ISLAM AND SCIENCE

SCIENCE AND RELIGION Science regards as “scientific” any fact established through empirical methods. Therefore, assertions not

established through observation and experiment are only theories or hypotheses.As science cannot be sure about the future, it does not make definite predictions. Doubt is the basis of

scientific investigation. However Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, who was taught by All-Knowing, made many decisive predictions. Most have come true already; the rest are waiting for their time to come true. Many Qur’anic verses point to recently discovered and established scientific facts. As pointed out in the previous section, the Qur’an mentions many important issues of creation and natural phenomena that even the most intelligent person living fourteen centuries ago could not have known. Furthermore, it uses the Prophets’ miracles to allude to the farthest reaches of science, which originated in the Knowledge of the All-Knowing One.

Does the Qur’an contain everything?The Qur’an describes everything humanity and the universe. It declares:With Him are the keys of the Unseen. None but He knows them. And He knows what is in the land and

the sea. Not a leaf falls but with His Knowledge, not a grain amid the darkness of the earth, nothing of wet or dry but (it is noted) in a Manifest Book. (6:59)

Ibn Mas‘ud says that the Qur’an provides information on everything, but that we may not be able to see everything in it. Ibn ‘Abbas, the “Interpreter of the Qur’an” and “Scholar of the Umma,” asserts that if he loses the rein of his camel, he can find it by means of the Qur’an. Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, a major scholar who lived in Egypt in the 15th century ce, explains that all sciences or branches of knowledge can be found in the Qur’an.

How can a medium-sized book, which also contains a great deal of repetition, contain everything we need to know about life, science, conduct, creation, past and future, and so on?

Before explaining this important matter, we should point out that to benefit from the Qur’an, which transcends time and location and is not bound by its audience’s intellectual level, we have to prepare ourselves to do so. First, we should have firm belief in it and do our best to implement its principles in our daily life. Second, we must refrain from sin as much as possible. Third, the Qur’an declares we only get what we strive for (53:39), so we should, like a deep-sea explorer, dive into its “ocean” and, without becoming tired or bored, continue studying it until we die.

Fourth, we need a good command of Arabic and sufficient knowledge of all branches of the natural and religious sciences. Therefore, a good interpretation necessitates cooperation among scientists from all natural and social sciences, and religious scholars who are experts in Qur’anic commentary, Hadith, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), theology, and spiritual sciences. Fifth, while reciting and studying the Qur’an, we should regard it as being its first addressee, consciously aware that each verse addresses us directly. If we consider, for example, its historical accounts of the Prophets and their peoples as unrelated to us, we will derive no benefit.

According to its nature and significance, worth and place in existence, everything has its own place in the Qur’an:The Qur’an contains everything, but not to the same degree. It pursues four purposes: to prove the

existence and Unity of God, Prophethood, bodily resurrection, and worship of God and justice. To realize its purposes, the Qur’an draws our attention to God’s acts in the universe, His matchless art displayed through creation, the manifestations of His Names and Attributes, and the perfect order and harmony seen in existence. It mentions certain historical events, and establishes the rules of personal and social good conduct and morality, as well as the principles of a happy, harmonious social life. In addition, it explains how to worship and please our Creator, gives us some information about the next life, and tells us how to gain eternal happiness and be saved from eternal punishment.

Is everything really found in the Qur’an? Yes everything is there, but at different levels. Therefore, not everything is readily apparent. As the Qur’an’s main duty is to teach about God’s perfection, essential qualities,

and acts, as well as our duties, status, and how to serve Him, it contains them as seeds or nuclei, summaries, principles, or signs that are explicit or implicit, allusive or vague, or suggestive. Each occasion has its own form, and is presented in the best way for making each Qur’anic purpose known according to the existing requirements and context. For example:

Human progress in science and industry has brought about such scientific and technological wonders as airplanes, electricity, motorized transport, and radio and telecommunication, all of which have become basic and essential for our modern, materialistic civilization. The Qur’an has not ignored them and points to them in two ways:

by way of the Prophets’ miracles; by way of certain historical events. In other words, the wonders of human civilization only merit

a passing reference, an implicit reference, or an allusion in the Qur’an. For example, if an aircraft told the Qur’an: “Give me the right to speak and a place in your verses,” the

aircrafts of the sphere of Divine Lordship-the planets, the Earth, the moon-would reply on the Qur’an’s behalf: “You may take a place here in proportion to your size.” If a submarine asked for a place, the submarines belonging to that sphere-the heavenly bodies “swimming” in the atmosphere vast “ocean” would say: “Compared to us, you are invisible.” If shining, star-like electric lights demanded the right to be included, the electric lights of that sphere-lightning, shooting stars, and stars adorning the sky’s face-would reply: “Your right to be mentioned and spoken about is proportional to your light.”

If the wonders of human civilization demanded a place based on the fineness of their art, a single fly would reply: “O be quiet! Even my wing has more of a right than you. If all of humanity’s fine arts and delicate instruments were banded together, the delicate members of my tiny body would still be more wonderful and exquisite. The verse: Surely those upon whom you call, apart from God, shall never create (even) a fly, though they banded together to do it (22:73), will silence you.”

The Qur’an’s viewpoint of life and the world is completely different from the modern one. It sees the world as a guest-house, and people as temporary guests preparing themselves for eternal life by undertaking their most urgent and important duties. As that which is designed and used mostly for worldly purposes only has a tiny share in servanthood to and worship of God, which is founded upon love of truth and otherworldliness, it therefore has a place in the Qur’an according to its merit.

The Qur’an does not explicitly mention everything necessary for our happiness in this world and the next for another reason: Religion is a divine test to distinguish elevated and base spirits from each other. Just as raw materials are refined to separate diamonds from coal and gold from soil, religion tests conscious beings to separate precious “ore” in the “mine” of human potential from dross.

Since the Qur’an was sent to perfect us, it only alludes to those future events pertaining to the world, which everyone will see at the appropriate time, and only opens the door to reason to the degree necessary to prove its argument. If everything was explicit, the test would be meaningless, for the truth of the Divine obligations would be readily apparent. Given that we would then be unable to deny or ignore them, the competition behind our testing and trials would be unnecessary, for we would have to confirm their truth. “Coal” spirits would remain with and appear to be no different from “diamond” spirits.

An ordinary person and a great scientist can benefit from the Qur’an, regardless of his or her specialization.As the great majority of people are always “average,” the Qur’an uses a style and language that everyone

can understand. An ordinary person and a great scientist can benefit from the Qur’an, regardless of his or her specialization. A most suitable way to do this is through symbols, metaphors and allegories, comparisons and parables. Those well-versed in knowledge (3:7) know how to approach and benefit from the Qur’an, and conclude that it is the Word of God.

Earlier civilizations would neither have benefited from nor understood Qur’anic accounts of modern scientific and technological discoveries, so why mention them? Also, scientific “truths” change constantly and therefore are not eternal.

God Almighty gave us intelligence, and the Qur’an urges us to use it to study ourselves, nature, and surrounding events. If it mentioned modern scientific and technological discoveries or everything pertaining to life, nature, history, and humanity, creating us in our present form would have been pointless. God created us as the best pattern of creation, and gave us many intellectual faculties. But if everything were clear, we would not need these, for we would already know everything.

Finally, if the Qur’an contained explicit references to everything we want to know, it would be so large that its complete recitation would be impossible. We would be unable to benefit from its spiritual enlightenment, and get really bored while reciting it. Such results contradict the reasons for the Qur’an’s revelation and its purposes.

The concept of science and technologyDespite the disasters caused by science and technology, their mistaken approach to the truth, and their

failure to bring human happiness, we cannot condemn them outright and become pure idealists. Science and technology do not bear the full responsibility for humanity being devalued, human feelings being diminished, and certain human virtues along with health and the ability to think being seriously weakened. Rather, the fault lies with scientists who avoid their responsibilities, who cause science to develop in a materialistic and almost purely scientific atmosphere, and then let it be exploited by an irresponsible minority. Many worrying conditions probably would not exist if scientists had remained aware of their social responsibility, and if the Church had not forced it to develop in opposition to religion.

Flowing to the future like a rapid flood full of energy and vitality, and sometimes resembling a dazzling garden, the natural world is like a book for us to study, an exhibition to behold, and a trust from which we can benefit. We are responsible for studying the meaning and content of this trust so that we and future generations may benefit from it. If we wish, we can call this relationship “science.”

Science also can be described as comprehending what things and events tell us, what the Divine laws reveal to us, and striving to understand the Creator’s purpose. Created to rule creation, we need to observe and read, to discern and learn about our surroundings so that we can find the best way to exert our influence and control. When we reach this level, by the decree of the Exalted Creator, everything will submit to us and we will submit to God.

There is no reason to fear science. The danger does not lie with science and the founding of the new world it will usher in, but rather with ignorance and irresponsible scientists and others who exploit it for their own selfish interests.

If true science directs human intelligence toward eternity without expecting any material gain, undertakes a tireless and detailed study of existence to discover absolute truth, and follows the methods required to reach this aim, what can we say about modern science other than it cannot fulfill our expectations. Although usually presented as a conflict between Christianity and science, the conflicts during the Renaissance were mainly between scientists (not science per se) and the Church. Copernicus, Galileo, and Bacon were not anti-religious; in fact, we could say that their religious commitment drove them toward scientific truth.

Before Christianity it was Islam, the religious thought springing from eternality, and the resulting love and zeal accompanied by feelings of poverty and impotence before the Eternal, All-Powerful and All-Wealthy Creator of the cosmos, that enabled the Muslim world’s great five-century scientific advance until the close of the twelfth century ce. Its driving concept of science as based on Divine Revelation was represented almost perfectly by illustrious figures who, imbued with eternality, tirelessly studied existence to attain eternity. Their commitment to Divine Revelation caused It to diffuse a light that engendered a new concept of science in human souls.

If Islamic civilization had not been so badly damaged by the horrific Mongolian and numerous destructive Crusader invasions, the world today certainly would be very different. If the Islamic concept of science as being approved and appropriated by the community, as if it were part of the Divine Message and pursued as an act of worship, had continued to flourish, our world would surely be more enlightened, its intellectual life richer, its technology more wholesome, and its sciences more promising. All Islamic science

sought, based on eternality, was to benefit humanity by helping us to aspire for the other world and to handle things responsibly for the sake and pleasure of God Almighty.

Note: According to Islam, the universe resembles a book written by God, a palace built by Him to make Himself known to conscious beings, primarily us. The universe essentially exists in God’s Knowledge in meaning. Creation means that through His Will, He specifies or gives a distinct character and form to that meaning as species, races, families or individuals; and then, through His Power, clothes each in matter so that it will be in this time-and-space constrained material realm. After a thing ceases to exist, it continues to live in God’s Knowledge, as well as in memories of those who saw it and through its offspring (if any). For example, a dead flower continues to exist in God’s Knowledge, in the memories of those who saw it, and in its seeds.Everything has five stages or degrees of existence. First, and essentially, it exists in the Creator’s Knowledge as meaning. Even if God Almighty did not create it (in the material realm), it would exist in His Knowledge as meaning, for meaning constitutes the essential existence of everything. Then, it exists in the Divine Will as a form or a plan; as a material object in the material realm; as a memory and through its offspring (if any); and, finally, its eternal existence in the other world. God Almighty will use the debris of this world to construct the other one. There, animals will continue their existence, each species through a representative of its own species, while each human being will find the eternal life designed for him or her according to how he or she lived while in this world.

I hope now that the relationship between science and Islam is clear.The universe, which science studies, manifests God’s Names and therefore has some sort of sanctity.

Everything in it is a letter from God Almighty inviting us to study it and acquire knowledge of Him. Thus, the universe is the collection of those letters or, as Muslim sages call it, the Divine Book of Creation issuing primarily from the Divine Attributes of Will and Power. The Qur’an, which issues from the Divine Will of Speech, is the universe’s counterpart in written form. Just as there can be no conflict between a palace and the paper describing it, there can be no conflict between the universe and the Qur’an, for they are two expressions of the same truth.

Similarly, humanity is a Divine book corresponding to the Qur’an and the universe. This is why the term used to signify a Qur’anic verse-ayah-also means events occurring within human souls and phenomena occurring in nature.

Love of truth to give true direction to scientific studiesOnly the love of truth gives true direction to scientific studies. What we mean by “the love of truth” is

approaching existence not to receive material advantage or worldly gain, but to observe and recognize it as it really is. Those with such love will achieve their goal; those led by worldly passion, material aspiration, ideological prejudice and fanaticism, and who are devoid of such love, either will fail or, worse, make science into a deadly weapon to be used against what is best for humanity.

Intellectuals, educational institutions, and the mass media must strive to deliver modern scientific studies from the current lethal atmosphere of materialism and ideological fanaticism by directing scientists toward human values. To do this successfully, minds must be freed from ideological superstition and fanaticism, and souls purified of desire for worldly gain and advantage. If this can be done, scientists will secure true freedom of thought and perform good science. Their centuries-long battle against the clergy and corrupt concepts formed in the name of religion, and their subsequent denunciation of religious people as backward, narrow-minded, and fanatic, should serve as a warning to scientists not to fall into the same trap.

Whether scientists or clerics allow intellectual and scientific despotism to arise from their own self-interest and power-seeking, ideology and fanaticism. Furthermore, they restrict their reasoning to their corrupt and distorted religious conceptions and domination. But despotism is despotism. Islam continually urges humanity to study nature, the exhibition of Divine works, to reflect on creation and what has been created, and to approach it responsibly in order to benefit humanity.

When studied without prejudice and preconception, the Qur’an shows that it promotes the love of science and humanity, justice and order.When studied without prejudice and preconception, the Qur’an shows that it promotes the love of science

and humanity, justice and order. Islam, as can be clearly seen in numerous verses of the Qur’an, urges the study of nature, which it sees as a place of exhibition of Divine works; it urges reflection upon creation and the created, and approaching it responsibly, without making mischief and causing corruptions in the world.

Founded on the Qur’an, Islam has founded knowledge and the quest for it on the intention of discovering the meaning of existence in order to reach the Creator and to be beneficial to all human beings, indeed to all the creation, and combined it with belief, love and altruism. Humanity has seen such an ideal in practice: the exemplary life of Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, and the conduct of many of its representatives who perfected their thoughts and deeds.

So what is there to fear from science? Planned acts based on knowledge sometimes cause bad results, but certainly ignorance and disorganization always cause bad results. Instead of opposing the products of science and technology, we must use them to bring happiness to humanity. Herein lies the essence of our greatest problem, for we cannot take measures against the Space Age or erase atomic or hydrogen bomb-making knowledge from human knowledge.

Although science might be a deadly weapon in the hands of an irresponsible minority, we should not hesitate to adopt both it and its products and then use them to establish a civilization in which we can secure our happiness in this world and the next. It is pointless to curse machines and factories, because machines will continue to run and factories to operate. Science and its products will begin to benefit us only when people of truth and belief begin to direct our affairs.

We have never suffered harm from a weapon in the hands of angels. Whatever we have suffered has come from those who still believe that only might is right. This situation will continue until we build a world on a foundation of faith and science.

Does the Qur’an allude to scientific developments?Before answering this question, we should point out one important fact: Considering science as opposed

to religion and scientific study as separate from and independent of the Qur’an is just as mistaken as trying to reduce the Qur’an to a science textbook and showing that every new scientific theory or fact is to be found in it.

For example, some have claimed, especially in Turkey, that the dabbet al-ard (little moving creature) mentioned in Qur’an 27:82 is the virus that causes AIDS. However, this is a hasty conclusion for several reasons: the Qur’an is silent about this dabbe’s nature; if we accept this assertion, we also must accept other venereal disease-causing bacteria or viruses; and, we cannot know whether new viral diseases and more lethal than AIDS will appear in the future. The context in which dabbet al-ard appears suggests that it will emerge toward the end of this world, when almost no one believes in God. So, we must not show haste in trying to find some type of correspondence between a Qur’anic verse and every new development in science and technology.

Scientific theories are usually like clothes, for both are discarded after a while. Trying to show that every new scientific fact or theory can be found in the Qur’an displays the Muslim world’s inferiority complex and makes science more important than the Qur’an. Each Qur’anic verse and expression has a universal content. Therefore, any time-specific interpretation can address only one aspect of that universal content.

Every interpreter, scientist, and saint prefers a particular aspect as a result of his or her spiritual discovery or intuition, personal evidence, or natural disposition. Besides, we accept both Newton’s physics and Einstein’s physics as “science” and therefore true. Although in absolute terms both may be false, there certainly must be some truth in both.

Causality is a veil spread by God Almighty over the rapid flux of existence so that we can plan our lives to some degree. This means that Newton’s physics and Einstein’s physics are only relatively true. In short, while pondering the Qur’anic verses, we should consider the relative truths found in existence and our lives, which are much more numerous than the unchanging absolute truths.

Qur’anic expressions have multiple meanings.Qur’anic expressions have multiple meanings. For example, consider the verses: He let forth the two seas

that meet together, between them a barrier, they do not overpass (55:19-20), which are repeated daily by Muslim worshippers. These verses indicate all the pairs of “seas” or realms, spiritual and material, figurative and actual, from the realms of Lordship and servanthood to the spheres of necessity and contingency, from this world to the Hereafter (including this visible, corporeal world and all unseen worlds), the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Mediterranean and Red Seas, salt water and sweet water in the seas and underground, and such large rivers as the Euphrates and Tigris that carry sweet water and salty seas to which they flow. All of these,

together with many others I do not need to mention here, are included in these verses, whether literally or figuratively.

So even if a Qur’anic verse or expression appears to point exactly to an established scientific fact, we should not restrict its meaning to that fact; rather, we should consider all other possible meanings and interpretations as well.

On the other hand, sometimes the Qur’an does point or allude to specific scientific developments and facts. Being the Divine Revelation that includes everything of wet or dry (6:59), it cannot exclude them. Indeed, it refers to them directly or indirectly, but not in the manner of science and materialistic or naturalistic philosophy.

The Qur’an is not a science textbook that has to explain cosmological or scientific matters at great length.The Qur’an is not a science textbook that has to explain cosmological or scientific matters at great length;

rather, it is the eternal interpretation of the Book of the Universe and the interpreter of all natural and other sciences. It comments upon the visible and invisible worlds, and discloses the spiritual treasures of the Divine Beautiful Names in the heavens and the Earth. The Qur’an is the key leading to an understanding of the hidden realities behind the events taking place in nature and human life, and is the tongue of the hidden worlds in the manifest world.

The Qur’an is like the sun shining in the spiritual and intellectual sky of Islam. It is the sacred map of the next world; the expounder of the Divine Attributes, Names, and acts; and the educator of humanity that guides us to truth and virtue. It is a book of law and wisdom, worship and prayer, Divine commands and prohibitions. Fully satisfying our spiritual and intellectual needs, it leaves no theological, social, economic, political, or even scientific issue undiscussed, whether in brief or in detail, directly or through allusion or symbols.

The Qur’an considers creation only for the sake of knowing its Creator; science considers creation only for its own sake.The Qur’an considers creation only for the sake of knowing its Creator; science considers creation only

for its own sake. The Qur’an addresses humanity; science addresses only those who specialize in it. Since the Qur’an uses creation as evidence and proof to guide us, its evidence must be easily understandable to all of us non-specialists. Guidance requires that relatively unimportant things should be touched on briefly, while subtle points should be discussed as completely as possible through parables and comparisons. So that people are not confused, guidance should not change that which is obvious. If it did, how could we derive any benefit?

Essentially, like everything else, science has its source in one of God Almighty’s Beautiful Names. The Name All-Healing shines on medicine; geometry and engineering depend on the Names All-Just, All-Shaping, and All-Harmonizing; and philosophy reflects the Name All-Wise. As pointed out above, the Creator refers in the Qur’an to everything that He has allowed us to learn and use for our material and spiritual progress.

The Qur’an’s primary aims are to make God Almighty known, to open the way to faith and worship, and to organize our individual and social life so that we may attain perfect happiness in both worlds. To achieve this aim, it refers to things and events, as well as scientific facts, in proportion to their importance. Thus the Qur’an provides detailed explanations of the pillars of faith, the fundamentals of religion, the foundations of human life, and essentials of worship, but only hints at other relatively less significant things. The meaning of a verse may be compared to a rosebud: it is hidden by successive layers of petals. A new meaning is perceived as each petal unfolds, and people discover one of those meanings according to their capacity and are satisfied with it.

Examples of the Qur’an’s references to scientific facts and developmentsby way of the miracles of the ProphetsOne way the Qur’an hints of technological advances and marks their final development is by mentioning

the miracles of the Prophets.Traveling by air? The verse,

And to Solomon (We subjugated) the wind: its morning stride was a month’s journey and the evening stride was a month’s journey. (34:12)

which expresses the subjugation of the wind to Solomon as one of his miracles, says: ‘The Prophet Solomon covered the distance of two months walk in two strides by flying through the air.’ By this it suggests that the road is open for mankind to cover the same distance in the air. ‘So, O mankind! Since the road is open to you, attain this level and do so!’

Almighty God also means by this verse:O man! A servant of mine did not obey his carnal desires, and I mounted him on the air. If you give up laziness and benefit properly from certain of My laws in nature, you too can mount it.

Inventing a device to obtain water? The verse,

When Moses asked for water for his people, We said: ‘Strike the rock with your staff.’ Then gushed forth therefrom twelve springs (so that) each tribe knew their drinking place’, (2:60)

indicates that it is quite possible to benefit with simple tools from the treasuries of Mercy under the earth. In places hard as rock even, the water for life may be drawn with so simple a device as a staff. Thus, through this meaning, the verse says to man, ‘You can find the finest blessing of Mercy, the water for life, with a staff-like device. Therefore, come on, work and find it!’

Through this verse, God Almighty suggests:O man! Since I gave to a servant of Mine who relied on Me such a staff that he draws with it the water for life from wherever he wishes, you too can obtain a device resembling it provided you rely on My laws of Mercy. So, come and do so!

One of the important results of the scientific developments which mankind have achieved is the invention of devices with which water is caused to well up from most of the places where they are applied. The verse points to further goals and limits beyond that, just as the previous one specified further attainments far ahead of today’s planes.

The farthest point in medical developments?The verse,

I heal him who was born blind, and the leper, and I raise the dead by God’s leave, (2:60) concerning a miracle of Jesus, upon him be peace, alludes to and encourages the highest level of healing with which the Lord endowed him. It suggests:

It is possible to find cures for even the most chronic ailments. Therefore, O man! O calamity-stricken sons of Adam! Do not despair! Whatever the ailment, its cure is possible. Search for it and you will find it. It is even possible to give a temporary tinge of life to death.

By the verse God Almighty means:O man! To a servant of Mine who renounced the world for My sake, I gave two gifts, one the remedy for spiritual ailments, the other the cure for physical sicknesses. Dead hearts were quickened through the light of guidance, and ill people who were as though dead found health through his breath and cure. You too may find the cure for all illnesses in My ‘pharmacy’ in nature where I attached to each thing many important purposes. Work and find it! You will certainly find if you seek it!

Thus, this verse marks the final point of medical developments, a point far ahead of the present level, and urges man towards it.

Using iron and copper in industry and extracting minerals? The verses,

We made the iron supple for him. (34:10), and, We gave him wisdom and sound judgment in speech and decision. (38:20)

which are about David, upon him be peace, and,We caused the fount of copper to gush forth with him. (34:12)

which is about Solomon, upon him be peace, indicate that the softening of iron is one of the greatest bounties of God, through which He shows the virtue of a great Prophet of His. Softening of iron, that is, making it soft like dough, and smelting copper, and extracting minerals is the origin and source, and basis of all material industries. So, the verses state:

Softening iron, making it like dough and fine like a thread, and smelting the copper are a great bounty granted to two great Prophets who ruled in a part of the world according to God’s commandments, and they are the means to most general industries.’ Since God endowed a Prophet who was both a Messenger and a Caliph, that is, one who was both a spiritual and worldly leader, with wise speech and craftsmanship and industry, He urges people to speak wisely and encourages them toward craftsmanship and industry.

By these verses, God Almighty also suggests:O sons of Adam! I gave such wisdom to the tongue and heart of one of My servants who obeyed My religious commandments that he judged of and distinguished between all things with perfect clarity and discerned the truth. Also, I endowed him with such skill that he could cast iron into whatever mould he wished, and make use of it as an important source of strength for his rule. Since this is possible, and since iron is of great significance for, and you are in much need of it in, your social life, that wisdom and skill will be bestowed on you provided you obey My commands of creation, My laws of nature. In the course of time you will attain it!

By softening iron and smelting copper, man has achieved great progress in industry, and great power in material terms. These verses direct man’s attention towards this truth, and just as much as they warned the people of former times who did not appreciate how important it was, so too they warn those lazy people of the present.

The ultimate point in the transmission of images and sounds? The verse,

One with whom was knowledge of the Book said: ‘I will bring it to you before your gaze returns to you (in the twinkling of an eye).’ When Solomon saw it set in his presence... (27:40)

describes this wonderful event: In order to procure the transport of the throne of the Queen of Saba, one of Solomon’s ministers who was well versed in the transport of things said: ‘I’ll have the throne here in your presence in the twinkling of an eye.’ The verse suggests that it is possible to transport things over long distances, either bodily or in their images. In fact, God Almighty bestowed this on Solomon, upon him be peace, who was honored with kingship as well as Divine Messengership, as a miracle so that, in order to maintain his infallibility and justice he might personally be informed of all the regions of his extensive realm and see the conditions of his subjects and hear of their troubles. That means, if man relies on Almighty God, and appeals to Him in the tongue of his potentials as Solomon did in the tongue of his infallibility, and if he acts in conformity with His laws in the universe and with what attracts His favor, the world may become like a town for him. While the throne of the queen was in the Yemen, it was seen in Damascus either bodily or in image. For sure, the forms of the men around the throne were also seen and their voices heard. The verse points in a splendid fashion to the transport of forms and transmission of sounds over long distances, and in effect says:

O rulers! If you wish to realize perfect justice, try to see and know your realm in all its details, as Solomon did. For, only by rising to the level of being informed whenever he wishes about every part of his realm, may a just ruler who cherishes his subjects be saved from being held accountable, and may realize perfect justice.

