CLASH BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Dr. Maurice Bucaille of France (d. 1998) travelled to Egypt with his companions in 1975 and directly observed this preserved body in the museum of Cairo. After a full verification he wrote a book on this subject in which he stated: Those who seek among modern data for proof of the veracity of the Holy Scriptures, will find a magnificent illustration of verses of the Quran dealing with the Pharaoh’s body by visiting the Royal Mummies Room of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo! Prophets—Messengers of God One of the fundamentals beliefs of religion is ‘prophethood’, that God sent prophets for man’s guidance in every age, the last in the chain of prophets being Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Abdul Muttalib. These prophets were sent because there is a limit to human knowledge, and man cannot discover guiding principles for his life on his own. There is an unseen world and a life after death that man cannot discover merely through his intellectual endeavours. That is why man needed to believe in God’s prophets and receive guidance from them. The guidance Prophet Muhammad received from God has been fully preserved in its original form. The first revelation the Prophet of Islam received, forms part of the 96th chapter titled Al-Alaq (the Clot) of the Quran. God said: “Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.” (96: 3-5) This is a declaration that man cannot find guidance on his own. In fields like agriculture, horticulture, engineering, etc., man gains knowledge through experience in his daily life. But the superior knowledge required for man’s eternal guidance cannot be attained by man’s own efforts. It is necessary to receive higher learning through prophetic guidance. The objective of all the great philosophers of ancient times was to discover guiding principles to govern human life. Despite great efforts made by great minds over several thousand years, philosophy has not produced any guidance of this nature. It is a fact that the efforts of philosophers have created confusion rather than provided any clear guidance. Karl Marx’s (d. 1883) book on the failure of philosophy titled The Poverty of Philosophy, was written from this viewpoint. It is true that philosophic thinking, based entirely on speculative reasoning, has failed to provide eternal guiding principles. The age of philosophy came to an end after the emergence of modern science. Philosophy is now considered a historical discipline rather than a living discipline.