Islam for Non-Muslims
- RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
- ISLAM AS A RELIGION
- ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
Islam in Promotion of Science
28: ISLAM IN PROMOTION OF SCIENCE
Introduction: In the history of religion, Islam opened a new chapter of harmonious coexistence with science. Historically, religion and science had often been on collision course. For example, scientist Galileo got life sentence leading up to eventual death only because of his famed heliocentric discovery (that earth goes around the sun) did challenge the teachings of the Church. On the other hand, Islam never in the past played any role against science such as through dishonoring any scientists or undermining their scientific findings in the above fashion. Far from being an obstacle to science, Islam contributed to science on a significant scale through various roles described below:
(1) Islam as A Champion of Knowledge: Islam boosted science by prioritizing education as well as thinking and researching for expanding the horizon of knowledge. The revelations of the Quran spanning over 23 years started with the opening word “Read” (96:1). In one context, it revealed “God has taught him, so let him write”, with a reminder that “He taught (the use of) of the pen” (2:282; 96:4). The chapter #68 of the Quran is named as ‘Pen’ to highlight the importance of writing, recording and other intellectual pursuits. The word ‘ilm’ (knowledge) or science related words are cited in numerous verses of the Quran. The same scripture forbade you from “coming under influence of ignorance”, by turning back on reading and writing (6:35). Islam senses the quest of knowledge a bounden obligation for members of both sexes.
The Quran on Research: The Quran makes repeated calls to think about the mystery of the Universe and conduct research on various branches of science. God sent the Quran so you may “give thought”, “meditate on its signs” and “ponder” over His Word (16:44; 38:29; 23:68). The Quran boosts the morale of those who are engaged in scientific research with the assuring words that “God has subjected to you all things in the heavens and earth” (31:20). This suggests that there are not too many things beyond the orbit of possible human conquest. Therefore, the conquest of moon in 1969 happened as no surprise to the Muslims.
The Prophet on Learning: The Prophet prayed “Oh my Lord! Advance my knowledge!” (20:114). He urged upon his followers to pursue knowledge “from the cradle to the grave”. He further said “The ink of a learned person is more sacred than the blood of a martyr. He translated his advice into action by setting up an open school named ‘ashab-e- suffah’ at his mosque compound. He treated education as an economic asset by offering a deal of tutoring Muslims as a price for gaining freedom for educated war prisoners.
(2) Scientific Revelations of the Quran: Though the Quran is not basically a textbook on science, it brings forth a good measure of “messages of wisdom” that also reveals many scientific contents (3:58). These were presented in different contexts that God chose to cover by way of telling His own preferred facts, without any exclusive purpose to talk about science. These references obviously would not appear in the form of complete essay on any scientific topics but yet these would provide valuable clues for the scientists to advance their research. Now we cite some examples in this regard.
Physics & Chemistry: God reveals the history of mankind, saying they were not created for “a long period of time” after creation of this Universe (76:1). While giving a past account of civilization, He claims to have aided primitive people with the idea of “producing fire out of (dry) green trees” through friction (36:80). Focusing on the origin of industrial technology through use of iron by the ancient Hittites (one Middle Eastern nation), the Quran discloses: “Iron was sent down (as material for weapons) for mighty war and many (other) benefits for mankind. They heat (the ore) in the fire to make ornaments or utensils therewith. (God taught them the skill of) making (iron-made) body armor for your benefit, to defend you from mutual violence” (57:25; 13:17; 21:80).
Biology & Botany: The Quran reveals the secrets behind creation of “every kind of noble creatures (animals and plants) in pairs” (31:10) of opposite sexes, with sperm, pollen etc. being the agents for their reproduction. On this planet, there are nearly endless variety of animals and plants: about 9 million species of animals and nearly 400,000 species of plants, according to a very remote estimate of the scientists. There is no way you can bring this estimate closer to accuracy and these estimates are extremely fluid as they tend to move up with discovery of new species. However, this estimate is at least better than having no estimate at all.
Meteorology & Oceanography: The Quran addresses many facts on weather science such as why and how cloud, wind, rain, hail, thunder, lightning etc. are created (7:57; 2:164; 24:43). Likewise, it deals with some facts on oceanography like the divine plan of partitioning between “two bodies of free flowing waters (sweet and salty)” which “is forbidden (by God) to be violated (by merger)”, economic benefits from “sailing of the ships through the ocean”, waves etc. (25:53; 2:164).
(3) Infinite Wisdom of God: The Quran represents the Highest Wisdom of God. The immeasurable depth of His knowledge can only be imagined by comparing with remarkably deficient human knowledge in diverse branches of science. Now we present the following to prove the supremacy of divine wisdom over human science.