God Almighty means by this verse:O sons of Adam! I bestowed on a servant of Mine a vast realm, and in order that he might realize perfect justice throughout it, I allowed him to know personally of its state and of everything that was happening there. Since I have created every individual with a capacity to rule according to My commands, I have also given him, as a requirement of My Wisdom, the potential to scan the face of the whole earth and comprehend whatever is in it. If every individual does not succeed in

attaining to that point, as a species mankind may realize it. If, however, they do not achieve it physically, they can do it, like the saints, in spiritual terms. Therefore, you may benefit from this great blessing. Come on, let Me see you do it! On condition you do not neglect your duties of worship, strive in such a way that you may turn the face of the earth into a garden every part of which you may see, and the sounds from every corner of which you may hear!

Heed the decree of the Most Merciful in the verse,He it is Who has made the earth subservient to you, so walk in the paths thereof and eat of His providence. Unto Him is the resurrection (of the dead). (67:15)

Thus, the verse mentioned above about Solomon marks the ultimate point in the transmission of images and sounds, which constitutes one of the latest and most significant developments in science and technology, and encourages men towards that furthest point.

Employing jinn, devils and evil spirits?The verses,

Others linked together in chains, (38:38) and, Of the evil ones were some who dived for him, and did other work. (21:82)

which state that Solomon, upon him be peace, made the jinn, devils, and evil spirits obedient to him, succeeding in preventing their evil and employing them in beneficial work, say:

The jinn, who are conscious beings and the most important inhabitants of the earth next to men, may serve man. Contact may be made with them. Devils too may be made to give up enmity and to serve willingly or unwillingly. God Almighty made them subservient to a servant of His who was obedient to His commands.

These verses imply:O man! I made the jinn, and devils, including their most evil ones, obedient to a servant of Mine, who obeyed Me. If you submit yourself to My commands, most of the creatures, including even jinn and devils, may be subjugated to you.

Thus, these verses mark the ultimate point in occult or supernatural sciences dealing with paranormal events like spiritism, the attraction of spirits, and communication with the jinn, which have appeared as a blend of art and science and out of the extraordinary material and spiritual sensitivity of man. These verses urge man not, as happens nowadays, to be subjugated to the jinn, devils, and evil spirits, who sometimes call themselves the spirits of the dead, and to become their plaything, and a laughing-stock, but to subjugate and employ them through the Qur’an, and be saved from their evil.

Attraction of spirits or communication with the spirits of the dead? These verses, as well as certain others like

Then We sent to her Our spirit and it assumed for her the form of a perfect man. (19:17)point, besides the attraction of spirits, to the fact that spirit beings may assume visible forms. However, what the Qur’an alludes to here is not modern necromancy, which some so-called ‘civilized’ people practice by communication by magic with evil spirits who introduce themselves as spirits of the dead. Rather, it is as certain kinds of saints (like Muhy al-Din ibn al-‘Arabi) who, for a serious reason, communicate with good spirits whenever they want, make contact with them and form a relation with them, and by going to their abodes and to a degree drawing near to their atmosphere, benefit from their spirituality.

Invention of cassette-recorders and players and communication with animals?The verses,

We subdued the hills to hymn the praises (of their Lord) with him at nightfall and after sunrise . (38:18); and, O you mountains! Echo His psalms of praise! and you birds! And We made the iron supple for him. (34:10); and, We have been taught the language of birds. (27:16)

which are about David’s miracles, point out that Almighty God gave to the glorifications of David, upon him be peace, such a strength and a tone so resonant and pleasing that they brought the mountains to ecstasy, which, each like a huge gramophone or a man, formed a circle against the horizon around the chief reciter-David-and repeated the glorifications. Is this possible and a reality?

Yes, it is reality. Every mountain with caves can speak to man in human language like a parrot. For if you declare before a mountain, ‘All praise be to God,’ the mountain will echo it back. Since God Almighty has granted this ability to mountains, for sure it can be developed.

Since God endowed the Prophet David, upon him be peace, with both Messengership and Caliphate on the earth in exceptional form, He made this seed of ability flourish as a miracle in due measure with that comprehensive Messengership and magnificent sovereignty such that great mountains followed him, in the manner of soldiers, or students, or disciples, and under his direction and in his tongue, they declared the glorifications of the All-Majestic Creator. Whatever David, upon him be peace, uttered, they repeated. At present, due to the means of communication being multiplied and developed, a great commander can get a large army dispersed through the mountains to repeat his declaration of ‘God is the greatest!’ all together at the same time, and make the mountains speak and ring with the words. Now if an ordinary commander can make the mountains ring with the words of those present in them, for sure, a magnificent commander of Almighty God can get them actually to utter and recite God’s glorifications. Besides this, as I explained earlier in this book, each mountain has a collective personality and corporate identity, and offers glorifications and worship particular to itself. This means that just as every mountain recites glorifications in the tongue of men by way of echoing, so too it glorifies the All-Majestic Creator in its own particular tongue.

The sentences,We have been taught the tongues of birds, (27:16) and, The birds assembled, (38:19)

point out that Almighty God bestowed on David and Solomon, upon them be peace, knowledge of the languages of the bird species, and of the tongues of their abilities, that is, of what they would be useful for. Since this is a reality, since the face of the earth is a laden table of the Most Merciful One, which He has set up in honor of man, most of the other animals and birds, which benefit from that table, may have been subjugated to man to serve him. God has put to work some of the smallest animals like the honeybee and silkworm, and employs them through the guidance of His special inspiration in a way that greatly benefits man. Also, by enabling man to use pigeons in various tasks and make certain birds like parrots speak, He has added to the beauties of human civilization. Similarly, if the ways of making use of other birds and animals are discovered, among them are many species which may be employed for important tasks just as domestic animals are employed.

For example, if the languages of starlings are known, which destroy locusts without eating them, and their movements can be arranged and regulated, they can be employed against plagues of locusts; what a valuable service they would render free of charge! Thus, the verses mentioned show the ultimate point in subjugating birds and benefiting from them, and in making lifeless beings speak like a telephone or a gramophone, and, by specifying the farthest aim in this field, the verses urge man toward it.

By the same verses, God Almighty indicates:O men! In order that his infallibility as a Prophet and his justice as a sovereign might not be damaged even to the slightest degree, I subjugated to one of your fellow men, who was totally submitted to Me, the huge creatures in My Kingdom and made them speak, and I put most of My troops and animals in his service. Likewise, since I have entrusted to each of you the Supreme Trust2 from the bearing of which the heavens, earth, and mountains held back, and endowed you with the potential to become My vicegerent-one who will rule on the earth according to My commands-you should yield to the One in Whose hand are the reins of all creatures, so that the creatures in His Kingdom may yield also to you, and you may use them in the Name of the One Who holds their reins, and rise to a position worthy of your potential.Since this is the reality, then rather than playing on the gramophone or record-players and other musical apparatus, harmful and obscene pieces, playing with pigeons, and being occupied with useless things like wasting time in making parrots speak, try for a most agreeable, elevated and sacred sort of amusement, that the mountains may function as huge gramophones for you as for David, and at the touching of the breeze the tunes of Divine praises and glorifications may reach your ears from the trees and plants, and the mountains may manifest themselves as wonderful

creatures that recite Divine glorifications in thousands of tongues, and most birds may turn to be each an intimate friend or an obedient servant, like Solomon’s hoopoe. They may both entertain you and drive you with zeal towards the perfections and attainments of which you are capable, and not cause you to fall from the position required by your humanity, as vain amusements do.

Invention of fridges? In the verse,

We said: ‘O fire! Be coolness and peace for Abraham.’ (21:69) which is about one of Abraham’s miracles, there are three subtle indications:

Like every element in nature, fire does not act on its own and blindly, rather it performs a duty under a command. It did not burn the Prophet Abraham, upon him be peace, for God commanded it not to burn him.

There is a degree of heat which burns through coldness. That is, it has an effect like burning. Through the word ‘Be peace!’,1 God Almighty commanded the cold: ‘Like heat, do not burn him either!’ That is, through its coldness, fire at that degree produces an effect like burning. It is both fire, and, at the same time, cold. As science accepts it, there is a degree of fire called ‘white heat’, which does not radiate its heat to its surroundings; instead, attracting the heat around it to itself, it causes the surrounding area to become cold enough to freeze liquids like water, and in effect burns them through its cold. (It may be noted here, incidentally, that there must surely be in Hell, which contains all the degrees and sorts of fire, this intense cold.)

Just as there is an immaterial substance like belief, and an armor like Islam, which will remove the effects of Hellfire and protect against it, so too there must be a physical substance which will protect against it, which will prevent the effects of worldly fire. For, as is required by His Name, the All-Wise, and since this world is the abode of wisdom, [the abode where everything takes place for a definite purpose and usually according to cause and effect] God Almighty acts behind the veil of cause and effect. Therefore, the fire did not burn Abraham’s body, nor did it burn his garments, He gave them a state which resisted fire. Thus, the verse suggests:

O nation of Abraham! Be like Abraham, so that your garments may be your guard against the fire, your greatest enemy, both here and there, the other world. Coat your spirit with belief, and it will be your armor against Hellfire. Likewise, there are certain substances which Almighty God has treasured in the earth for you. They will protect you from the evil of fire. Search for them, extract them, and coat yourselves with them!

As an important step in his progress, mankind has discovered a substance, out of which he has made a coat which fire does not burn. However, see how elevated, fine, and beautiful a garment this verse points to, which will be woven on the loom of hanifan Musliman (purity of belief in and submission to God), and which will not be rent for all eternity.

Teaching Adam the Names implies the ultimate points and final goals of human attainment and progress? Also, the verse,

He taught Adam the names, all of them. (2:31)states that, as his greatest miracle in the cause of supreme vicegerency, Adam, upon him be peace, was taught the names. While the miracles of other Prophets each point to a certain particular wonder in the course of scientific and technological progress, the miracle of Adam, upon him be peace, who was the father of all the Prophets and the Opening of the Office of Prophethood, alludes almost explicitly to the ultimate points and final goals of all human attainment and progress.

By this verse, God Almighty suggests:O sons of Adam! By way of proof of his superiority over the angels in the issue of vicegerencey, I taught your father all the Names.2 Being his sons and the inheritors of his abilities, you should

learn all the Names and show your worthiness of that superiority before all other creatures in the universe, such that vast creatures like the earth are made obedient to you. Come on, step forward, hold on to one of My Names and rise! Nevertheless, your father was deceived by Satan once and for all, and temporarily fell to the earth from an abode like the Garden. Beware! do not follow Satan in your progress and make it the means of falling from the heavens of Divine Wisdom into the misguidance of attributing creativity to nature or real effect to cause and effect in the creation and operation of nature. Raise your head and, studying My Beautiful Names, make the sciences and your progress steps by which to ascend to those heavens. Then you may rise to My Names of Lordship, which are the essences and sources of your sciences and attainments, and through the telescope of those Names, you may look to your Lord with your hearts.

1. An interpreter of the Qur’an remarks: ‘If He had not said, “Be peace!”, it would have burnt him with its coldness.’

2. The Names taught to Adam, upon him be peace, are the names of things or the keys to all human knowledge or the Divine Names, in the manifestation of each of which a branch of science originates. For example, medicine has its source in the Name, the All-Healing, engineering in the Names, the All-Determiner and the Giver of Certain Measure.

Other examples to illustrate the Qur’an’s allusions toscientific facts and developments.

The Creator, Who is not bound by the human concept of time, informs us that, in a general sense, the future will be the age of knowledge and information, as well as an age of faith and belief:

Soon We shall show them Our signs in the outer world and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is truth. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses all things? (41:53).

From the very early days of Islam, Sufis have interpreted this verse as a sign and assurance of the spiritual wisdom for which they strive. But if the verse is read in the context of scientific progress, a progress significantly initiated and advanced by Muslims, the mere fact of the verse will be seen to be a miracle.

Everything within the fold of human thinking and research affirms the Creator’s Oneness, as the true nature and interrelationship of microcosm and macrocosm come to be further disclosed and better understood. When we see hundreds of books on this point, we understand that what was Divinely revealed is near at hand. Even now we feel that we shall soon hear and even understand testimonies and praises to God through thousands of nature’s tongues:

The seven heavens and the Earth, and all things therein, declare His Glory. There is not a thing but celebrates His praise. And yet you do not understand how they declare His Glory. Truly He is Oft-Forbearing, Most Forgiving. (17:44)

We already understand something of this verse’s import. The smallest atoms as well as the largest nebulae speak to us, in the language of their being, of their submission to the One God and so glorify Him. However, those who can listen to and understand this universal praise are very few.

What the Qur’an reveals about the embryo’s formation and developmental phases in the uterus is striking. Consider the following:

O mankind! If you have a doubt about the Resurrection, (consider) that We created you out of dust, then out of sperm, then out of a leech-like cloth, then out of a lump of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed, in order that We may manifest (what We will) to you. (22:5)

In another verse, this development is explained in greater detail, and the distinct phases are emphasized more clearly:

Man We created from a quintessence (of clay). Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed. Then we made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood. Then of

that clot We made a lump (embryo); then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh. Then We developed out of it a new (distinct, individual) creature. (23:12-4)

What the Qur’an says about milk and its production is as brilliant as the drink itself, and our understanding of it has brought us great benefits:

And verily in cattle (too) will you find an instructive sign. From what is from their bodies, between excretions and blood, We produce, for your drink, milk, pure and agreeable to those who drink it (16:66).

The Qur’an narrates the process in remarkable detail: part-digestion and absorption of what is ingested as food, and then a second process and refinement in the glands. Milk is a wholesome and agreeable source of human nourishment, yet it is a secretion rejected by its owner as useless.

The Qur’an reveals that all things are created in pairs:Glory be to God, who created in pairs all things, of what the earth produces, of themselves, and of which they have no knowledge (36:36).

Everything that exists has counterpart, whether opposite or complementary. The complementarity of human, animal, and certain plant genders has long been known. But what about the pairs of things of which we have no knowledge? This may refer to a whole range of entities, inanimate as well as animate. In the subtle forces and principles of nature within (and among) animate or inanimate entities, there are many kinds of pairs. All things, from atoms to clouds, as our modern instruments confirm, occur in twos.

The Qur’an recounts, in its own unique idiom, the first creation of the world and of its living inhabitants:

Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as a single mass), before We clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (21:30).

This meaning of this verse is clear, and should not be obscured with different hypotheses as to whether the primary material in creation is an ether or a large cloud, a huge nebula or a mass of hot gas, or something else. The Qur’an states that every living thing was created of water. Whether the water itself was caused by gases and vapors rising from the ground, condensing, and then returning as rain to form seas and prepare a suitable environment for life, or by some other process, is relatively unimportant.

The verse explicitly presents the universe as a single miracle of creation; each thing in it is an integral part of that miracle, and contains signs that prove its claim. Everything is interconnected, just like the leaves of a massive tree-they are all different, but resemble each other and are linked to a common root. The verse also emphasizes water’s vitality and significance, for it constitutes three-fourths of the body mass of most living creatures.

The sun has a special and significant place. The Qur’an reveals its most important aspects in four words, whose full meaning cannot be rendered easily:

And the sun runs its course (mustaqarr) determined for it. That is His decree, the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing (36:38).

In this context, mustaqarr may mean a determined orbit, a fixed place of rest or dwelling, a determined route in time. We are told that the sun runs a predetermined course toward a particular point. The solar system, as we now know, is heading toward the constellation Lyra at an almost inconceivable speed: Every second we come ten miles closer (almost a million miles a day). Our attention is also drawn to the fact that when the sun finishes its appointed task, it will abide by a command and come to rest.

Note:The sun moves (in its course) to a resting-place for it (36:38).Before elucidating other meanings and connotations, remember that earlier peoples’ sense-derived information led them to believe that the sun moved around a motionless Earth. Science and observation later showed that the Earth spins on its own axis and orbits the sun, which is relatively motionless. First, since people see the sun moving, the Qur’an mentions it as moving. Second, the Qur’an mentions the sun here to illustrate the magnificent order prevailing throughout the universe as a sign of God’s Might and Knowledge:

A sign for them is the night. We strip it of the day, and behold! they are in darkness. And the sun moves (in its course) to a resting-place for it. That is the measuring and ordaining of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing. And for the moon We have appointed mansions till it returns like an old shriveled palm-leaf. It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. They float, each in an orbit. (36:37-40)We understand from this context that the sun’s function is vital. The word mustaqarr (stability) applies to is course and the place in which stability is secured. So, the statement can mean that the sun has a central position in the universe’s order. Second, the preposition used here, li, has three meanings: for, to, and in. Therefore, the exact meaning of this statement is: The sun moves following a route or course to a fixed place determined for it for the purpose of its (system’s) stability.Recently, solar astronomers have observed that the sun is not motionless; rather it quivers, shakes, and continually rings like a well-hit gong. (Bartusiac, M. (1994) ‘Sounds of the Sun’, American Scientist, January-February, pp.61-68) The resulting vibrations reveal vital information about its deep interior and hidden layers, information that affects calculations of the universe’s age. Also, knowing exactly how the sun spins internally is important in testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Like so many other significant findings in astronomy, this one was totally unexpected. Some astronomers have commented that it is as if the sun were a symphony orchestra, with all its instruments being played simultaneously. At times, all the vibrations combine to produce a net oscillation on the solar surface that is thousands of times stronger than any individual vibration.Commenting on the Qur’anic verse: The sun moves to a resting-place for it, several decades before this totally unexpected discovery, Said Nursi wrote:As the word “moves” points to a style, the phrase “in its course” demonstrates a reality. The sun, like a vessel built of gold, travels and floats in the ocean of the heavens comprising ether and defined as a stretched and tightened wave. Although it quivers and shakes in its course or orbit, since people see it running, the Qur’an uses the word “travel” or “float.” However, since the origin of the force of gravity is movement, the sun moves and quivers in its orbit. Through this vibration, which is the wheel of its figurative movement, its satellites are attracted to it and preserved from falling and scattering. When a tree quivers, its fruits fall. But when the sun quivers and shakes, its fruits-its satellites-do not fall.Again, wisdom requires that the sun should move and travel on its mobile throne-its course or orbit-accompanied by its soldiers-its satellites. For the Divine Power has made everything moving, and condemns nothing to absolute rest or motionlessness. Divine Mercy allows nothing to be condemned to inertia, which is the cousin of death. So the sun is free; it can travel, provided it obeys the laws of God and does not disturb others’ freedom. So it may actually be travelling, as its travelling may also be figurative. However, what is important according to the Qur’an is the universal order, the wheel of which is the sun and its movement. Through the sun, the system’s stability and orderliness are ensured.

Such is the richness of the Qur’an, which explains many truths in so few words. Here, in only four words, many vague things were clarified at a time when people generally believed that the sun made a daily circuit around the Earth.

Another inspiring and eloquent Qur’anic verse concerns the universe’s spreading out or expansion in space. This concept is mentioned in only four words:

And the firmament: We constructed it with power and skill, and We are spreading it (51:47-8).

The verse reveals that the distance (space) between celestial bodies is increasing, which means that the universe is expanding. In 1922, the astronomer Hubble claimed that all galaxies, except the five closest to Earth, are moving further away into space at a speed directly proportional to their distance from the Earth. According to him, a galaxy one million light years distant is moving away at a speed of 168 km/year, one two million light years distant at twice that speed, and so on. Le Maître, a Belgian mathematician and priest, later proposed and developed the theory that the universe is expanding. No matter how we try to express this reality, whether through Hubble’s coefficient or a future theory, the Revelation is unmistakably clear on the reality itself.

The Qur’an provides some indication of the invisible operation of various laws as attraction and repulsion, rotation and revolution:

God is He Who raised the heavens without any pillars that you can see (13:2).All celestial bodies, from individual satellites to entire solar systems, move in order, balance, and

harmony. They are held and supported by invisible pillars, some of which are repulsion or centrifugal forces: He holds back the sky from falling on earth except by His leave (22:65).

At any moment, the heavens could fall upon the Earth. That the All-Mighty does not allow this to happen is yet another instance of the universal obedience to His Word; modern science explains this as a balance of centripetal and centrifugal forces. What is of far greater importance, however, is that we turn our minds to that obedience and to the Divine Mercy that holds the universe in its reliable motion, rather than deciding to follow Newton’s or Einstein’s theories about the mechanical and mathematical terms of that obedience.

Previously, some Qur’anic commentators thought a reference to traveling to the moon, once considered a very remote possibility, could be found in:

By the moon’s fullness! You shall surely travel from stage to stage (84:18-9).Earlier commentators took this as a figurative reference to our spiritual life, which they considered an

ascent from one stage to the next, and from one heaven to another. Others interpreted it as referring to change in general, from one state to another. Over time, later interpreters gave ambiguous meanings, because the literal meaning did not agree with their beliefs about traveling such distances. But in fact, the more appropriate sense of the words following the oath “By the moon!,” given the verse’s immediate context, is that of really traveling to the moon, whether literally or figuratively.

The Qur’anic description of the Earth’s geographical shape and change in that shape are particularly interesting:

Do they not see how We gradually shrink the land from its outlying borders? Is it then they who will be victors? (21:44).

The reference to shrinking could relate to the now-known fact that the Earth is compressed at the poles, rather than to the erosion of mountains by wind and rain, of coastal areas by the sea, or of the gradual desertification of agricultural land.

At a time when people generally believed that the Earth was flat and stationary, the Qur’an explicitly and implicitly revealed that it is round. More unexpectedly still, it also says that its precise shape is more like an ostrich egg than a sphere:

After that He shaped the earth like an egg, whence He caused to spring forth the water thereof, and the pasture thereof (79:30-2).

The verb daha’ means “to shape like an egg,” and its derived noun da’hia is still used to mean “an egg.” As this scientific fact may have appeared incorrect to scientists living before the advent of modern science, some interpreters misunderstood the word’s meaning. They understood it as “stretched out,” perhaps fearing that its literal meaning might be difficult to understand and thus mislead people. Modern scientific instruments recently established that the Earth is shaped more like an egg than a perfect sphere, and that there is a slight flattening around the poles as well as a slight curving around the equator.

A barrier between two ‘seas’:He has let forth the two seas, that meet together. Between them a barrier, they do not overpass (55.19-20).

The French scientist Jacques Cousteau has discovered that the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean differ in terms of their chemical and biological constitution. He conducted various undersea investigations at the straits of Gibraltar in order to explain this phenomenon, concluding that unexpected fresh water springs issue from the southern and northern coasts of Gibraltar. These water spouts gush towards each other at an angle of 45°, forming a reciprocal dam like the teeth of a comb. Due to this fact, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean cannot intermingle. Subsequent to this assessment, Cousteau was amazed upon being shown the Qur’anic verse, He has let forth the two seas, that meet together. Between them a barrier, they do not overpass (55.19-20). These verses further invite our attention to the plankton composition of the seas, and to the flora and fish distributions that change with variations in temperature.

As a last example, consider what the Qur’an says about the sun and the moon:We have made the night and the day as two signs; the sign of the night We have obscured, while the sign of the day We have made to enlighten you (17:12).

According to Ibn ‘Abbas, the sign of the night refers to the moon, and the sign of the day to the sun. Therefore, from “the sign of the night We have obscured,” we understand that the moon once emitted light just

as the sun does, and that for some reason God took its light from it, causing it to darken or become obscured. While the verse accurately recounts the moon’s past, it also points to the future destiny of other heavenly bodies.

Many other verses are related to what we now call scientific facts. Their existence indicates that our quest for knowledge is a portion of Divine Mercy graciously bestowed by our Creator. Indeed, Divine Mercy is one of the Qur’an’s names for itself. All the truth and knowledge that it contains is beyond our ability to recount or even to hold in our mind.

We must remember, however, that while the Qur’an alludes to many scientific truths, it is not a textbook of science or scientific explanations. Rather it is, and has always been understood by believers to be, the book of guidance that teaches us the way to right belief and right action so that we may be worthy of Divine Mercy and Forgiveness. It is the responsibility of Muslims to ensure that the pursuit of scientific and other kinds of knowledge is conducted in the light of the Qur’an, which so encourages and supports it. We must do this so that the resulting knowledge will not engender arrogance and self-pride, for such feelings lead to mental desolation and human degradation, not to mention the degradation of the Earth, our temporary home and Divinely given trust.

QuestionWhy then have Muslims not developed sciences and discovered such Qur’anic truths, and why are they under the dominion of the West?

AnswerTo the extent that the time and the prevalent conditions conditions allowed them to, Muslims did

discover the truths of the Qur’an and, obeying its injunctions, founded a magnificent civilization, which lasted for many centuries.

A typical example: while explaining the meaning of the verse, We send the wind fertilizing, and cause water to descend from the sky, and give it you to drink (15.22), Ibn Jarir al-Tabari writes about how the winds fertilize clouds so that rain may form. The verse clearly mentions the winds fertilizing clouds because it is about the formation of rain. As has recently been discovered, clouds are also charged with electricity and it is only when positive and negative poles in clouds form a circuit that rain forms.

Also, in his Tafsir named al-Bahr al-Muhit, Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi records from Abu Ja’far ibn al-Zubayr that from the initial verses of sura al-Rum, Alif Lam Mim. The Romans have been defeated in the nearer land, and they, after their defeat, will be victorious within nine years-God’s is command in the former case and in the latter-and in that day believers will rejoice in God’s help to victory. He helps to victory whom He wills. He is the Mighty, the Merciful, Abu’l Hakem ibn Barrajan deduced many years before the exact date-with its year, month and day-the recapture of Jerusalem by Muslims from the Crusaders in 1187.

Islam ruled two-thirds of the old civilized world for at least eleven centuries. During its whole history of fourteen centuries, it has had to confront continual onslaughts from both the East and West and it was able to retain its superiority until the eighteenth century. However, when moral and spiritual decay and laziness and negligence of what was going on around them were added to the endless attacks from the West and East, the magnificence and supremacy of the Islamic civilization began to decline until its collapse in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Military victories and a sense of superiority had induced the Muslims to become content with what they had achieved and to neglect further researches in sciences. They had abandoned themselves to living their own lives, reciting the Qur’an but without ever studying its deeper meanings. Meanwhile the Western world had been making great advances in sciences and technology, which they had carried forward from the Islamic civilization. As already mentioned, sciences are in reality the languages of the Divine book of creation and an aspect of religion. Therefore, whoever neglects to study this book and benefit from it is destined to lose in the worldly life, and this negligence was one of the main reasons why Muslims fell under the domination of the West.

It is impossible that the present Western civilization will endure long since it is materialistic and far from satisfying man’s perennial needs. Western sociologists such as Oswald Spengler and others have predicted the collapse of this civilization, which is against basic human nature and values. Either it will abandon itself to its inevitable decay or equip itself with the creeds and moral and spiritual values of Islam, as well as its social and economic principles. In other words, Muslims will re-discover that, in essence, science and religion are two aspects of the same reality and know that to be a Muslim means, first of all, to represent the beauties of Islam in practical life. The luminous world of the future will be founded upon the firm foundations of Islamic morality, spirituality and its socio-economic and political order.

