Reformulating a comprehensive relationship between religion and science: an Islamic perspective

Islam & Science, June, 2003 by Osman Bakar

The foregoing discussion has raised a number of points. First, it has raised the question whose intellectual task it is to build the foundations of the sciences. In a sense there is not much difference between what we see now in the contemporary sciences and what we saw in Islamic intellectual tradition. In both cases, the majority of the practicing scientists carry on with their scientific works in the disciplines of their specialization without bothering themselves with their foundational principles. It is just a few among the scientists who have been concerned with philosophical issues pertaining to the nature and role of premises in the foundation of the sciences. There are, however, some notable differences between Islamic and modern practices. In contemporary science, the only time the scientific community pays real attention to issues of foundational principles is when there is an epistemological crisis affecting that foundation as a result of some major discoveries within the discipline concerned. The modern Western professional philosophers of science do pay a lot of attention to the theoretical structures of science, but then they are not scientists. But in the case of Islamic science, it was more frequent to find leading scientists continuously engrossed in issues of foundational importance. The main reason for this is that they were both scientists and philosophers. Moreover, they were also deeply interested in the religious sciences. All these have a lot to do with their understanding and appreciation of Islamic teachings on knowledge.

This brings us to our second point of significance as far as the discussion of premises is concerned. We have in mind the significance of the Muslim scientific mind. In concerning themselves with various sciences, including the religious and the philosophical, Muslim scientists were found to have been more sensitive to the need for a holistic view of knowledge. Their awareness of the interrelatedness and unity of all knowledge quite often had important consequences on their search for premises. Unlike the modern trend of easily falling into the pitfall of reductionism, the Muslim search for premises has usually been guided by more holistic views of reality and knowledge. The result is a more solid intellectual foundation for the sciences.

The third point of significance may be linked to the contemporary discourse on Islamization of knowledge that is going on in various parts of the Muslim world. It would not be possible to achieve an actual Islamization of the sciences until we have addressed the issue of the foundational premises and we have put in place, in each discipline, premises that are explicitly formulated and stated in the light of Islamic teachings. (13)

It is also important that the next structural component of a science, mentioned in the foregoing pages, be "Islamically" related to the epistemological dimension of Islam. However, many issues involved in producing the accumulative body of knowledge in this component are similar to those encountered in the second component. We will therefore deal only briefly with this component. The process of formulating new concepts, theories and laws in a science is a dynamic one, involving logic, philosophical ideas and many rational and intellectual virtues. Creativity in thinking and interpretations is crucial to the process. The important thing here is again to look for the relevant inner resources in the intellectual tradition of Islam that would help to widen the perspectives of the Muslim scientists and foster intellectual creativity.