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The relation between Islam and science

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This is a sub-article to Islamic science and Qur'an and miracles.

This article is about the relationship between Islam and Science.

Islam has its own worldview system including beliefs about "ultimate reality, epistemology, ontology, ethics, purpose, etc".<ref name="Golshani"> Mehdi Golshani, Can Science Dispense With Religion? </ref> Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the literal word and the final revelation of God for the guidance of humankind.

Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means.<ref>See, e.g., the entry Science in the Oxford English Dictionary ISBN 0-19-522217-2</ref> and in a narrower sense to a system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation, and methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research. Scientists maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the scientific method, a process for evaluating empirical knowledge that explains observable events in nature as results of natural causes, rejecting supernatural notions.

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[edit] Relation between modern science and religion

[edit] Great influence of Biblical worldview in development of science

The biblical worldview (also shared by Muslims) has had a "great role" in development of Science: The science in west was constructed within the framework of a Christian (and also Quranic) worldview being largely influenced by the following Biblical (and also Qura'nic) conceptions:<ref name="Golshani"/>

  • "The conception of an omniscient and omnipotent personal God, Who made everything in accordance with a rational plan and purpose, contributed to the notion of a rationally structured creation."
  • "The notion of a transcendent God, Who exists separate from His creation, served to counter the notion that the physical world, or any part of it, is sacred. Since the entire physical world is a mere creation, it was thus a fit object of study and transformation."
  • "Since man was made in the image of God (Gen.1:26), which included rationality and creativity, it was deemed possible that man could discern the rational structure of the physical universe that God had made."
  • "The cultural mandate, which appointed man to be God's steward over creation (Gen1:28), provided the motivation for studying nature and for applying that study towards practical ends, at the same glorifying God for His wisdom and goodness."

[edit] Alleged conflict between science and religion

Prof. Mehdi Golshani believes that there is no conflict between science and religion:

   
The relation between Islam and science
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The relation between Islam and science

[edit] Arrival of modern science in Muslim world

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, modern science arrived in the Muslim world but it wasn't the science itself that affected Muslim scholars. Rather, it "was the transfer of various philosophical currents entangled with science that had a profound effect on the minds of Muslim scientists and intellectuals. Schools like Positivism and Darwinism penetrated the Muslim world and dominated its academic circles and had a noticeable impact on some Islamic theological doctrines." There were different responses to this among the Muslim scholars:<ref> Mehdi Golshani, Does science offer evidence of a transcendent reality and purpose?, June 2003 </ref> These reactions, in words of Professor Mehdi Golshani, was the following:

   
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The relation between Islam and science

[edit] The view that scientific discoveries had been predicted in the Qur'an and traditions

[edit] Supporters for Quranic scientific claims

Researchers have written about the relationship between the contents of the Qur'an and the findings of science. Maurice Bucaille, the Frenchborn Saudi royal physician, claims in The Bible, the Qur'an and Science that this relationship "turns out to be one of harmony and not of discord", to the surprise of most scientists "bound up in materialist theories", and notes that Islam often encouraged scientific acquisition of knowledge.<ref name="bucaille">Maurice Bucaille. The Qur'an and Modern Science. </ref>

[edit] Criticisms of Quranic scientific claims

Some skeptics, such as historian and philosopher Richard Carrier, counter that certain scientific facts which are said to be detailed in the Qur'an were known in the Middle East centuries before it was written, or were "predicted" also by other people with no claims of divine inspiration, or are found in passages that are clearly rephrasals of the Hebrew Bible. He also presents criticisms based on the translations and context of the verses presented as scientific facts<ref>Richard Carrier (2001). Cosmology and the Koran: A Response to Muslim Fundamentalists.</ref><ref>Richard Carrier (2004). Predicting Modern Science: Epicurus vs. Mohammed.</ref> Others, such as Turkish physicist and philosopher Taner Edis, also counter that the Qur'an offers "vague descriptions of natural phenomena" which are shown to be in agreement with modern science by using "stretched or arbitrary" interpretations.<ref>Taner Edis. "Quran-science": Scientific miracles from the 7th century?</ref> Further, Edis describes claims that the Quran refers to the expanding universe, parallel universes, and cosmic structural hierarchies as "blatantly wrong."<ref name=edis2>Taner Edis. Ghost in the Universe. Quotes from page 14. Prometheus Books.</ref> However he goes on to write that "God does not stand or fall depending on whether our scriptures know their physics ... the God of most liberal religious people does not dictate inerrant scriptures; what we have are human records of encounters with divinity."<ref name=edis2>Taner Edis. Ghost in the Universe. Quotes from page 14. Prometheus Books.</ref>

[edit] Specific science-related issues in the Quran and the Hadith

[edit] Fossils of ancient humans

Reconstructed skull of Peking Man, a representative of the extinct species believed to be the nearest ancestor of Homo sapiens, Homo erectus.