Why do we refer to science and scientific facts when explaining Islam?We refer to science and scientific facts when explaining Islam because some people only accept scientific

facts. Materialists and both non- and anti-religious people have sought to exploit science to defy religion and give their ideas more prestige than they deserve. By doing so, they have misled and corrupted the minds of very many people. Therefore, we must learn how “to talk their language” in order to prove that science and technology do not contradict Islam. We have to turn the arguments of such people against them by evaluating them and then using them to guide people to the right way.

Such an approach is entirely permissible, for how can we dispute what such people say if we are not well-versed in their facts and ideas? The Qur’an urge us to reflect and study, to observe the stars and galaxies. They impress upon us the Magnificence of the Creator, exhort us to wander among people, and direct our attention to the miraculous nature of our organs and physical creation.

From atoms to the largest beings, from the first human being’s appearance on Earth until our final departure, the Qur’an places all creation before our eyes. Touching upon a multitude of facts, it tells us that those who truly fear God, among His servants, are those who have knowledge (35:28), and so encourages us to seek knowledge, to reflect and research. However, we must never forget that all such activities must comply with the spirit of the Qur’an. Otherwise, even though we claim to be following its advice and command, actually we will be moving away from it.

Science and its facts can and should be used to explain Islamic facts. But if we use them to show off our knowledge, whatever we say cannot influence our hearers in the right way, if at all. Bright and persuasive words and arguments lose their effectiveness if we have the wrong intention: they get as far as the listeners’ eardrums and no further. Similarly, if our arguments seek to silence others instead of persuade them, it is we who will be responsible for blocking their way to a correct understanding. And so our effort will fail, and our goals remain unachieved.

However, if we try to persuade with a full and proper sincerity, even those who need such arguments to believe will receive their portion and benefit. Sometimes a sincere argument may be far more beneficial than one in which you spoke rather more freely and eloquently. Our primary aim when introducing science and scientific facts must be to win the pleasure of God, and we must present such knowledge according to our audience’s level.

Science cannot be regarded as superior to religion, and substantial Islamic issues cannot use science or modern scientific facts to justify or reinforce religion’s credibility. If we adopt such techniques, we are proclaiming that we ourselves have doubts about the truths of Islam and therefore need science to support them. In addition, we cannot accept science or scientific facts as absolute. Making science the decisive criteria for the Qur’an’s authenticity or Divine origin, thereby placing science over the Qur’an, is absurd, abhorrent, and completely impermissible. Such arguments and allusions to science have, at best, a secondary and supportive use. Their only possible value is that they might open a door onto a way that certain people simply would not know exists.

Science is to be used to awaken or stir some minds that otherwise might remain asleep or unmoved. It is like a feather duster used to brush the dust off the truth and the desire for truth, which lie hidden in unstirred consciences. If we begin by saying that science is absolute, we shall end up seeking to fit the Qur’an and Hadith

to it. The result of any such undertaking can only be doubt and confusion especially when we cannot reconcile the Qur’an and Hadith with some of the present assertions of science which may be falsified in future.

Our position must be clear: The Qur’an and Hadith are true and absolute. Science and scientific facts are true (or false) only to the degree that they agree (or disagree) with these sources. Even definitely established scientific facts cannot be pillars to uphold the truths of iman (faith); rather, they can be accepted only as instruments giving us ideas or triggering our reflection on God, Who establishes the truths of iman in our conscience. To expect that this does or even could take place through science is a grave error: iman comes only by Divine guidance.

Anyone who fails to grasp this has fallen into an error from which it is hard to recover. Such people look for and gather evidence from the universe and, trying to make it speak eloquently in the Name of God, remain unconscious servants to nature and nature worshippers. They study and speak of flowers, of the verdancy and spring of nature, but not the least greenness or bud of iman sprouts in their conscience. They may never even feel the existence of God within their consciousness. In appearance they do not worship nature, but in reality that is what they are doing.

A man or a woman is a mu’min (one with iman) owing to the iman in his or her heart, not to the great amount of knowledge in his or her head. After we have understood as much as we can about the objective and subjective evidence we have gathered, we must break our dependence on the outer circumstances, qualities, and conditions of such evidence. Only by doing this will we be able to make any spiritual progress. When we abandon this dependence and follow our heart and conscience within the Qur’an’s light and guidance, then, if God wills, we will find the enlightenment for which we are looking. As the German philosopher Immanuel Kant once said: “I felt the need to leave behind all the books I have read in order to believe in God.”

Undoubtedly, the grand Book of the Universe and the book of the true nature of humanity, as well as their commentaries, have their proper place and significance. But after we use them, we should put them aside and live with our iman, as it were, face to face. This might sound rather abstract to those who have not gone deep into the experience of faith and conscience. But for those whose nights are bright with devotion, and who acquire wings through their longing to aspire to their Lord, the meaning is clear.

THE WESTERN CONCEPT OF SCIENCEAND THE QUR’ANIC APPROACH TO ITScience regards as ‘scientific’ the facts established through empirical methods. Therefore, the assertions

which have not yet been established through observation and experiment can only be theories or hypotheses.Science cannot be sure about the future, it does not make definite predictions. Doubt is the basis of

scientific investigations. However, taught by God, the All-Knowing, the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, made decisive predictions, most of which have already proven true, the rest waiting for their time to come true. It is possible to find many verses in the Qur’an which point to certain established facts which science has recently ‘discovered’. The Qur’an mentions many important issues of creation and a great number of ‘natural’ phenomena which let alone an unlettered one, even the greatest scientist could not have talked about fourteen centuries ago. Furthermore, as will be explained below, through the miracles of the Prophets, the Qur’an has alluded to the farthest reach of sciences. This is because it originated in the Knowledge of the All-Knowing One.

The civilization Islam createdThe conflict of science and religion in the West dates back as far as the thirteenth century. Due to the

essential character of the corrupted Christianity represented by the Catholic Church, which condemns nature as a veil separating man from God and curses the knowledge of nature, scientific advances were not seen in the West during the Middle Ages, which are called dark ages in European history. However, during the same period a magnificent civilization was flourishing in the Muslim East. Muslims, obeying the injunctions of the holy Qur’an, studied both the Book of Divine Revelation, that is, the Qur’an, and the Book of Creation, that is, the universe, and founded the most magnificent civilization of human history. Scholars from all over the old world

benefited from the centers of higher learning at Damascus, Bukhara, Baghdad, Cairo, Fez, Qairawan, Zeitona, Cordoba, Sicily, Isfahan, Delhi, and other great centres throughout the Muslim world. Historians liken the Muslim world of the Middle Ages, dark for the West but bright for Muslims, to a beehive. Roads were full of students, scientists and scholars travelling from one center of learning to another. Many world-renowned figures such as al-Kindi, al-Khwarizmi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, al-Mas’udi, Ibn al-Haytham, al-Biruni, al-Ghazzali, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, al-Razi and many others shone like stars in the firmament of the sciences. In his multi-volume Introduction to the History of Science (1927-48), George Sarton divided his work into fifty-year periods, naming each chapter after the most eminent scientist of the period in question. For the years from the middle of the eighth century (second century after Hijra) to the twelfth century, each of seven fifty-year periods carries the name of a Muslim scientist. Thus we have ‘the Time of al-Khwarizmi, the Time of al-Biruni’, etc. Within these chapters Sarton lists one hundred important Muslim scientists and their principal works.

John Davenport, a leading scientist, observed:It must be owned that all the knowledge whether of Physics, Astronomy, Philosophy or Mathematics, which flourished in Europe from the 10th century was originally derived from the Arabian schools, and the Spanish Saracen may be looked upon as the father of European philosophy (Quoted by A. Karim in Islam’s Contribution to Science and Civilization).

Bertrand Russell, the famous British philosopher, wrote (Pakistan Quarterly, Vol.4, No.3):The supremacy of the East was not only military. Science, philosophy, poetry, and the arts, all flourished in the Muhammadan world at a time when Europe was sunk in barbarism. Europeans, with unpardonable insularity, call this period ‘the Dark Ages’: but it was only in Europe that it was dark-indeed only in Christian Europe, for Spain, which was Mohammedan, had a brilliant culture.

Robert Briffault, the renowned historian, acknowledges in his book The Making of Humanity:It is highly probable that but for the Arabs, modern European civilization would have never assumed that character which has enabled it to transcend all previous phases of evolution. For although there is not a single aspect of human growth in which the decisive influence of Islamic culture is not traceable, nowhere is it so clear and momentous as in the genesis of that power which constitutes the paramount distinctive force of the modern world and the supreme course of its victory-natural sciences and the scientific spirit... What we call sciences arose in Europe as a result of a new spirit of inquiry; of new methods of investigation, of the method of experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of Mathematics in a form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and those methods were introduced into the European world by the Arabs. (For the quotations above, see, Abul A’la al-Mawdudi (1970), Towards Understanding Islam, I.I.F.S.O. pp. 69-70, footnote 1.)

L. Stoddard acknowledges that for the first five centuries of its existence, the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities, the Muslim East offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, which was sunk in the night of the Dark Ages. (Abul-Fazl Ezzati (1978), An Introduction to the History of the Spread of Islam, London, p. 378)

This bright civilization progressed until it suffered the terrible disasters which came like huge overlapping waves, from the West and Far East one after the other in the form of the Crusades and Mongol invasion. The disasters lasted centuries until the Muslim government in Baghdad collapsed and the history of Islam entered, from the beginning of the fourteenth century, a new phase with the Ottoman Turks. Islamic civilization was still vigorous and remained far ahead of the Christian West in economic and military fields until the eighteenth century, despite (from the sixteenth century onwards) losing ground to it in the sciences.

Cordoba in the tenth century under Muslim rule was the most civilized city in Europe, the wonder and admiration of the world. Travelers from the north heard with something like fear of the city which contained 70 libraries with hundreds of thousands of volumes, and 900 public baths, yet whenever the rulers of Leon Navarre of Barcelona needed a surgeon, an architect, a dressmaker or a musician, it was to Cordoba that they applied (T. Arnold, The Legacy of Islam, p.9). Muslim literary prestige was so great that in Spain, for example, it was

found necessary to translate the Bible and liturgy into Arabic for the use of the Christian community. The account given by Alvaro, the Christian zealot and writer, shows vividly how even the non-Muslim Spaniards were attracted to Arab/Muslim literature:

My fellow-Christians delight in the poems and romances of the Arabs. They study the works of Muhammadan theologians and philosophers, not in order to refute them, but to acquire a correct and elegant Arabic style. Where today can a layman be found who reads the Latin commentaries on holy Scriptures? Who is there that studies the Gospels, the Prophets, the Apostles? Alas, the young Christians who are the most conspicuous for their talents have no knowledge of any literature or language save the Arabic; they read and study with avidity Arabian books; they amass whole libraries of them at a vast cost, and they everywhere sing the praises of the Arabian world (Indiculus Luminosus, translated by Dozy, quoted by Ezzati, ibid., pp. 98-9).

If the purpose of education and worth of civilization is to raise the sense of pride, dignity, honor in individuals so that they improve their state and consequently the state of society, Islamic civilization is proven to have been a worthy one. There is ample evidence quoted by various writers showing how Islam has succeeded in doing this to various peoples of various regions, e.g. Isaac Taylor, in his speech delivered at the Church Congress of England about the effects and influence of Islam on people, said:

When Muhammadanism is embraced, paganism, fetishism, infanticide and witchcraft disappear. Filth is replaced by cleanliness and the new convert acquires personal dignity and self-respect. Immodest dances and promiscuous intercourse of the sexes cease; female chastity is rewarded as a virtue; industry replaces idleness; license gives place to law; order and sobriety prevail; blood feuds, cruelty to animals and slaves are eradicated. Islam swept away corruption and superstitions. Islam was a revolt against empty polemics. It gave hope to the slave, brotherhood to mankind, and recognition to the fundamental facts of human nature. The virtues which Islam inculcates are temperance, cleanliness, chastity, justice, fortitude, courage, benevolence, hospitality, veracity and resignation.. Islam preaches a practical brotherhood, the social equality of all Muslims. Slavery is not part of the creed of Islam. Polygamy is a more difficult question. Moses did not prohibit it. It was practiced by David and it is not directly forbidden in the New Testament. Muhammad limited the unbounded license of polygamy. It is the exception rather than the rule... In resignation to God’s Will, temperance, chastity, veracity and in brotherhood of believers they (the Muslims) set us a pattern which we should do well to follow. Islam has abolished drunkenness, gambling and prostitution, the three curses of the Christian lands. Islam has done more for civilization than Christianity. The conquest of one-third of the earth to his (Muhammad’s) creed was a miracle. (quoted by Ezzati, ibid., pp. 235-7)

Science and the modern scientific approachBy way of explaining why I have given such a lengthy introduction to the subject, let me note here the

conflicting attitudes prevalent in the Muslim world about the relationship of Islam and science. For many years, swayed by Western dominion over their lands, a dominion attributed to superior science and technology, some Muslim intellectuals accused Islam itself as the cause of the backwardness of Muslim peoples. Having forgotten the eleven centuries or more of Islamic supremacy, they thought and wrote as if the history of Islam had only begun in the eighteenth century. Further, they made the deplorable mistake of identifying the relationship between science and religion in general in the specific terms of the relationship between science and Christianity. They did not bother to make even a superficial study of Islam and its long history. In contrast to this, some other contemporary Muslim intellectuals who, after seeing the disasters-atomic bombs, mass murders, environmental pollution, loss of all moral and spiritual values, the ‘delirium’ which modern man suffers, and so on-science and technology have brought to mankind and the shortcomings and mistakes of the purely scientific approach in seeking the truth, as well as the failure of science and technology to bring man happiness, follow some of their Western counterparts in condemning science and technology outright, and adopting an almost purely idealistic attitude. However, Islam is the middle way. It neither rejects nor condemns the modern scientific approach, nor does it ‘deify’ it.

It is true that science has been the most revered ‘fetish’ or ‘idol’ of modern man for nearly two hundred years. Scientists once believed that they could explain every phenomenon with the findings of science and the law of causality. However, modern physics destroyed the ‘theoretical’ foundations of mechanical physics and revealed that the universe is not a clockwork of certain parts working according to strict, unchanging laws of causality and absolute determinism. Rather, despite its dazzling harmony and magnificent order, it is so complex and indeterminate that when we unveil one of its mysteries, as many more appear before us. In other words, the more we learn about the universe, the more we grow in ignorance of it. Experts in atomic physics say that no one can be sure that the universe will be in the same state a moment later that it is in now. Although the universe works according to certain laws, these laws are not absolute and, more interestingly, they do not have real or material existence. Rather, their existence is nominal, that is, we deduce them from observation of natural events and phenomena. Also, it is highly questionable to what extent they have a part in the creation and working of things. For example, scientists say that a seed, earth, air and water bring a tree into existence. However, these are only causes for a tree to come into existence. The existence of a tree requires exact calculations and ratios and the pre-established relations of the seed, earth, air and water. Science should also explain the beginning of this process and the diversification of seeds into different kinds. What science does is only to explain how things take place; it thinks it has got out of the difficulty of explaining the origin of existence by attributing it to ‘nature’ or ‘self-origination’ or ‘necessity’ and ‘chance’.

‘Nature is, evidently, a design, not the designer; a recipient, not the agent; a composition, not the composer; an order, not the orderer; something printed, not the printer. It is a collection of laws established by the Divine Will, laws which our minds can grasp but which in themselves have no power or material reality.’ Attribution of existence to self-origination or necessity and chance is sheer delusion. For we evidently see that existence displays absolute knowledge, absolute wisdom, absolute will, and absolute power. Chance, self-origination and necessity are only concepts without such material reality that we could attribute to them knowledge, wisdom, will and power.

The modern scientific approach The modern scientific approach is very far from finding out the truth behind existence and explaining it.

Truth is unchanging and beyond the visible world. Its relationship with the visible, changing world is like that of the spirit and the body or the Divine laws of nature and natural things and events. For example, the force of growth, which is a universal Divine law, is innate in living things. While this law is unchanging, a tree or a man undergoes incessant changes. Likewise, human beings, no matter how their dress or dwellings or means of transport have changed during the course of history, remain unchanged in respect of the essential purposes they serve and the impact of those purposes on their lives and environment. As human beings, we all share certain general conditions of life and value: we are all born, mature, marry, have children and face death; we all possess some degree of will and common desires, we share also certain values-we all know the meaning of honesty, kindness, justice, courage, and so on.

Despite this fact, the modern scientific approach searches for truth in changing nature, and in its search it bases itself on the impressions of the senses. However, these impressions are relative, changing from person to person, and deceptive. Also, people differ in respect of their capacity of reasoning. So, it is impossible to arrive at one certain conclusion by deductive or inductive or analytical reasoning of the data received by the senses. It is because of this that the modern scientific approach resorts to experiment to arrive at facts. However, without pre-established axioms or ‘premises’, it is not possible to establish a fact through experiments. Since David Hume, it has been generally accepted that it is not inevitable that, because an event has happened twice or a million times in two or a million different places, it must happen again. For this reason, since the collapse of classical physics, Western epistemologists speak not of seeking the truth itself but only of seeking approximations to it. Karl Raymond Popper says that we consider the theories of both Newton and Einstein as science. . . both of them cannot be true at the same time; rather, both may be false.

Through empirical methods, science will not be able to find the truth which concerns the essence of existence. Therefore, as Guenon puts it (Orient et Occident, Turkish translation by F. Arslan, Istanbul 1980, p. 57), science or scientists have two alternatives before them: either they will acknowledge that the findings of

science are of no value other than as suppositions about truth and therefore not recognize any certainty higher than sense-perception, or they will blindly believe as true whatever is taught in the name of science. Doubting the findings of science, modern scientists try to find a way out in agnosticism or pragmatism, thus confessing the inability of science to find truth.

Science should recognize its limits and concede that truth is unchanging and lies in the realm above the visible world. When it can do that, it will find its real value. Evidently, without the absolute, it is impossible for the relative to exist; what is changing can be possible through the existence of the unchanging, and multiplicity is impossible without the existence of unity. It is only when any knowledge reaches the point of immutability that it acquires permanence and stability. What is unchangeable and permanent is above the human realm. Truth is not something the human mind produces. Truth exists independently of man and man’s task is to seek it.

CONFLICT BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE?Seeing religion and science or scientific studies as two conflicting disciplines is a product of the Western

attitude towards religion and science. In order to understand the background of the historical conflicts between science and Christianity in the West, we should first discuss the main reasons why sciences have developed in the West in recent centuries.

? The main reasons why sciences have developedin the West in recent centuriesWhile studying the reasons why sciences have developed in the West in recent centuries, we should not

forget that the main reason is the influence of the Islamic civilization. Since this is a known fact and has already been mentioned above, in the lines to come, we will concentrate upon three of the other factors-namely, changing Western way of thinking, Protestanism and geogragphical discoveries and colonialism.

Christianity and changing Western way of thinkingWhen, after years of struggle and the lives of thousands of martyrs, Christianity became the state religion

of the Roman Empire, it found itself in a climate where Epicurean and naturalistic attitudes prevailed and human knowledge was sanctified.

The teaching of Jesus, which would later be called Christianity, won the victory in its struggle with the Roman Empire but unfortunately at the expense of losing its original identity and purity. Besides, deviating from being a middle way as a God-revealed religion, theoretically it restricted itself to love and condemned nature as a veil separating man from God. Also, influenced by Near Eastern religions like Mithraism and Manichaism, it tended to become a completely mystical religion. However, the earth or nature is seen in Islam and, of course, in God-revealed religions, as a realm where God’s Most Beautiful Names are manifested, a realm on which minds should reflect in order to reach God Almighty, and which is itself a reflection of Paradise.

Certainly, it was the Church which, having announced itself as the body of Christ enjoying his authority, shaped Christianity in the mould explained above and later campaigned to seize, besides its spiritual, the worldly power also. In the centuries during which the West was under the dominion of the Church, a magnificent civilization flourished in the Muslim East. As a result of the West’s contact with this civilization through the Crusades and by way of Andalusia, the West had also the opportunity to learn about antiquity. Greek philosophy, especially Aristotelianism, Roman naturalism and also Greek Epicurism and hedonism found their way into Western thinking. When this Western awakening to antiquity through the translations from Arabic and by way of the Muslim centers of learning in Andalusia and Sicily, was united with Western envy of the prosperity of the Muslim East, the ground was prepared for the Renaissance.

Western ways of thinking changed greatly. The ‘iron wall’ between Western attitudes and Islam which the Church had built up over centuries, caused this change to evolve against religion. Having feared that it would lose its worldly power, the Church severely resisted this change. The corrupted Bible was no longer able to answer the questions that arose in inquiring minds about creation and the order of the universe. The Old Testament had been lost long centuries before during the Assyrian invasion of Jerusalem. The texts to hand were written down by Jewish scholars, who certainly had in mind the problems of the Jewish community at that

time. None of the Gospels, which had been chosen out of hundreds and accepted as canonical, was the original one which God sent to Jesus, upon him be peace. Besides, none of them was written by the apostles or disciples of Jesus. So, the symbolical language of Divine Scriptures-symbolical because they addressed every level of understanding at all times and in all places-was lost. As a result, for example, in the description of creation, the Old Testament mentions seven days like the days of the world. It says: ‘And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.’ Whereas, the conception of a day of morning and evening belongs to us, who live on earth. The Qur’an also mentions days and that God created the universe in six days. But it never mentions mornings and evenings and presents ‘day’ as a relative period whose measure is not known to us. For example, in the verses: The angels and spirit ascend to Him in a day whereof the span is fifty thousand years (70.4), and They will bid you hasten on the Doom, and God fails not His promise, but a day with God is a thousand years of what you reckon (22.47), and He directs the affair from the heaven unto the earth; then it ascends unto Him in a Day, whereof the measure is a thousand years of what you reckon (32.5).

The failure of Christianity and the Bible to answer the questions put by inquiring Western minds caused the direction of scientific developments to be opposed to religion. However, the great scientists such as Galileo or Bacon and others were not irreligious at all. They favoured a new interpretation of the Bible. Certain scientists and theologians tried to do that. For example, Roger Bacon was in favour of experimental methods in scientific investigations but he also defended the notion that one could attain knowledge of heavenly things through spiritual experience. Thomas Aquinas, whom some introduce as the Christian counterpart of Imam Ghazzali of the Muslim East, tried to reconcile Christianity with Aristotelianism. Another theologian, Nicolas de Cusa, opposed the astronomy of Ptolemy but emphasized the profound meaning of the limitless universe whose center is everywhere and peripheries nowhere. Nevertheless, the efforts of such theologians and scientists to reconcile Christianity with science were not enough to prevent science finally breaking with religion. This was partly due to the severe opposition of the Church to scientific developments for fear of losing its power, and partly because of the Western awakening to a material life.

Truly, as Professor Tawney says, quoted Erich Fromm in Escape from Freedom (Turkish translation, 1982, pp. 70-1), in the medieval period, people usually aimed at eternal happiness through economic activities and enterprises. They feared economic motives that appeared in the form of strong desires. A man had the right to gain enough money to lead a life according to his social status but to try to gain more meant greed for money and was a grave sin. Wealth and property had to be obtained through lawful ways and circulate among as many people as possible. However, the Renaissance changed social or even moral standards prevalent in the Middle Ages, or, we might say, changes in those standards gave birth to the Renaissance. Even a superficial glance at the arts of the period suffices to reveal this fundamental change from the moral and spiritual to the material. For example, sculpture-in the view of Sokorin, the product of the desire to escape death and the mental ‘disease’ of representing mortals in the shape of young, immortal deities-used the female body to model passionate desires and pleasures, deceit, sexuality and physical beauty. In Renaissance art, the Virgin Mary was no longer an image of modesty and chastity, inspiring respect and compassion; instead, she began to be painted as a woman with physical charms. The David of Michelangelo is a powerful, muscular youth, an image representing bodily perfection.

The man of the Renaissance desired to be like Odysseus, well-built, comely, intelligent, powerful and skilful in oratory. He was convinced that to become like Odysseus was possible through knowledge. Nevertheless, as will be seen in the following verses, ‘God’ of the Bible was jealous of man and had forbidden him to eat of the fruit of knowledge:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’ (Genesis, 2.15-7)And the Lord God said, ‘[by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil], the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take

also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever.’ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (Genesis, 3.22-3)These verses of the Bible would certainly be antipathetic to the feelings of a typical man of the

Renaissance and remind him of the Greek deities who forbade man the sacred fire. Therefore, what fired the imagination of the Renaissance man was to become a Prometheus, who rebelled against the gods and stole the sacred fire from them. This change of attitude towards religion and life is one of the foremost points to emphasize if we are to understand the conflict between science and religion in the West.

ProtestanismAccording to Max Weber, the development of science and technology in the West was not independent

of religion. He maintains that Protestanism was one of the main factors behind scientific developments in the West. As everybody knows, Protestanism developed against the authority of the Catholic Church, although it has not any radical difference from Catholicism.

According to Weber, Protestanism is fatalistic in its attitude towards history and man’s destiny. Everybody is born stained with original sin and no one can be saved from eternal condemnation by his own acts. Both Luther and Calvin were of the opinion that whatever man does, he cannot be saved unless he is among those whom God pre-determined to be chosen and saved from eternal punishment. But the sign of one’s being chosen and saved is that one works tirelessly and is continuously active to overcome one’s feeling of weakness and helplesness. The more one earns and the more successful, the more he means to be loved by God. Weber asserts that the grudge of the middle classes against the rich and aristocracy roused them to further and further earning and accumulation of wealth. Earning incited consumption, consumption caused the rise of endless needs and needs stimulated further work. According to Weber, this never-ending spiral played an important role in the development of sciences and technology. However, it is also behind the egotism, individualism and self-centeredness of modern Western man.

Geographical discoveries and colonialismUnited with the authority of the Church, the despotism of kings and feudal lords suffocated people.

Besides, the continent no longer seemed to meet their increasing needs and the seas surrounding it invited them to overseas adventures. Needs urge people to investigate and learn new things, and the abundance of natural ways of transportation like rivers and seas as against the smallness of the land enable them to make frequent contact with both surrounding and overseas areas. The Europeans of the Renaissance period made much use of this privilege they had to increase their knowledge and reach remote lands.

