The Islamic roots of modern science

Fourteen centuries ago, God sent down the Qur'an as a guide for all humanity.

At the time the Arab society was in a state of complete degeneration, chaos and ignorance. They were a barbarous people who worshiped idols of their own making, believed the war and bloodshed to be virtuous and have even been able to kill their own children. They had little interest in intellectual, let alone a scientific view of the natural world.

However, through Islam they learned humanity and civilization. Not only the Arabs but all communities that have accepted Islam escaped the darkness of the age of ignorance and were enlightened by the divine wisdom of the Koran. Among the faculties the Qur'an brought to humanity was scientific thinking.

Given the scientific paradigm in the Quran

The genesis of scientific thought is the sense of curiosity. Because people are wondering how the universe and the nature of work, they study and interest in science. But most people do not have that curiosity. For them, the important things are not the secrets of the universe and nature, but their own small worldly profits and pleasures. In communities where people who think this way are in charge, science does not develop. Idleness and ignorance rule.

The Arab community before the Qur'an was of this type. But the verses of the Koran were asked to reflect, study and use their minds, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

In one of the first revealed verses of the Quran, God has attracted the attention of Arabs to the camel, a part of their daily lives:

Have they not looked at the camel how it was created?
And the sky, how he was raised?
And the mountains, how they were Embedded?
And the earth-how it is spread out?
So remind them! You are only a reminder. (Qur'an, 88: 17-21)

In many Other verses of the Qur'an, people are instructed to examine nature and learn from it because people can know God only through the examination of his creations. For this reason, in a verse of the Qur'an Muslims are defined as people who believe in the creation of heaven and earth

Those who remember God, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth (saying): "Our Lord, Thou hast not created to no avail. Glory to Thee! Guard us from the torment of Fire. "(Qur'an, 3: 191)

An ancient manuscript of the Koran.
As a result of this, for a Muslim interest in science is a very important form of worship. In many verses of the Quran, God commands Muslims to investigate the heavens, earth, living things or their own lives and think about them. When we look at the verses, we find indications of all major branches of science in the Koran.

For example, in the Qur'an, God encourages the science of astronomy:

He who has created seven heavens in layers. You will not find no fault in the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again-do you see gaps? (Qur'an, 67: 3)

In another verse of the Quran, God invites survey of astronomy and the composition of the earth which is the science of geology:

Did they not watch the sky above? How we have built and adorned it, and there are no cracks? And the earth We have spread out and put firm mountains standing, and all products that are kind of beautiful growth (in pairs), to be observed and commemorated by every devotee turning (to God). (Qur'an, 50: 6-8)

In the Qur'an, God encourages also the study of botany:

It is He Who sends down rain from the sky which We bring forth growth of every kind, and that We bring forth green shoots and from them We bring forth close the seed and husks of date palm date clusters hanging down, and gardens of grapes and olives and pomegranates, both similar and dissimilar. Look at their fruits as they bear fruit and ripen. There are signs for people who believe. (Qur'an, 6:99)

In another verse of the Qur'an, God draws attention to zoology:

You have a great breeding … (Qur'an, 16:66)

Here is a verse from the Koran on the sciences of archeology and anthropology:

Do they not travel through the earth to see the final fate of those before them? (Qur'an, 30: 9)

In another verse of the Qur'an, God draws attention to the evidence of God in his own body of a person and mind

There are certainly signs in the ground for people with certainty, and in yourselves as well. Do not you? (Qur'an, 51: 20-21)

As you can see, God recommends all the sciences to Muslims in the Koran. Because of this growth in the history of Islam in mean at the same time the growth of scientific knowledge.

The scientific renaissance of the Middle East

Muslim scholars in Baghdatis in the world
scientific importance of the era.
As mentioned, when the Prophet Mohammed (PBH) began preaching Islam, Arabs have a community of ignorant, superstitious tribes. However, thanks to the light of the Qur'an they were rescued from superstition and began to follow the path of reason. Following this, one of the most astonishing developments in world history took place and in a few decades of Islam, that emerged from the small town of Medina, the spread from Africa to Central Asia. The Arabs, who previously could not even rule a single city in harmony, came to be the leaders of a world empire.