There are three basic verses in Qur'an which are related to human creation:<ref name="sal">Saleem, Shehzad (May 2000). "The Qur’anic View on Creation". Renaissance 10 (5). ISSN 1606-9382. Retrieved on 2006-10-11.</ref>

“ The similitude of Jesus before Allah is that of Adam. He created him from clay.<ref>The Arabic word تُرَابٍ is usually translated as "dust" or "soil"</ref> „

—Qur'an, 3:59

“ O mankind fear your Lord who created you from one person and created his mate from his kind and from these two scattered countless men and women. „

—Qur'an, 4:1

“ He began the creation of man with clay; then made his progeny from the essence of an ordinary fluid; then he perfected him and breathed into him something of his spirit and gave you the faculties of hearing and sight and the heart. „

—Qur'an, 32:7-9

According to the first two verses, Adam and Eve were directly created by God from clay. They did not descend from any other species as proposed by Darwin. The rest of mankind is the progeny of Adam and Eve. The third verse implies that there were three stages in their creation, and can be interpreted in two ways:<ref name="sal"/>

  • First possibility:
    • Adam and Eve were created from clay
    • They subsequently developed the ability to reproduce at a later age
    • Finally, after some more time elapsed, they entered the third phase in which they were perfected both physically and spiritually, and received the divine spirit from God.
  • Second possibility: All these three phases did not pass on the first humans created, rather each of the phases lasted for many years during which many life forms were created from clay having the characteristic of their respective periods together with that of the previous one.
    • Human forms were initially directly created from clay because they did not have the ability to reproduce. This first stage may have lasted for millions of years, and in it, the humans forms' physical forms after passing through various stages culminated in the homo sapiens of today. Millions of species may have been created from clay like this. Among them, many went extinct and the others lived to enter the second phase, the first of which were Adam and Eve.
    • The human forms now had the ability to reproduce and direct creation was no longer required. Adam and Eve were the first directly created pair from clay which had this ability to reproduce. In the second phase, except Adam and Eve all other pairs who had the ability to reproduce pairs were not perfected and later died away.
    • It was this very pair which entered the third phase and was perfected physically so that it could receive the divine spirit from the God and be blessed with the faculties of sense and reason as is specified by the last part of the verse.

Under the second interpretation, the fossils which we find today belong to the millions of people created from clay in the first and second phases.

[edit] Conception and inherited characteristics

The most prominent of the ancient Greeks thinkers who wrote on medicine were Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen. Hippocrates and Galen, in contrast with Aristotle, wrote that the contribution of females to children is equal to that of males, and the vehicle for it is a substance similar to the semen of males.<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam. Cambridge University Press.</ref> Basim Musallam writes that the ideas of these men were widespread through the pre-modern Middle East: "Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen were as much a part of Middle Eastern Arabic culture as anything else in it."<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam Cambridge University Press.</ref> The sayings in the Quran and those attributed to Muhammad in the Hadith influenced generations of Muslim scientists by siding with Galen and Hippocrates. Basim Musallam writes: "... the statements about parental contibution to generation in the hadith paralleled the Hippocratic writings, and the view of fetal development in the Quran agreed in detail with Galen's scientific writings."<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam. Cambridge University Press.</ref> He reports that the highly influential medieval Hanbali scholar Ibn Qayyim, in his book Kitab al-tibyan fi aqsam al-qur'an, cites the following statement of the prophet from the Sahih Muslim:

“ „

Ibn Qayyim also quotes a different hadith from the same collection, which is quoted by other Muslim authors as well. Having been asked the question "from what is man created," the Prophet replies:

“ „

[edit] Embryology

It is widely recognized that the Qur'an and hadith contain a number of verses pertaining to human reproduction and development. In his book A History of Embryology, Professor Joseph Needham dismisses some of the embryological passages in the Quran, verses 23:14 (discussed below), 24:45, 35:11, 75:36, 75:37, 75:38, 75:39, and 76:2 as "a seventh century echo of Aristotle and Ayurveda."<ref name="needham"> Joseph Needham, A History of Embryology. Abelard-Schuman.</ref> According to Keith Moore, professor emeritus of Anatomy at the University of Toronto, the scientific meaning of certain surahs in the Quran has become clear only recently.<ref name="imoore">Moore, Keith L. (January 1986). "A scientist's interpretation of references to embryology in the Qur'an". Journal of the Islamic Medical Association, 18: 15—16.</ref> An example cited by him is:

“ He created you (all) from a single person: then created, of like nature, his mate; and he sent down for you eight head of cattle in pairs: He makes you, in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness. such is Allah, your Lord and Cherisher: to Him belongs (all) dominion. There is no god but He: then how are ye turned away (from your true Centre)? „

—Qur'an, 3:96

Moore suggests that the verse phrase may describe the following three physiological barriers:<ref name="imoore"/>

