Islam and Its Manifestations - Essay Example

number 24 March Islam and Its Manifestations For centuries the history of relations between religion and science seems to be the real war, the main scene of which is the picture of the world. The key moment of the struggle is a whip hand of one or another sphere in presentation of its understanding of world order and approving of its approaches to the explanation of the universe. Despite the fact that in our time most religions are more or less peacefully coexist with scientific discoveries, Islam still does not recognize even the possibility of awareness of Muslims with all the advances of science. So what underlies such an attitude to science on the part of the Muslim people today? Let’s find the answer and consider the balance between knowledge, Islamic law, and science. For the beginning it must be said that Muslims are probably the greatest believers in the world. Unlike many other peoples they honor their God practically every minute of their life. Islam is so deep for Muslims that they even don’t try to find its weak points, for their life testament is the sovereignty of God. According to the study of al-Afhgani, Muslims’ existence is based on the Islamic concept, that is, the union of all spheres of human’s life on the Islamic ideology or Islamic law of preoccupation of every human thought with the Lord’s omnipotence. “All … things are such that they are not only controlled by the Islamic concept but also generated by it in the intuition of a faithful Muslim, for the Islamic concept circumscribes the universe, the human self and all aspects of life, and points out all those facets that are related to their Creator” (al-Afhgani 198). So there is no place for doubt in beliefs or duality in actions of Islam followers. As for the aspect of gaining knowledge, Muslims wholeheartedly believe that the Holly Quran is the only source of the true information of everything in the world as it holds the word of God who is omniscient. Nevertheless, Islam accepts the possibility of learning new sciences which are appropriate, essential and useful for the Islamic way of life and are not contradictory to the Islamic law. If the science presents new data that cannot coincide with Muslims’ faith or question some of its moments, then such information, even scientific one being adopted by other religions, must be interpreted to a Muslim by another Muslim whose faith is abiding. Only in this case it may be perceived as original knowledge that is given to people by their Lord. Otherwise, the new lights are taken as the threat for the Islamic faith, for they can stimulate Muslim’s conversion to the pre-Islamic time beliefs, namely: Jahiliyah. In any case, any Muslim who is going to gain new knowledge must remember that only Almighty Allah can show him the true path or way, not people who tend to make mistakes. And in this respect, again, the Quran is the fountain of God’s wisdom about world order. The other reason for Muslims not to question their faith’s truthfulness is their belief that European science is based on the teachings of Islamic scientists, as well as their credo that the knowledge without framing of the faith has no right to appear inside of it. So we can see that al-Afhgani illuminates Muslims’ somewhat blind confession from the positive side without seeing in such a situation any reason for scientific illiteracy of Muslims. Qutb in his turn insists on the negative aspect of Muslims’ closed nature for new knowledge. It is underlined by him that Muslim religion and the Islamic law have been contrary to the development of science for a long time, and even had the experience of putting to death of many sophists, for example. Due to this fact Muslims live in darkness with their only attribute of deep faith. For visual contrast of Muslims’ position on the background of the rest of the world the author refers to the example of Christianity which is “… free and independent, it seems to advance rapidly on the road of progress and science, whereas Muslim society has not yet freed itself from the tutelage of religion” (Qutb 25). Muslim people believe in absolute truth of their faith that is perceived by Qutb as the refusal of science’s acceptance. The rhetorical question arises – whether they become happier at the realizing that Islam is not so universal. In the capacity of spectacular example the barbarian times of Arabs’ seizing of Persian and Greek knowledge are cited. It is the period when they show their brilliant capacity for sciences that can serve as a bright manifestation of nowadays senseless of Islamic rejection of scientific development of Muslim people. Opposite to al-Afhgani’s idea Qutb feels sorrow for the present position of Islam world that “… fell again into ignorance and became the center of religious fanaticism…” (Qutb 26). The author wonders why Muslims must live in unknowing after such a great contribution to the world science. The all mentioned aspects suggest that Islam in its various manifestations is somewhat contradictory issue. The common belief is that it is one of the firm religions as it has adopted the doctrinal beliefs which are perceived by Muslims without question. Still such a nature of absolute faith has not only its benefits but the implications as well. The bright example of the latter is the impossibility of scientific progress in the conditions of Islamic closed nature. Works Cited Al-Afhgani, Sayyid Jamal al-Din. Religion versus Science. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968. Qutb, Sayyid. Islam as the Foundation of Knowledge. Karachi, Pakistan: International Islamic Publishers Ltd., 1988. Read More