One of the most important aspects of this empire was that provided the ground for a scientific development previously unmatched in history. At a time when Europe lived through the Middle Ages, the Islamic world created the greatest legacy of scientific knowledge seen in history that date. The science of medicine, geometry, algebra, astronomy and even sociology were developed systematically for the first time.

Large religious educational centers were also centers of knowledge and scientific development. The official centers began during the period Abbasid (750-1258 AD) when thousands of mosque schools were established. In the tenth century, Baghdad had about 300 schools. Alexandria in the fourteenth century had 12,000 students. It was in the tenth century that the formal concept of the Madrassah (school) was developed in Baghdad. Madrassahs had a curriculum full-time and part-time teachers, many of whom were women. Rich and poor have received free education. From there, Maktabat (libraries) were developed and foreign books acquired. The two most famous are Bait al-Hikmah in Baghdad (820) and Dar al-Ilm in Cairo (about 998). Universities such as Al-Azhar (969 AD) have also been established long before those of Europe. The Islamic world has created the first universities – and even hospitals – in the world.

Islamic scientific manuscripts of the Middle Ages, careful studies on the anatomy human and zoology.

This may be surprising to modern Westerners, who generally have a different kind of image of Islam in their minds. But this picture emerges from ignorance about the origins and history of Islamic civilization. Those who get rid of this ignorance – and many prejudices – acknowledge the true nature of Islam. An example of these is a recent documentary film of PBS, titled Islam: The Empire of faith, in which the commentator rightly states that:

In the course of history, Islamic civilization was one of the most great achievements of humanity … For the West, much of the history of Islam has been hidden behind a veil of fear and misunderstanding. However, the hidden history of Islam in depth and surprisingly interwoven with Western civilization … It was they (Muslim scholars) who sewed the seeds of the Renaissance, 600 years before the birth of Leonardo da Vinci. The way we heal the sick figures we use for counting, cultures around the world have been shaped by the Islamic civilization. 1

In an article published in Salon.com, an influential liberal American media, author George Rafael writes in an article titled "A Is For Arabs" that;

From algebra and coffee to guitars, optics and universities … the West has the people of the crescent moon … There is a millennium, that the West was plunged into darkness, Islam enjoyed a golden age. The lighting in the streets of Cordoba when London was a barbarous pit; religious tolerance in Toledo while pogroms rage York to Vienna. As custodians of our classical legacy, Arabs been midwives of our Renaissance. Their influence, however alien it may seem, has always been with us, whether a hot cup of Joe or the algorithms of computer programs. 2

Openness of Islam

This allowed the Muslims to create such an advanced culture, science was derived from the faculties of the understanding of Islam. One of them was, As we have noted, the reason to learn about the universe and nature according to the principles of the Koran. Another was the openness. Both the wisdom of the Koran and the prophetic teaching had given an overview of Muslims in the world, overcoming all cultural barriers. In the Qur'an, God says:

Humanity! We created you from male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you can come to know each other … "(Quran, 49:13)

This verse clearly encourages cultural relationships between different nations and communities. In another verse of the Koran, is it stated that "both East and West belong to Allah" (2:115), which Muslims should see the world in a universalist and cosmopolitan vision.

The Hadith or sayings of the Prophet also encourage this vision. In a popular hadith, the Prophet told Muslims that "wisdom is the lost property of Muslims, he takes it wherever he is." This means that Muslims should be very pragmatic and broadminded in adapting and using cultural and scientific achievements of non-Muslims, those of non-Muslims are also creatures and servants of God, even they do not recognize this. "People of the Book", ie Christians and Jews, are much more compatible because they believe in God and stick to moral code He revealed to man.