Astronomy: Exploration Limited to the Lowest of Seven Heavens: The farthest frontier of human exploration (i.e. distant vision of the Black Hole, countless galaxies etc.) is limited to only the lowest layer of the “Seven Heavens one above other” created by God as He revealed to have “decorated the lower heaven with beauty of the stars” (67:3; 37:6). So far, the scientists know little about planets other than the earth within our solar system. They know almost nothing and will never know much about the numerous stars belonging to such distant galaxies that their light (travelling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second) will take trillions of years to ever reach our earth. In fact, the “vastness of space” (51:47) created by God is simply beyond the power of our imagination.
Medical Science: Some Ailments Always Incurable: Our small human body seems to be a great miracle of God that continues to puzzle the medical scientists for centuries. Specializing in each of organ-related fields (like eye, heart, kidney, nerve etc.) and researching in just one of them for decades, the brilliant scientists are often filled with amazement, as their research insight gets deeper into the secrets of the body. In this process, whatever medical advances they achieve or new discoveries of medicine they make, they can never claim a complete victory over the delicate mystery of human body. To be specific, as they research out any medical solutions for any or some of the diseases, new generations of complicated diseases will fill in their place. As a result, at any given point of time there has always been a list of untreatable complex diseases (e.g. presently cancer, diabetes, arthritis, dementia etc.) as a source of painful sufferings and potential cause of inevitable death.
God’s Clues to Inventions/Discoveries: The above points to the fact that the knowledge of the scientists is only a microscopic fraction of the knowledge of God Who “alone understands the finest mysteries” of “the heavens and the earth” (22:63; 25:6). From such infinite knowledge, He discharges only a fraction in the form of flash or illumination to the neurons of brains of devoted researchers, which ultimately lead to scientific inventions or discoveries. As one example, God gave to the mind of ancient Greek scientist Archimedes the idea (the buoyancy rule) about why iron made ship (heavier than water) floats on water; then he exclaimed in joy saying “Eureka”, the Greek word for “I found it”. Likewise, all the scientists at research always needed God’s blessings for their success in discovering or inventing anything like airplane, electricity, antibiotic etc.
(4) Divine Sense Ahead of Human Science: Plenty of instances show that the Quran came up with scientific facts long before the advent of modern science. This was because God has prescience of what the scientists would need years of research to explore. Now examples follow to clarify the point.
(i) Human Embryo: About 1300 years before invention of x-ray machine by German physicist Rontgen in 1895, the Quran provides a description of evolution of human embryo within mother’s womb (23:14) which “corresponds exactly to what we today know about it” (Bucaille).
(ii) Fertilization of Trees: People in the beginning could not realize the meaning of the Quranic verse that says God “makes the impregnating air blow” (15:22). But it took years for the modern scientists to break down its meaning that the wind carries pollen from one flower to another in order to fertilize plant egg for production of fruit.
(iii) Life of Plants: That plants have many traits of life was discovered long after the Quranic disclosure: “The herbs and trees both alike bow in adoration” (55:6).
(iv) Water as A Source of Life: The Quran reveals that “God created every animal from water. It is He Who created men from water” (24:45; 25:54). It was not long ago that modern science found its meaning through biological discovery that ‘protoplasm’, the original basis of life is liquid or semi-liquid. The same revelation is also explainable by another scientific fact that water makes up about 70% of human body and 90% of blood.
In this way, we can multiply examples to illustrate how the body of Quranic revelations contributed to science well ahead of modern science.
(5) God Designs the Laws of Physical Science: God not only created the natural objects of the physical world but also subjected them to a system of His laws. Accordingly, trees make the shadow during a sunny day or water tends to flow downward until leveling itself up and so on. God has also the powers to make exceptions to these laws. For example, instead of “prolonging the shadow, He could make it stationary, if willed” (25:45). Likewise, He could make sweet rainwater “salty” at will (56:70).
Examples of Divine Mysteries: Some of the above natural laws are plain enough to understand and easy to explain. However, there are others that are not easy to grasp as there are underlying scientific secrets familiar to divine wisdom only, which need years of scientific efforts to explore. Examples of this kind include explanations of rainbow painted in the sky, differential causes of cloud, rain, dew, fog, hail, thunderstorm, tornado etc., why ocean divides into warm and cold currents, the causes of solar or lunar eclipse, what would be the particles of an atom if broken down, what the electricity does contain that gives us deadly shocks, why rust is formed on iron, what vitamins are contained in a food that keep us healthy, how white blood cells help our immune system, how genetic codes make son look like his father, why a magnetic iron attracts a particular side of another iron, the reason behind downward falling of an object, why it is steel-made ship but not steel bar that floats on water, and so on.
