I have always wondered how our great Muslim scholars/scientists could contribute so much in various fields and what is it that they have or are equipped with. Alhamdulillah, was moved to bring a book home last two Saturdays. And Ive found these: In contrast with Europe, the Muslim inspiration for the study of science originates directly from the Quran and depends on the tawhidic approach, i.e. the fine balance that Islam establishes between this world and the other world. Islam accepts that this natural world is sacred, knowable, and good and that it consists of Allahs signs. Allah, throughout the Quran, exhorts Muslims to pay attention to His signs, to observe particular things, to travel throughout the world to closely examine and see the created things and to use their sensory organs and their mind not only to understand nature, i.e. the subject matter of science, but to get closer to Him. Under the guidance of this optimistic, pragmatic and tawhidic approach of Islam, Muslims scientists paid attention to the phenomena or particulars, made exact measurements, and performed experiments in order to support and extend the paradigm-cores (theories) they had inherited from Greek philosophers. In other words, for the first time in the history of science, they joined particularities (praxis) with generalities (theoria). If Europeans had directly inherited the paradigm-cores from Greeks, even they could not have extended them because of their belief in an inscrutable, unknowable and evil world, since, until the impact of Islam, they lived primitively and rejected nature...as it was no use and even obstructive to the Christian endeavour to attain to the world of spirit.* Of course, without the extended and refined Greek paradigms (i.e. the Islamic legacy) it was impossible for them to run into anomalies and achieve the Scientific Revolution. *Prof. SMN Al-Attas, Islam and Secularism, p.32 [Extracted from the Preface of Science in Islam & the West, by Prof. Cemil Akdogan] __________________________________________________ I now see more clearly how GREAT their contributions are... __________________________________________________ May Allah forgive them, and have mercy on them, and elevate their ranks in the Garden, and grant us to benefit from their spiritual secrets, their lights and their various knowledges in religion, in the world and in the Hereafter. May Allah reward all of you! Al-Fatihah. [Part of the Supplication after reciting Ratib Al-Attas. Source: Sayyid Muhammad Naqib al-Attas, Aziz-ul Manaal (The Rare Gift), translated from the Arabic with notes and explanatory remarks, The Ba Alawi Mosque, Singapore, 1999.] Avail. online: iqra.net/articles/al-attas.html
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 16:45:23 +0000
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