In the rise of Islamic science, the role of This openness is very clear to see. John Esposito of Georgetown University, one of the greatest Western experts on Islam commented:

The genesis of Islamic civilization was indeed a collaborative effort, integrating the learning and wisdom many cultures and languages. As in government administration, Christians and Jews, who had been the intellectual and bureaucratic backbone the Persian and Byzantine empires, participated in the process as well as Muslims. This "ecumenical" was evident in the effort of the caliph al-Mamun's (reigned 813-33) House of Wisdom and translation center headed by the renowned scholar Ibn Hunayn Isaq, a Nestorian Christian. This period of translation and assimilation was followed by one of the Muslim intellectual and artistic creativity. Muslims have ceased to be disciples and became masters in the production process of the Islamic civilization, dominated by the Arabic language and Islam to life … Main Contributions have been made in many areas: literature and philosophy, algebra and geometry, science and medicine, art and architecture … Major cultural centers in Cordoba, Baghdad, Cairo, Nishapur, and Palermo emerged and eclipsed Christian Europe, mired in Dark Ages. 3

According to one Muslim scholars of our time, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic science was "the first science of truly international nature of human history "4.

Another manuscript describing the medieval Islamic movement of planets.

Yet Muslims have not only integrate other cultures, but developed their own. Some commentators fail and try to link the Islamic scientific only to the influence of ancient Greece or the Far East. But the real source of Islamic science has been the testing and comments made by Muslim scientists. In his book The Middle East, Professor Bernard Lewis, an undisputed expert in the history of the Middle East, as he explains follows:

The achievement of medieval Islamic science is not confined to the preservation of learning Greek, or the incorporation elements in the corpus of the oldest and most distant East. This heritage as the medieval Islamic scientists handed on the modern world has been immensely enriched by their own efforts and contributions. Greek science, on the whole rather tended to be theoretical. Medieval Middle Eastern science was much more practical, and in fields like medicine, chemistry, astronomy and agronomy, the classical heritage was and supplemented by experiences and observations of the medieval Middle East. 5

As noted by Westerners, this culture scientific advances of the Islamic world has paved the way for the Western Renaissance. Muslim scholars have acted knowing that their investigation of God's creation was a route by which they could learn to know him. Esposito stresses that "Muslim scientists, who were often the philosophers and mystics, given the physical universe from their Islamic worldview and context as a manifestation of the presence of God, the Creator and the source and unity and harmony in nature. "6 With the transfer of this paradigm and its accumulation of knowledge in the Western world, the advance of the West began.

The origins of Western science theist

Medieval Europe was ruled by the dogmatic regime of the Church Catholic. The Church opposes freedom of thought and pressure on scientists. Can be punished by the Inquisition simply for holding different beliefs or ideas. Their books were burned and they were executed. The pressure on research in the Middle Ages is often referred in the history books, but some are misinterpreting the situation and claim that scientists who clashed with the Church have been cons religion.

The truth is the exact opposite of scientists who opposed the bigotry of the church were religious believers. They were not against religion, but against the harsh clericalism of the time.

For example, the famous astronomer Galileo, that the Church wanted to punish because he stated that the world turns, said: "I give God thanks very much for being good enough to make me alone the first observer wonders hidden in the darkness for all previous centuries. "7

Other scientists who created science modern were all religious.

Kepler, considered the founder of modern astronomy, told those who asked Why, he took care of science ", I had the intention of becoming a theologian … but now I see how God is, by my efforts, also glorified in astronomy, for 'heavens declare the glory of God "8.

As for Newton, one of the greatest scientists in history He explained the reasons underlying his zeal for scientific activity, saying:

"… He (God) is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient, his duration reaches from eternity to eternity, his presence from infinity to infinity, it governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done. … We know him only by his wiles the wisest and good things … [W] e worship and adore him as his servants … "9

The great genius Pascal, the father of modern mathematics, said: "But by faith we know his (God's) existence, in glory we know its nature. "10

Many other founders of modern Western science were also strong believers. For example:

"Von Helmont, one of the leading figures in modern chemistry and the inventor of the thermometer, said that science is a part faith.

"Georges Cuvier, the founder of modern paleontology, regarded fossils as surviving proofs of creation and taught life species that had been created by God.