The Europeans went in pursuit of gold in remote parts of the world. Finding gold only increased them in avarice which made them cruel and opened the way to a ruthless colonialism. The slave trade and the eradication of the native peoples in continents like America and Australia became the trade mark of the rising capitalism and colonialism. It was only after the transportation of the treasures of the newly invaded countries to the West that the industrial revolution became realized. All historians are agreed that James Watt invented the steamship after the coals of Bengal in India were carried to England after the Battle of Plassey. The invention of steamship marked the start of the industrial revolution.

Today, the USA, whose population forms only 6 per cent of the world population, consume 40 per cent of the paper pulp, 36 per cent of the coal, 25 per cent of the steel, and 20 per cent of the cotton, produced in the whole of the world. The developed countries together form only 16 per cent of the world population but consume 80 per cent of world resources.

In sum, it should not be forgotten that a ruthless colonialism and geographical discoveries are two of the main factors behind the scientific and technological advances in Europe in recent centuries.

THE QUR’ANIC APPROACH TO SCIENCEIn order to understand the relationship between Islam and science, the following analogy may be

apposite:For an author to write a book, he should first have the knowledge of what he will write. That is, the

general meaning of the book should exist in the author’s mind. Then, before setting out to write the book, he

designs the general meaning: he gives it more definite form in his mind and then starts writing according to this form. To write a book means, by using necessary material things, moulding the meaning or content into letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, and thus making it known by others. However, if the author does not will to write it, he will keep it in his mind. This means that even if he does not write the book, the book will continue to have a kind of existence. That is, it will continue to exist in its author’s mind as meaning. After the book is written, people read it, understand it and thus the book acquires another kind of existence in their minds and memories. Even if the book is lost or withdrawn, it will continue to exist in both the mind of the author and the memories of the readers.

To cite another example, for a palace to be built, first an architect conceives it and then gives form to his conception. Afterwards, he makes a plan of the palace, according to which the palace will be built. Building means the materialization of the architect’s conception of the palace in floors, rooms, doors, windows, and so on, by using the necessary material. Even if the palace is destroyed years later, it will continue to exist in the architect’s mind and in the memories of those who saw it.

The universe is like a book written by God or a palace built by Him, to make Himself known by conscious beings, primarily including mankind. The universe essentially exists in God’s Knowledge in meaning. Creation means, through His Will, God Almighty’s specifying or giving a distinct character and form to that meaning in His Knowledge as species, races, families or individuals, and then, through His Power, clothing each in matter and making each visible in the material realm contained in time and space. That is, the Divine Will specifies and forms and the Divine Power clothes and makes visible. After a thing ceases to exist, it continues to live both in God’s Knowledge and in memories and through its offspring, if it has any. For example, when a flower dies, it continues to exist in God’s Knowledge, in memories, and in its seeds.

We see that everything has five stages or degrees of existence. Essentially, it exists in the Creator’s Knowledge as meaning. Even if God Almighty did not create it, it would continue to exist in His Knowledge as meaning. Thus, that meaning constitutes the essential existence of everything. The second stage or degree of a thing’s existence is that it exists in the Divine Will as a form or ‘plan’. Then comes the stage of a thing’s material existence in the material realm. This is followed by its existence in memories and, if it has any, through its offspring. The fifth stage is its eternal existence in the other world. God Almighty will ‘use’ the wreck of this world in the construction of the other one, where animals will continue their existence, each species through a representative of its own, while each human being will find an eternal life which will have been designed for him according to his living in this world.

Now it must be clear what kind of a relationship there is between science and Islam or the Qur’an. First of all, the universe, the subject-matter of the sciences, is the realm where God’s Names are manifested and therefore has some sort of sanctity. Everything in it is a letter from God Almighty inviting us to study it to have knowledge of Him. Thus, the universe is the collection of those letters or, as Muslim sages call it, the Divine Book of Creation, issuing, primarily, from the Divine Attributes of Will and Power. As for the Qur’an, issuing from the Divine Will of Speech, it is the counterpart of the universe in written form. If we call the universe the Qur’an of Creation (al-Qur’an al-Takwini), we may call the Qur’an the Recorded Qur’an (al-Qur’an al-Tadwini). Just as there can be no conflict between a palace and the paper written to describe it, there can also be no conflict between the universe and the Qur’an, which are two expressions of the same truth.

Similarly, man is also a Divine book corresponding to the Qur’an and the universe. It is because of this that the term used to signify the sentences of the Qur’an-ayah-also means events taking place within the souls of men and phenomena in the world of nature.’ Man’s life is so mysteriously interrelated to the natural phenomena and events that, according to Ibn Sina (Avicenna), one who discerns these phenomena can draw hundred-percent-true conclusions about the future of the world; that is to say, the laws of history can be deduced from what is going on in nature.

What does ‘reading’ mean?It is interesting that the first revelation of the Qur’an was:

Read: in and with the name of your Lord Who created. He created man of an embryo suspended. Read: and your Lord is the Most Munificent, Who taught by the Pen, taught man that he knew not . (96.1-3)

It is quite significant that the first command of God to His Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, was ‘read’, when there was not yet the Book to read. This means that there is another book or, rather, there are two books, counterparts to the Book which was to be revealed. These two books are the universe and man. A believer should approach the study of the universe and man without prejudice. It is also significant that the verses of the Qur’an and the phenomena in the universe and in man-material and psychological-are both called ‘signs’. The imperative ‘Read!’ is followed, not by a direct object or an adverbial, but by ‘in and with the name of your Lord Who created’. This signifies:

‘Reading’ the universe-studying it-has principles of its own, like, for example, observation and experiment.

The word translated as Lord is Rabb, among whose meanings is ‘educator, upbringer, sustainer, giver of a certain pattern, and giver of a particular nature to each entity.’ Man’s nature includes free will, whereas every other entity acts according to the primordial nature assigned to it, what modern science refers to in the words ‘nature’ and the ‘laws of nature’. What man is commanded to do is to discover these ‘laws’.

Every act of man, including his scientific studies, should be performed in the name of God, and therefore be an act of worship. That is the only limit which the Qur’an or Islam has put on science. Any act so performed cannot be against God’s commandments. For example, in the pursuit of scientific knowledge as worship, no one could harm mankind, nor put that knowledge in the form of a deadly weapon in the hands of an irresponsible minority. If done only in the name of God, by people conscious of always being supervised by God and who will be called to account before a Supreme Tribunal for all their actions in the world, science could change the world into a garden of Eden.

The Qur’an orders man to read at a time when there was nothing yet to read, this means he is commanded to read-study-the universe itself as the book of creation of which the Qur’an is the counterpart in letters or words. Man has to observe the universe and perceive its meaning and content, and as he perceives it he comes to know more deeply the beauty and splendor of the Creator’s system and the infinitude of His Might. Thus, it is incumbent upon man to penetrate into the manifold meanings of the universe, discover the Divine laws of nature and found a world where science and faith complement each other so that man will be able to perform his function as God’s vicegerent on earth and attain true bliss in both worlds.

Thus, as Seyyed Hossein Nasr emphasizes (Man and Nature (1976), London, pp. 94-5), revelation to man is inseparable from the cosmic revelation which is also a book of God. Islam, by refusing to separate man from nature and the study of nature from gnosis or its metaphysical dimension, has preserved an integral view of the universe and sees in the arteries of the cosmic and natural order the flow of Divine grace. From the bosom of nature man seeks to transcend nature and nature can be an aid in this process provided man learns to contemplate it as a mirror reflecting a higher reality. This is the reason why one finds in Islam an elaborate hierarchy of knowledge integrated by the principle of Divine Unity-’natural’, juridical, social and theological sciences and also metaphysical ones-and why so many Muslim scientists like Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Ak Shamsaddin, and Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum, besides being well-versed in religious sciences, were either practicing Sufis or were intellectually affiliated to the gnostic schools of Islam. A man like Ibn Sina could be a physician and Peripatetic philosopher and yet expound his Oriental philosophy which sought knowledge through illumination. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi was the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day and the author of an outstanding treatise on the metaphysical dimension of Islam. Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, who is one of the most outstanding figures in Islamic jurisprudence, history and Qur’anic interpretation, wrote eleven centuries ago about how the winds fertilize clouds so that rain falls.

Such examples could be multiplied but these suffice to demonstrate that in Islam observation of nature and contemplation of it has always represented a very important aspect of the spiritual journey of a Muslim.

Furthermore, there has been in Islam an intimate connection between sciences and other fields of Islamic studies. This connection is to be found in the Qur’an itself, which, as the Divine Scripture of Islam, corresponds to the macrocosmic revelation which is the universe.

There are many other verses in the Qur’an which shed light upon scientific facts, and invite everyone to study. Certainly, the day will come when God will have shown mankind His signs in the outer world, as well as in their own inner worlds and it will be manifest to them that the Qur’an is the truth: We shall show them Our signs in the outer world and in their own selves until it will be manifest to them that it (the Qur’an) is the truth (48.53). Humankind will concentrate more on sciences in the future and the Qur’an, which is the counterpart in letters of the universe, the realm where God’s Names are manisfested, will prove itself to be God’s Revelation.

TWO DIFFERENT FIELDSFOR SCIENCE AND RELIGION?Christianity did not develop as a comprehensive religion encompassing all fields of life but as a set of

spiritual and moral values which put direct bearing on the ‘worldly’ aspects of life. This has had serious consequences for subsequent Western history. For example, Christianity condemned war and, although war is a reality of human history, neglected to lay down rules for it. However, as this attitude never sufficed to end wars, the lack of ‘religious’ rules and regulations about war has caused great brutalities in the wars which have taken place in the West and ruthless massacres by the Western powers throughout the world. Similarly, Christianity’s condemnation of the ‘world’ and nature as a veil separating man from God has been a major factor in encouraging the modern sciences to reject religious authority as irrelevant. Also, the sharp separation of this world and the Hereafter, religion and sciences, spirituality and physicality, led the thinkers and philosophers who tried to find a space for religion beside science to assign different fields to religion and science, reason and revelation, this world and the Hereafter.

Cartesian dualismThe name of Descartes, the French mathematician and philosopher (1596-1650), is most famously

associated with this dualism in Western culture. His ideas contributed to the almost complete separation of intellectual and scientific activities from religion and, in later centuries, to the Enlightenment, the mechanistic view of life, positivism and materialism. Cartesianism provided a shelter for those who searched for religion in life beside science; it also gave rise to many misconceptions about the relationship between life, religion and science. The intellectuals or philosophers who did not want to forsake either religion or scientific reasoning appealed to Cartesian dualism to justify their position. This manner of defending religion against scientific materialism still prevails among certain Muslim intellectuals. According to them, there is a world of qualities separate from a world of quantities. Science has the authority in the world of quantities and uses observation, measurement and experiment, while in the world of qualities, where observation, experiment and measurement do not apply, religion has the right to speak. So, being religious can never be contradictory to being scientific, but then religion and science have nothing to do with each other.

Cartesian dualism gives science superiority over religionAlthough intended to defend religion against science, Cartesian dualism gives science superiority over

religion and primacy in practical life and thought, restricting religion to a set of blindly held beliefs not subject to research, verification and reasoning and practically irrelevant to the world and ‘worldly life’. This attitude misrepresents religion as only a matter of believing or unbelieving, with the consequence that there is not much difference between accepting a ‘true’ religion and believing in any religion whatever, even in myths and superstitions. It is this dualism which lies behind modern trends that see religion-without making any discrimination between God-revealed and man-made ones-as a set of dogmas inaccessible to reason, and quite cut off from science and the perceptible world.

However, religion, especially Islam as the last and perfected form of the God-revealed religions, demands, rather than believing blindly, both rational and spiritual conviction based on thinking, reasoning,

searching and verification. Although it is acceptable to enter religion through the gate of imitation, it is never advisable to remain content with belief coming from imitating others. The verses in the Qur’an related to legal issues do not exceed 300, while there are more than 700 verses urging people to study ‘natural’ phenomena, to think, reason, search, observe, take lessons, reflect and verify. The verses concluding with Will you not use your reason; will you not think; will you not reflect; will you not take lessons; take lessons, O men of insight, and so on, and the Qur’anic condemnation of unbelievers as people having no intellects with which to think and reflect, no eyes with which to see and no ears with which to hear, are serious warnings for those who see religion as a set of blindly held beliefs and who are unable to discern the essential and unbreakable connection between religion and life, nature, reason and scientific activities.

Modern science takes the natural world as its field of study. The restriction of science by Cartesian dualism to the material, observable realm of existence, disallowing it to admit that there may be other realms of existence and fields of study, may well be regarded as a way of keeping scientific inquiry ‘factual’ and ‘objective’. However, this attitude frequently leads to the view that study of the realms or subjects beyond the material, and the conclusions drawn from that study, are ‘unscientific’ and therefore require neither research nor verification but only belief. It also carries many into agnosticism, to either deny or not affirm the more profound and broader dimensions of existence beyond the material. Whereas what a truly objective science should do is either to accept that there may be many other truths and realms the existence of which it is unable to discover by its present methods or change its tactics and techniques and equip itself with the methods necessary to discover those realms. As long as science persists with its rigidly empirical approach and methods, it will never be able to comprehend the full reality of existence. It is quite unfortunate for science that it reduces man, as it does the universe, to his physical existence and tries to explain all his intellectual and spiritual activities in wholly physical terms.

Modern science deals with nature as structured but aimless or meaningless concurrence of material things. Basically, there is not much difference between this attitude toward nature and Christianity’s condemning it as veil separating man from God. By contrast, Islam introduces natural phenomena, not the supra-natural ones the existence and reality of which science either rejects or regards as unknowable by ‘scientific’ methods, as evidences of its truth or reality and calls people to study and reflect on them and thereby collect the nectar of belief. Nature, according to Islam, is the realm where God’s Beautiful Names are manifested and therefore a set of ‘ladders of light’ by which to reach God. Having originated from God’s Attributes of Will and Power, nature is the ‘created’ counterpart of the Qur’an, which originated in the Divine Attribute of Speech. So, nature is a book like the Qur’an, or it may be regarded as a city or palace, with the Qur’an being a sacred pamphlet explaining its meaning and how to dwell in and benefit from it. Man is the third counterpart of these two books, equipped with consciousness and will. This is why many Muslim scientists such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Zahrawi, Ibrahim Haqqi, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Ak Shamsaddin were practicing Sufis and well-versed in religious sciences.

Nature is an exhibition of evidences of Divine UnityAs nature has a sanctity on account of its being the result of the manifestations of the Divine Beautiful

Names and a collection of mirrors reflecting the Divine Names and Attributes, the order and constancy in it are two significant proofs of Divine Unity. It is this order and constancy to which science owes its existence. The perfect order observed in the universe is the result of the fact that with all its parts and minutest particles, the whole of the universe is the work of a Single Creator. This is why there is an interrelatedness, co-operation or mutual helping and solidarity among all the parts of the universe and the creatures in it. For example, in order for a single fruit, an apple, for example, to come into existence, earth, air, water, the sun and the properties of the seed of the apple-tree and the tree itself such as germination, growth, photosynthesis and bearing fruit, must all co-operate. This means that the existence of a single fruit depends on the co-operation of the whole universe. The order and constancy in whatever takes place in the universe is the origin of what science calls ‘natural laws’. That is, natural laws that is the name science gives to the elements or properties of the order and constancy in the universe on which science is based, have only nominal existence. What science calls laws may well be the works or activities of God through the agency of angels-through the agency of angels because the

Dignity and Grandeur of Divinity requires the agency of some beings like angels or of causes in order that people do not attribute directly to God what is disagreeable to them and accuse the Almighty thereof. Because of its obdurate refusal not to make space for religion in its procedures, science attributes the miraculous, purposeful creation and existence and the order, harmony and constancy prevailing therein, which manifestly require the existence of an absolute, eternal knowledge, power and will, either to blind, unconscious, ignorant and inanimate ‘laws’ with only nominal, not real, existence, or to nature itself, which is actually a passive and recipient, not an active agent, an object not a subject, and devoid of consciousness, knowledge and will. Or it attempts to explain existence and life with notions such as chance and necessity. The reason for this compound ignorance of science is that it regards religion as a set of dogmas requiring blind belief and therefore unscientific or irreconcilable with itself. This unforgivable attitude of science and its denial of the existence of the supra-natural dimension of creation or its agnosticism are the result of separating science and religion.

Science separated from religionWhen separated from religion, science loses its real identity and aim. The aim of science is or must be,

studying existence in the light of Divine guidance to understand it, to use the universe as a collection of ladders to reach the ‘heaven’ of belief and, disposing things in accordance with that belief, improve the world, thereby helping man fulfill his function of Divine vicegerency on the earth. This is what the Qur’an teaches.

As we read in the Qur’an (2.30-31), when God told angels that He would appoint a vicegerent on the earth, since vicegerency requires will, knowledge and power, the angels inferred that he would be do corruption, cause sedition and shed blood, and responded: ‘We glorify You with Your praise and proclaim Your Holiness.’ The Almighty answered them: ‘I know what you know not’. He instructed man in the ‘names’, that is, the names and reality of things and therefore the keys of knowledge and the ways of mastery over things. As He made man superior to angels through knowledge of things, He regarded ‘scientific’ studies to understand creation and fulfil the role of vicegerent as equal to the glorification and praise of angels. This means that scientific studies done for the sake of understanding creation and thereby recognizing the Creator and improving the world, establishing peace and justice there, are acts of worship. So, Islam gives to science and scientific studies a sacred meaning and religious dimension.

Also, the revelation of the Qur’an began with the command ‘Read!’. Having come at a time when there was yet nothing written to read, this command is significant. This order continues, ‘in the name of the Lord Who creates’ (al-’Alaq, 96.1), which means that man should study creation and do that in the name of the Lord. The original of the word translated as the Lord is Rabb, which means One Who brings up, educates, trains, sustains and raises. This signifies that creation is under the ‘Lordship’ of God and man should study it with all its aspects of coming into existence, growing and functioning. This is what science does.

The second, important connotation of the first revelation is that, as mentioned above, man should study creation in the name of God, that is, to please Him and in accordance with the rules He has established. This means that any scientific study should not be contrary to the religious and moral injunctions, and therefore not be made in a way to harm people, change creation and the order of the universe. When made to discover the Divine ‘laws’ in nature and dispose it within the limits of Divine permission, any scientific study will not cause the environmental pollution, the death of millions of people and destruction of cities and, in short, corruption on the earth. Islam never prevents scientific studies; what it does is to appoint for science moral aims and put moral restrictions on it. It aims to urge scientific studies to be for the benefit of mankind as well as other creatures and, by ordering them to be made in the name of God, it raises them to the rank of acts of worship.

When science is separated from religion, although it has brought wealth and material well-being to a very small minority in the world, as especially the last two centuries have witnessed, it can cause, besides world-wide insecurity, unhappiness and unease brought about by scientific materialism, a brutal oppression and colonialism, wide rifts between the poor and wealthy, unending global or regional wars during which millions die or are left homeless or orphans or widows, merciless rivalry among the classes of people and dangerous levels of environmental pollution. The separation of science and religion has brought to mankind nothing but great disasters.

Prophets were also masters and forerunners

with respect to scientific discoveries and progressIt is another evidence of the inseparability of science and religion that-even if secular science does not

admit it-as an historical fact, Prophets were forerunners with respect to scientific discoveries and mankind’s material progress. For example, some interpreters of the Qur’an infer from the verse When Our command was issued and the oven boiled... (11.40), that the Ark the Prophet Noah constructed through God’s guidance was a steamship. Sailors regard the Prophet Noah, upon him be peace, as their first teacher or patron. Similarly, the Prophet Joseph was the first to make a clock and therefore was considered as the first teacher of clock-makers, and the Prophet Enoch as that of tailors.

However, secular or materialistic science does not regard Divine Revelation as a source of knowledge or revealed knowledge as scientific. It considers, for example, the Flood, mentioned in all the Divine Scriptures and oral (unrecorded) histories of all peoples, as a myth. If this event cannot be established through ‘scientific’ methods, it will not be scientific and those who regard the methods of science as the only, reliable methods to arrive at truth will continue to approach the Divine Scriptures with doubts. This amounts to the denial of Divine Revelation and God-revealed religions. Also, this will also cause many historical facts and events to remain veiled. Furthermore, it is impossible to study and teach correctly the history of, especially, the Middle East-Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Iran, etc.-without considering the life-histories of the Prophets mentioned in the Qur’an. Despite this, by not admitting the ‘scientific’ reliability of Divine Revelation, secular or materialistic science causes many truths to be taught as though they were falsehoods and many falsehoods to be presented as truths, and many realities to remain veiled. For example, the Assyrians who lived in Iraq are presented as having been a pagan people. Whereas we read in the Qur’an (And We sent him to a hundred thousand or more-37.147) that more than one hundred thousand people believed in the Prophet Jonah, who, according to the account of the Bible, lived in Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrians.

The separation of science and religion and assigning to each a different realm of competence or relevance is responsible for religion being seen as a set of myths and dogmas-blind beliefs-and science remaining in the darkness of materialism. So, as it is absolutely necessary to ‘wed’ and harmonize mind and heart or the intellect and spirit, it is also of vital importance to harmonize science and religion.

CAUSALITY AND THE QUR’ANIC WORLD-VIEWThe universe has been made in the form of a book, intelligible, so as to make known its Author. The

book addresses man. The aim is to make him read the book and its parts, and respond with worship and thanks to the will of the Author. Man attains to that worship by uncovering, through scientific study, the order in the book of the universe, and displaying the functioning of beings and the workings of the universe.

The universe is not passive. It is not neutral. We cannot interpret it as we wish. There is only one correct way of looking at the world, one universal world-view which is common to all humanity. This view is taught to us in the Qur’an as well as in the book of the universe by our Creator.

This does not mean that the Qur’anic world-view does not recognize that the perception of the world differs from one person to another. It allows for plurality within unity so that a universal dialogue is possible. In this world-view there is no fragmentation and no conflict. There is only harmony, assistance, peace and compassion.

The materialist scientific world-view is based on radical fragmentation.The materialist scientific world-view is based on radical fragmentation. Materialist science takes nature

to mean a mechanism with no inherent value and meaning. It isolates an object by cutting off its connections with the rest of the world and studies it within its immediate environment.

Whereas our perception of ourselves tells us that we are meaningful and part of the whole universe; and everything must have a meaning and must be part of the whole universe. Materialist science has left the subject, i.e. man, out of the universe and insofar as this science is taking over, people feel that they have no place in this world. They are isolated from other people. Their lives have no meaning, except in a very limited, egoistic sense. Man is alienated from his environment and from himself.

In the light of modern physics, the mechanistic view is an incoherent description of nature. The developments of modern physics call for a radical revision in our concept of reality. They shattered all the principal concepts of classical physics.

Many concepts, like the causal nature of physical phenomena and the ideal of an objective description of nature, changed with the advent of the new theories of modern science, quantum, relativity and, more recently, chaos theory.

However, these changes have not been matched by parallel changes in the world-view of science. The modifications took place only on a mathematical level. Because all that counts for scientists is the development of mathematical formulations of the behavior of physical phenomena. Such a goal is not regarded merely for its technical utility; rather most scientists believe that prediction of this kind is all that knowledge is about.

They claim that our concept of reality is of little or no importance. However, it is clear that our concept of reality has a tremendous effect on how we behave in relation to nature and to other people, and also on the meaning life has for us as individuals. We cannot dispense with a world-view.

This attitude of the scientists is in contradiction with modern science. Classically it was thought that science could describe and explain everything in the world ‘objectively’ i.e. as it actually is in reality and that the ‘observer’ i.e. the scientist himself, could describe the world by means of mathematical models which were independent of his judgment. The discoveries of modern physics, however, point towards the unity of all things, an unbroken wholeness which denies the classical fragmentation of the world into separate and independent parts. In the quantum theory, every particle is linked to the rest of the universe and cannot be isolated from it. This oneness of the universe includes human beings as well. The quantum theory, together with abolishing the notion of fundamentally separate objects, has introduced the concept of ‘participator’ to replace that of the neutral observer. Modern science therefore restores man to his central position. It puts an end to the notion of neutral, objective description of nature and thus to impartial objective science.

Materialist science has been based on a deterministic, causal view of the world.Up to the present, materialist science has been based on a deterministic, causal view of the world.

Although the latest theories like the quantum and chaos theories are leading to a world-view where there is no room for fragmentation and determinism, materialist scientists still insist on following the fragmented and causal approach. They have to be reductionist because they believe in causality. At the same time they do realize that their materialist world-view is collapsing. Theoretically they understand that, in order to explain one thing, they need to know its connections to all other things. This is obviously impossible because these connections extend in time and in space beyond human capacities; they are infinite and cannot be embraced by human beings who are also parts of those connections.

The materialist scientists understand that the unity of the universe points to an Absolute Creator. For the things we study do not bear meanings limited to themselves but testify to the Absoluteness of their Creator. But in order to be able to claim that their scientific studies produce knowledge, the scientists insist on denying the Absolute Creator. And, because their scientific method is based on causality which cannot accommodate the unity of the universe, they ignore that unity and compartmentalize the universe so that they can study each compartment as the product of a limited number of causes. In this way, they can pretend the universe has no Creator and its meaning is limited to what they tell us about it. They thus claim their science to be the source of knowledge.

There have been many controversies over the conceptual foundations of modern physics. The mechanistic model of reality is not appropriate to modern science. Scientists avoid this issue by adopting the attitude that the paradoxes and contradictions of their science are inherent in nature, thus implying that those paradoxes and contradictions have nothing to do with the inadequacy of their world-view.

But how one can apply the reductionist scientific reasoning to the inseparable universe? It has been widely discussed by scientists and philosophers, but what hasn’t yet been realized is that the nature of the materialistic approach to scientific reasoning is incompatible with the unity of the universe. Therefore, either that approach to scientific reasoning or the concept of the unity of the universe has to be reconsidered.

The universe is an inseparable whole

That the universe is an inseparable whole is not in dispute. Indeed, the unity observed in the totality of the universe including man is so manifest that no one can deny it.

Therefore the materialistic approach to the scientific method has to be reconsidered. This method is reductionist. It reduces every thing to fragments then attributes each fragment to causes. However, in reality, all things are interconnected and interdependent. For this reason it is impossible to attribute anything, however small it is, to causes which are themselves transient and contingent. Because whatever is responsible for one thing must be responsible for everything. We cannot have one thing without the whole.