As the Creator, God knows full well about the secrets behind these natural phenomena but human scientists take painstaking research to discover them. Obviously, the scientific facts presented in the Quran are above any mistakes and modern science is bound to agree with them if and when its research results reach the perfection stage through trial and error methods of experimentation.
(6) Unlike Human Science, Divine Revelation is the Final Truth: The Quran comes from God Who is “full of Wisdom” (45:2). Therefore its revelations on scientific matters represent the Final Truth. To begin with, these may show a variation from the theories of modern science, which usually go through a process of modification before taking a final shape. Put differently, the theories of modern science may differ from the Quranic facts on any given theme as long as they are away from the final Truth. However, when they reach the final Truth following success in experimental efforts, it is only then these theories will certainly match with the Quranic facts. That’s why, this Book has been featured as “consistent with itself” for it does not change in response to anything else (39:23). Now we make the point clear by means of a historical example.
Step-1 of Science: Earth-Centered (Geocentric) Theory (by Ptolemy):
This theory suggested that the earth was steady at the center location while being encircled by the sun and other bodies. Put forward by the Greek scientist Ptolemy during the 2nd century, this earth-centered theory dominated the Western science for about 1400 years, with blessings of support from the Church.
Step-2 of Science: Sun-Centered (Heliocentric) Theory (by Copernicus & Galileo): Later in the 16th and 17th centuries, the geocentric theory was replaced by the heliocentric theory. This theory proclaimed the sun to be static at the center of the Universe, orbited by the earth among other planets. Developed by Copernicus and later proved by Galileo with his self-developed telescope, this theory forwarded one step toward the reality by replacing the earth with the sun for central location while the earth likens to other planets by swimming along its orbit around the sun. Science at this stage (Step 2) still fell short of perfection for wrongly understanding the sun as motionless and being at center of the Universe.
Step-3 of Science: Modified Sun-Centered Theory: Final Conclusion of Science: Eventually in 1920’s, the modern science with help from the powerful Hubble telescope refined the heliocentric theory. The new theory suggested that (i) the sun in the solar system is not center of the Universe, as there are many of its kind belonging to numerous galaxies and (ii) the sun is not static as it has its own circular movement like other bodies.
Final Conclusion of Science was First Conclusion of 7th Century Quran:
It appears from the above, the modern science went through multiple revisions in its theory such as from (i) earth-centered to (ii) sun-centered to (iii) modified sun-centered view. In this way, the modern science needed three steps covering a period of about 2 millennia for reaching the final Truth that all the heavenly bodies inclusive of sun rotate in respective orbits and earth rotates around the sun which is not the center of the universe. It is nothing short of a miracle that the Quran amazingly revealed the above third and final conclusion of science as early as 7th century, long before the invention of telescope. It affirmed “The sun runs its course for a period determined for it. Each one (sun, moon and other heavenly bodies) runs (its course) for an appointed term” (36:38; 13:2).
(7) Gravitation Force Binds Heavenly Bodies in Servitude to God: Newton’s historic discovery of gravitation force (based on his historic observation of fall of apple from trees) helps explain the order in the universe which is set to be always at peace with itself (without any incident or accident) since its birth through the Big Bang to eventual death through the upcoming Dooms Day. Under engineering plan of God, gravitation force pulls the smaller bodies like earth to its nearby affiliated larger body like sun so that the former (smaller earth) actively rotating along its orbit around the latter (larger sun) does not go adrift or is not thrown into the space. Thus the gravitation force acting as God’s loyal agent is helping all other loyal agents (heavenly bodies) to comply with God’s will. Therefore, there has never been any disruption in the universe leading to catastrophic clashes between planets, stars etc. Such loyal compliance of every creation with divine decree is nothing but worship of God as per meaningful definition. Thus God did create gravitation force mainly (if not only) for helping the order of the universe in servitude to God. This was indicated by His claim of “withholding the sky (heavenly bodies) from falling on the earth except by His permission” (22:65).
Supporting Pillars of Divine Action for Orderly Universe:
(i) Orbit for Every Body: God created “numerous paths (orbits) in the sky” for travel by each of countless heavenly bodies (51:7).
(ii) Orbit is Round-Shaped: He created these paths for their movement as nearly “round” or oval in shape (21:33).
(iii) Each Sticks to Own Orbit: “Each” of the heavenly bodies “swims along in (its own) orbit (according to divine law)” with no freedom to switch orbits, causing possible disruptions (36:40).
(iv) Orbiting is Time Bound: The sun and other heavenly bodies circulate along their orbits for “a determined period” that God subjected them to (36:38). For example, the earth takes 365 days and 6 hours for its trip of about 585 million miles (circumference) around the sun.
Conclusion: It is therefore conclusive from above that Islam is exceptional among the religions for being not only compatible with but also a promoter of science.