselves incompetent either to bridge the gaps in their own knowledge, or to impart whatever knowledge they had to others. Then they set about the latter in the wrong manner, thus antagonizing their fellow Muslims and obscuring from them the greatness of the task they had undertaken.

For instance, to prove the importance of modern knowledge, they took the word al-ilm (knowledge) wherever they found it in the Quran, and applied it indiscriminately to the secular education imparted in colleges and universities, thus relying on verses from the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet to support their arguments. But such arguments, far from proving definitive, only stirred up controversies between religious and secular scholars, the former holding that sacred texts which emphasize the acquisition, of learning refer to religious learning and not to worldly sciences with their connotations of materialism.

When Muslim reformers insisted that these particular injunctions on learning referred to both religious and secular knowledge, they were using a wrong argument to prove a correct point, for it must be conceded that the knowledge expressed by the world al-ilm in the Quran and hadith is, indeed, religious in nature, rather than secular and scientific. This approach was regrettable considering that the acquisition of scientific knowledge was, and still is, a must for Muslims. The line they should have taken was to emphasize that the Quran required Muslims to gain sufficient strength to overcome their enemies, and then to support their arguments by quoting the verses on quwwah (strength) rather than the verses on ilm. If Muslims fail to become proficient in science, they will never be able to inspire awe (Quran 8:60) in the world of today. Therefore, in order to carry out this divine commandment, in the light of modern developments, Muslims must bring themselves up-to-date in this vital field. If they neglect this duty, they will never have it in their power to strengthen the cause of Islam. If Muslims are ever to gain ground in the realms of science, the exponents of learning must make a judicious selection of the arguments to be used in its favour, so that those who have been turned away from a worthy objective by specious reasoning may once more feel encouraged to approach the subject with renewed interest.

The Importance of Science in Islam

Science, to put it very simply, is the objective study of the material phenomena of the universe. As such, it is important, for a variety of reasons, to Islam. The most important of these is its substantiation of religious belief. “In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are signs for men of sense; those who reflect on the creation, of the heavens and earth. . . .” (Quran, 3: 191). In a sense, the mind of the believer works in the same way as the mind of the scientist: both are concerned with the acquisition of factual knowledge. But where the scientist is pre-occupied with procedures of research and the material nature of his ultimate findings, the believer is concerned with their spiritual significance and the moral lesson to be learned from them. To the scientist, the quest for knowledge is a worthwhile pursuit in itself. But to the believer, the quest for knowledge must take him far beyond material discovery to a greater, non-material objective. Where the scientist is satisfied with regular additions to his knowledge, the believer is satisfied only with ever-increasing faith based on knowledge.

This difference of mentality makes for a great difference in their respective methods of study. The scientist confines his study to the quantitative aspects of the properties of matter, and ignores the qualitative aspects which cannot be measured. In that way, too, the scientist separates function from meaningfulness. He is limited to such procedures because he does not wish to rely on anything outside his own intellect when he makes his examination of the universe. This means that he cannot examine anything external to his own experience and observation, and everything must be verifiable within those limits. But a believer can enter a much wider field of discovery, for he is equipped not only with the powers of his own intellect, but also with the knowledge which is conferred through revelation. His study deals, therefore, not only with the properties of things but, more significantly, with the realities of things. When he thinks of a “creature”, he also thinks of its Creator. This difference in approach invests the believer’s observation of nature with an awesome meaningfulness: he sees the whole universe as a manifestation of the attributes of God. He cannot discover the universe without discovering God. The Prophet’s true role was to assist man in this discovery.

The phenomena of the universe are a testament to the truth of the Quran’s message. What has been expressed in the Quran as a matter of theory, has been borne out in practice by cosmic events. Science, therefore, supports Quranic theology. It is a mistake to believe that science is simply a discipline created by scientists. It is actually the name given to the investigation of and findings on the laws operating in God’s universe. Whatever part of those laws is discovered by science is a reflection of God’s functioning. Whatever knowledge is gained in this way is an apprehension of the signs of the Almighty.

The scientist gains knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but the believer uses knowledge as an academic tool in the struggle for ultimate truth, and in his endeavours to instruct and convince the unenlightened. By making proper use of such knowledge, he is able to present his ideas in a clear and well-reasoned way.

The third aspect of the importance of science for Islam, is, as has been stated above, the strength (quwwah) which it confers in the context of modern exigencies. If Islam is to occupy a position of honour in the world of today Muslims must have full access to that power. This will come about only when Muslims themselves forge so far ahead in the study of science that they become leaders in that field.

In the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, there have been movement for political freedom throughout the entire Muslim world. The leaders of these movements believed –erroneously, as it turned out – that by ousting the ruling class, particularly in. the case of foreign domination, and replacing them by representatives of Islam, they could establish Islam as a power in the world. They thought that political freedom was synonymous with Islamic glory. But today, even after the political liberation of all Muslim countries at the cost of great sacrifices on their part, they are still overshadowed by those non-Muslim nations who excel them in science and technology. Their political freedom has failed to bring them a position of dignity in the world today, because, for everything from watches to war weapons, they remain dependent upon the developed countries. The truth is that everything in this modern age has to be placed in the perspective of science and technology. This being so, those nations who have been outpaced in these fields cannot hope to make a place for themselves in the front ranks of world competition. What is worse is that the backwardness of the Muslims in scientific knowledge has given non-Islamic nations, an opportunity to offer them the technical assistance, which, in their backwardness, they are only too eager to accept. Thus the Muslim nations are distributed into two rival groups and both go on fighting each other. It is then to the advantage of the developed countries to see that there is no end to hostilities.

If one goes along the Jantar Mantar Road in New Delhi, one will see a complex of strange constructions known as the Jantar Mantar – from which the road takes its name. The Jantar Mantar is, in fact, an observatory. It was built in the first half of the 18th century by Maharaja Jaj Singh of Jaipur, who was keenly interested in astronomy. This Rajput king also built observatories in Jaipur, Mathura and Ujjain.

By means of these observatories, astronomers learnt about the speed of the moon and the stars, and the change of the seasons, and were thus enabled to measure the distance between the earth and the stars. They could also calculate the time from the way the light of the sun and the moon fell on certain parts of the buildings, and the whole calendar was marked out on the windows, balconies and walls.

Right from the Middle Ages, the academic and constructive work of Muslims has been copied by the world. Even the observatory built by Maharaja Jai Singh was an exact copy of the Abbasid observatory in Baghdad, built by Caliph Mamun Rashid one thousand years ago.

In ancient times, leadership in knowledge was in the hands of Muslims. That is why their methods were imitated all over the world. In later times, however, because of Muslim negligence, this position of leadership has gone to western nation. Three hundred years ago when a man of intellect wished to build an observatory in order to study astronomy, the Baghdad observatory was already there for him to use as his model. But today, if a less well-developed country wishes to construct an observatory, it feels obliged to import both its design and equipment from western countries.

Muslim honour, glory and prestige have had a long and illustrious journey throughout the ages. But this journey has now, finally, come to an end. Muslims must now consider whether this stage of intellectual near-helplessness which they have reached is really the end – or could it be another beginning? Surely this is the point from which they must set out once again on their journey, if only to regain the ground which they have so regrettably lost.