  1. The anterior abdominal wall;
  2. The uterine wall; and
  3. The amniochorionic membrane.

Moore notes that there are other interpretations of this verse, but does not elaborate. Regarding this verse, Basim Musallam quotes the Damascene Hanbali scholar Ibn Qayyim (1291-1351), who reports a different interpretation: "Most commentators explain, it is the darkness of the belly, and the darkness of the womb, and the darkness of the placenta."<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam. Cambridge University Press.</ref> The extent of human knowledge of embryology stretches back to the second century, when Greek doctor Galen described the placenta and fetal membranes. Basim Musallam writes that the scientific tradition of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen "was native to the Middle East for centuries before Islam."<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam Cambridge University Press.</ref> He further opines that "the Quran described the development of the foetus in the language of the biological sciences of the time. There was little difference between the language of the Quran and that of Galen on the stages of foetal development."<ref name="musallam0"> Basim Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam Cambridge University Press.</ref> Discussing the "stages" mentioned in this verse, Moore argues that it was probably known to the seventh century doctors that the human embryo developed within the uterus, though their knowing of human embryos developing in stages would have been unlikely. Moore claims that though Aristotle noted the developmental stages of a chick embryo during the fourth century, it was not until the fifteenth century that developmental stages of human embryo had been the subject of discourse.<ref name="imoore"/> However, Musallam writes that this had been described long before Muhammad:

“ „

Further occurrences of verses pertaining to supposed embryological development are as follows:

“ Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed. „

—Qur'an, 23:13

The word "nutufah" (Arabic: نطفة) here has been interpreted as the "sperm" or "spermatozoon", and the most respected Muslim translators (Yusuf Ali, Pickthall, and Shakir) all give some variant of this. The sura continues:

“ Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create! „

—Qur'an, 23:14

Musallam quotes the hadith, where the Prophet gives a more detailed description:

“ „

Moore writes that a more meaningful rendering of the word "nutufah" would be "zygote", which divides to form a blastocyst before embedding itself in the uterus — possibly what is referred to in the verse as "a place of rest". This interpretation, he claims, is supported by a different verse in the Qur'an describing the human being as created from a "mixed drop", to which the zygote would correspond, being "the union of a mixture of the sperm and the ovum."<ref name="imoore"/>

Human embryo between eighteen and twenty-one days, on which the somites are visible

The word "alaqah" (Arabic: علقة), rendered by Yusuf Ali as a "clot of congealed blood", is translated as "a leech-like structure" by Abdul Majid Zendani, professor of Islamic studies at the King Abdulaziz University.<ref name="imoore"/> Moore claims that the meaning of alaqah is "leech" or "bloodsucker", which he states is an appropriate description of the relationship between the embryo and the endometrium in which it is implanted, between days 7 and 24 of human embryological development. This is because the human embryo derives blood from the endometrium, in the same way a leech draws blood from its host. Morphologically, too, the embryo at this stage resembles that of a leech, he notes, unobservable by anyone in the seventh century without a microscope.<ref name="imoore"/>

The next stage referred to is "mudhgah" (Arabic: مضغة), which Moore suggests means "chewed substance or chewed lump." This, he believes, corresponds to around the fourth week of development where the embryo resembles the appearance of a chewed lump, a key characteristic of which being indentations or "teeth-marks" signalling the beginnings of the somites, the precursor to the vertebral column. Continuing in his analysis of this verse, he states that the next stage (which mentions formation of bones and flesh) is also in accordance with the stages of embryological development, as first the bones form as cartilage models, after which muscles develop from the surrounding somatic mesoderm. The phrase "then We developed out of it another creature" may allude to the resemblance of a human figure by the end of the eighth week, by which time the embryo (now known as the fetus) has gained distinctive human characteristics and possesses the primordia of all external and internal organs.<ref name="imoore"/>

Other perceived verses referring to human development cited by Moore include:

  • "... And He gave you hearing and sight and feeling and understanding".<ref>Qur'an 32:9</ref> This verse, he suggests, refers to the development of the special senses in the order of hearing, vision, and sensation. According to Moore, this is the correct order of development in the embryo: the primordia of the internal ears develop first, followed by the beginning of the eyes, with the differentiation of the brain (which he refers to as the "site of understanding") occurring last of these.<ref name="imoore"/>
  • "Then out of a piece of chewed flesh, partly formed and partly unformed."<ref>Qur'an 22:5</ref> Moore states that this verse seems to indicate that the embryo is comprised of both differentiated and undifferentiated tissues. He cites the example of undifferentiated mesenchyme present around the differentiated cartilage bone models. This mesenchyme then differentiates to form the muscles and ligaments attached to the bone.<ref name="imoore"/>

[edit] See also

[edit] References

<references />

[edit] External links

[edit] Some articles on the relationship between religion (Islam) and science by Professor Mehdi Golshani

[edit] Some articles on the relationship between religion (Islam) and science by Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr

[edit] Others

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