Consistence with Science
A universal system should not contradict man's advancement in science and technology, but rather it should provide the ethics to maintain the consequences of such advancements.
This part of the article is devoted first to examine some of the systems of life adopted in our world nowadays. Following the examination we should be able to decide which system best accommodates our needs for development and better life styles. It should also help us determine those which hinder civilization and advancement, as well as those which give no priority to the values and ethics that underpin man’s social, psychological and physical well-being. For a universal system to succeed, we need to adopt the one which is able to meet and balance our needs for a better life and prevent any transgression that may result from the destruction and extinction of mankind.
Islam and Science
Islam solves the dilemma by taking a middle and a moderate stance in relation to this issue. Man is not denied the right to enjoy life providing that he does not violate the rights of other creations of Allah as described by Him in the verse (which means):
"O children of Aadam, take your adornment [i.e. wear your clothing] at every Masjid, and eat and drink, but be not excessive. Indeed, He likes not those who commit excess.Say [O Muhammad]: ‘Who has forbidden the adornment of [i.e. from] Allah which He has produced for His servants and the good [lawful] things of provision?’ Say: ‘They are for those who believe during worldly life [but] exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection.’ Thus do We detail the verses for a people who know." [Quran 7:31-32]
Any system of life that hinders advancement of humanity in science and technology is not worthy of being chosen as a way of life. Islam stands lofty in this regard, since it is the only religion that has opened the doors for great leaps in all fields of sciences. Many Western scientists have recognized this fact. Among them, Philip Hitti who says, referring to Al-Khuwaarizmi, a renounced Muslim scholar in the field of mathematics:
“One of the best scientific minds of Islam, Al-Khuwarizmi is undoubtedly the man who exercised the most influence on mathematical thought during the whole of the Middle Ages.” ([1])
M. Charles, a French scientist, refers to the contribution of another Muslim mathematician, Al Bataani, by saying:
“Al Bataani was the first to use in his works the expressions ‘sine’ and ‘cosine’. He introduced it to gnomic calculus and calls it extended shadow. It is what is called in modern trigonometry the tangent.” ([2])
Historians stress that modern science is indebted to the Muslims for the great advances in many of the scientific fields. As Fauriel (1846) states:
“Contact between the two civilizations - Christian and Muslim - had been established by normal and well-founded routes. In this, commerce and pilgrimage played the principal role. Land and sea traffic between East and West was already flourishing well before the XI century. It was through Spain, Sicily and the South of France, which were under direct Saracen rule that Islamic civilization entered into Europe.” ([3])
By the middle of the IX century, Muslim civilization already prevailed in Spain. The Spaniards of that time regarded Arabic as the only medium for science and literature. Its importance was such that the Ecclesiastical Authorities had been compelled to have the collection of canons used in Spanish churches be translated into the Romance languages, the predecessors of modern Spanish, for the two languages were in current use throughout the whole of Muslim Spain. Christian Spain recognized this superiority of the Muslims. In about 830, Alphonse the Great, King of the Austrians, had sent for two Saracen Muslim scholars to act as tutors for his son and heir.
3. The Impact of Muslim science on Europe
The scientific renown of the Muslims had spread far and wide, and attracted the intellectual elite of the Western World to Andalusia, Sicily and to the south of Italy. At the same time, when the Muslim civilization prospered during the Middle Ages, the Christian world was living in complete darkness. Philip Hitti remarked:
“No other people made as important a contribution to human progress as did the Arabs, if we take this term to mean all those whose mother-tongue was Arabic and not merely those living in the Arabian Peninsula. For centuries, Arabic was the language of learning, culture and intellectual progress for the whole of the civilized world, with the exception of the Far East. From the ninth to the twelfth century, there were more philosophical and geographical works written in Arabic than in any human language.” ([4])
It was the Muslims’ advances in science and diffusion of knowledge that ignited the beginning of our contemporary progress in science and technology, Al-Nadawi comments on this by writing:
“Meanwhile, owing to the Islamic and Muslim scientific influences, the volcano of knowledge had burst in Europe. Its thinkers and scientists had broken the intellectual slavery. They boldly refuted the ecclesiastical theories, which were based on preposterous evidence, and proclaimed their own investigation. The papal authority ([5]) reacted ruthlessly. It established the inquisitions “to discover, and bring to book, the heretics lurking in towns, houses, cellars, caves and fields.” This institution performed its duty with such savage alacrity that a Christian theologian exclaimed that it was hardly possible for a man to be a Christian and die in his bed. It is estimated that between 1481 and 1801 the Inquisition punished three hundred and forty thousand persons, nearly thirty-two thousands of whom were burnt alive, including the great scientist, Bruno, whose only crime was that he taught the plurality of the worlds. Bruno was delivered to the secular authorities to be punished “as mercifully as possible, and without the shedding of blood,” which, in fact was the horrible formula for burning a prisoner at stake. Galileo, another scientist of no less worth, contrary to the “scriptures,” was tortured by Inquisitions for maintaining that the earth moved around the sun.”([6])
“Such intellectual stagnation of the clergy and the heinous atrocities perpetrated by the Inquisition led the enlightened sectors of the European society to revolt not only against the clergy and the church but also against all the values and any type of truth that was not corrupted by the devious clergy.” ([7])
[1]Philip K. Hitti. Precis dHistoire des Arabes. (Short History of Arabs). Payot, Paris, 1950.
[2] M. Charles. Apercu historique des me'thodes en ge'ometrie. (Historical Outline of Geometrical Methods) In Bammate
[3]In Haidar Bammate. Muslim Contribution to Civilization. American Trust Publications, 1962. P. 16
[4] Philip K. Hitti. Précis d Histoire des Arabes. (Short History of the Arabs). Payot, Paris, 1950.
technology. Al-Nadawi comments on this by writing:
[5] How can the teachings and writings of those clergymen be accepted as the basis of today's Christianity?
[6]Al-Nadawi. P. 127
[7] Detailed information about this topic is found in J.W. Draper. History of the Conflict between Religion and Science. London. 1927.
