Zaghloul R. El Nejjar

In Latin "Scientia" means "knowledge." So science is defined as all the knowledge men have achieved in different places and at all times, arranged according to their subject-matter. This includes knowledge gained through Divine revelation; or by the way of human thinking and creative intellect, as well as through human legacy and tradition in these two areas. The prevailing direction, however, tends to limit the term Science to natural and experimental studies of all that is within reach of the senses and intellect in this universe (i.e. matter, energy, living beings and natural phenomena). This is usually carried out through observation and conclusion or through experimentation, observation and conclusion, in an attempt to discover the characteristics of matter, energy and living things, classify all these and discover the laws governing them. As thus defined, Science also includes deductions, suppositions, hypotheses and theories which are put forward to explain prevailing phenomena.

This definition has limited Science to "a branch of study which is concerned either with a connected body of demonstrated truths or with observed facts systematically classified and more or less collated by being brought under general laws, and which includes trustworthy methods for the discovery of new truth within its own domain."

Accordingly, human knowledge has been divided into scientific studies (both pure and applied), literary and art studies and religious studies (studies of faith). Writers, however, differ much in classifying and chaptering human knowledge, but the following classification seems appropriate:

- Islamic Studies
- Philosophy (General Philosophy)
- Humanities and Social Studies
- Philosophy of Sciences
- Pure and Applied Sciences
- (Cosmic Sciences, Sciences of the universe).

In each of these major divisions of human knowledge, the interaction of all information available to man - whether acquired (through direct observation of the universe or through experimentation, observation and conclusion), or donated (through Divine revelations in the Qur’aan and the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAA) has to take place, intelligently and truthfully, without undue, forcing of conclusions. If this does not take place, human knowledge can remain partial, and such partiality can be further magnified by the current trend of overspecialization, flood of literature, secularization and separation of gnosis from wisdom.

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