Episode 5: How the Quran created Modern Science?
Quran Owes its origin directly to the Quran. Now, this is a bold claim, and a claim like this requires evidence.
In the first episode, we talked about how the Scientific Revolution of Europe was just a product of the golden age of Islam. Or, in the words of the French Anthropologist Robert Bree fall, “The Renaissance of Europe did not take place in the 15th century; rather, it began when Europe learned from the culture of the Arabs. The Cradle of European Awakening is not Italy; it is Muslim Spain.”
Okay, let's review what we have learned so far. The Scientific Revolution, the fruits of which we enjoy till today, grew out of Europe all of a sudden in the 16th century. Wrong, ridiculously wrong.
Okay, correction: The European Enlightenment owes its origin and methodology to Greek knowledge. Wrong again. When you compare the methodology of the ancient Greeks with modern science, they are diametrically opposed. And when you say Greek knowledge, then all Europe got were just Latin translations of Muslim opinions on Greek philosophy. So, all they were reading all along were just Muslim works.
Okay, last correction: The scientific revolution in Europe gives full credit for its origin and methodology to the Muslim scientists of the golden age. Well, you're close. But the question that begs for an answer is that how does an unlettered desert civilization, that of the Arabs, their Bedouins, their camel herders, they are superstitious fire worshippers of the Fallen Persian Empire? How do people like that usher in the world's first Global Scientific Revolution?
What happened in a matter of a few hundred years that took them from shepherding camels to organizing ancient knowledge from the Greeks, the Indians, the Chinese, correcting giants of philosophy, algebra like Ptolemy, Aristotle, Galen, and formulating completely new disciplines of algebra, trigonometry, and theoretical astronomy? Keep in mind, this is the first time in history that astrology and astronomy are segregated.
Now, the answer to this is that it is the revelation of the Quran and nothing else. There is something very powerful in the very text of the Quran that has the capacity to revolutionize an entire civilization. But to say that the Quran created modern science is a very powerful statement, much more powerful and true than saying Muslim scientists of the Golden Age made significant attributions to modern science. Let me explain this by an example. If I were to invent something, then the credit of that ingenious invention goes solely to me. But if somehow it is found that my faith or this Divine book was the main driving force behind my invention, then the credit is due to this book. And while the inventor can die, the spirit and the potential that is contained within this book remain.
As Dr. Usman Bakar says, "These Sciences are Islamic, not just because they have been produced by Muslims. As a matter of fact, many non-Muslims made important contributions to the growth and development of Islamic science. Rather, these Sciences deserve the name Islamic science because they are organically related to the fundamental teachings of Islam, the most important of which is the principle of tawheed, the Oneness of God." Compare this with Leo, who said, "The Bible tells us how to go to heaven but not how the heavens go." The Islamic Golden Age proved that the Quran not only tells us how to go to heaven but also how the heavens go, and that happens to be the best way we can gain knowledge and nearness to our creator, which is our purpose.
The idea that science can lead you to God was best expressed in the work of the founder of the scientific method, the man who created the idea that a scientific theory becomes a scientific fact only if it can be proved right experimentally. This is a man who will later on revolutionize Europe and greatly influence scientists like Roger Bacon, Francis Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, Leonardo da Vinci, and finally Isaac Newton.
But the question is how and why would Ibrahim come up with the scientific method, taking philosophy and theories and turning them into science that has built our entire modern world? Look around you; the world that you see is not built by theories of philosophy, which were the basic characteristic of Greek and Indian science. Rather, it is experimental science that has unleashed the power of technology, which was a product of science.
But how? The answer is that Ibn Al Haytham believed in the concept of scientific determinism, which is a concept whereby the natural phenomena that we see around us exhibit a harmonious regulation or laws, what we call laws of nature. Do you know what this is called in the Quran? In the Quran, this is called "Sunnatullah." This is the nature of Allah, the habit of Allah. Nature in the Quran is considered the habit of Allah or the place where he manifests his attributes. For example, the blinking of the eye when a dust particle enters it is "Sunnatullah." And he recognizes that this particular Quranic concept would allow a person to conduct experiments repeatedly, hence revealing the truth that the scientist seeks. The realization of this quality of nature, that it has truth embedded in it, which is another Quranic notion, and that repeated observation and experimentation can reveal the underlying truth, is truly the beginning of the scientific age born out from the very text of the Quran.
We go to Ibn Al Haytham’s work, "Commentary on the Light of the Moon." He writes, "The Moon by itself does not produce light," as understood by earlier societies, because the moon only reflects the sun's rays. Where did he get that from? He starts his book with the verse from the Quran: "It is He who has made the Sun a Shining Light and the moon a derived light." I mean, this is a man who is highly inspired by the Quran. He's using the Quran to increase his understanding of the physical world, that is, to build science and the scientific method. And that science helps him to grow close to his creator and to the Quran in turn. Remember, this is the man who later on influences the founders of the European Enlightenment: Roger Bacon, Descartes, Vitello, who was called "al-Hazen's ape" because his book "Perspectiva," which was later on used by Isaac Newton, was a duplicate copy of Ibn al-Haytham's.
And writings of Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler revealed that Ibn al-Haytham was one of their greatest influences. The question Islam held in such high regard.
So, to summarize, the modern world is built on science and technology, and science is built on experimentation and observation, which is the scientific method. Ibn al-Haytham is the father, the founder of the scientific method. And in this episode, we found it was the Quran directly which inspired Ibn al-Haytham to put forward the scientific method. So, what that actually meant was that it is the Quran, the Quranic worldview, which lies at the foundation of all science, of modern science. But the question then is that if that can be said about the foundation of science itself, can it be said about individual Sciences like physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, etc.