There is no fight between Islam and Science, neither there are any contradictions but that doesn’t mean religion doesn’t have any bad history with science. If you look back into history, there is a long war between science and Christianity.
The Prophet Muhammad (saw) always emphasized on education and said that the world can only be understood with the knowledge of science. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) also said ‘go as far as China to get knowledge’.
The first Quran word revealed to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) is to ‘Read’. The Quran always put its emphasis on scientific knowledge, and the study of the material world approach.
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Islam has always discussed and encouraged science from the beginning but unfortunately, Muslim states or Muslim leaders are so left behind in this world because of their policies and greed, that a point has come where the western world and many people can’t relate science with Islam.
Islam has never been challenged by different religions but by people within Islam. With the passage of time and growth of this world, the Islamic state has been left behind because they didn’t get good leaders and good opinion makers.
So now when we talk about the relation between Islam and Science, no one believes it. It is because ignoring science and education has thrown Muslim world in poverty. The revival of Islam requires a serious inclusion of the scientific knowledge and its importance in Muslim societies.
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Islam is not anti-progressive
Apart from exceptions like Dr Abdus Salam, the Pakistani Noble Laureate, you will not find many Muslim states that have produced scientists of international repute.
Over the period of time we have not only seen less effort to prioritize science and scientific knowledge, but research has also become the lesser priority in most Muslim states.
There are many reasons given by people who write about Muslims getting distanced from Islam. One of the reasons is strict Islamic law. Some people feel that Islam is anti-progressive, which is not true at all, Islam has always shown us the way of science and education.
Muslim states keep themselves busy in civil wars and continuous political unrest and more importantly, not getting united. It’s always been a divide and rule theory that gets applied on Muslims, “Don’t let them unite because they will grow stronger.”
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Back in the days it was about wars and weapons but now it’s about science and research. Unfortunately, Muslim states have always failed to understand this.
Money over Science
If you deeply study the growth of Islam, from the time of its inception till today, many things have changed.
In a sad state of affairs, the Muslim world does not have a leader that can give them a direction towards progression. A leader is not supposed to be just fighting wars but he is meant to be giving direction to people in his state.
If we look at the Ottomans, they started their journey to establish the flag of Islam in the world. Ottomans cared about looking after poor people and giving justice to everyone and they didn’t differentiate between caste, creed or color.
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Over the period of time it kept changing from an ideology of a prosperous state to greed of power which led to the downfall of Ottoman Empire.
In today’s world, you will see strong and wealthy Arab/Muslim states putting all their focus on making new cities for the purpose of attracting people of west with luxury, comfort and massive lifestyle in order to run their economy.
You can’t sell oil forever, that is understandable, but not being able to understand that selling luxury and glamour to lift up the whole nation and economy is a bad idea for future. It’s not going to take you anywhere near as a state, human progression or state economy.
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The future of Muslim States
Concluding this debate with my humble opinion would state that the future of Muslim societies at any part of the world will be dependent on their relationship with science and education.
It’s about time Muslim states put their emphasis on education and learning and tell people what Islam is really about which is freedom, choice, learning, progressing, justice and equality.
Rather than adopting the western methodology (which is not even working in west), we need to come up with a model of progressive society in Muslim states.
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If we fail to understand and transfer the real knowledge to our younger generation, this will have large scale impacts and the Muslim world will stand far away in this race of education, science and progression.
The author is an MPhil scholar, analyst and journalist. He has expertise in national and international politics. The writer can be reached at thefahadqureshi@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.