Imaduddin Khalil

Anyone who reads the Qur’an carefully and endeavors to attain a proper understanding of its attitude towards science will face a great number of ayat which cover science in all its aspects. These fall into four categories: 1) matters related to the reality, horizons, and aims of science or, to put it more precisely, the “philosophy of science and theory of knowledge,” 2) the methodology of discovering scientific facts, 3) the laws that apply in the various fields of science-particularly natural sciences - called the pure sciences, and 4) those laws discovered through experimental methodology and meant to be applied by a person in higher capacity as vicegerent of Allah (SWT) on earth, who has been entrusted with the task of creating a higher and better life and a finer world. This field is known as the applied sciences.

There is undoubtedly a very close relationship between each of these categories. Philosophy analyzes the aims of science while methodology provides a modus operandi for discovering facts; that is, it explains the laws and systems which control the cosmos, the world and life, and which protect their movements in time. In turn, these laws and systems furnish humanity with the formulae which enable individuals to explore the wondrous structure of creation. Consequently, these laws and systems become the means by which humanity can achieve the progress and development of human civilization.

Such knowledge can free humanity from the drudgery of day-to-day earthly existence, raise its eyes to the heavens and satisfy those spiritual needs which distinguish it from all other creatures. An individual can thus perform more of the duties required of him/her in higher capacity as vicegerent, and fulfill higher role of bringing civilization and development to the world.
 
It is a fact that the Qur’an was not revealed as a science book or any other kind of textbook of knowledge. It is also true that some modern thinkers insist on ascribing to its ayat certain scientific meanings and interpretations despite the ensuing ambiguity as to whether these were really what their divine author intended or not. In reaction, other thinkers have gone to the other extreme and insist that the Qur’an has no connection whatsoever with any scientific fact. What is undeniable, however, is that when the Qur’an concerns itself with the scientific message, it applies all of the four categories mentioned earlier in a manner that leaves no scope for discussion. It is self-evident that Qur’anic and scientific data should coincide and correspond (in the general sense and outside the realm of relativities and variables), and it is obvious that there should be no contradictions or barriers between them. After all, they come from the same source-Allah (SWT), the Originator of the laws and systems, the Revealer of the Qur’an, the Creator of the universe, and the Maker of humanity. Moreover, humanity is an “involved party” in the law-creating and Qur’an-revealing process; that is, individuals are Allah’s vicegerents on earth, the possessors of the hands endeavoring to build civilization for the sake of Allah (SWT). The Qur’an affirms the essential nature of this link between the Qur’anic message and Allah’s cosmic laws, for how can humanity perform its role on earth within the framework of the teachings of the Qur’an unless its members begin by trying to understand the world and find out about its laws and systems?

Here we should point out that modem science does not reject or cast doubt on religious truth-as was the case in past centuries. Rather, it recognizes that it does not have the last word on a subject which is far greater than it. Having done so, it also affirms, with its limited capabilities, that human life has no justification for existing if we strip it of that major dimension which extends beyond the bounds of matter and motion. Science has now returned to the situation in which it functions in harmony with religion. This is the great revolution which has taken place in the philosophy of science as a result of recent discoveries in scientific research-particularly in the natural and nuclear sciences, and in scientists’ understanding of the way the human brain operates.

There is also another issue that is no less important. Recent scientific discoveries, while exploring the core of the atom, have broken the ”material barrier” and revealed the spiritual quality underlying the structure and composition of the physical world. Here science and religion meet-anew-in numerous instances?
 
Now, let us take a necessarily brief look at the relationship between the four aspects of science and the data contained in the Qur’an.

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