Why can we ascribe a thing to its antecedents in time, but not to its neighbors in space? Why should a thing be able to produce another thing just because it happened before? All modern scientists know that space and time are fully equivalent. They are unified into a four-dimensional continuum in which ‘here’ and ‘there’ ‘before’ and ‘after’ are relative. In this four-dimensional space the temporal sequence is converted into a simultaneous co-existence, the side by side existence of all things. Thus causality appears to be an idea which is limited to a prejudiced experience of the world.

Causality leads to the vicious chain of cause and effect. For each cause is also an effect. Also the effect is totally different from the cause. Things and effects are usually so full of art and beneficial purposes that let alone their simple immediate causes, even if all causes gathered they would be unable to produce one single thing.

In short, in order for a cause to produce an effect it has to be able to produce the whole universe in which that effect takes place, for that effect cannot exist without the whole universe. They cannot exist separately. Causality is therefore the antitheses of ‘There is no god but God’, the core of the Qur’anic world-view. Materialist scientists imagine powerless, dependent and ignorant causes to be responsible for the existence of beings and things and thus fancy them to possess absolute qualities. In this way they are implying (tacitly believing) that each of those causes possesses qualities which can only be attributed to God.

However, the latest discoveries of modern science, like the unity of the universe and the inseparability of its parts, exclude the possibility of all the explanations put forward by materialistic science. They demonstrate that all entities, whether in nature or in the laws and causes attributed to them, are all devoid of power and knowledge. They are contingent, transient and dependent beings. But the properties attributed to any of such entities need infinite qualities like absolute power and knowledge.

Causality is by no means necessarily to be linked with ‘objective’ study.This shows that causality is by no means necessarily to be linked with ‘objective’ study, ‘neutral’

scientific investigation. It is no more than a personal opinion. Moreover, it is an opinion that is irrational, a non-sense. Nevertheless, there is still a widespread conviction that science can do without a Creator. This seemed possible in classical physics, but in quantum mechanics the situation is untenable.

Physics is full of examples of ingenuity and subtlety that exclude the causal interpretation and make known the All-Powerful, All-Knowing One. A few illustrations will, I hope, suffice to convince us that the universe with all that is within it is His product.

The idea that the universe began with a Big Bang is something of a paradox. Of the four forces of nature, only gravity acts systematically on a cosmic scale, and in our experience gravity is attractive, a pulling force. But the explosion which marked the creation of the universe required a very powerful pushing force to set the cosmos on its still continuing path of expansion. It is puzzling that the expanding universe is dominated by the force of gravity which is contracting, not expanding. Careful measurements show that the rate of expansion has been ‘very fine-tuned’ to fall on this narrow line between two catastrophes: a little slower, and the cosmos would collapse, a little faster and the cosmic material would have long ago completely dispersed. The materialist scientists can see that such a precisely calculated explosion requires infinite power and knowledge, and yet deny the act of creation. Therefore they are compelled to say, ‘It just happened; it must be accepted as a special initial condition.’ The initial condition, however, had to be very special indeed. And the rate of expansion is only one of countless cosmic miracles. But in their misguidance, they fancy those miracles of the Absolute Power to be ‘remarkable’ coincidences, and imply that the universe is a random accident.

So, strikingly, the most fundamental theory of recent modern science is totally compatible with the notion of the Absolute Creator. Moreover, it is not compatible with causality. Thus, the need for God, the Causer of causes, enters science in a fundamental way.

Classically, it is believed that a measurement performed in one place cannot instantaneously affect a particle in another, very distant place. The basis for this belief is that interactions between systems tend to decline with distance. For according to causality a cause has to be in the immediate vicinity of its effect. Otherwise how can two particles several meters, let alone light years, apart, influence each other’s position and motion?

Quantum mechanics predicts a greater degree of correlation.Quantum mechanics, by contrast, predicts a greater degree of correlation, as though the two particles are

co-operating by telepathy. This forces us to ask how it is possible to explain this remarkable degree of co-operation between different parts of the universe that have never been in communication with each other without mentioning their Creator. How can they achieve this miracle? Divine Unity is obviously the only reasonable, consistent and acceptable, to the point of being necessary, explanation of this miracle and indeed of the universe and all that is in it, including man.

To the materialists this situation is a paradox because it cannot be explained with causality. But to the believer in God, this is a beautiful aspect of His Unity. It envisions a universal coherence and points to all-encompassing principles that run throughout the cosmos.

When we break the vicious chain of cause and effect, the meaningless world of materialism gives way to a world illumined with meaning and purpose. The universe becomes like a vast book addressing man and making known its Author so that its readers take lessons and constantly increase in knowledge of their Maker and strengthen their belief and certainty in the fundamentals of faith.

Everything is full of art and is being constantly renewed.In short, everything is full of art and is being constantly renewed, and, like the effect, the cause of each

thing is also created. For each thing to exist there is need for infinite power and knowledge. Thus, there must exist a Possessor of Absolute Power and Knowledge Who directly creates the cause and the effect together, which together demonstrate the Attributes of their Maker. They are proclaiming the Divine Power and Perfection through their own powerlessness and deficiency. They are all announcing, ‘There is no god but God’.

Just as the universe points to this truth of Divine Unity so does the Owner of the universe teach us this truth in the sacred books He has revealed. The phrase ‘There is no god but God’ is the fundamental of Revelation and it is confirmed by the testimony of beings. It is the key to the Qur’an. A key that makes it possible to know the riddle of the creation of the universe, a riddle that has reduced materialist science and philosophy to impotence. The path of Unity is the path of Revelation. It is the only path that shows man his Master and Owner, and causes him to recognize his True Object of Worship Who possesses an absolute power that will guarantee all his needs.

The Qur’an is the only source that teaches us that the universe and the beings within it do not bear a meaning limited to themselves but testify to their Maker’s Unity.The Qur’an is the only source that teaches us that the universe and the beings within it do not bear a

meaning limited to themselves but testify to their Maker’s Unity. It teaches what the universe is and what duties it is performing.

For this reason, every Muslim should study the universe and see that all beings, through their order, mutual relationship and duties, utterly refute the false claims of materialist and atheistic reasoning. They affirm that they are nothing but the property and creatures of a Single Creator. Each rejects the false notions of chance and causality. Each ascribes all other beings to its own Creator. Each is a proof that the Creator has no partners. Indeed, when the Creator’s Unity is known and understood correctly, it becomes clear that there is nothing to necessitate that causes should possess any power. So, they cannot be partners to the Creator. It is impossible for them to be so. Then the Muslim scientist will say through his investigations and discoveries, ‘There is no god but God, alone and without partner’.

The universe is a document to be used by the believers. Believing in God is, as the Qur’an informs us, to assent with one’s heart to the Creator with all His Attributes supported by the testimony of the whole universe. The true affirmation of God’s Unity is a judgment, a confirmation, an assent and acceptance that can find its Owner present with all things. It sees in all things a path leading to its Owner. It does not regard anything as an obstacle to His presence. For, otherwise, it would be necessary to tear and cast aside the universe in order to find Him, and that is impossible for us.

The universe is not the property of materialistic science which has used the universe in a destructive way precisely because it has been unable to find the meaning of the universe.

There is no dichotomy between true science and Revelation.There is no dichotomy between true science and Revelation. Rather, true progress and happiness for

mankind can only be achieved in the way of the Qur’an. All scientific and technological advances are merely the uncovering of the way the universe is created. When the universe is seen to be a vast and meaningful unified book describing its Author and the beings in it as signs of their Creator, all these discoveries and advances reinforce belief rather than causing doubt and bewilderment.

The most serious disease afflicting modern man in his search for happiness and the meaning of life is to regard science, the study of the created world, as separate and irreconcilable with Revelation, the Word of the Creator. But as man learns to heed the universe and his senses, rather than the materialist scientists, he will wake up to the contradictions of their scientific reasoning. More and more people are beginning to realize that scientific reasoning is no longer valid. Faced with beauty, awesomeness and purpose, attempts to explain creation with causality are becoming increasingly untenable. Then they will feel the need and importance for true science and knowledge which yield knowledge and belief in God.

WHAT A FALLING STONE MEANSThe laws of physics are mathematical expressions of how the universe operates The laws of physics are mathematical expressions of how the universe operates. The events taking place

in the universe and the relations between them and the laws ‘governing’ the universe have drawn the attention of people from ancient times.

Scientists have tried to explain whatever takes place in the universe, such as the movements of heavenly objects, tides and the floating of ships on the water. However, according to the thinkers of ancient Greece, scientists had to concentrate on man himself, rather than on the natural world. They believed that natural phenomena and the laws governing them could be explained through mental operations like deduction and analogical reasoning. The Qur’an calls the attention of human beings to the Divine manifestations on creatures such as the honeybee, ant, gnat and spider, and invites them to reflect on and study phenomena like the movement of air, the alternation of day and night and the seasons, and the movements of heavenly bodies.

The importance the Qur’an gives to the study of natural events inspired Muslim scientists to undertake investigations using observation and the experimental method-long before these came into use in Europe.

How did science pass to Europe?Science passed to Europe through the two centuries of the Crusades, through the universities in al-

Andalus and Sicily and the translations made there from Arabic. This was the main factor behind the Renaissance in Europe. Building on (without ever openly acknowledging) the works of Muslim scientists, Western scientists led the way to the birth of modern science. Until correct conclusions were reached about phenomena through observation and experimental methods, the assertions of the ancient Greek philosophers had been accepted as the basic laws of nature. For example, it had been asserted as true without question from the time of Aristotle that the speed of an object’s falling is proportionate to its weight. However, the experiments done by Galileo and Newton proved this to be false. Those experiments showed that-so long as the resistance of air is negligible in proportion to the weight of the object and its vertical cross-sectional area-the unhindered movement of an object on the earth is not dependent on its mass. This means that objects of different weight dropped from the same point reach earth at the same time. Such developments in physics led

scientists to approve observation and experiment as a basic rule in establishing natural facts. It was the job of scientists to try to discover the laws and basic truths prevalent in the universe through observation and experiment-empirical methods- while it was the task of philosophers to reflect on and comment on them. In other words, in order to have true conclusions about the universe and the events taking place in it, we had to discard all of our preconceptions about them and study nature through empirical methods and then comment on the natural events and the relations between them.

To have a clearer understanding of modern scienceIn order to have a clearer understanding of modern science and what it can give us of truth about the

universe, let us consider the law of general gravity, which is an undeniably established scientific fact:Various observations and experiments have shown that any two objects attract each other or exert force

upon each other proportionately to their masses and in inverse proportion to the square of the distance between them.

The force of attraction or gravity is the force which is in effect in events such as the falling of an object and the revolving of the earth around the sun. Science presents gravity as if it were the cause of such events. However, what we call the force of gravitation is only a notion which we use to explain those events. That is, there is an attraction observed between objects. In order to explain this attraction, we give it a name like the law or force of gravitation and then think that we have explained the event of attraction.

Science does not know the nature of what it calls the force of gravitation but, starting from the assertion that we have already successfully explained many events whose causes were unknown in the past, claims that it will be explained in the future. Nevertheless, science is unable to explain the real cause of all the events in the universe. What science in fact does is, starting from the recurrence of an event under the same conditions, to make a generalization and call it a law. Then it proceeds to assert that the same event will take place again and again under the same conditions. For example, after observing the falling of objects thrown into the air, it makes a generalization that all objects thrown into the air fall, and then expresses this event of falling by a mathematical formula.

It can serve as a simple example to see how science works to calculate and state beforehand how long it takes for an object thrown into the air with a certain force and at a certain angle to fall and at what distance it falls. Since events take place in a cause-and-effect series, knowing what effect or event will take place in the next step does not require understanding why it takes place in that way. Therefore, although we suppose that the law of gravity will be understood as, say, dependent on an exchange between certain particles or the obliquity of spatial time, it will nevertheless remain unexplained through scientific methods why such an exchange takes place or why the spatial time becomes oblique and why that exchange or obliquity occurs according to certain mathematical formulations and thereby objects attract each other. In addition to the fact that why objects attract each other remains unknown, it is also a mystery (and a wonder) that this event of attraction takes place according to a mathematical formula. Because of our familiarity with the events taking place in nature, we ignore the important fact that every thing, every event in nature is a miracle. In order to see why the event of gravitation is a dazzling miracle, we should consider it more closely:

How does the law of gravity work and what does it mean?As an example to understand the law of gravity, let us consider the falling of a stone dropped (and then

allowed to fall unhindered) from a certain high point. Left unhindered, that stone will realize a certain trajectory as the result of gravity affecting it. It will move faster and faster and finally hit the ground. How the stone will accelerate, how long it will take it to reach the ground and how it will move at every second of its trajectory depends on the stone’s distance from the center of the earth, the mass of the earth and the constant of gravity. This means that the stone does not move at random, rather each of its movements during its fall is calculable by mathematical formulas. This is an extremely regular movement. From this we inevitably conclude that if the stone does this movement of falling by itself, without an agent directing or determining its trajectory, then the stone must know accurately the constant of gravity, the mass of the earth and its distance from the center of the earth at each moment of its trajectory and then move in conformity with that knowledge. Whoever has a bit of intelligence will not attribute to the stone itself such a trajectory, simple in appearance but extremely complex

in reality. Indeed, the falling of a stone is so complex a movement that during it all the objects in the universe, every thing with a certain mass, exerts on it certain force of attraction and the stone moves under the influence of all those forces. (Here we do not consider other essential forces such as the electro-magnetic and nuclear ones, which have determining effect on the movement of things. Expressed, again, with certain mathematical formulas, these forces make the movements in the universe even more complex.) That is, in order to determine its trajectory, the stone must know the exact distance between itself and each of about 1080 particles in the universe, calculate accurately at each moment of its trajectory the force of the attraction exerted on it by each of those particles according to the mathematical formula of gravity-a force which changes every moment-and focus all those forces to a single point in consideration of the direction of each. Let alone a stone, even the most advanced computer the size of the universe could not accomplish that. For the position of each of the particles with respect to the stone changes at every moment during its fall. Thus, the simplest-seeming movement in the universe like the falling of a stone requires comprehensive knowledge and mastery of an infinite number of interrelated processes.

Any event taking place in any part of the universe has connection with each of the particles in the universe and the whole of the universe itself.Since any event taking place in any part of the universe has connection with each of the particles in the

universe and the whole of the universe itself, only one who has perfect knowledge of each of those particles and the universe as a whole, one who sees the whole of the universe with each particle in it, can determine and direct all the movements in the universe. Also, since the law of gravity and all the other physical laws are the same and have the same uniformity throughout the whole of the universe, the one who makes these laws operative in the whole of the universe must be an absolutely powerful one, who dominates each and every thing therein. Otherwise, each atom in the universe must have an eye seeing the whole of the universe at the same time, know the position, mass, electrical charge, in short, all the physical features, of each particle in the universe, be aware of all the physical laws and obey the laws itself originated.

Every event and every thing in the universe is interrelated to every other and whatever takes place in the universe takes place according to certain laws. Therefore, it is impossible for even the smallest, most insignificant-seeming event to take place without one with an absolute, perfect knowledge of the universe with all its particles and an absolute power governing it. Said Nursi expresses this fact as follows:

If the existence and operation of the universe is not attributed to God Almighty; then it requires admitting that each particle has the attributes of the Necessarily Existent Being, and that each particle should both dominate and be dominated by all other particles. Again, each particle should have an all-encompassing will and knowledge, for the existence of a single thing is dependent on all things and one who does not own the universe cannot rule a single particle.

After explaining how complex a phenomenon gravitation is, we can go a little further to see the real cause of that phenomenon. The relation sensed between the fall of a stone and the rotation of the moon around the world in a fixed orbit led Newton to discover the law of gravity. Ever since this law received a general welcome, the cause of the falling down of an object thrown into the air has unquestionably been accepted as gravity. However, it is not necessary that the real cause of this movement is the force of the attraction of the earth or the existence of another material cause.

Consider this:Let us imagine some animate beings living on a two-dimensional table. These living beings are aware of

only the table on which they live and completely unaware of the three-dimensional world around them. Someone from the three-dimensional world fires at the table in equal frequencies and makes holes at equal distance from each other. Seeing the holes at equal distances, the animate beings living completely unaware of the three-dimensional world will inevitably conclude that each hole causes another one to be made. Whereas it is some other firing from the outside world who made the holes.

What do you know about the reality of causality?This is how the scientists attributing every thing and event in the universe to the law of causality think

about the working of the universe. It is questionable whether the attraction of an object toward another near it

(for example, the attraction of a falling stone toward the ground) is because of the objects themselves or there is some other source forcing the objects to such a movement. (The event of attraction is the simplest of the events occurring in the universe. You may consider how a honeybee makes honey or a cow gives milk, events which contain a much greater number of physical interactions, chemical reactions and cause and effect.) In short, since the movement of an object according to the law of gravity is one each moment of which is mathematically described and requires as many masses and distances as the articles in the universe and the distances among them to be known in their mutual, complex relations, there must be One Who is the All-Knowing. This One must also have an absolute will to choose and assign for each event a law out of innumerable ones. The uniformity of the law, that is, all the laws being prevalent throughout the universe, calls for the unity of that All-Knowing and All-Willing One, and the obedience of all things, small or great, to those laws demonstrate that that One is also the All-Powerful. Again, the unchangeability or stability of the laws and the magnificent, unchanging order and harmony of the universe show that that One is Self-Subsistent and the All-Subsisting. That means it is that All-Knowing, All-Willing, All-Powerful, Self-Subsistent and All-Subsisting, Single One Who causes a stone to fall. For no one and nothing in the universe has the knowledge, will and power absolutely necessary for the falling of a stone. Every thing and event in the universe is too complex and magnificent for any material cause to bring it about. There is then no way for man other than to admit and recognize the existence and Unity of God.

THE UNIVERSE IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PHYSICS“The least understood aspect of the universe is its being understandable,” said Einstein. These words

attempt to pierce the veil of habit that develops in our minds from not looking into the reason for things. The perfection of the order operative in the universe is of such a degree that it prevents us from being aware of it. In the same way, we only become aware of the faultless operation of the watches we’ve worn on our wrists for years when they stop working.

In the world-view developed upon the foundation of Newton’s laws of motion, the universe was likened to a flawlessly operating watch. Events were tied to one another in a cause-effect relationship and our knowing the laws of this relationship allowed us to predict events with great accuracy. It was possible to determine with mathematical exactness a wide range of phenomena, from the times of eclipses of sun and moon to the amount of fuel and the speed needed to put an object into orbit around the earth. The success of these ‘natural laws’ led many people to believe that they completely expressed and ‘ruled’ the whole order of the universe.

Because God creates and sustains all things and events from behind the veil of universal general laws, because certain events (causes) are followed reliably by similar events (effects) each time they (the causes) occur, it begins to be supposed that the causes are responsible for or ‘create’ the effects. This is, of course, a gross error, as no number of causes suffices to create even a little effect; for every event, even the tiniest, the whole universe must be presupposed first, including the laws operative within it. Moment by moment, all things and all events are created and sustained by God, Who wills from an infinite range of alternative possibilities a particular actuality.

The clockwork model of the universe derived from Newtonian or classical physics is not a complete account of the phenomena which we observe in the universe. Already in the late 19th century, scientists had been bewildered by the lines that turned up in the light spectra emitted by heated gases: the steady, stable, even distribution the clockwork model predicted did not happen. Also, there were problems explaining the behavior of light: sometimes it made more sense as a beam of particles, sometimes as a wave.

Today our understanding of the universe is very far from the ‘clockwork’ model. The shift in understanding occurred in the first quarter of the 20th century, beginning in 1900 with the publication of Max Planck’s work on radiation. The problem Planck worked on for six years was that the actually measured radiation from hot bodies did not conform to the values predicted by the classical theory. He put forward the suggestion that bodies radiating energy did so, not evenly and continuously, but unevenly and discontinuously

in tiny packets or ‘quanta’. So startling was this suggestion that, despite confirmation by experiment, Planck himself thought of his theory as solving the problem of radiation by a sort of trick.

But then, in 1905, Albert Einstein published an article using the notion of packets of energy of definite sizes to explain how electrons are ejected from metal when light (radiation) falls on it. Whereas classical theory had predicted that the voltage (measure of the energy of the electrons ejected) would be proportional to the intensity of the light (radiation), Einstein showed that it was proportional instead to the frequency of the radiation. The conformity of this explanation with experimentally observed results gained Einstein the Nobel Prize. (Einstein didn’t receive the prize for his famous theory of relativity.) The significance of these findings and theories was not fully appreciated at the time.

A few years later in 1910, Ernest Rutherford did a ground-breaking experiment. He bombarded a thin layer made up of gold atoms with high energy particles and showed that the atom contained an extremely small positively-charged nucleus with negatively-charged electrons moving around it. Following the classical physics model, these electrons should have been small particles orbiting the nucleus in the same way as the planets orbit the sun, steadily losing energy until they fell on to the nucleus ñ in other words, the atom should have been unstable. Again it was a rejection of the classical model, three years later, by Niels Bohr, that helped solve the problem. Bohr argued that the electrons must move in fixed orbits until deflected by the absorption or emission of a unit of energy.

Atoms emit radiation after various external signals and only at specific wave lengths. As Einstein said, every different color of light is composed of energy packets inversely proportional to its wavelength (frequency). Because the Planck constant (h) is very small, the energy of these packets is also very, very small. For example, a normal light bulb emits 1020 light packets (photons) a second. Each of these photons is created when an activated atom or molecule passes to its normal or ‘basic state.’ Thus light, which allows us to see and which is a basic building block of life, develops as a result of the motions (in wave form) of electrons. The concepts of classical physics could successfully explain many of the events of daily life, but it couldn’t explain events on the subatomic level.

During those years (1910-1925) physics fell into a state of confusion because of the many measurements that conflicted with general theory and could not be explained by it. This situation was to lead W. Pauli (later to discover the principle fundamental to the understanding of the structure and characteristics of elements) to say he would rather have been a singer or gambler than a physicist. Actually in order to explain the observations being made, the whole way in which physical events had been understood required fundamental revision by wholly new methods. This was achieved by Werner Heisenberg, a 24 year-old physicist described by his teachers as a person who dealt with the essence of a subject rather than getting bogged down in detail, a person with powerful concentration and ambition. Perhaps the success of this young mind can be explained by the critical perspective he developed through reading the works of great men such as Kant and Plato, which was later supported with sound knowledge he got from great physicists. Heisenberg, who relaxed from work by climbing rocks and reading poetry, said: “It was around three in the morning when the calculations were completed and the solution to the problem appeared in front of me. First I experienced a great shock. I was so excited I didn’t even think about sleeping. I left the house and, sitting on a rock, I waited for the sunrise.”

Like the other scientists who established quantum physics, Heisenberg was a philosopher-physicist. The philosophy he accepted and advocated that allowed him to interpret atomic events is as follows: “Even though it is successful with classical physics, the language we use to explain physical events in the atom or its surroundings is insufficient. For this reason, after making a specific measurement in a quantum system (for example, an atom), using that knowledge we can get a theory that will tell us what kind of results we can find in the next measurement. But it’s not possible to say anything about what takes place between the two measurements.”

What pushed Heisenberg to make such a statement was that the mathematical tools he used to develop a theory that could explain the observed discontinuity of energy in light and atoms were abstract concepts that had not been used before. In classical physics the numbers we know were used to give value to matter’s position, speed, size, etc. In Heisenberg’s quantum mechanics, these sizes were expressed with infinite

dimensional n x n matrices which enabled physicists to calculate the properties attributed to electrons (energy, position, momentum, angular momentum) in an approximate way. Because these abstract mathematical expressions didn’t have an equivalent in everyday spoken language, it wasn’t possible to approach them with a classical understanding. It was observed that in order to measure the position of an electron, the experimenter necessarily altered its velocity. This problem was formally expressed in 1927 in Heisenberg’s famous Uncertainty Principle.

Independently of Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger made another significant breakthrough in mathematical description of electrons. Inspired by the hypothesis put forward two years earlier by De Broglie about the wave properties of matter particles, Schrodinger developed a ‘wave mechanics’ by which the movement of particles could be calculated. But the fundamental question remained as to what these strange and original ‘waves of matter particles’ or ‘waves accompanying matter particles’ were.

The mathematical formulations devised by Heisenberg and Schrodinger are complementary in the sense that physicists use whichever best resolves the particular calculations they are trying to make. There is no formally distinct space between the scientists and the phenomena they are seeking to understand and manipulate: their means of observation and manipulation (the mathematics) in some sense ‘posit’, put in place, the very phenomena whose place (among other properties) they are trying to determine. Alongside the notion of an infinite array of rows and points, as invented by Heisenberg, to plot the position or motion of a sub-atomic particle, physicists and philosophers of physics have begun to speak of arrays of events or ‘stories’ to try to explain, in something resembling ordinary language, the ideas they are handling. This cannot be described as a world-view in the way that the Newtonian physics confirmed and sustained a world-view, but it is nevertheless a clear and distinct disposition which, instead of excluding God as the Force Who wound up the clockwork and then retired from His creation, admits the incompleteness and uncertainty of human knowledge as a structural element of reality ñ in other words, the uncertainty is not a function of our present ignorance (to be relieved by future knowledge), but an actual constituent of the way reality is.

Quantum physics, at least figuratively and metaphorically, has became a vehicle for the interpretation of such concepts as matter, beyond-matter, energy, existence and non-existence in a way nearer to Divine sources; and led to many physicists settling accounts with their conscience and turning towards God Who is understood to be simultaneously transcendent and immanent, there and here.

MATHEMATICS IS REAL: WHY AND HOW?It is said that on the door to Aristotle’s dwelling was written: ‘One who does not know mathematics

cannot enter.’ I do not know whether this means that those who did not know mathematics would not be able to understand Aristotle or if it was simply a way to urge people to study mathematics. We do know that mathematics has had an important place in the thinking and life of people from the most ancient times. Pythogaras’ famous theorem about the square on the hypotenuse etc is still taught in primary and secondary schools. Every century has contributed something of its own to mathematics, which is now a universal ’language’ studied throughout the world.

Theories about the origin and essence of mathematicsThere are two major theories about the origin or essence of mathematics. One of these theories is

attributed to Plato, and the other to the so-called Formalist school. According to Plato, mathematics exists independently of man. What man does is to discover its objective reality, just as other ’laws of nature’, which we tend to call ’Divine laws of nature’, are discovered. The Formalist school by contrast asserts that mathematics is a product of human thinking. In order to understand the difference between these two schools, we may cite as an example their view of prime numbers (that is, numbers like 7, 17, 41 which can only be divided exactly by themselves and the number 1). Platonists argue that the prime numbers exist independently of us: before we discovered their existence, they existed in infinite number. Whereas, Formalists are of the opinion that the prime numbers exist because we have defined them as such, and it is meaningless to think about whether they are of infinite number or not.

