Literary CornerThe Qur’an and the Universe: From the Big Bang to the Great Contrition (Part 3) [Archives:2006/926/Culture]

Abu Al-Kalmah Al-Tayyibah
Author: Usamah Ali Al-Khadhir

Language: Arabic

Publisher: Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Year Published: 2004

No. of Pages; 833

From the highly spiritual context of the First Chapter, the author starts out the exploration of the strong teis between science and Islkam. Hoeever before getting too deeply into the core of his treatise Al-Khadhir recounts the historical beginnings and development of scientific knowledge from ancient times to modern times. Science was originally pursued by monks and other people involved with regulating the spiritual inclinations of their society. Initially scientific knowledge, according to the author began with concentrating on what was absotbed by the senses and out of such momentary limited scopes of realizations, efforts were made to understand the nature of the world around us. But this primarily consisted of surface observations that contained little analysis or in-depth scrutiny. When the Greek philosophers emerged, scholars sought to rely on more in depth tools of evlaution of natural phenomena such as mathematics and geometry, weights and measures and introduced the concept of experimentation. However, to the Greeks goes the credit of introducing logic as an important element in explaining hwo nature behaves and what constitutes nature itself. With Christianity, according to the author, science was left with very little progress to speak of in the Middle Ages, because the Church ruled that any delving into the mysteries of the unknown constitutes heresy, especially if it did not conform to biblical renditions of the explored phenomena. With the coming of Islam, however, according to the author, science indeed was given the right environment to grow and develop and to become more significacant in the daily lives of human beigns. It was Islamic scientists like Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haythem), Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Al-Berouni (Al-Khawarizmi), etc. who set the foundations of many of the major modern scientific fields, including Mathematics, Physics, Medicine, Astronomy, Chemistry. The author makes it a point to note where more recent western scientists relied upon the works of their Moslem predecessors in such areas as the explanations of light, gravity, optics and the photon theory of physical chemistry, just to name a few. The author in fact alludes that some recent “disocoveries” attributed to redcent western scientists were actually made by Islamic scientists centuries before. Needless to say, these arguments are well recognized by unbiased modern scientists, as this critic recalls the first lecture of his university physics class by a brilliant young Jewish scientist all dealt with the contributions of scienitists of the heyday of Islamic civilizations in the Middle Ages. The contentions of the author of the book unde4r scrutingy here did not conflict with much of what this professor stated. The interest of Islam in science had its foundations in the revelations of the Qur'an, in which the first revelation was: “Read in the name of your Lord who created – created mankind from a clot2. Read, and your Lord is the most Gracious, who taught by the pen – taught Man all that which he knew not!” (Surah 96: The Clot, verses 1-5). This important introduction of the Qur'an to mankind underscores the importance of learning (science).

Then the author delves into what modern science entails and the methodology used in science to explain the world around us – the world we grasp by our senses and the world that lies beneath and beyond what our senses can readily perceive. The author defines science as: “A systematic methodological approach by which facts are derived from objective observations that aim to link natural phenomena that may appear to be not interconnected wihin a general and holistic law” (The book under review, page 71). He also emphasizes Albert Einsteins's suggestion that: a scientific view is more fascinating when its preface is as simple as it can be and the things that are interconnected thereby are more divergent and has the widest application scope”.

The book then goes into a descriotion of the components of science, which he breaks into three major groups: I. Mathematics; II. Physical Science, including Physics (kinematics, Kinematics, Dynamics, Properties of Elements, Heat, Light, Sound, etc); III and Nuclear Physics. Physics is viewed as the most abstract of the sciences, as well as Astronomy, Geology (Earth Science), Chemistry and Biology and their various subgroups; and III the Humanities, which include psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, etc.

The author delves into the method of arriving to scientific laws, namely by Deduction or by Induction; i.e., by close observation and scrutiny. Then he points out the four general characteristics of science and scientific facts: i. quantitative description or language, ii. Objectivity and reasoning; general application and experimental truth.

The author goes at length to explain all these to show hwo scientists have used them to come out with their various theories and laws and shows hwo other scientists have come later to disprove them or change some of their findings by means of utilizing different approaches etc.

Next week, we start on the crux of the matter under discussion in the book, namely the Qur'an and Science.

1 Actually the Arabic word “insihaq” could also mean “grounding” to a powder, but contrition would be more fitting with the spiritual context of the book, when we all realize that we probably missed the chance to make peace with our Lord.

2 Many translators of the Qur'an, have translated this to mean coagulated blood, which this critic (a freelance translator himself) finds too hasty and less perfect (i.e. clot of blood) than the intended meaning, which the latter sees as meaning any change from a liquid to a thickened (more sticky) state (See following link: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/clot.)
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