ISLAM’S CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN SCIENCE

ISLAM’S CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN SCIENCE Conquest of Nature I SLAM inspires and propels its followers to seek knowledge for the pleasure of their Lord, and to work towards and facilitate promotion and welfare of humanity. In other words, the motto of education in Islam is: acquisition of knowledge for the sake of serving God and His creatures. That is why throughout Islamic history, equal attention has been paid to the learning of both the religious sciences and the natural sciences. Islam places great emphasis on learning, and in order to facilitate learning, supporting factors which are necessary to make progress in learning have been provided by God. One of these special factors is the freedom to conduct research. Here is an example from the Prophet’s life. Once the Prophet passed by an oasis where he found date palm planters at work. Upon enquiry he found that they were pollinating the clusters of dates in order to produce a better yield. The Prophet expressed his disapproval of this process. Knowing this, the farmers immediately stopped it. Later on the Prophet was told that due to lack of proper pollination the yield had been very low compared to the previous years. On hearing this, the Prophet replied, “You know your worldly matters better.” (Sahih Bukhari) In other words, experiment and observation should be the final criteria in such worldly matters. In this way, the Prophet of Islam separated scientific research from religion. This means in the world of nature man must enjoy full opportunities to conduct unrestricted research and adopt the conclusions arrived at. Placing such great emphasis on knowledge resulted in the awakening of a great desire for knowledge among the Muslims. This process began in Makkah, and then it reached Madinah and Damascus, later finding its centre in Baghdad. Ultimately, it entered Spain. Spain flourished, making extraordinary progress in various academic and scientific disciplines. Islam places great emphasis on learning, and in order to facilitate learning, supporting factors which are necessary to make progress in learning have been provided by God. One of these special factors is the freedom to conduct research.