The language of numbers

Formalists assert that numbers came into existence when human beings began to count. A well-known account of how this happened is that of a shepherd who used to put a stone in his bag for each of his sheep and by matching a stone with a sheep could find out whether any of his sheep had been lost or not. Later on, people began to call numbers each by a different name and since there were ten fingers on the two hands, they found it easier to make calculations by the decimal system. This was followed by the operations of addition and subtraction.

According to the Formalists, even the simplest mathematical operations like the four basic ones consist in some logical rules based on certain axioms. They say that we do mathematics by expressing certain rules with certain symbols. That is, we take, say, 5 and 7, a couple of signs whose meaning in the physical world we do not know, and put between them the plus sign, a third sign whose meaning in the physical world we do not know, followed by an equals sign. And we know we must write 12 after the equals sign because that is a requirement of the axioms and rules of logic we are using. This is just what a calculating machine does, that is, it goes through the operation required of it without knowing what it is doing.

Let us suppose that an adding operation consists only in applying axioms or certain logical rules, and has nothing essential to do with the physical world. If we were to take our number signs and apply them to physical objects like stones and sheep, we should be surprised, amazed even, as if by a miracle, that 5 and 7 stones or sheep added together (according to the same rules as 5+7) make 12 stones or 12 sheep. We would come to know that the abstract, conceptual realities in our mind correspond to physical realities in the outer world. According to Paul Davies, the renowned physicist, if we lived in a universe where different physical realities prevailed, in a space where, for example, there were not any countable things, we would not be able to make most of the calculations we make today. David Deutsch claims that counting emerged as the result of experiences. According to him, we can do arithmetic because physical laws allow the existence of physical models convenient for arithmetic.

Richard Feynman, regarded as the greatest physicist after Einstein, says about mathematics that the problem of existence is a very interesting and difficult problem. When you take the third power of certain numbers and then add them with each other, you obtain interesting results. For example, the third power of 1 is 1, of 2 is 8, and of 3 is 27. The addition of these numbers gives the result of 36. The addition of 1, 2 and 3 is 6 and the second power of 6 is also 36. When you add to this the third power of 4, which is 64, the result is 100. The addition of 6 and 4 is 10 and the second power of 10 is also 100. Added to this the third number of 5, which is 125, the result is 225. 225 is the second number of 10 plus 5, i.e. 15. And so on. According to Feynman, we may not have known this typical characteristic of numbers before but when we do come to know such characteristics of numbers, we feel that they exist independently of us, and that they existed before we discovered them. However, we cannot determine a certain space for their existence. We feel their existence as conceptions only.

A way of checking the correctness of an operation of addition which was discovered by a Turkish Sufi scholar of 18th century and may still be unknown to modern mathematiciansLet us take another example. Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum, a Turkish Sufi, religious scholar and scientist of

the 18th century, discovered a way of checking the correctness of an operation of addition which may still be unknown to modern mathematicians. In order to check or prove the addition, we first add up the digits of each of the two numbers we are going to add up. Let us say, we are going to add 154 to 275, for which we get the answer 429. Adding the digits of each of the first two numbers, we get 1+5+4 = 10 and 2+7+5 = 14. The next step is to subtract 9 from each of these two sums, giving us 1 and 5 respectively. The third step is to add these two results together, 1+5 = 6. Now we do the same thing with the digits of the answer we are wanting to check, namely 429, and again subtract 9: 4+2+9 = 15, 15-9 = 6. The fact that we end up with the same number (i.e. 6) means that our addition was correct. This way of checking an addition exists independently of us. We did not create it, we discovered it.

Numbers have many characteristics only some of which have been discovered

As water had the force of lifting objects of certain weight before Archimedes discovered it and, again, objects thrown into air or a fruit disconnected from its branch fell before Newton discovered the law of gravity, so also numbers have many characteristics only some of which have been discovered.

Heinrich Herzt, a physicist, says that we cannot help but feel that the mathematical formulas discovered so far exist out there independently of us. We know that these formulas existed before we discovered them but we cannot determine a space for them. Rudy Rucker, a mathematician, is of the opinion that there is, besides the physical space, a space of mind, which he calls ’mindspace’ and it is that that mathematician study.

There have always been correct mathematical expressions Most of the distinguished mathematicians follow the view of Plato. Kurt Gödel is one of them. Before

Gödel, it was almost a generally accepted view that mathematics is a function of the working of man’s brain consisting in the collection of the logical rules which we establish between the symbols of two sets. Gödel persuasively argued that there have always been correct mathematical expressions even though their correctness cannot always been proved. Another Platonist mathematician, Roger Penrose, believes that beyond the thoughts of mathematicians there are profound truths or realities in mathematical conceptions. Human thought is directed to extend into these eternal realities and they are there to be discovered as mathematical facts by any one of us. Penrose mentions complex numbers as an example for his argument. According to him, there is a profound, timeless truth in complex numbers. Penrose cites the set of Mandelbrot as another example to prove his argument. The reality this set reveals is the fact that even the lines, twists and shapes of mountains and clouds were or are formed according to certain mathematical formulas.

What flowers revealAlmost everyone has heard of the series of Fibonacci. This series, named after the famous mathematician,

Leonardo Fibonacci, progresses as 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144, and so on, each term being equal to the addition of the previous two. That is, 1 and 1 make 2, and 1 and 2 make 3, and 2 and 3 make 5, and 3 and 5 make 8, and so on. This is the series found in nature. For example, when we count the spirals formed of the seeds in a sunflower, we find that those arranged clockwise are 55 and the others arranged anti-clockwise are 89. Both of these figures are among the consecutive terms in the Fibonacci series. These figures may vary according to the size of the sunflower: we may find the figures of 34 and 55 in a relatively small flower, and 55 and 89 in a normal sized one, but the arrangement is always as consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci series. The spirals are arranged in pine cones in 5 to 8. We may encounter the same figures in the arrangement of tobacco leaves. Another extremely interesting characteristic is found in the numbers of petals of flowers. A lily has 3 petals, while a buttercup has 5, a velvet 13, a dahlia 21, and a daisy 34 or 55 or 89, varying according to its family. It is impossible to attribute this miraculous arrangement to chance or ignorant nature. If the DNA of a sunflower or a pine cone determines random numbers for its petals or spirals, how can you explain their correspondence with the terms of the series of Fibonacci? The ratio between the consecutive terms in the series of Fibonacci is nearly 7/4, which is called ’the golden ratio’ and known in classical art as the ratio most pleasing to human eye. In order to explain the origin of this miraculous reality, you have to either accept that flowers know what is most pleasing to human eye or that the ’Hand’ of One, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise and the All-Beautiful, is working in nature.

In short, what Fibonacci did is to discover this characteristic in nature. This means that the universe has a mathematical order or mathematics is the branch of science studying the miraculous order of the universe, the order which the Absolute Orderer and Determiner, One Who determines a certain measure for everything, has established.

WORLD-WIDE CORRUPTIONBY SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM

The meaning of scientific materialismMaterialism was born in the West in the middle of the 18th century. The British philosopher Berkeley

first used the term to mean an unjustified confidence in the existence of matter. The term later came to be used

to signify a philosophical movement or school which attributed the origin of existence to matter and denied the existence of anything immaterial. Materialism may also be used to describe a way of life which considers only material pleasures of life and bodily comforts and neglects the satisfaction of spiritual needs.

Since natural sciences have chosen for themselves as their field of study only the visible world and adopted a sensory and experimental approach in their studies, and since they tend to accept as scientific only the conclusions they have drawn through these methods, the modern scientific world-view does not, in practice, differ much from materialism. That is, although there may be scientists who believe in God and the existence of immaterial entities like spirit, the modern scientific approach is by nature materialistic. For that reason, scientific materialism is not less harmful than materialistic philosophy, rather, it may be said that scientific materialism is more dangerous that the other. For philosophical ideas can be set to one side as no more than theories which hardly affect one’s everyday decisions or direct one’s life. By contrast, people have in effect no choice but to think and believe and act in line with scientific conclusions.

The effect of scientific materialism on the way one shapes one’s lifeAlso, scientific materialism has a considerable effect on the way one shapes one’s life. A person who

does not find it worthwhile to give any consideration to belief in a Day of Reckoning, in a Supreme Being Who sees whatever he does, hears whatever he speaks and is aware of whatever he thinks, and Who will call him to account for all his deeds in the world, will not heed any rule other than secular laws and will design his life only according to the requirements of a short, transient life. Further, if being scientific is taken to mean denying or at least doubting the existence of anything metaphysical, and if people unquestioningly accept that the only objective knowledge is what sciences discover, whereas whatever people may know of the spiritual dimension of existence is sheer superstition, then people will be left with no alternative other than to live as materialists. So, scientific materialism and the practical materialism it produces are responsible, besides the birth of philosophical materialism and communism, for the world-wide crisis observable in the erosion of morals and spiritual values, the increase in crimes and drug-addiction, and in injustices committed against weak peoples of the world and ruthless colonialism continuing in disguised forms, and other modern social and political diseases.

Scientific materialism, though it does not theoretically deny the existence of truths outside the visible world, accepts that anything immaterial cannot be known, not that it is not known to us. You can discuss with a materialist in philosophy about the existence of God or anything outside the material dimension of existence. But since scientific materialism argues that anything except material things cannot be known, it causes one not to think about immaterial truths. So, it is scientific materialism which gave rise to agnosticism-the belief that nothing can be known about God or of anything except material things. It is also scientific materialism which, because it tends to explain immaterial truths in material terms and therefore reduces quality to quantity and the spiritual to the physical-as is most clearly observed in psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis-is responsible for the rise of most modern false beliefs and ‘mystical’ practices.

Practical materialismThe practical materialism, to which scientific materialism gave birth, prevails in the lives of all the

world’s people, whether they be Muslims, Christians, Jews or atheists. For most people mean economic development, the betterment of worldly life, when development is talked about, and give precedence to worldly life in their considerations. And since material wealth and resources cause rivalry and competition in the relations among peoples and countries, not a single day passes without clashes on the face of the earth, on a large or small scale.

Even if we leave out the human values, lofty truths and ideals, and spiritual happiness, which have all been sacrificed for the sake of material development, modern civilization based on scientific materialism has caused mankind much harm. The products of science are usually exploited in favor of the great world powers to consolidate their dominion over the world. Besides, the developments in genetics, biology, physics and chemistry are threatening the very life of humanity on the earth. Modern civilization, as pointed by Said Nursi (The Letters 2, Truestar 1995, p. 310) is founded upon five negative principles:

Five negative principles on which modern civilisation is based

It is founded and rests upon power; power tends to oppression. It aims at the realization of individual self-interests; pursuit of their self-interests causes people to

rush madly upon things in order to possess them and gives rise to pitiless rivalry and competition.

Its understanding or philosophy of the nature of life is struggle; struggle causes internal and external conflicts.

It seeks to unify its people on the basis of racial separatism, fed by swallowing up the resources and territories of ‘others’; and racism leads to terrible collisions between peoples.

The service it offers to people is satisfaction of the novel caprices or desires it arouses in them; (whether the satisfaction is real or not) this service brutalizes people.

Modern materialistic civilization stimulates consumption and therefore gives rise to new, artificial needs and increases them day by day. Through the power of propaganda and advertisements to exploit some disapprovable human tendencies such as ‘keeping up with the Jones’, it can impose its demands upon people. As a result of the way of life it necessarily leads to-producing to consume and consuming to produce-it destroys the nervous balance of man and causes extraordinary increases in mental and spiritual illnesses. In such a way of life there is left room for neither spiritual profundity nor true intellectual activity. For intellect is put under the command of pragmatism and earning more and more.

It is highly questionable whether scientific and economic developments have brought happiness to man, whether the developments in telecommunication and transportation have provided for man what he needs. It is highly questionable whether modern man has been able to find true satisfaction and solve all his problems. Do his needs not increase day by day? While people in the past needed a few things to lead a happy life, does not modern life make man feel the need of some new things every passing day? To satisfy each new need requires more effort and production which, in turn, stimulates more consumption. This leads people to regard life as a course or process of struggle and give rise to a cruel rivalry and competition. So it follows that because might is right in such a world, only the powerful have the ‘right’ to survive. You may understand from this what lies behind such Western philosophical attitudes or so-called scientific theories as Darwinian evolution and natural selection, historicism and the like.

The destruction of nature and environmental pollutionAnother disaster materialistic science has brought upon man is the destruction of nature and

environmental pollution. What a pity it is that nature, this magnificent book, this charming exhibition, which God, the infinitely Merciful One, has created and presented to us to observe and study and to be exhilarated by, is no longer given any more care than is given to a heap of junk or rubbish. Worse than that, it is more and more becoming a wasteland and like a dunghill. Today, air, that magnificent conductor of Divine commands, is a suffocating smoke and a perilous ‘whirlpool’. Water, that source of life and other Divine bounties, is either a hazardous flood or forms desolate expanses of pitch. And earth, that treasure of Divine Grace and Munificence, is a wilderness no longer safely productive and whose ecological balance has been ruined.

Science as being the sign and confirmation of man’s being made superior to angelsWe do not belittle, nor condemn, scientific studies and accomplishments. On the contrary, we welcome

them enthusiastically as the signs and confirmation of man’s being made superior to angels. As is related in the Qur’an, God created man as one who would rule on the earth in conscious, deliberate conformity with God’s commands. Since he has been honored with free will and is not compelled to do anything, in order to fulfill his function in creation, God has distinguished him with the knowledge of things and thereby made him superior even to angels. So, we welcome scientific developments and discoveries as the result of this superiority. However, in order for scientific studies to be directed for the true benefit of man, they must be pursued within the guidance of immaterial, metaphysical, God-given rules. They must aim at founding a civilization which should have the following five essentials:

The five essentials of Islamic civilization It should rest upon right, not upon power; right requires justice and balance. It should aim to encourage people to virtue, which is a spur to mutual affection and love.

Its understanding or philosophy of the nature of life should be not struggle but mutual help, which leads to unity and solidarity.

It should unify people on the basis of a common belief, shared values and norms, which can lead to internal peace and brotherhood.

It should guide people to truth. Therefore, besides encouraging them to scientific progress, it should elevate them, through moral perfection, to higher ranks of humanity.

This civilization is that which the Qur’an proposes to mankind and urges them to found.

LIFE IN OTHER PLACESScience is still unable to explain what life really is. This world is the arena where God manifests His Will

from behind the veil of what we experience and describe as ‘natural causes’, but life is the result of the direct manifestation of His Name, the Ever-Living. So, as long as science insists on its positivistic, even materialistic, viewpoint, it will never penetrate the mystery of what life is.

Scientists restrict the concept of life to the conditions that obtain on or beneath the outer surface of our planet. Therefore, when they have looked for extra-terrestrial life, what they have looked for is conditions which are the same as or similar or closely correspondent to the conditions in which life is evident on the surface of earth. But surely, if they had retained a sufficient sense of the absolute wonder of life (and that absolute wonder is an aspect of life’s being a direct manifestation of the Ever-Living), they should not have ruled out forms and conditions of life which are at present beyond their understanding. In their view, the arguments put forward by Said Nursi, a Muslim scholar from Turkey who wrote mostly in the first half of this century, for the existence of angels and other spirit beings may not be worthy of consideration. However, the latest discoveries in deep sea biology may persuade them to review Nursi’s arguments. Said Nursi wrote at the beginnings of the 1930s:

Reality and the wisdom [purposiveness] in the existence of the universe require that the heavens should have conscious inhabitants of their own as does the earth. These inhabitants of many different kinds are called angels and spirit beings in the language of religion.It is true that reality requires the existence of angels and other spirit beings because the earth, although insignificant in size compared with the heavens, is continually being filled with and emptied of conscious beings. This clearly indicates that the heavens. . . are filled with living beings who are the perfect class of living creatures. These beings are conscious and have perception, and they are the light of existence; they are the angels, who, like the jinn and mankind, are the observers of the universal palace of creation and students of this book of the universe and heralds for their Lord’s kingdom.The perfection of existence is through life. Moreover, life is the real basis and the light of existence, and consciousness, in turn, is the light of life. Since life and consciousness are so important, and a perfect harmony evidently prevails over the whole creation, and again since the universe displays a firm cohesion, and as this small ever-rotating sphere of ours is full of countless living and intelligent beings, so it is equally certain that those heavenly [realms] should have conscious, living beings particular to themselves. Just as the fish live in water, so those spirit beings may exist in the heat of the sun. Fire does not consume light, rather, light becomes brighter because of fire. We observe that the Eternal Power creates countless living beings from inert, solid substances and transforms the densest matter into subtle living compounds by life. Thus It radiates the light of life everywhere in great abundance and furnishes most things with the light of consciousness. From this we can conclude that the All-Powerful, All-Wise One would certainly not leave without life and consciousness more refined, subtle forms of matter like light and ether, which are close to and fitting for the spirit; indeed He creates animate and conscious beings in great number from light, darkness, ether, air and even from meanings and words. As He creates numerous species of animals, He also creates from such subtle and higher forms of matter

numerous different spirit creatures. One kind. . . are the angels, others are the varieties of spirit beings and jinn. (The Words 2, Izmir 1997, pp. 189-94 )

Half a century after Said Nursi wrote this, nearly 300 animal species, almost all them previously unknown, have been discovered living around hydrothermal vents which form when sea-water leaking through the ocean floor at spreading ridges is heated by the underlying magma and rushes into the cold ocean. Verena Tunniclife writes:

All life requires energy, nearly all life on earth looks to the sun as the source. But solar energy is not the only kind of energy available on the earth. Consider the energy that drives the movement and eruption of the planet’s crust. When you look at an active volcano, you are witnessing the escape of heat that has been produced by radioactive decay in the earth’s interior and is finally reaching the surface. Why should there not be biological communities associated with the same nuclear energy that moves continents and makes mountains? And why could not whole communities be fuelled by chemical, rather than, solar energy?. . . Most of us associate the escape of heat from the interior of the earth with violent events and unstable physical conditions, with extreme high temperatures and the release of toxic gases-circumstances that are hardly conducive to life. The notion that biological communities might spring up in a geologically active environment seemed fantastic. And until recently, few organisms were known to survive without a direct or indirect way to tap the sun’s energy. But such communities do exist, and they represent one of the most startling discoveries of 20th-century biology. They live in the deep ocean, under conditions that are both severe and variable. This ‘startling’ discovery of biology contains clues to some other realities, which sciences should consider. The Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, states that angels are created from light. We read in the Qur’an that God created man from dried earth, from wet clay and from an extract of clay. According to the Qur’an, man has been made a khalifa on the earth. Khalifa means, literally, one who succeeds. Many interpreters of the Qur’an have concluded from this that the jinn once ruled the earth and they were succeeded by men.

Starting from the clues above, it should be possible to do formal studies to determine the worth of conclusions such as these:

God first created nur and then light. The process of creation followed a gradual, regular accumulation of identities and/or a saltational sequence of abrupt leaps. Fire followed light and then came water and earth. God spread one existence through another, compounding and interweaving. He also created living beings in every phase of creation appropriate for each phase. While the universe was in a state of pure fire or some other high energy, He created the appropriate life-forms. And when the earth became conducive to life, He created plants, animals and man. He adorned every part and phase of the universe with creatures, among them living ones, that are appropriate for that part and phase.

Finally, just as He created innumerable beings from light, ether, air, fire, water and earth, so too, from every word and deed of man, He forms either his paradise or hell. In other words, as He grows a tree from a tiny seed through particles of earth, air and water, so He will build the other world from the material of this world which He will adapt for the other world during the convulsions of Doomsday. And He will use the words and actions of human beings in preparing the paradise or hell of each.

THE MEANING OF EXISTENCEThere are two ways to explain how a seed germinates under earth, then grows into a human being; either

each of the innumerable particles operative in the process of growth individually knows its place, functions and environment, and its relations with all the other particles, cells and larger wholes within the organism, or one who has that vast knowledge employs them in the growth process, as indeed in the formation of all living or non-living entities.

The following simple scientific experiment, reported in Discovery, 20 August 1993, will help in understanding this significant argument:

There is no ‘trial and error’ in natureOverbeck and his co-workers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston were trying to practice some gene therapy techniques by seeing if they could convert albino mice into coloured ones. The researcher injected a gene essential to the production of the pigment melanin into the single-cell embryo of an albino mouse. Later they bred that mouse’s offspring, half of which carried the gene on one chromosome of a chromosome pair. Classic Mendelian genetics told them that roughly a quarter of the grandchildren should carry the gene on both chromosomes -should be ‘homozygous’, in the language of genetics-and should therefore be colored. But the mice never got a chance to acquire color. ‘The first thing we noticed,’ says Overbeck, ‘was that we were losing about 25% of the grandchildren within a week after they were born.’ The explanation:The melanin-related gene that his group injected into the albino mouse embryo had inserted itself into a completely unrelated gene. An unfamiliar stretch of DNA in the middle of a gene wrecks that gene’s ability to get its message read. So in the mice, it seems whatever protein the gene coded for went unproduced, whatever function the protein had went undone, and the stomach, heart, liver, and spleen all wound up in the wrong place. Somehow, too, the kidneys and pancreas were damaged, and that damage is apparently what killed the mice. Overbeck and his colleagues have already located the gene on a particular mouse chromosome and are now trying to pin down its structure. That will tell them something about the structure of the protein the gene encodes, how the protein works, and when and where it is produced as the gene gets ‘expressed’, or turned on, ‘Is the gene expressed everywhere, or just on the left side of the embryo or just on the right side?’ Overbeck wonders, ‘And when does it get expressed?’These questions will take Overbeck far from the gene-transfer experiment. ‘We think there are at least 100,000 genes,’ he points out, ‘so the chances of this happening were literally one in 100,000.’

It will take many thousands of tests therefore, and cost the lives of many thousands of mice, for this type of experiment to be carried out with success. However, there is no such trial and error in nature, and any seed under earth, unless some impediment like lack of enough moisture intervenes, germinates and ultimately becomes a tree. Likewise, an embryo in the mother’s womb grows into a living, conscious being equipped with intellectual and spiritual faculties.

The human body is a miracle of symmetry, as well as of asymmetry. The human body is a miracle of symmetry, as well as of asymmetry. Scientists know how an embryo

develops in the womb to form this symmetry and asymmetry, but they are completely ignorant of how the particles-the particles that reach the embryo through the mother and function as building blocks in the formation of the body-can distinguish between right and left, how they are able to determine the place of each organ, how each goes and inserts itself in the exact place of a certain organ, and how they understand the extremely complicated relations among cells and organs, and their requirements. This is so complicated a process that if a single particle which should be placed in, for example, the pupil of the right eye, were to go to the ear, it could lead to malfunction or even death. Another point relevant here is that all animate beings are made from the same elements coming from earth, air and water, and similar to one another with respect to the members and organs of their bodies, yet they are almost completely different from one another with respect to bodily features, visage, character, desires and ambitions. This uniqueness of the individual is so reliable that one can be identified absolutely by one’s finger prints.

There are only two alternatives to explain creation: either each particle or atom possesses almost infinite knowledge, will and power or One Who has such knowledge, power and will creates and administers the whole existence

How do we explain this? There are the two alternatives we mentioned at the beginning: either each particle possesses almost infinite knowledge, will and power or One Who has such knowledge, power and will creates and administers each particle. However far back we go in an attempt to ascribe this to cause and effect and heredity, these two alternatives remain valid.

This argument, frequently emphasized in the writings of Said Nursi, lost its appeal when I objected: ‘Everything takes place according to a certain program and the principle of cause and effect. Why, then, need a particle possess the knowledge of its place and functions, its relations with all other particles with which it must combine and co-operate?’ However, it soon dawned upon me that I was trying to find an explanation for existence from within existence, seeking the Creator in that which was created.

Materialistic science, whether biology or physics, reflects upon existence from within it and is dazzled, tangled by the apparent self-organization in the universe.Materialistic science, whether biology or physics, reflects upon existence from within it and is dazzled,

tangled by the apparent self-organization in the universe. It is true that everything appears to happen according to certain principles and the law of cause and effect. Empirically based and having adopted the method of doing tests in laboratories, modern science attempts to discover the Creator in laboratories. This means regarding the Creator as of the same kind as the created-finite and material-which implies for the scientist a rank over the Creator. If the scientist is not seeking to deify himself over creation, what is the rationale, the sense, of looking for the Creator among the created?

As everybody knows, science advances on the feet of theories. That being so, would it not be legitimate to approach, at least for once, existence and the act of coming into existence from the perspective of the existence of God?

In the past, Muslim theologians argued the necessity of God from the unacceptability of an unending chain of causes. Everything in the universe is finite, transient, it begins and ends. Also, anything that begins and ends needs a cause or originator to bring it into existence since nothing can originate itself. (Even man, despite being the most conscious and powerful of creatures, has no part in his coming into existence, in the time and place of his birth, in determining his family, his race, his bodily features, nor has he much control over the workings of his body.) In short, as every existent needs an originator and the chain of originators cannot regress for ever, there must be an absolute originator, self-originating, self-existent, self-subsistent. This is God, without beginning and end, eternal.

Even if the existence of the universe is attributed to some entity other than God-to evolution or causality or nature or matter or coincidences and necessity-no one can deny that everything displays, though its coming into existence, its subsistence and death, an all-comprehensive knowledge, and an absolute power and determination. As we saw in the experiment referred to above, a single misplaced or misdirected gene, may suffice to ruin or prevent life. The interconnectedness of everything, from galaxies to atoms, is a reality into which every new entity enters and wherein it must know its unique place and function. And is there not a further demonstration of the existence and free operation of an all-comprehensive knowledge, and absolute power and will, that particles made up of the same bio-chemical constituents should be able to produce through the subtlest adjustments in their pattern of mutual relationships, entities and organisms which are unique? Is it satisfactory to explain this as heredity or coincidence, seeing that all such explanations again rest upon the same all-encompassing knowledge, absolute power and will?

We must not be misled by the apparent fact that everything happens according to a certain program or plan or process of causes We must not be misled by the apparent fact that everything happens according to a certain program or

plan or process of causes. This process of causes is a veil spread over the flux of the universe, the ever-moving stream of events. The ‘laws of nature’ which may be inferred from this process of causes have a nominal, not a real and concrete, existence. Unless we attribute to nature the attributes we would normally attribute to the Creator of nature, we must accept that it is, in essence and reality, a printing mechanism, not a printer, a design, not a designer, a passive recipient, not an agent, an order, not an orderer, a collection of nominal laws, not a

power. The same argument holds if, in place of ‘nature’, we choose the terms ‘matter’ or (the preference of French biologist Jacques Monod) ‘coincidence and necessity’.

