A three page commentary by Ziauddin Sardar, a London-based writer, in a recent issue of ‘Nature’ – one of the top international journals of Science, outlines the major historical forces that led to the divorce of science from Islam and the consequent decline of Islam as an intrinsically rational world view.
He begins by ascertaining the fact that the scientific culture in Islam has changed since the golden era of Islamic Science. This, contrary to popular belief, is not because the teachings of Islam go against the scientific temper as the Quran itself has about 800 verses which encourage the reader to examine and understand the material world and nature using reason.
Ziauddin quotes the Prophet as having said that, ‘An hour’s study of Nature is better than a year’s prayer’, and ‘listen to the words of scientists and instill unto others the lessons of science’. If this is the case, what was it that slowly eroded science, learning, knowledge and creativity from Muslim culture? Colonization and wars could be partly responsible for this decline, Ziauddin points out that while its teachings essentially remain the same, the practice of Islam has changed over the years.
Islam is a way of life, as a faith and culture it represents a holistic world view. Conceptual values such as ilm (knowledge) and ijtihad (the quest for sustained reasoning) were an integral part of classical Islam with science and reasoning at their center. Ziauddin argues that a systematic reduction in the meaning of the fundamental principals of Islam was the cause of decline of science among the Muslim societies. This reduced Islam from a holistic world view to a one-dimensional faith and arrested the creativity of Muslim societies. He further agues that science was an integral part of Muslim history. It helped the growth of industries, the science of mineralogy, chemistry, hydraulics, botany, agronomy, hydrology, geology, architecture, city planning etc. played an important role in the rise of Muslim civilizations as a city-building culture. Muslim trading routes thrived world wide due to developments in astronomy, geography, map-making, observational devices etc. During this golden era science prospered and served society and the state itself was its greatest promoter since it was dependent on it for engineering its cities and wars. The charitable institution of Waqf, too had a broader framework and functioning. It received Zaqat, the annual payment required from all Muslims, and used it for social purposes such as education, health and alleviation of poverty.
According to Ziauddin, the, so called, age of exploration by the European powers in the fifteenth century, was actually an attempt to suppress the rising political and economic clout of the Muslim world. And this could not have been possible without advancement in science. This led to colonization and the transfer of scientific knowledge from the Muslim to the European world. In order to ensure dependence, compliance and subservience the colonizers introduced their own system of administration, law, education and economy. Thus began the gradual downfall of the economic and political status of Muslim society along with the decline of Islamic science. Western education, under the colonial rule, did not recognize Islamic science as real science, distorted history and portrayed the Muslim world as backward.
Hence, the practice of Islam was reduced from a broad holistic one to a narrow religious one. Ziauddin further laments that while the definition of knowledge (ilm), which during the classical period included everything from science to art, philosophy and theology and all learned men, including scholars and scientists constituted the ulama, under colonialism ilm was reduced to mean only religious knowledge and the ulama – the authority whose thought and opinion was worthy of social and cultural attention, now constituted only of religious scholars.
Ziauddin points out that the democratic concept of ijma (consensus of the people), which dates back to the time of Prophet, was central to the political life of Islam. Before making any major decision, the Prophet would invite the entire Muslim community to the mosque for a discussion and a consensus would be reached. Hence ilm ensured that majority of the community and the entire ulama was learned and ijma ensured that an informed and democratic decision was taken. However with the changed definition of ilm,ijma was reduced to the consensus of religious scholars.
Hence, Ziauddin concludes, the deterioration of Islamic science was a result of combined forces which brought about a reduction of Islam as a holistic enterprise. He suggests that science will take root in the present Muslim societies if a conceptual shift is brought about on how we perceive and practice Islam – as an integrated way of knowledge, being and doing.
Muslims, Ziauddin concludes, have pride in their scientific heritage, but it is time they got over this nostalgia for the long departed golden era of Islam.
They have to reinstate the original definitions of ilm,ijtihad and ijma, and make this way of knowledge and thinking in tune with the present times.
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