If in the long run scientific thought and intellectual creativity in general are to keep themselves alive and advance into new domains of conquest and creativity, multiple spheres of freedom, what we may call neutral zones – must exist within which large groups of people can pursue their genius free from the censure of political and religious authorities. Insofar as science is concerned, individuals must be conceived to be endowed with reason, the world must be thought to be a rational and consistent whole, and various levels of universal representation, participation, and discourse must be available. It is precisely here that one finds the great weakness of Arabic-Islamic civilization as an incubator of modern science. (Toby E. Huff)

By virtue of patronage at the highest level during the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, the foundations of building the structures of rational and natural sciences were laid and House of Wisdom (Bait-el-Hikmah) was formed in which the scholars of all creeds, religions and beliefs were invited to work. Works of science, philosophy and metaphysics, mathematics, etc. were acquired from the Greek, Indian, and other sources; they were translated into Arabic, the lingua franca of that time, and the scholars were encouraged to advance the frontiers of the existing knowledge further. The result of such consistent efforts emerged in excellence in science that was unique and unequalled in the previous history of science. According to Huff (The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West), “.. up until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Arabic science was so developed and promising as to be called the most advanced in the world. In the case of astronomy, it is obvious that this supremacy existed until the mid-sixteenth century, when the astronomical models of Ibn-al-Shatir and the Maragha school were superseded by the new astronomical system of Copernicus.” Their excellence in physics, medicine, and mathematics was also noteworthy. The names of al-Haitham, al-Razi, Ibn-al-Sina, Ibn-al-Rushd and numerous others were latinized to make them familiar (almost household names) in the western world.

Copernicus seems to be the watershed in the history of science. After his time, the Muslim world was completely eclipsed in science and the western world was at the threshold of what is popularly called ‘the modern science.’ Never again until recently did any notable scientist, philosopher, mathematician, or anybody else in creative thought and intellectual arts, emerge from the Muslim world, on the world scene. For example, there is none in quantum mechanics with the sole exception of Abdus Salam whose work could be quoted authoritatively. More or less, the same is true of theory of relativity. Muslim contributors in the modern medical science are few and far between (if any, as a matter of fact).

The Muslims all over the world became defensive in as much as the creative and natural sciences were concerned and at times, they became irrational in minimizing the importance and relevance of these sciences to humanity. They regressed more and more into the religious shell and ascribed the cause of their decline in the world power (hence in science and the creative arts also) as due to deviation of the ummah from the straight religious path that Islam had prescribed. This kind of rationalization is irrational but they tried (and continue to do so) to find reasons and rationale for every thing in religious terms. This mode of thinking which some like to call Islamic occasionalism is part of the collective psyche of the orthodox Muslim world and has existed from the very beginning of Islam.

Causes of Decline

Unfortunately, rational and natural sciences never became an indissoluble part of the Islamic culture even when it was at the apex of such pursuits and engagements. Development of science never became a communal endeavor and responsibility. Compared with the religious law (fiqh) and actual practice of the religion, pursuit of science occupied only a very subservient position. According to Huff, “If we were to construct a status hierarchy, it would start with the legists, the fuqaha, at the top, below them the mutakallimun (religious dialecticians, Gill), and below them, the faylasufs, the philosophers cum natural scientists.” The natural and rational sciences were considered secular (in the sense of irreligious) and foreign to Islam and were imported from other societies particularly Greek. Many mutakallimun considered them (the sciences) as innovations in Islam and therefore reprehensible. They were not allowed to develop in their own right for fear that the practitioners will be misled. In the Muslim world, a secular society without Islam is unimaginable even now; religion is not personal but societal. Every person is concerned with the beliefs and religious practice of every other person. Secularism is equated to unbelief and atheism, which is intolerable. The Muslim students may be receiving instruction at schools in the theory of biological evolution but it cannot be discussed in public with any degree of conviction. For any meaningful research in science, the Muslim students have still to go to the western universities.

Even in the days of glory of the Muslim science, science was not formally taught in madrasas. Even the instruction of the medical science, which was regarded as the most prestigious science in the medieval Muslim world was relegated to the hospitals and individual teachers who taught it at their homes. Such teachers would issue ijazas (a sort of certificate) at the successful completion of a course, which authorized a recipient to undertake teaching in the respective field. No system similar to the modern university system could evolve and the instruction of sciences remained individualistic. No formal group research was undertaken although such activities could have taken place at the observatories (some of which were excellent and unequalled) and the hospitals. Some of the hospitals were the best in the world. Most of the scientific works (if not all) were written by the individual authors. Since the formal teaching of science did not enter the madrasas, which were better organized mainly for legal and theological instruction, science did not become part of the Islamic culture. This alienation between religion (culture) and science still exists. Science had entered the Muslim world from the outside (it did not evolve from within), and it remained as an external entity; it still is. Once it started to decline, it couldn’t bounce back and rejuvenate because it didn’t have deep roots in the society.