One of the points which entangles, and brings down, materialist scientific explanations is ‘eternity’. In order to perceive eternity, science must first acknowledge the inevitable limitations of its being a product of human reason. Man is a part of existence or creation, and therefore a finite being, and it is impossible for a finite being to comprehend the Infinite:

The Infinite cannot be of the same kind as the finite. Man is enveloped by time and space which are two of the dimensions of existence, that is, they

are not there before, but there together with creation. So, unless one goes beyond the limits of time and space, it is impossible for one to comprehend eternity. This can be attained, not by, in the terminology of Kant, the theoretical reason, but by the practical reason, by spiritual experience or enlightenment, or by one’s inner conscience.

God is not dependent on time. Possessing absolute Will, He is not compelled to do or not do anything. He created the universe.

The universe is like a book each sentence, each word and each letter of which is interrelated with every other The universe is like a book each sentence, each word and each letter of which is interrelated with every

other. By manifesting His Names, God gets this book to ‘speak’, to be listened to or read by man. The original or essential meaning of this book originates in the Knowledge of God. In other words, before coming into material existence, the universe existed in the Knowledge of God. Through manifestation of Will and Power in the sphere of Knowledge, the meanings in the Knowledge appeared as the letters, words and sentences of the book of the universe. The universe which God fastened to the ‘string’ of time is the result of Divine manifestation of Will and Power in the sphere of His knowledge. For an existent being, coming into existence means transference from the sphere of Knowledge to the sphere of Power. By dying, it is transferred to the sphere of Knowledge again, but after it has acquired a new state proper for a new, eternal life in the other, eternal world. This can be made more understandable through the following analogy, which was explained before in this book:

The meaning of a book exists in the mind of its author before he writes it. Even though he does not write it, the article or the book has an ‘essential’ existence in the form of meaning. In order to make this meaning visible in the material world, the author should ‘mould’ it into letters. Readers can know the author through the book. The book’s being there to be read indicates its having an author with the ability to write it. Likewise, the universe points to all the Names of God, including the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing and the Possessor of Will. These Names are indicative of the Attributes of Knowledge, Power and Will, which, in turn, demonstrate the One Who has them.

God has many other Names or Attributes and therefore many kinds of manifestations. As the manifestations of, primarily, His Will and Power in Knowledge brought the universe into existence and still originate new lives incessantly, so His manifestation of Speech in the same Knowledge gave visible existence to the Qur’an, the last and the most perfect form of the Divine Scriptures. The present, revealed form of the Qur’an is, in one way, a counterpart of the universe in letters. In the same way as a magnificent building and the booklet describing it indicate the architect who produced them, the Qur’an and the universe, being two different forms or kinds of Divine manifestation, are signs of the Creator. The Qur’an came from the Divine Attribute of Speech, while the universe originated from the Divine Attributes of Will and Power. Both have their sources in the same Knowledge, the Knowledge of God. For this reason, any science-whether biology or physics or chemistry or astronomy or psychology-which studies the universe or man can never be contradictory with the religion of Islam. If there is a contradiction, it is either in the mind or intention or quality of the scientist or in a mispresentation of Islam.

The first revelation in the Qur’an and its relevance with the meaning of existenceThe first revelation to the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, was:

Read: In and with the Name of Your Lord Who created, created man of an embryo suspended. Read: And your Lord is the most Munificent, Who taught by the Pen, taught man that he knew not. (al-’Alaq, 96.1-3)

It is quite significant that the first command of God to His Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, was ‘read’, when there was not yet the Book to read. This means that there is another book or, rather, there are two books, counterparts to the Book which was to be revealed. These two books are the universe and man. A believer should approach the study of universe and man without prejudice. It is also significant that the verses of the Qur’an and the phenomena in the universe and in man-material and psychological-are both called ‘signs’. The imperative ‘read!’ is followed, not by a direct object or an adverbial, but by ‘in and with the Name of your Lord Who created’. This signifies:

‘Reading’ the universe-studying it-has principles of its own, like, for example, observation and experiment.

The word translated as Lord is Rabb, among whose meanings are ‘educator, upbringer, giver of a certain nature’. God created the universe and man on a certain pattern, and gave each entity a particular nature. Man’s nature includes free will, every other entity acts according to the primordial nature assigned to it. This is what modern science refers to in the words ‘nature’ and the ‘laws of nature’. What man is commanded to do is to discover these ‘laws’.

Every act of man, including his scientific studies, should be done in the name of God, and therefore be an act of worship. That is the only limit which the Qur’an or Islam has put on science. Any act so performed cannot be against God’s Commandments. For example, in the pursuit of scientific knowledge as worship, no one could harm mankind, nor put that knowledge in the form of a deadly weapon in the hands of an irresponsible minority. If done only in the name of God, by people conscious of always being supervised by God and who will be called to account before a Supreme Tribunal for all their actions in the world, science could change the world into a garden of Eden.

In sum: The meaning of existence is from the existence of God. That is what gives their true meaning to all things, all events, all efforts to live and acquire knowledge. Consider that the smallest thing like an apple costs the whole universe, seeing that for its formation the sun, earth and water must co-operate, something that the whole world population working together could not provide. Whether for the universe as a whole or a simple life within it, a great expenditure has been made in creation. In spite of this, many living things die at birth, and many others after a few moments of life. The average life span of man, who is the ‘cream’ of creation, to whom much of the existence has been subjugated, is about 60 years. You may, therefore, ask why such a vast expenditure is made for so short a life-span. If there is not an eternal life in an eternal world, will life and every existent thing have been pointless, in vain? However, God has not created anything for vanity. Every existent is infinitely meaningful, displaying an infinite knowledge, will and power. Each is directed to a particular aim. Each, whether its term is short or long, is a ‘sign’ pointing to God and is directly related to Him.

Without that relation of itself to God, every entity would mean nothing-zero; and the universe would be a huge zero. If God is not recognized, if the meaning His existence and creativity provide for existence is not understood, the zeros would be, each one, a sort of ‘black hole’ absorbing all the Divine manifestations and beauties. It is belief which removes the dark veil from creation and manifests the meaning it carries. Through belief, each of the ‘black holes’ changes-according to the degree of its refinement-into a shining sun, moon or star which manifests the meaning, aim and beauty it has been given by its Creator.

SHOOTING STARS ANDTHE CLASH IN THE HEAVENSV. Tunniclife was quoted in The Fountain, Jan.-Mar. 1996, No 13, p.36:Startling discovery of modern biology

All life requires energy, nearly all life on earth looks to the sun as the source. But solar energy is not the only kind of energy available on the earth. Consider the energy that drives the movement and eruption of the planet’s crust. When you look at an active volcano, you are witnessing the escape of heat that has been produced by radioactive decay in the earth’s interior and is finally reaching the surface. Why should there not be biological communities associated with the same nuclear energy that moves continents and makes mountains? And why could not whole communities be fuelled by chemical, rather than, solar energy?. . Most of us associate the escape of heat from the interior of the earth with violent events and unstable physical conditions, with extreme high temperatures and the release of toxic gasses-circumstances that are hardly conducive to life.The notion that biological communities might spring up in a geologically active environment seemed fantastic. And until recently, few organisms were known to survive without a direct or indirect way to tap the sun’s energy. But such communities do exist, and they represent one of the most startling discoveries of 20th-century biology. They live in the deep ocean, under conditions that are both severe and variable.

This ‘startling’ discovery of modern biology contains clues to some other realities, which sciences should consider. The Qur’an declares:

Surely, We have adorned the world’s heaven with lamps, and We have made them missiles for the devils. (al-Mulk, 67.5)

The ‘startling’ discovery of biology suggests that just as the earth does, the heavens should also have inhabitants of their own. Indeed, reality also requires it to be so, for, as Said Nursi writes ( The Words 1, Izmir, 1997, pp. 233-42), despite its small size and relative insignificance, the earth being alternately emptied and filled with living and conscious beings suggests-rather, it shows evidently-that the heavens too, which have magnificent constellations and are like decorated palaces, must also be filled with conscious and percipient beings. For the Creator has embellished and ornamented the universe with innumerable decorations, beauties, and inscriptions, and this evidently requires the existence of contemplative and appreciative eyes that will observe and be delighted. Certainly, beauty requires a lover, and food is given to the hungry. Men and jinn are able to perform only a millionth of this boundless duty, this glorious viewing, and this comprehensive worship. This means that countless sorts of angels and spirit beings are necessary to perform these infinite and diverse duties and acts of worship.

The Creator Who continuously creates subtle life and enlightened, percipient beings from dense earth and turbid water, must certainly have created conscious beings from light and even from darkness which are worthier to have a higher life and spirit, and created them in great abundance. In the language of Islam, those inhabitants of various kinds are called angels.

The earth and the heavens are connected to each other like two countries under one governmentThe earth and the heavens are connected to each other like two countries under one government. There

are important relations and transactions between them. Things necessary for the earth like light, heat, blessings, and forms of mercy like rain, come, rather, are being sent, from the sky. Also, as unanimously confirmed by all the heavenly religions, which are founded on Revelation, and as is agreed upon by all the saintly scholars who unveil the secret truths of creation on the basis of what they have witnessed, the angels and spirit beings descend to the earth from the heavens. From this, it may be concluded almost as certainly as if it were directly sensed that for the inhabitants of the earth there is a way to ascend to the heavens.

Indeed, everyone can always travel to the heavens through his mind, vision and imagination. So too, freed from or purified of the gross heaviness of their carnal and material being, the spirits of the Prophets and saints travel there by God’s leave, and the spirits of the ordinary people do so after their death. Since those who are ‘lightened’ and have acquired ‘subtlety’ and spiritual refinement travel there, for sure, certain inhabitants of the earth and the air who are clothed in an ‘ideal’ body or energetic envelope or immaterial form, and are light and subtle like spirits, may go to the heavens. Since there is journeying between the earth and the heavens, and important necessities for the earth are sent from the heavens; and since pure spirits travel to the heavens, for

sure, imitating the pure spirits, the evil spirits too will attempt to travel to the heavenly abode. For, physically, they are light and subtle. However, they will certainly be repulsed and repelled, for by nature they are evil and unclean. Again, as the silence and tranquility, the order and serene regularity of the heavens, and their vastness and radiance, show, their inhabitants are not like those of the earth; they are all obedient to God and do whatever He commands them. There is nothing to cause quarrels or disputes among them because they are innocent, their realm is vast, their nature is pure, and their stations are fixed. So, when devils or evil spirit beings attempt to ascend the heavens, the pure inhabitants of the heavens are mobilized to repel them from the heavens.

There must be a sign or reflection in the visible, material world of whatever takes place in the kingdom of heavens Without doubt, there must be a sign or reflection in the visible, material world of this important

interaction and contest. For the wisdom of the sovereignty of Divine Lordship requires that the Lord should put a sign, an indication, for conscious beings, particularly for man, whose most important duty is observing, witnessing, supervising, and acting as a herald to, His significant disposals in the realm of the Unseen. This is just as He has made rain a sign for men to explain, in physical terms, His countless miracles in spring, and also made apparent (natural) causes the pointers to the wonders of His art, so that He may call the inhabitants of the visible, material world to witness them, indeed to attract the attentive gaze of all the inhabitants of the vast heavens and the earth to that amazing exhibition. That is, He displays the vast heavens as a castle or city arrayed with towers on which sentries are posted, so that those inhabitants of the heavens and earth may reflect on the majesty of His Lordship.

Since wisdom requires the announcement of this elevated contest, there will surely be a sign for it. However, other than some stars being used as ‘missiles’ against the devils, no event among those of the atmosphere and heavens seems to be appropriate to this announcement. For it is evident how suitable for the repulsion of the devils are these stellar events, which resemble missiles and signal rockets fired from the formidable bastions of high castles. Further, unlike other events taking place in the heavens, no other function is known for such stellar events. In addition, this function has been known widely since the time of Adam, and witnessed by those who know the reality of things and events.

Like angels and other creatures, stars also have many different varieties. Some are extremely small, and some are extremely large. Everything that shines in the sky can be called a star. One sort of stars the Majestic Creator, the Gracious Maker, has created as a sort of jewels on the face of the sky or like the shining fruits of a vast tree. He has also made them the places of excursion or mounts or dwelling-places for His angels. He has made one sort of small stars missiles to drive off devils and kill them. Thus, firing these shooting stars to repulse devils may have three meanings:

It is a sign that the law of contest is in force also in the most vast sphere of existence. It indicates that in the heavens there are watchful guards and obedient inhabitants, Divine forces,

who do not like the earthly evil-doers to mix with and eavesdrop on them. The spying satans, who are the representatives of the foulness and wickedness on the earth,

attempt to soil the clean and pure realm of the heavens inhabited by pure beings, and spy on the talk of their inhabitants in the name of evil spirits [unbelieving jinn and their human companions trying to mislead people especially through sorcery, mediumship and soothsaying]. Shooting stars are fired to prevent them and repulse them from the doors of the heavens.

What does the meteor shower signify?The Perseid meteor shower observed in almost every year suggests that those meteors are shot for certain,

important purposes. For they surprise the observers by showing great diversity. The observations made in, for example, 1993, demonstrate the fact that the structure of the shower is yet poorly known.

According to information given by the International Meteor Organization about the events of the 1993 shower (Astronomy, October 1993), the first results posted for the night of 11/12 August came from Japan. Up to 20:30 (all times UT), 11 August, the meteor rates were found to be normal. A zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) of 40 meteors per hour (m/h) was tentatively assigned to the shower at this time.

Preliminary data from European observers indicated that the rates had gradually increased to ZHR of order 100 m/h between 20:00, 11 August and 01:00, 12 August. Observers in France reported a noticeable increase in rates after 00:30, 12 August, with the rate being about twice that of ‘normal’. The rates continued to climb between 01:00 and 03:00. A preliminary ZHR of 200-250 was ascribed to this period. The rates appeared to reach a maximum between 03:00 and 03:30. The ZHR at maximum was estimated to be of the order of 500. Observations from the Canary Islands indicated that the rates began to decline after 04:00.

Higher than normal rates were also reported from many observers in the United States and Japan. As commented by Martin Beech in Astronomy, p.11, the results clearly indicated that the shower did not behave as predicted. Speculation about a possible meteor storm proved incorrect. Another unexpected feature in 1993 was the high number of bright fireballs observed. Observers reported something like five times the normal level of Perseid fireballs on the night of 11/12 August. The Perseid shower once again demonstrated how difficult it is to predict meteor shower activity.

A. Cressy Morrison (Man Does Not Stand Alone, New York, 1945, p.100) mentions, as a typical human characteristic, the reluctance to give up fixed ideas, the stubborn resistance to accepting unfamiliar truths. The early Greeks knew the earth was a sphere, but it took two thousand years to convince men that this fact is true. New ideas encounter opposition, ridicule and abuse, but truth survives and is verified. Neither scientific studies nor developments in science can offer any excuse not to accept God. What we observe in nature and what we obtain from it must encourage us to know Him more closely and see the strong bridge between science and religion, the world and the Hereafter, and between the reason and the spirit.

THE STYLES OF THE QUR’ANAND THE MOVEMENT OF THE SUNThe Qur’an has four essential aims: explaining and proving Divine existence and Unity, the Resurrection,

Prophethood and Divine worship and justice. All its explanations and injunctions, and its accounts of the histories of previous peoples, are to establish those four principles in peoples’ minds, hearts and practical lives. To this end, since nature is the realm where God’s Names are manifested and is therefore a collection of signs of Divine existence and Unity, it frequently refers to the realities of creation and ‘natural’ events and things, and to man, as, in one respect, a part of nature, and, in another respect, the fruit and a sample of the tree of creation as a whole.

How does the Qur’an deal with ‘natural’ phenomena?The Qur’an is not a book of sciences. But since sciences deal with nature and man and since sciences and

technology constitute a very important aspect of man’s life and are themselves the product of man’s mind, the Qur’an, which contains ‘whatever is wet and dry’ either explicitly or implicitly or by allusion, certainly refers to sciences and scientific advancements. But, while sciences deal with nature and things for their own sake and concentrate on the question of ‘how?’, the Qur’an refers to them for the sake of God and for their most fundamental purpose as signs of Divine existence and Unity, as the manifestations of Divine Names, and therefore as the means of obtaining knowledge of God. Second, the Qur’an seeks to guide people and inculcate in them belief and high standards of morality. The great majority of people do not have specialized knowledge about scientific facts or theories. It would be inappropriate for a book of guidance directed to all people in all ages to refer to things and natural events in the manner of sciences. If the Qur’an referred to, say, the sun as a heavenly body of such and such size, made up of gases composed of two thousand billion times billion tonnes of matter, with the remains of other elements and in which for every million atoms of hydrogen there are about 85,000 helium atoms, most people would be simply bewildered or indifferent. As the comprehensive and conclusive Revelation, the Qur’an addresses all levels of understanding and intends to be understood, with belief and action to follow understanding.

Since most people judge according to their sense-impressions, the Qur’an uses the appropriate language and style. For example, while narrating the story of Dhu’l-Qarnayn, the Qur’an says that he reached the setting-place of the sun and found the sun setting in a fiery muddy spring (18.86). It is obvious that the sun does not set

in a spring. But this verse, besides giving many clues to certain facts to be discovered later, considers ordinary sense-impressions. First of all, we understand from the verse that Dhu’l-Qarnayn went as far as the western end of a land adjoining water around which there was not another visible land. That is why most commentators of the Qur’an have concluded that it was the Atlantic Ocean. Second, the verse implicitly states that Dhu’l-Qarnayn did not reach the coasts of the land he conquered in the west but advanced only so far as the point from which he could see the ocean like a spring. Thirdly, when he reached that point, it was a fiery summer day and, most probably because of the vapours rising from the ocean and the marshy land adjoining the sea, it appeared from afar like a muddy spring. Fourthly, the verse contains a subtle and important point. The word-‘ayn-translated here as spring also means eye and the sun. As the Qur’an, because of its elevated perspective, looks at the world from ‘on high’ and also there are innumerable eyes watching the world from on high, the ocean from that perspective, however large it may appear to the people in this world, appears no bigger than a spring. Further, there is a subtle allusion here to a time when those who believe in God will gain enough power and equipment to rule, at least, a considerable part of the world and, ascending the heavens, observe the world from on high.

“The sun moves (in its course) to a resting-place for it” The statement just discussed comprises only five words. All the statements of the Qur’an contain lots of

information either explicitly or implicitly and allusively to satisfy all levels of understanding in all times until the Judgement Day. Another example is a statement of, in its original, only four words: The sun moves (in its course) to a resting-place for it (36.38).

Before elucidating other meanings and connotations of this statement, we should remember that in the past people, judging again by their sense-impressions, believed that the earth was motionless while the sun moved around it. Later developments in science and observation showed that the earth spins upon its own axis and orbits the sun which is, relatively, motionless. First of all, since people see the sun moving, the Qur’an mentions it as moving. Second, the Qur’an mentions the sun here as an illustration of the magnificent order prevailing throughout the universe as a sign of God’s Might and Knowledge. The context where this statement is, is as follows:

A sign for them is the night. We strip it of the day, and behold! they are in darkness. And the sun moves (in its course) to a resting-place for it. That is the measuring and ordaining of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing. And for the moon We have appointed mansions till it return like an old shriveled palm-leaf. It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. They float, each in an orbit. (36.37-40)

We understand from the statement in its context that the sun has a vital function in the universal order. The word the Qur’an uses in the statement, mustaqarr, means stability, of the course and the place in which stability is secured. So, the statement can mean that the sun has a central position in the order of the universe. Second, the preposition used together with the word mustaqarr, li, has three meanings: for, to, and in. Therefore, the exact meaning of the statement comprising four words is: The sun moves following a route or course to a fixed place determined for it for the purpose of its (system’s) stability.

The recent discovery about the movement of the sunIn recent decades, solar astronomers have been able to observe that (Bartusiac, M. (1994) ‘Sounds of the

Sun’, American Scientist, January-February, pp.61-68) the sun is not in fact motionless. It quivers and shakes and continually rings like a well-hit gong. These vibrations of the sun reveal vital information about the sun’s deep interior, its hidden layers, information which affects calculations of the age of the universe. Also, knowing exactly how the sun spins internally is important in testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Like so many other significant findings in astronomy, this discovery about the sun was totally unexpected. Having discovered the quivering and ringing sun, some astronomers have commented that it is as if the sun were a symphony orchestra, with all the instruments being played simultaneously. All the vibrations combine at times to produce a net oscillation on the solar surface that is thousands of times stronger than any individual vibration.

What did Bediuzzaman write concerning the movement of the sun almost a century ago?

Commenting on the Qur’anic verse, The sun moves to a resting-place for it, several decades before this totally unexpected discovery in astronomy, Said Nursi had written (Muhakemat (‘Reasonings’), Istanbul pp. 68-69):

As the word ‘moves’ points to a style, the phrase ‘in its course’ demonstrates a reality. The sun, like a vessel built of gold, travels and floats in the ocean of the heavens comprising ether and defined as a stretched and tightened wave. Although it quivers and shakes in its course or orbit, since people see it running, the Qur’an uses the word travel or float. However, since the origin of the force of gravity is movement, the sun moves and quivers in its orbit. Through this vibration, which is the wheel of its figurative movement, its satellites are attracted to it and preserved from falling and scattering. When a tree quivers, its fruits fall. But when the sun quivers and shakes, its fruits-its satellites-are preserved from falling.Again, wisdom requires that the sun should move and travel on its mobile throne-its course or orbit-accompanied by its soldiers-its satellites. For the Divine Power has made everything moving and condemned nothing to absolute rest or motionlessness. Divine Mercy allows nothing to be condemned to inertia which is the cousin of death. So, the sun is free, it can travel provided it obeys the laws of God and does not disturb others’ freedom. So, it may actually be traveling, as its traveling may also be figurative. However, what is important according to the Qur’an is the universal order the wheel of which is the sun and its movement. Through the sun, the stability and orderliness of the system are ensured.

THE SUB-ATOMIC WORLD AND CREATIONOut of the three famous papers that Albert Einstein published in 1905, On a Heuristic Point of View

Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light explicitly stated the quantum hypothesis for electromagnetic radiation, and On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat developed the theory that led to the establishment of the sub-atomic nature of matter.

Following the classical Newtonian physics and under the spell of developments in science, physicists of the 19th century claimed that they could explain every phenomenon in the universe. E. Dubois Reymond, at a meeting held in memory of Leibniz in the Prussian Academy in 1880 was a bit humbler: ‘There have remained seven enigmas in the universe, three of which we are unable to solve yet: The essential nature of matter and force, the essence and origin of movement and the nature of consciousness. The three of the rest that we can solve although with great difficulties are: The origin of life, the order in the universe and the apparent purpose for it and the origin of thought and language. As for the seventh, we can say nothing about it. It is the individual free will’ (quoted in A. Adivar, Ilim ve Din (‘Science and Religion’), Istanbul 1980, p.282).

The sub-atomic world threw all scientists into confusion. This world and the ‘quantum cosmology’ which it introduces, rather than being a heap or assemblage of concrete things, is made up of five elements: the mass of the electron in the field where an action occurs (M), the mass of the proton (m), the electrical charge which these two elements carry, the energy quanta (h)-the amount of the energy remaining during the occurrence of the action-and the unchanging speed of light (c). These five elements or the universe can even be reduced to action or energy waves traveling through space in tiny packets or quanta. Since the quanta required for an action are special to it and exist independently of the quanta required for the previous action, it becomes impossible to predict the exact state of the universe. If the universe is in t1 state now, it cannot be predicted that it will be the same in t2 state. Paul Renteln, assistant professor of physics at California State University, writes (American Scientist, Nov.-Dec., 1991, p.508):

Modern physicists live in two different worlds. In one world we can predict the future position and momentum of a particle if we know its present position and momentum. This is the world of classical physics, including the physics described by Einstein’s theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity. In the second world it is impossible to predict the exact position and

momentum of a particle. This is the probabilistic, subatomic world of quantum mechanics. General relativity and quantum mechanics are the two great pillars that form the foundation of 20th-century physics, and yet their precepts assume two different kinds of universe.

The real nature of this sub-atomic world and the events taking place in it make it impossible to construct a theory to describe them, because they cannot be observed. One reason for their unobservability is that, as Renteln writes in an attempt to propose a theory which he calls quantum gravity to reconcile the two different worlds of classical and quantum physics, ‘the events take place at a scale far smaller than any realm yet explored by experimental physics. It is only when particles approach to within about 10-35 meter that their gravitational interactions have to be described in the same quantum-mechanical terms that we adopt to understand the other forces of nature. This distance is 1024 times smaller than the diameter of an atom-which means that the characteristic scale of quantum gravity bears the same relation to the size of an atom as an atom bears to the size of the solar system. To probe such small distances would require a particle accelerator 1015 times more powerful than the proposed Superconducting Supercollider.’

At the outset of this century, electrons surrounding the nucleus of an atom were thought to orbit the nucleus like planets in a miniature solar system. However, later researches modified that view. The electron is now understood to be more of an energy field cloud fluctuating around a nucleus.

The nucleus itself seemed to be composed of two smaller constituents-protons and neutrons. However, in the 1960s, physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig confirmed by experiments that protons and neutrons were made up of even more elementary particles, which Gell-Mann called ‘quarks’. Quarks cannot be seen, not just because they are too small but also because they do not seem to be quite ‘all there’.

Quarks are better described as swirls of dynamic energy, which means that solid matter is not, at its fundamental level, solid at all. Anything you hold in your hand and which seems solid, is really a quivering, shimmering, lacy lattice of energy, pulsating millions of times every second as billions of fundamental particles gyrate and spin in an eternal dance. At its most fundamental level, everything is energy held together by forces of incredible power.

This is not all that makes us unable to predict even the nearest future of the universe. According to Werner Heisenberg’s theories, at just the time when we can know either where a particle is or how fast it is traveling, we cannot know both. This is because the very act of measuring the particle alters its behavior. Measuring the particle’s speed changes its position, and measuring its position changes its speed.

However, the unpredictability in the sub-atomic world does not change anything in our everyday, predictable world. Everything works according to the basic laws of classical Newtonian physics. (Groping in the Light, 1990, pp. 11-17).