"Carl Linnaeus, who first systematized scientific classification, believed creation and said that the natural order is an important proof of the existence of God.

"Gregor Mendel, founder of genetics, and also a monk, believes in the creation and the opposition of evolutionary theories of his time, such as Darwinism and Lamarckism.

"Louis Pasteur the biggest name in the history of microbiology, proved that life can be created in inert matter and taught that life was a miracle God.

"The famous German physicist Max Planck said that the Creator of the universe is God and stressed that the faith is a quality need scientists.

"Albert Einstein, the scientist considered the most important twentieth century, believed that science could not be without God and said: "Science without religion is lame."
A number of other scientists who have guided modern scientific progress were religious people who believed in God. These scientists served science with the intention of discovering the universe that God had created – a paradigm that has been developed and implemented in the Islamic world, and then integrated with the West. All these theistic scientists thought the creation of the heavens and the earth and the investigation into the consciousness of God – that God has decreed in the Koran and the Bible. The birth of science and its development were result of this awareness.
During the nineteenth century, however, this awareness has been replaced by a misconception called materialism.

The rise and fall of the materialist deviation

The nineteenth century was a period that saw biggest mistakes in human history. These errors began with the imposition on European thought of materialist philosophy, teaching Ancient Greek.

The biggest mistake this time was the theory of Darwinian evolution. Before the birth of Darwinism, biology was accepted as a branch of science that provided evidence of the existence of God. In his book Natural Theology, the famous author William Paley argued that, insofar as every clock proves the existence of a clockmaker, natural designs prove the existence of God.

But Darwin rejected this truth in his theory of evolution. By distorting the truth to fit materialist philosophy, he claimed that all living beings are the result of blind natural causes. In this way, he created an artificial antagonism between religion and science.

In their book The Messianic Legacy, English authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln had this to say on the subject:

For Isaac Newton, a century and a half before Darwin, science is not separate from religion, but rather, an aspect of religion, and ultimately subordinate to it. … But the science of Darwin's time became precisely, itself a divorce from the context in which it had already existed and be an absolute rival, an alternative repository of meaning. Therefore, religion and science are no longer working together, but were opposed to each other, and humanity was increasingly forced to choose between them. 11

Not only biology, but also the branches sciences such as psychology and sociology were twisted according to materialist philosophy. Astronomy was distorted according to the materialist dogmas the ancient Greek pagan, a metaphysical faith in an "eternal cosmos" came to be the norm. The new goal of science was to confirm materialist philosophy.

These misconceptions have led to the scientific world in a stalemate for the past 150 years. Tens of thousands scientists from different branches worked in the hope of being able to prove Darwinism or other materialist theories.

But they were disappointed.

Scientific evidence shows exactly the opposite of the conclusion they want to reach. This, he confirmed the truth of creation. Today, the world of science is astonished by this truth. When nature is examined, it appears that is a complex plan and design in every detail, which has cut the foundations of materialist philosophy.

For example, the extraordinary structure DNA shows scientists that it is not the result of blind chance or natural laws. The DNA in a single human cell contains enough information to fill a whole encyclopedia of 900 volumes. Gene Myers, a scientist from the Celera Corporation, which administers the Human Genome Project, said:

What really surprising, is the architecture of life … The system is extremely complex. It's like it was designed … There is an intelligence immense. 12

This affects the whole world wonder of science. Scientists are viewing with surprise the invalidity of the materialist philosophy and Darwinism, they have been taught as truth, and some of them are openly declaring. In his book Darwin's Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe, one of the leading critics of Darwinism, describes the situation of the scientific world as follows:

In the past four decades, modern biochemistry has uncovered the secrets of the cell. Progress has been hard won. It took tens of thousands of people to spend the best parts their lives on the drudgery of laboratory …

The result of these cumulative efforts to investigate the cells to investigate life at the molecular level is a strong, clear, piercing cry of "design!" The result is so clear and so important that it should be classified as one of the largest successes in the history of science …

But, no bottles were uncorked, no hands clapping. Why community Science is not greedily embrace its startling discovery? The dilemma is that while one side of the] question [is labeled intelligent design, the other side must be labeled God. 13

The same situation exists in astronomy. The astronomy of the twentieth century has demolished materialist theories of the nineteenth. Getting started with the Big Bang theory, it appeared that the universe has a beginning, a moment of creation. Since then he realized that in the universe there is an extraordinarily delicate balance which protects human life – a concept called the principle anthropogenic.

