“WHY IN TODAY’S WORLD WE HAVE DEFICIENCY OF MUSLIM SCIENTISTS” by Mansha

“WHY IN TODAY’S WORLD WE HAVE DEFICIENCY OF MUSLIM SCIENTISTS”

 The muslim scholars have developed a spectrum of viewpoints on science within the context of Islam. The Quran’s exhorts us to study nature and investigate the truth. In Surah Al-Baqarah verse 239, Allah says ,” He has taught you what you did not know” which tells us that Quran promotes the acquisition. For some Muslim writers, the study of science stems from Tawheed. The Quran had in many situation, mentioned science as very important and encouraged us to learn science, whether natural or literature.

 Scientists of medieval Muslim civilization( e.g; Ibn Al-Haytham) made many contributions of to modern world. This fact is celebrated in our Muslim world today. At the same time, concerns have been raised about the lack of scientific literacy in parts of the Muslim world. It’s generally accepted that there are around 750 verses in Quran dealing with natural phenomena. Many verses in the Quran ask mankind to study nature and this has been interpreted to mean an encouragement for scientific enquiry. Mohammad Hashim Kamali has stated that,” scientific observation, experimental knowledge and rationality” are the primary tools with which humanity can achieve the goals laid out for it in the Quran. The scientific method, as it is understood today was first developed by Muslim scientists”.

At the beginning of the 19^th century, modern science arrived in the Muslim world but it was  not the science arrived in the Muslim world but it was not the science itself affected Muslim scholars. Rather it was the transfer of various philosophical  currents entangled with science that had a profound effect on the morals of Muslim scientists and intellectuals Darwinism penetrated the Muslim world and dominated  its academic circles. There were different responses to this among the Muslim scholars.

 Some rejected modern science as corrupt foreign thought, considering it incompatible with Islamic teachings, and in their view, the only remedy for the stagnancy of Islamic societies would be the strict following of Islamic teachings. Other things of Islam saw science as the only source of real enlightenment and advocated the complete adoption of modern science. In their view, the only remedy for the stagnation of Muslim societies would be the mastery of modern science and the replacement of the religious world view by the scientific worldview. The majority of Muslim scientists tried to adapt Islam to the findings of modern science, they can be categorized in the following subgroups.

a) Some Muslim scientists attempted to justify modern science on religious grounds. There motivation was to encourage Muslim scientists to acquire modern knowledge and to safeguard their societies from the criticism of orient lists and Muslim  intellectuals. 

b) Other tried to show that all important scientific discoveries had been predicted in the Quran and Islamic tradition and appealed to modern science to explain various aspects of faith.

c) Yet other scholars advocated a interpretation of Islam. In their view, one must try to construct a new theology that can establish a viable relation between Islam and modern science The Indian scholar, Sayyid Ahmad Khan sought a theology of nature through which one could re-interpret the basic principles of Islam in the light of modern science.

d) Then there were some Muslim scholars who believed that empirical science had reached the same conclusions that prophets had been advocating several 1000 years ago. The revelation had only the privilege of prophesy. Finally, some Muslim philosophers separated the findings of modern science from its philosophical attachments. Thus, while they praised the attempts of western scientists for the discovery of the secrets of nature, they worried against various empirical and materialistic interpretations of scientific findings.

In recent years, the lagging of the Muslim world in science is manifest in the disproportionately small amount of scientific output as measured by citations of articles published in internationally circulating science journals, annual expediters on research and development and number of research scientists and engineers. Concern has been raised that the contemporary Muslim world suffers from scientific literacy. In Pakistan, post graduate Physics students have been known to blame Earthquake on, “ sinfulness, moral laxity, deviation from the Islamic truth path”.  

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