Many analysts describe political and economical factors also that contributed to the decay of science in the Muslim world, but had it taken root (or allowed to take root) in the Islamic culture, it would surely have overcome the adversity caused by these other factors.

Conflict of Reason and Revelation in the Muslim World

A leap of faith is not very certain. Even though reason is not perfect but what good is there in replacing reason by religion whose mainstay is blind faith. What guarantee is there that the blind faith is true and better than a rational truth? A society, which banishes reason and rational sciences from its culture becomes a barren society and is doomed to degrade and decay in spite of the supremely divine and unblemished religion it may claim to possess. (Mohammad Gill, Skeptical and Counter-Skeptical Trends in Medieval Islam, Chowk.com)

The orthodox Muslims believed that Judaism and Christianity, the other two Abrahamic religions, had degenerated, lost the original divine spirit, and had become obsolete. Their divine books were interpolated and were unable to provide divine guidance. They believed Islam had transplanted them and the Bible and Torah were replaced by the Quran, which is the final word of God. Since Islam was the true religion and its book the true word of God, prophet Muhammed (pbuh) was the last prophet because there was no need for any other prophet after him. The Quran, the original and unaltered book of God, will continue to provide guidance eternally to the humanity. In the face of such pristine and holistic belief, Quran became the ultimate source of human knowledge. Many started believing that whatever does not exist in the Quran is not worth knowing. The modern world is so very different materially and in every other respect from the one that existed fourteen hundred years ago when the Quran was revealed, yet Quran remains the source of all knowledge to the orthodox believers. To many such believers, even the dramatically new concepts like those of quantum mechanics, exist in the book (Quran). Theory of biological evolution is also there in the book. Many normally denigrate the theory of evolution and consider it blasphemous yet when they are in a defensive mood and want to affirm the universality of Quran, they find allegorical language in Quran testifying that the theory is there in the book.

The situation is indeed weird: Those who developed theories of quantum mechanics, relativity, and biological evolution, never read the Quran (with any seriousness, if any of them read it at all), and the Muslims whose book it is and who recite it day in and day out, do not even understand these theories. Yet, they believe, that these theories exist in Quran. The fact that they were discovered by the unbelievers without any help from the holy book is completely lost on them. If these theories existed in the Quran, why did the Muslims fail to discover them and develop them? The discovery is always after the fact.

A clash was bound to happen between the Muslim scientists and philosophers on one side, and the orthodox believers on the other. The orthodox theologians held a trump card to defeat the rationalists; they could declare a certain theory (theory of evolution seems a good candidate), branch of knowledge (philosophy, for example) and a certain scholar (Ibn-al-Sina and al-Farabi, to wit) as blasphemous and invoke the harshest punishment. The scientists and rationalists had no such weapon to counteract the charge of blasphemy. Strangely, when religion is losing its tight hold in many diverse societies, the Muslim world is still governed by punitive doctrines of blasphemy and apostasy.

The religionists normally proclaim that Islam does not prevent development of the rational sciences; in fact it promotes it. They will quote verse and chapter from the Quran to support their claim. This is nothing but razzmatazz. At individual level, one can pursue his research career at home, if he can, or, more frequently, abroad where all the facilities are available for his research pursuit. On the communal and national levels, development of science runs into practical problems. With the religious mind set, one wouldn’t know what problems can (or should) be undertaken because for many problems, the religion would provide answers (mostly wrong) before hand so that any research venture would become redundant and useless. The other problems which do not seem to have ready answers from the religion, become useless and wasteful projects.

Unless the rational view is deeply inculcated emphasizing that the natural phenomena occur according to some natural laws (and not by the will of God) and can be understood and explained by discovering these laws, religion will remain a dominant stumbling block. And in the Muslim world, it still is. There is no compelling reason to invoke God in science.

The religionists believe in divine miracles and those who believe in miracles, are unfit to do science. In science, miracles do not happen. Religion and science can coexist peacefully and flourish if science is released from the clutches (fear of blasphemy and apostasy, for example) of religion. The people should be able to discuss, advance by research, and publish works on theory of biological evolution, for example, in the local research journals and newspapers free from the fear of blasphemy. Darwin’s name should not remain despicable and tarred of heresy and not be used to block publication and dissemination of research results. His work should be adjudged on scientific grounds and not on religious grounds. Even if it is a wrong theory, it should be allowed a life of its own.