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Science and Islam

The basis of this philosophy is the negation of Allah as the source of all knowledge. On the contrary, a movement started by the Church stood for the negation of pragmatism and reasoning. The Biblical obscurantism had its own interpretation of the creation of the universe and all living objects. In this connection, Galileo’s undaunted stand that the sun is static and the earth revolves round it, even after the pressure exerted by the clergy by declaring him an apostate, is the part of history. He was made to take back his words. Galileo said afterwards that whatever was the judgment of the council of churches, the earth would continue to rotate round the sun.

Recently, the Jewish grand ecclesiastical council had to delete a prayer from ‘Old Testament’ wherein Prophet Moses was purported to have said in the supplications that God would keep clean the hearts of Bani Israel as he kept clean the surface of the moon from the dirty footsteps of the man.

Such kind of things are never found in the Holy Quran, and would never be found because it is the word of Allah. The word of Allah would remain good for all times to come. So much so the injunctions in the Holy Quran prompted early Muslims to take full advantage of devoting themselves in the field of search and research of Allah’s creations. It has repeatedly been enjoined upon the believers to ponder over all Allah’s creations. Likewise, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) wanted his Ummah to devote their energies to serve humanity by probing into the creation of all animate and inanimate objects.

The Holy Quran lays down four basic principles, which in turn are subject to unwavering faith of the believers in Allah’s quality of being the Creator and Nourisher. It enjoined upon the followers to probe into the characteristics of all material beings, whether they are stellar bodies or natural phenomena of earthly objects. How are the stellar bodies static above in the Heavens? How are deep craters filled with water and seas formed? How did the mountains make nails to keep the earth’s balance? How do the clouds form and cause rains to regenerate the parched earth? Why is water the source of all living things? These are all thought provoking inquiry. The human body itself is a representative of the exact proportion of solid material and watery components of the world.

The Holy Quran also mentions about how seeds are sown and tiny plants sprout from the earth. It also mentions about the harvest of different qualities. The multi-coloured phenomena of flowers adorn the earth. It mentions how living things are conceived due to natural process until they are born and reach to the maturity and finally die out. This is a pointer to the fact that the believers should probe into the scientific and logical explanations of Allah’s creations. To study these happenings biological, botanical and genetic sciences came into being.

The Holy Quran gives an example of the birds; how they keep themselves aloft in the air. It is a pointer to ponder over aerodynamics and mechanics. The necessity of sending prophets from time to time to guide humanity, and their mission to preach the unity of Godhead, was necessary because the human beings were awed with Allah’s creations. Some deified the fire and some snakes. These deifications were averse to Allah.

Man is placed on the highest pedestal of being vicegerent to Allah on the earth. It is said in the Holy Quran that the man’s self is as per Allah’s own self. It preaches that there is no place for expiation, but the followers are enjoined not to transgress the commands of Allah. The concept of sin, as understood by non-believers, is never found in the Holy Quran.

Man is not the product of first sin. What he has to do is simply to observe regularity in prayer, pay alms and devote his inborn qualities for the propagation of faith and the service of humanity. By following these golden principles, an individual purifies his soul and becomes a guiding light to others. It can be understood with an example that if you put off light darkness prevails. In this way if a man is not engaged in right thoughts and right actions then he is misled.

The Ummah has been submerged into the mire of ideological squabblings. No doubt, probing into the social problems have got their own importance, but now the need of the hour is to inculcate into our budding younger generations to devote themselves wholeheartedly into the field of scientific inquiry.

Source: Yaqeen International