The Accordance of Islamic Fundamental Revelations with Modern Science - Essay Example

s 16 April, Assessing the accordance of Islamic fundamental revelations with Modern Science “Religion originates in an attempt to represent and order beliefs, feelings, imaginings and actions that arise in response to direct experience of the sacred and the spiritual. It becomes a process that creates meaning for itself on a sustaining basis, in terms of both its originating experiences and its own continuing responses.” Paul Connelly (Shanddaramon). Religion as in terminology or in a general and subjective approach could best be described as a chain of divine commands. Or it could be said that it comprises of certain rules which we have to dutifully obey in order to live with a peaceful heart and soul. It is a complete system provided from some super human source totally unlike mankind. It is also the belief of sharing positive humanitarian experiences with every individual we interact with. So the basic ideology behind the concept of adopting any particular belief or religion for any normal person is to adjust ourselves harmoniously and also to achieve our own well-being by following any particular system of rules. Religion not only is the divine word from God, but it also is a definite set of persuasive ways for living life the way it is best suited for us humans. Science could best be understood in the words of Benjamin Farrington “Science is the system of behavior by which man has acquired mastery of his environment. It has its origins in techniques….in various activities by which man keep body and soul together. Its source is experience, its aim practical, its only test, that it works.” (Grant). This essay is aimed at proving that science and religion are not conflicting with each other rather scientific findings and discoveries are supported in religion as well. History has seen many scholars debate and argue over the point that whether religion is in accordance with science or not. This issue heated up with the advent of prominent discoveries in the field of science and the relationship between the divine and the factuality was always considered at war. Andrew Dickson White’s “A History of the warfare of Science with theology in Chrishtendon” is an unavoidable example in this respect where he tried to lay the understanding of religion and science’s interaction. But his approach has been of a contradictory one. Immanuel Kant provided a completely different theory in this regard and believed that science and religion may no conflict but cater to opposite aspects of mankind. Science is involved with natural processes while religion provides inner solace. Then only recently the relation between science and religion has gained some positive and substantial relation. The most important example in this regard would be of Stephen Jay Gould, who in his book “Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life” (1999) wrote “I…. do not understand why the two enterprises should experience any conflict. Science tries to document the factual character of the natural world and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly different realm of human purposes, meanings and values.” (Doumit) As this research based essay is an attempt to assess a particular religion with its relevance to the modern contemporary era of scientific researches and technology. It becomes integral to select some particular divine system for advancing in this research. There is one little complication though which arose in my mind, that the selected religious system should be involving every particular aspect of normal daily human and social life. Only then a complete analysis can be made and a conclusion could be reached. So, after studying many different religious beliefs being adopted worldwide it is the Islamic system for humanity which I could find the closest to meet my research demands. The world Islam originated from Arabic word “Salema” which in simple words means peace, submission, purity and obedience. These four actions encircle the belief system of Islam. In a more matter of fact sense it means submission to the will of God and obedience to His beneficial law. Here the word beneficial is used because it is a fact that in the state of Islamic beliefs, every law provided by the divine authority of the Omnipresent Allah/God is directly or indirectly for the benefit and betterment of the universe as a whole. It not just encircles mankind but everything and every phenomenon present till date. In Islamic classification of knowledge, science, which encircles the study of nature, is taken as one branch of knowledge, integrally connecting many different branches of knowledge. All these branches collectively are linked with the concept of Tawhid which means the Oneness of God. (Iqbal) So when we say “Islam and science” it does not mean we are discussing two separate entities. This point could be understood with the example of a garden. If we point to any particular plant or tree within the limits of the garden, it may have a unique name and quality but it will be termed as the property of that garden. It is the simplest way to explain the relation of religion and science or Islam and science. In today’s modern contemporary era the western scientists and even a section of Muslims are in awe with the sudden rage of scientific advancements which has taken over the world. Especially after the renaissance period and the industrial revolution science has emerged as the practical solution to every human or social problem. It now has become a common perception that Islamic fundamental beliefs and teachings are thousands of years old and cannot be in accordance with the beliefs which west influenced societies have grown accustomed to. But the point that they fail to understand is that science is the study of the Work of God so how can it not be in perfect accord with the Word of God. Science hasn’t created anything; it just can give the relative reason and causes about how something was created. This explains the fact that there definitely is some divine authority determining the course of events. To quote an Ayah (verse) from the Islamic Holy Book the Quran seems appropriate here Say to them:” The Quran has been revealed by HIM Who knows every secret that is in the heavens and the earth. (Taqiudin and Khan, The Quran, 25:6-7). At another point Allah re-affirms the fact that it is He Who created the universe "I only created you all to worship Me Alone" (Al-Quran). In order to proceed further with this research we need to evaluate Islam with all the discoveries made in different branches of modern science and the revelations made in the holy Islamic Scripture the Quran to get a clear picture. Islam is the only complete religion in the world and all the aspects of humanity, the earth and universe were addressed some 1400 years ago by Allah/God. There are many verses or Ayahs in Quran which compels Muslims to research and gain knowledge in science. It just doesn’t encourage but it has been revised so many times in the Holy Book that it becomes more of a necessity for understanding Islam completely. When Islam appeared as a new belief system, the world was busy in war, and the societies were up to fighting and killing each other for land or other un-necessary reasons. It was Islam which propelled the knowledge based structure of Arabian society. That is why Muslim scholars made so many great discoveries before west scholars even though about starting any research. To evaluate Islam and its accordance with modern science the research should begin with the very initial step that is how everything came about. The observational and motivational science of modern Cosmology has identified the principle fact about the creation of the universe, stating that it once was a cloud of smoke. This could of smoke was later revealed to be a combination of highly dense and hot gaseous composition. While this fact was told long before in the Quran “Then He turned to the heavens when it was smoke” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran, 41:11). Science of cosmology has also discovered that following the reasonability of this smoke the universe which includes the earth, sun, moon, stars, planets and the galaxies were all a connected entity. This has also been stated in the Quran before any theory of science existed “Have not those who disbelieved known that the heavens and the earth were one connected entity, then We separated them?” (Taqiudin and Khan, The Quran, 21:30) Professor Alfred Kroner who is the world’s most famous geologist said about Prophet Mohammad "Somebody who did not know something about nuclear physics fourteen hundred years ago could not, I think, be in a position to find out from his own mind, for instance, that the earth and the heavens had the same origin" (Kailani). Similarly in the science of Ecology, meteorologists have detailed the information regarding clouds formation only recently, that too with the help of advanced technology and equipment like satellite, computers etc. According to scientists “Water vaporizes from the oceans and rivers forming tiny clouds. The small clouds join together and the updrafts within the larger cloud increase. These updrafts cause the cloud body to grow vertically, so the cloud is stacked up. This vertical growth causes the cloud body to stretch into cooler regions of the atmosphere where drops of water and hail formulate and begin to grow larger and larger. When these drops of water and hail become too heavy for the updrafts to support them, they begin to fall from the cloud as rain, hail, etc." (Islamkotob) But this also has been revealed thousands of years before by the Quran “Have you not seen how God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain come out of it” (Taqiudin and Khan, The Quran 24:43) “And He sends down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky, and He strikes with it whomever He wills, and turns it from whomever He wills. The vivid flash of its lightning nearly blinds the sight” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran 24:43). Now we may think why this verse has referred to lightning and hail together. This also has been proven by science now that it is hail that produces lightning. If we take the example of the mountains and what science has to say about it then the excerpts from Frank Press’s book titled Earth would be appropriate as it is the bible of this field and a highly referred one as well. In his book he wrote “Mountains have underlying roots. These roots are deeply embedded in the ground. So mountains have a shape like a peg” (Awadalla). This was also described in the Quran centuries before Have We not made the earth as a bed, and the mountains as pegs?” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran 78:6-7) and in another verse “And He has set firm mountains in the earth so that it would not shake with you” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran 16:15). Oceanology is the science which researches on the facts about deep seas and oceans. It has revealed quite interesting facts to mankind but only recently. The feature of darkness found deep beneath every ocean was at a distance of 200 meters and below. It gets darker below a depth of 1,000 meters. We humans need special equipment like submarines to dive into the ocean below 40 meters (Ibrahim). Indeed it was impossible at the time when Islam was in the foundation process that this fact was discovered, but it has been foretold and explained brilliantly as, “Or (the unbelievers' state) is like the darkness in a deep sea. It is covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds. Darkness, one above another. If a man stretches out his hand, he cannot see it” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran 24:40 The truth about the two set of waves is also explained in this verse, scientists discovered that the second set is of the surface waves while there are internal waves which “occur on density interfaces between layers of different densities” (Ibrahim). It also was an important discovery that despite the large waves and strong tides they don’t mix and there is a barrier between them. Another fact which was known was that seas have a definite salinity, temperature and density. If we evaluate the Quran’s verses about seas this discovery was established as a fact very simply and clearly, “He is the one who has let free the two bodies of flowing water, one sweet and palatable, and the other salty and bitter. And He has made between them a barrier and a forbidding partition.” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran 25:53) In order to expand the horizon for this research, it becomes integral to understand Islam’s accordance with modern sciences about human anatomy and most importantly the scientific discoveries made in Embryology (study of human embryo). The stages of human embryonic development have been discovered by scientists in the 20th century. But everything which has been discovered was clearly explained in the Quran “We created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended thing, and blood clot), then We made the alaqah into a mudghah (chewed-like substance) then out of the chewed like substance We made the skeleton/bones, then We clothed the skeleton with muscles/flesh, later We caused him to grow and come into as another creation. So, blessed be Allah, the best of creators.” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran, 23:12-14). Many scientists spent nights and days to research this process by using advanced microscopic equipment to inspect the embryo’s development in the mother’s womb. But all have come to the conclusion that embryo develops in the similar three stages as described in this verse. In the late 20th century the science of genetics and microbiology were introduced. It conducted researches on who played a decisive role in determining the baby’s gender. It was a common assumption that it is the mother’s cell and that is the reason in many cultures women are blamed and tortured to producing girls. Later after extensive studies it was discovered that two out of the 46 chromosomes namely the X and Y decided this. Women only have X, it is the male sperm which contains either X or Y and after uniting with the female’s X it determines the gender. But Quran had revealed this secret that it is the male who determines it centuries before when it was not such an advanced age “He has created both sexes, male and female from a drop of semen which has been ejected.” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran, 53:45-46). The most interesting and unique fact about a human is of having unique finger prints. Every human dead or alive or even related twin has a different set of finger prints. This was discovered by the forensic scientists and the information of finger prints play an important role in identifying the individuality of every person. It acts as an identity code. The Quran spoke about it when people thought of them as normal curves and lines. “Does man think We cannot assemble his bones? Nay, We are able to put together in perfect order the very tips of his fingers” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran, 75:3-4). The science of Geology studies the earth and the structural substances or materials which it comprises of. It is one of the recent sciences and the discoveries made are in perfect accordance with what the Quran foretold. For example the discovery of the facts about iron formation concluded that the energy from our entire solar system is not sufficient to formulate one atom of iron. So it is an extraterrestrial material. This fact was explained in The Quran in a very simple manner “And we sent down iron, in which is (material for) mighty power, as well as many benefits for mankind” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran, 57:25). The modern sub-branch of scientific studies of atomic particles is known as Physics. It has discovered that an atom can be broken into many small units. This revelation about the splitting of an atom into smaller units was explained in the Quran long ago. “The unbelievers say: Never to us will come the Hour; Say: Nay! By my Lord! It will surely come upon you by Him, Who knows the unseen, not an atom’s weight, or less than or greater (than atom), escapes Him in the heavens and/or in the earth, but it is in a clear record” (The Quran, 34:3). In Physiology science there in one verse from Quran which has proved very beneficial in understanding constituents of milk in cattle. When the discovery on the blood circulatory system and the nourishment of internal organs by the process of digestive absorption was undergoing an initial phase, the Quran explained in just one verse, “Verily in cattle, there is lesson for you; We give you to drink what is inside their bellies coming from a conjunction between the contents (of the intestine) and blood, a milk, pure and pleasant for those who drink it” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran, 16:66). In the field of Chemistry, with help of advanced technologies and research it was revealed that not just in case of living beings, Matter is also created in pairs. For this discovery the scientist Paul Dirrac was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933 but it was told in Quran long before this discovery was made. “Glory be to Him who created all the pairs; from what the earth produces and from themselves and from things unknown to them” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran, 36:36). The scientists have done extensive research to come to the conclusion that all life came from the sea. To prove this fact they gave the proof that the primeval matters in the sea generated protoplasm billions of years ago, which formed the amoeba and out of which came all living things. But was it possible to discover all this 1400 years ago? Of course not but Quran has explained it in a very clear manner “And We made from water every living thing” (Taqiudin and Khan , The Quran, 21:30). There are many other aspects of science which are in direct accordance with Islam and its Holy Scripture the Quran. Few of the most important ones have been discussed briefly above. The fact remains that Islam is in accordance with modern scientific findings. Works Cited Shanddaramon. Paganism: A Religion for the 21st Century. Astor Press, 2009. Print. Iqbal, Muzaffar. Science and Islam. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. Print. Doumit, Peter.E. A Unification of Science and Religion. Dorrance Publishing, 2010. Print. Grant, Edward. Science And Religion, 400 B.c. To A.d. 1550: From Aristotle To Copernicus. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. Print. Kailani, Taiseer. Modern Cosmology And the Quran: From a Scientific Perspective. AuthorHouse, 2005. Print. Islamkotob, Islam and Ecology. Islamic Books, 2000. Print. Reference for The Holy Quran: Dr. Taqiudin, Muhammad. and Dr. Khan, Muhammad. Translation of the Meanings of the Noble Qur’an in the English Language. King Fahad Complex, n.d. Print. Awadalla, Adel. The Prophecy and the Warnings Shines Through the Mystifying Codes of the Holy Quran. Trafford Publishing, 2004. Print. Ibrahim, I.A. A Brief Illustrated Guide To Understanding Islam. Islamic Books, 1997. Print.   Read More