Contributions of Islamic Scholars To the Scientific Enterprise

Introduction

Over the last 50 years there has been renewed interest in Islamic countries in examining the relationship between Islam and science in the spectrum of its history. After gaining independence most of the Islamic countries have been struggling to come to terms with their religious beliefs and the Western concepts of science and education. The education systems adopted by the most of the Islamic countries have been based on ‘so-called secular Western education’. Consequently a cultural dichotomy is observed in their societies between a traditional Islamic education on the one hand restricted to religious groups, and a secular Western education in main stream schools, colleges and universities. Education is viewed as a means of acquiring scientific knowledge and technology, in order to progress economically in the modern world. However, education has unsuccessfully tried to blend Islamic thinking with this Western education system (Al-Faruqi and Nasseef, 1981).

The period between the seventh to the fifteenth centuries is considered as the ‘Golden Age of Islamic Civilisation’. During this period there was great emphasis on the pursuit of knowledge. Consequently there were individuals who lived scholarly and pious lives, such as Ibn Sina, Al-Khwarizmi, and Al-Biruni, who in addition to excellence in the study of religious texts also excelled in mathematics, geography, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and medicine. At this time Islam was not just a set of religious beliefs, but a set of ideas, ethics and ideals encompassing all aspects of human life. This resulted in the establishment of an Islamic civilisation. Thus the motivating force of this civilisation was its Islamic faith (used here both in the spiritual and temporal sense) and its language was Arabic (Khettani, 1976).

While the progress of scientific knowledge in Europe languished during the Dark Ages, science flourished in the Golden Age of Islam. The renaissance that subsequently occurred in Europe might not have taken place without the contribution of Muslim science in the preceding period. This was acknowledged by Sarton (1927, p. 17) who wrote:

From the second half of the eighth to the end of the eleventh century, Arabic was the scientific, the progressive language of mankind. It is suffice here to evoke a few glorious names without contemporary equivalents in the West: Jabir Ibn Haiyan, al-Kindi, al-Khwarizmi, al-Farghani, al-Razi, Thabit ibn Qurra, al-Battani, Hunain ibn Ishaq, al-Farabi, Ibrahim ibn Sinan, al-Masudi, al-Tarabi, Abu ibn Wafa, Ali ibn Abbas, Abu-l-Qasim, Ibn al-Jazzar, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, Ibn Yunus, al-Karkhi, Ibn al-Haitham, Ali ibn Isa, al-Ghazzali, al-Zarqali, Omar Khayyam!

Many Muslims scholars in the Golden Age of Islam studied nature in the context of the Quran. The Quran depicted the relationship between nature and man, and this inspired the Muslim scholars to study natural phenomena, in order to understand God. Islam’s contribution to the scientific enterprise was complex and rich and it spanned over three continents and nearly a millennium of time.