For these reasons, in the world of physics and astronomy atheism is in rapid decline. As American physicist Robert Griffiths jokingly remarks: "If we need an atheist for a debate, I go to the philosophy department. The physics department is not very useful. "14

In short, in our day and age materialist philosophy collapses. Science is rediscovering certain very facts Important rejected by materialist philosophy and in this way a new concept of science is emerging. The Intelligent Design "the theory, which has been on a rising success in the United States over the last 10 years, is an important part of this new scientific concept. Those accept this theory stress that Darwinism was the biggest mistake in the history of science and that there is intelligent design in nature that gives Evidence of Creation.

Conclusion

God created the universe, and the whole of creation shows humanity the signs of God. Science is the method of investigation which has been created, so conflict between religion and science – provided that religion is Guided by divine revelation – is out of question.

On the contrary, history shows that theism has been the main motive and paradigm scientific progress. The two major scientific achievements in world history – the Islamic scientific endeavor of the Middle Ages and the Christian scientific leap of the modern era – derives from faith in God. In addition, it has borrowed a lot of knowledge, method and vision of the old. The wisdom of Qur'an first enlightened the Islamic world, then the very light of Europe's non-Muslims. If something went wrong in the Islamic world, because that Muslims turned away from the sincerity, wisdom and openness to God in the Koran teaches.

The materialistic paradigm a deviation from this model. She was born in the 19th century, reached its apogee in the mid 20th century and is on the verge of collapse today. No matter how arrogant and seemingly self-assured his supporters, the materialist dogma and its main pillar, Darwinism, will inevitably perish for decades to come.

And science will return to its authentic and true paradigm: A search for the discovery and definition of design and harmony in the natural world, the artifact of God.

Under the pseudonym Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the theory of evolution. You can read, free, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pseudonym Harun Yahya on these websites www.harunyahya.com

(1) Jonathan Grupper (series writer) Islam: Empire of Faith, a documentary by Gardner Films, in association with PBS, 2001
(2) George Rafael "A is for Arabs", www.Salon.com, the Jan 8, 2002; http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/01/08/alphabet/
(3) John L. Esposito, Islam: the straight path, Oxford University Press, 1991 a. 52-53
(4) Quoted in Weiss and Green, P. 187
(5) Bernard Lewis, The Middle East, 1998, p. 266
(6) John L. Esposito, Islam: The Way right, the art 54
(7) Galileo Galilei, quoted in: Mike Wilson, "The foolishness of the cross," Focus Magazine)
(8) Johannes Kepler, quoted in: JH Tiner, Johannes Kepler-Giant of Faith and Science (Milford, Michigan: Mott Media, 1977), p. 197
(9) Sir Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles of Philosophy natural, Translated by Andrew Motte, revised by Florian Cajore, great books of the Western world 34, Robert Maynard Hutchins, editor in chief, William Benton, Chicago, 1952:273-74
(10) Blaise Pascal, Pensees, No. 233
(11) Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy, Gorgi Books, London: 1991, p.177-178
(12) San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2001
(13) Michael J. Behe, Darwin's Black Box, New York: Free Press, 1996, p.231-232
(14) Hugh Ross, Creator and the Cosmos, p. 123

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, HARUN YAHYA
Born in Ankara in 1956, Adnan Oktar writes his books under the pen name of Harun Yahya. Ever since his university years, he has dedicated his life to telling of the existence and oneness of Almighty Allah, and to disseminating the moral values of the Qur’an. He has never wavered in the face of difficulties and despite oppression, still continues this intellectual struggle today exhibiting great patience and determination. For mor information pls visit: http://www.harunyahya.com/theauthor.php

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