Why is this so and how should our view of the world and events be?Scientists who believe in the existence of God and His creation of the universe suggest that creation was

not a single event. That is, God did not create the universe as a single act and then leave it to operate according to the laws He established. Rather, creation is a continuous act (creatio continua). In other words, roughly like the movement of energy or electricity and its illuminating our world by means of bulbs, existence continuously comes from God and returns to and perishes in Him. Through the manifestation of all His Names, God continuously creates, annihilates and re-creates the universe. Some medieval Muslim scholarly saints such as Muhy al-Din ibn al-’Arabi and Mawlana Jalal al-Din al-Rumi called these pairs of acts as the continuous cycle of coming into existence and dying. Because of the incredible speed of this movement, the universe appears to be uniform and continuous. Rumi likens this to the fast spinning of a staff on one end of which there is fixed a light. When spun at speed, the light on the end of the staff appears as if a circle of light.

Unable to explain the extreme complexity of existence and the events taking place, some scientists assert that everything is in chaos and attribute the formation of universe as it is to mere chance. According to them, other universes could have formed, they simply did not, and there is no reason that the universe is the way it is. Given that it is impossible for even three or more unconscious things moving at random to come together by themselves to form even the simplest entity, it is highly questionable whether a rational person can accept that the wonderful order prevailing in the universe according to which we can direct our lives can be explained

without attributing it to a supernatural intellect. A. Cressy Morrison writes (Man Does Not Stand Alone, New York, pp.98-9.):

The proverbial penny may turn up heads ten times running and the chance of an eleventh is not expected but is still one in two, but the chance of a run of ten heads is very small. Suppose you have a bag containing one hundred marbles, ninety-nine black and one white. Shake the bag and let out one. The chance that the first marble out is the white one is exactly one in one hundred. Now put the marbles back and start over again. The chance of the white coming out is still one in a hundred, but the chance of the white coming out first twice in succession is one in ten thousand.Now try a third time, and the chance of the white coming out three times in succession is one hundred times ten thousand or one in a billion. Try another time or two and the figures become astronomical.The results of chance are as closely bound by law as the fact that two and two make four.All the nearly exact requirements of life could not be brought about on one planet at one time by chance. The size of the earth, the distance from the sun, the thickness of the earth’s crust, the quantity of water, the amount of carbon dioxide, the volume of nitrogen, the emergence of man and his survival-all point to order out of chaos, to design and purpose, and to the fact that, according to the inexorable laws of mathematics, all these could not occur by chance simultaneously on one planet once in a billion times. It could so occur, but it did not so occur.

Attributing the impossible to chance is a trick of the human mind, its stubborn resistance, which confuses a theoretical possibility with the actual facts. For example, it is possible that the Pacific Ocean has now changed into milk, but actually it has not.

As it is impossible to construct a building on a flowing stream, God Almighty spread over the unpredictability of the sub-atomic world the veil of the speed of its movement and made the universe dependent on what we call laws. It is for this reason that everything in the outer face of nature works according to the basic laws of classical Newtonian physics. However, it is a matter of controversy between the two schools of Ahl al-Sunna wa l-Jama’a whether the universe has a continuous existence working according to established laws and things accordingly have perpetual properties or God continuously creates the universe and orders each component of it what to do at every moment. The followers of the Maturidi School assert that God created the universe and set it to operate according to certain laws which He established, giving each thing certain properties. For example, fire burns because God gave it the quality of burning. Whereas, the followers of the Ash’ari School maintain that the universe does not have a perpetual, established existence and reality. Nor do things have essential qualities of themselves. God creates the universe anew each ‘moment’ and directs it continuously by ordering each thing to do what it must do. For example, fire does not essentially have the quality of burning, rather, God gives it the order to burn and it burns. Since according to the dictates of life in the universe, He usually orders it to burn, we think that fire essentially has the quality of burning.

As we accept the ‘relative’ truth of both Newtonian and quantum physics at the same time, we can also accept the truth of the views of both schools. As a matter of belief and as life at the most fundamental level of existence as in the sub-atomic world points out, God is continuously active, creating the universe anew and directly administering it. While at practical level, life will be impossible for us if we do not accept or assume the uniform continuity or stability of existence. What would life be if we were conscious that the sun would not rise tomorrow morning or that we might not live a second longer, although it is theoretically conceivable both that the sun might not rise tomorrow and that we might not survive a second longer?

IS THE BRAIN THE ORIGIN OF MAN’S MIND?What is artificial intelligence?Artificial Intelligence or AI is among the most recently advanced scientific concepts. The associated field

of study has been defined as follows: ‘the study of mental faculties that encompasses computational techniques

for performing tasks which apparently require intelligence when performed by humans’ (M. S. Aksoy, The Fountain, 1993, No.4, p.10).

Modern scientific inquiry is directed to finding analogues for human mental activities Besides searching for new techniques to substitute man in the fields of labor, modern scientific inquiry is

also directed to finding analogues for human mental activities. Since their assumption is that man is merely a physical-material entity (a complex of physical, biological and chemical processes), many scientists are hopeful that they can produce a complete copy of human functions. It is their assertion that since at least nothing in existing physical theories accounts for the existence of non-computable processes in the brain, all of man’s intellectual activities can be computed. However, Roger Penrose, the famous Oxford mathematician, argues against this assertion. He argues from Gödel’s theorem which states that for every consistent formal system that has the power to do arithmetic, there will always be a true statement. That is, a formal system is a set of logical or computational rules; termed consistent if it never produces contradictory statements. Yet, as human beings can see that that statement is true, this constitutes a sign that our minds can go beyond the powers of any formal system. However, since Penrose himself (like many others who share his opinions) cannot free himself from the confines of (materialistic) physics and nothing in existing physical theories accounts for non-computable processes, in order to be able to find a physical foundation for his theory, he pins his hopes on future elaborations of the theory of quantum mechanics. In his attempt to explain human consciousness, Penrose notes that the biggest mystery of all is how electrical activity in the brain gives rise to the experience of consciousness. It is hard to understand why an inner life should arise from the mere enactment of a computation, no matter how complex. However, his alternative is not more convincing than what he rejects. He tries to explain human consciousness with quantum processes in microtubules-collapsing quantum wave functions (the mathematical functions describing the position and momentum of a particle) in protein structures found in the skeletons of neurons.

Is the physical body the origin of all activities of man’s intellect?The main problem arises from accepting the physical body as the origin of all activities of man’s

intellect. The problem is also true for the expectations from Artificial Intelligence. Aksoy has a simple but meaningful objection to the assumptions underlying those expectations: ‘A man-made system can be very smart and artificially very intelligent but no such system so far has been awarded a prize for its innovative abilities. It is the human being who made it who wins the prize. What is prized, what is of higher worth, is not the system but its maker or builder.’ Another more simple objection can be raised here. For example, after doing a spell-check on a word-processor, you may come across many mistakes which the software has not recognized. Any sentence can be written in several ways in which the words are correctly spelt but are not the words you intend to use. For example, if we type the sentence ‘What is prized is not the system but its maker or builder’ as ‘What is priced is not the system but its make or build’, most people who know the language will recognize it immediately and effortlessly as nonsense. But the software’s spell-check and grammar-check will pass the sentence as OK. Such examples can be multiplied for a great variety of tasks requiring experience and understanding which cannot be analogued or translated for AI machines but which humans cope with quite easily.

More ‘developed’ animals must also be more developed in using their senses and faculties or their brains but they are not always so Another point to mention concerning man’s intellectual activities relates to the issue of learning and

education. Materialistic approaches attribute all of man’s intellectual activities to his brain. According to the theory of evolution, if taken literally, more developed animals must also be more developed in using their senses and faculties or their brains. But this is not the case.

As Dr Yilmaz points out (The Fountain, No. 19, pp. 34-6), compared with a shark which can smell a drop of blood in the sea from a distance of about 25,000 feet, man is very much less developed. If we judge the degree of development according to the sense of smell, in place of men or monkeys, sharks will be at the top of the chain. Whereas, with respect to the sense of seeing, eagles are much more developed than sharks, as well as more than men and monkeys: an eagle can spot a rabbit on the ground from a height of about 6,000 feet. Would

it not be true for a honey-bee to say of us: ‘Those clumsy ones can draw with tools and only after calculations the hexagons that I can make so easily and exactly identical to one another. They cannot make so sweet and healing a substance as honey that I produce in great amounts.’ Again, according to the literal logic of the theory of evolution, must a more developed animal not inherit the abilities of one less developed than itself? In this case, must man not have the abilities of all animals and must apes not have the abilities of all other animals ‘lower’ on the evolutionary ladder than themselves? Also, if man was evolved from apes, should the first man evolved not have inherited all the abilities and knowledge of all apes? However, we see that while all other animals are born as if educated and instructed already in all the information they will need to survive, man is born knowing next to nothing of what he needs to know to survive. And while all other animals come to the world with the same information or knowledge their predecessors had and there is negligible (if indeed any) difference between the amount of knowledge and abilities that the members of a species have, a man’s knowledge cannot be inherited by his progeny. Consequently, human beings vary hugely in their intellectual and artistic capacities and the amount or level of their knowledge.

Behaviorism and cognitivism in learningMaterialistic and evolutionist psychology consider learning either as a matter of behavioral patterning by

reinforcement or the storage and use of knowledge. The first view is called behaviorism, while the latter cognitivisim. However, both are agreed that it is the brain or neural systems which learn. That is, the intellectual dimension of man’s being consists in his brain. They confuse how a man learns with what it is that does the learning. What they want us to believe with respect to man’s intellectual faculties is not different from defining how a factory works. According to their logic, it is the factory itself which built itself and works according to the laws pre-determined by either itself or the collective being of factories. Although they use personal pronouns such as ‘I’ or ‘You’ or ‘We’ in referring to those who learn, speak, think, reason, decide and so on, forgetting that the brain does not know itself or what it is doing and also forgetting that it is we-humans-who study, speak about, comment on and even operate on the brain, they regard it as scientific to attribute all man’s intellectual activities and faculties, and therefore his conscious existence, to the brain. If that is so, why do we not concentrate our efforts merely on the brain and adjust it as a way of adjusting or educating individuals rather than go to the trouble and expense we currently go through to educate and bring up our fellow members of society? Again, does attributing man’s intellectual activities to the brain mean that whatever man will need in life and also his desires, expectations, feelings, pains of the past and anxieties of the future, etc. were pre-encoded in his brain and that according to the situations or the stimuli coming from the outer world, the brain brings them forth as responses? According to what we are asked to believe, the brain continually self-organizes, learns and adapts throughout our lives. Understanding how millions of neurons self-organize through non-linear feedback interactions requires that we have a full grasp of the mathematics of neural networks and of how this mathematics helps us to understand the link between brain and behavior. Is it not compounding our ignorance to attribute to a heap of blind, deaf, ignorant flesh, blood and neurons unconscious of themselves, of their existence and what they are doing or why, all of man’s intellectual faculties and activities with all their complexity, all of our consciousness and culture, religious life? Does this make sense? And does not doing so entail a denial of man’s free will? Although some psychologists such as Tolman and Köhler are of the opinion that at least in some cases learning appears to be purposeful and animals and people have an awareness of what is being acquired and they actively interpret the stimuli they sense from the environment, since they too attribute this to the brain by asserting that there must be more than one system in the brain involved in learning, the point on which all materialistic approaches are agreed (consciously or unconsciously) is that man is an animal whose acts consist in the automatic responses of his brain, an animal that has no free will to direct and control his life.

The activity of learning is remarkably easy as both behaviorists or cognitivists assert. Yet it is nevertheless extremely complex. Besides senses, many human faculties such as imagination, conceptualization, reasoning, comparing, retaining, remembering, confirming and conviction, have a share in it. Each of these faculties give its color to what is learnt. For example, only imagination gives rise to falsehoods, while conceptualization is ambiguous as to what passes through it. Reasoning does not have an established view of

what comes to it, while capable of confirming partiality or prejudices pleasing to the one doing the reasoning. Surely the materialistic approach has no right to that degree of conviction achieved by impartial reasoning and study of real evidence and which is worthy to be called scientific knowledge. Rather, what materialist and evolutionist psychologists suggest may only be the product of imagination or partial (i.e. biased) reasoning.

RELIGION AND SCIENCE: SHARED RESPONSIBILITIESHuman affairs, directly or indirectly, are affected by science in many ways. Firstly, by the technological

aids enabled by science which have transformed the way people live all over the world so completely that it is difficult to imagine any other way of arranging our lives. Secondly, human life has been affected by the influence of science on the mind of man. We no longer believe in those superstitions that, from time to time in the long history of mankind, darkened the world.

What is the goal of science?The goal of science is to discover rules which explain the relationship between particular events and

aspects of events in the natural world which we usually refer to as ‘facts’. More specifically, the goal is to find the simplest rules, and thereby to understand the mastermind behind the wonderfully subtle design of our universe. Because understanding those rules enables a degree of predictive power, science can give us power over the forces of nature operative in the relationships we study. Unfortunately, science can teach us nothing else beyond how the facts are related and conditioned by each other. The aspiration towards such objective knowledge belongs to the highest of which human reason is capable. Yet it is very clear that knowledge of what ‘is’ does not open the door directly to what ‘should be’ (Einstein, p.26). We can have the clearest and most complete knowledge of what ‘is’, yet we are not able to deduce from that what the goal of our human aspiration should be. Objective knowledge provides us with very powerful instruments for the achievements of certain ends, but the ultimate goal itself and the longing to reach it must come from another source. No doubt, our existence and activities acquire meaning only by the setting up of such a goal and corresponding values. ‘The knowledge of truth itself is very little capable of acting as a guide and it cannot prove even the justification and the value of aspiration towards that very knowledge of truth. Here we face, therefore, the limit of the purely rational concept of our existence’ (ibid., p.22).

Science without religion, religion without scienceThroughout history, great scientists have puzzled over questions like-where the ethics of using science

will come from, how we can decide what should be our goal or what way, ultimately, is the best way for all human beings to be. Great philosophers as well as great scientific geniuses have been bewildered by these questions. In the long search to answer them, some great scientists like Einstein have expressed their understanding memorably: ‘Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.’

On the basis of his own very rich experience, Einstein claimed that science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration towards truth and understanding. He clearly stated that the source of such feelings lies within the sphere of religion. He also advocated that kind of faith which says that the rules valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. Einstein could never conceive of a true scientist without this profound belief. On the other hand, in his famous essay Atomic War or Peace, Einstein captures the helplessness of the scientist to influence moral judgments:

The atomic scientists, I think, have become convinced that they cannot arouse the American people to the truth of the atomic era by logic alone. There must be added the deep power of emotion which is the basic ingredient of religion. (Einstein, p.22)

For more than three centuries, the world has gradually come to be dominated by Western culture, lifestyle and modes of thinking. At the present time, the world is, directly or indirectly, influenced so much by the West that the contribution of other cultures to the mainstream of world life is relatively negligible. So, when we talk about the modern approach to science we can, without hesitation, discuss the Western approach as the sole representative.

Does scientific knowledge need religion?

There is no doubt that scientific knowledge needs religion in order to become a blessing for mankind. Many times in history a number of scientists came to realize this but some of them were at a loss when they encountered a serious conflict between their faith and the results of their scientific investigations. The universal moral idea of a quest for objective knowledge owed its original psychological potency to the link with religion. Yet in another sense this close link was extremely fatal for moral ideas. The enormous growth of natural science had a great influence on the thought and practical life of man. Looking at what happened in the Western world, we see that the gradual increase in the cultivation of science resulted in a gradual decrease in the moral sentiment of people, in their attachment to religion. As a general phenomenon, this happened uniquely in the West although there had been a few, comparable individual incidents in the Islamic civilization also.

When Copernicus and Kepler had to face the moment of truth, they chose a road which apparently was not that of their religion. They felt that they had to state what appeared to be the real case, and that, on the whole, it would be more respectful of the Divine wisdom to act thus. By doing so, they served the intellectual integrity of mankind. Their standing against religion-at a time when the modern scientific spirit was still in its infancy in the West-in order to save the truth was a great blow to the dignity of Western religion. Since then, there has been an apparently irreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief, and most of the advanced minds were increasingly of the opinion that belief should be replaced by knowledge. Belief that did not itself rest on knowledge was considered superstitious. This mentality, no doubt, gave birth to a negative way of thinking about religion. But the problem was older than the rise of science. The root of Western belief was Judeo-Christianity and, long before the birth of science in the modern Western world, because of corruptions and interpolations in its Scriptures, the basic principles of Judeo-Christian belief had become so far removed from, so irrelevant to, the realities of nature and human affairs, that the religion lost the right to claim any authority over knowledge.

Barbarization of political and collective lifeAs there is, traditionally, a correlation between religion and morals, in the last few hundred years or so a

serious weakening of moral thought and sentiment occurred. This has been the main cause of the barbarization of political and collective life in recent times. The barbarization, together with the terrifying efficiency of new technological means, has posed a fearful threat for human well-being.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century when the West started to study nature independently, religion started to lose its influence on society. There was some effort to separate off, to secularize, the whole domain of science, but in the long run, knowingly or unknowingly, science became an enemy of religion which lost its esteem among enlightened people. In time, great scientific geniuses arose without any knowledge of religion or moral values. Owing to the great many contradictions in the religious reasoning in the West, the subtle influence of religious sentiments started to dry up in the mind of great scientists. Too many contradictory theories tried to explain the world. This is how science became (in Einstein’s sense of the term) ‘blind’ in the West: all means prove but a blunt instrument if they have not behind them a living spirit.

The Western world has for long concentrated its intellectual energies upon the study of the quantitative aspect of things and thus developed a science of physical nature. The very obvious fruits of this study in the physical domain have won the greatest respect for it among people everywhere.

Most Western people identified science with technology and its application. They acquired the power of technology and used it to make life more comfortable and secure, to liberate themselves from the forces of nature, but science contributed hardly anything at all to the moral or spiritual improvement of Western people. But, as the very success of this science had helped people to dismiss religion as incapable of guiding rational thought, no authoritative source remained to guide people towards noble actions or aspirations. Thus, in the West, science and technology became tools with which to dominate the rest of mankind, to uproot the people of many lands, to humiliate or destroy local cultures and beliefs, to altogether replace long-established social and economic structures, with the result that many indigenous peoples were deprived of dignity, self-confidence and direction. The effects of these policies are visible everywhere.

Exploitation of humankind by a scientifically well-equipped minority

This century has witnessed the exploitation of the majority of human beings in the world by a scientifically well-equipped minority who believed that it is their hereditary right to control the whole world. This powerful minority was not without discord among its own members whose conflicts have caused unparalleled sufferings for all of the world’s inhabitants. Two world wars, aided by the most brilliant technological advances, not only destroyed millions of human lives, they also deepened cynicism and hastened the disappearance of traditional moral values in many parts of the world, not only in the West. It cannot be denied that the power of Western science is (whatever any individual scientist may think or wish) very definitely on the side of a monstrously uneven distribution of world assets. Scientists say that three times as many people as are living today could easily be fed if technology were generously distributed and used properly everywhere. But the real scene is frustratingly different-millions die of hunger, malnutrition or very simple diseases; millions remain uneducated and live in miserable poverty with very little reason to hope for or expect improvement.

People thought that boundless material prosperity is sure to bring heavenly ease on earth, but in fact it caused endless complexities and painful degradation of human life. Science gave us power to communicate over long distances, to see the once unseen, to go where no human being could ever go before. But it took away our ease of mind and heart, serenity, damaged the aesthetic sense, turning us more or less into trivialized emotionless, mechanized creatures embarrassed to aspire to more than transient worldly pleasure or glory.

Too many theories about life are around in modern times, many of them so contradictory that people no longer believe that there can be any stable or consistent account of what is good and true, upon which to base a code of conduct. Man questions everything related to life. But he does not know, from within his own finite abilities, what he can find out about and what he cannot. There are some questions that arise in the human mind in response to which nothing absolutely true can be said using only human reasoning. Only religion can tell us something, give us some guidance, on such questions.

Science can (and should) ascertain only what ‘is’ but not what ‘should be’In the West, even those people who think that religion should be given a very esteemed position in

society, are not ready to allow it to dominate all aspects of life. They think that science can (and should) ascertain only what ‘is’ but not what ‘should be’. Religion, on the other hand, can (and should) deal only with the moral evaluation of human thoughts and action: it cannot justifiably speak of facts or relationships between facts. They suppose conflict to arise when a religious community insists on the literal or whole truthfulness of statements recorded in its Scriptures-in this case, the Bible. This is where the struggle of the Church against the doctrine of Galileo and Darwin belongs. On the other hand, representatives of science have often attempted to arrive at fundamental judgments with respect to values and ends on the basis of scientific methods and they too made themselves severe opponents of formal religion (Einstein, p.22).

Islamic approach to scienceWe turn now to discuss the Islamic approach to science, to its understanding of the relationship between

natural laws (the truths that modern science believes itself competent to inquire into) and the truths of religion which, in Islam, while mediated by Revelation, are nonetheless accessible to reason, intelligible.

In order to understand the essential spirit of Islam, an understanding of some of its fundamental principles, of its uniqueness, of the strong influence it has over Muslim hearts and minds, of its vision of the ultimate goals of human life in this world and the Hereafter, is extremely necessary. However, it must be admitted at the outset that it is difficult to express these ideas, strange to readers who are used to another way of thinking, in modern terms. To grasp the essential spirit of Islam, it is enough to recognize that God is One and that the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, the recipient and means of Revelation and a symbol of all creation, was sent by Him.

Islam may be said to have three levels of meaning. All beings in the universe are Muslim in the broadest sense, that is, they are surrendered (subject) to the Divine Will. Secondly, all men who will to accept the Revelation of the Qur’an and follow the teaching and example of the Prophet (Sunna) are Muslim in the formal sense that they surrender their will to the sacred law (Qur’an and Sunna). Then, thirdly, there is Islam of the level of pure knowledge and understanding. This is the contemplative level which has been recognized

throughout Islamic history as the highest, most inclusive level of submission, when a Muslim completely surrenders to God and ‘reflects’ the Divine Intellect according to his or her own degree. Thus, it should be clear, in Islam, ‘knowledge’ and ‘science’ are conceived in a way basically different from the contemporary Western concept of outward curiosity about the outer world and analytical speculation to satisfy that curiosity.

The arts and sciences in Islam are based on the Unity which is at the heart of the RevelationThe arts and sciences in Islam are based on the Unity which is at the heart of the Revelation. Just as the

great works of Islamic arts like the Alhambra or the mosques of Istanbul provide the patterns through which one can contemplate the Divine Unity manifesting itself in multiplicity, so do all Islamic sciences reveal the unity of nature (Nasr, 1964, p.35).

The aim of Islamic science as a whole, and more generally speaking of all the medieval and ancient cosmological sciences, is to show the unity and interrelatedness of all that exists, so that, in contemplating the unity of the cosmos man may be led to the Divine principle, of which that unity is the image.

The aim of Islamic scienceUnlike Western science, Islamic science seeks ultimately to attain such knowledge as will contribute

towards the spiritual perfection and deliverance of anyone capable of studying it, so its fruits are inward and hidden, its values are more difficult to discern. To understand it one is required to place oneself within its perspective and accept that it has different means from those of modern science. Although Islamic science did not bring about the degree (or, happily, the kind) of material prosperity and insatiable desire in society which modern science has brought about, its contributions in mathematics, physics, medicine, geology, geography, architecture, irrigation, medicine, or chemistry, are by no means negligible-more important, all were ultimately aiming to relate the corporeal world to its basic spiritual principles through knowledge.

The fundamental principles of Islamic science are also at variance with those of Western science in many other respects. Islam says that nature itself is a fabric of symbols which must be read and realized according to their meaning. The Qur’an is the counterpart of that text (nature) in human language. Both nature and Qur’an speak about the Power of the Almighty and Divine Unity. Understanding of His Power is very closely related with the profound understanding of His creation.

Unlike other religious Scriptures, the Qur’an encourages all Muslims to read and understand natureUnlike other religious Scriptures, the Qur’an encourages all Muslims to read and understand nature. The

Qur’an provides hints, discusses some basic concepts of science and claims all its verses to be absolutely true. The well-known writer, Maurice Bucaille, acknowledged that the Qur’an did not contain a single statement that was assailable from a modern scientific point of view. He declared: ‘The relationship between the Qur’an and science is a priori a surprise, especially as it turns out to be one of harmony and not of discord’ (Bucaille, 1975, p.110). In fact, this is the reason why no Muslim scientist ever faced, on account of his science, the kind of ‘crisis of faith’ or ‘moment of truth’ as Copernicus or Galileo did.

‘Believe in order to understand’Islamic principles also say that science, human knowledge in general, is to be regarded as legitimate and

noble only so long as it is subordinated to Divine Wisdom. Islamic scientists would agree with Saint Bonaventure’s axiom: ‘Believe in order to understand’. Like him, they insisted that science can truly exist only in conjunction with Divine Wisdom. So an independent and purely rationalist approach was never able to dominate the mainstream of Islamic scientific opinion. By contrast, the Western world, under the influence of increasing rationalism, went through a series of actions and reactions-the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation-such as never occurred in the Islamic world. Being free of any normative or spiritual value and cut off from Divine Wisdom, the West saw the rise of a new type philosophy and science profoundly different from their medieval antecedents. Europe in that period began to develop a science of nature that concerned itself only with the quantitative and material aspects of things.

We discussed the principles and general approach of Islam towards science, we turn now to the major sources of inspiration for the cultivation of science in the mind of a Muslim scientist. Dr Muhammad Aijazul Khalid of Damascus University says that, ‘In contrast to 250 verses which are legislative, some 750 verses of Holy Qur’an-almost one-eighth of the whole- exhort the believers to study nature, to reflect, to make the best use of reason and to make the scientific enterprise an integral part of the community’s life’. Here is one representative example of such verses:

You do not see in the creation of the All-Merciful any imperfection; return your gaze, do you see any flaw? Then return your gaze again and again. Your gaze comes back to you dazzled and weary. (67.3-4)

This in a sense is the faith of all scientists, the faith which most strongly inspires them. The deeper a man seeks, the more is his wonder excited, the more his gaze (perceptive and comprehending faculties) returns to him dazzled. Everywhere in the Qur’an we feel an obligation towards knowledge and science when we read verses like these:

Behold! in the creation of the heavens and earth and the alternation of night and day-there are indeed signs for men of understanding (3.190)We created not the heavens, the earth and all between them merely in idle sport (44.38)

In his book New Researches into Composition and Exegesis of the Qur’an, Dr Hartwig Hirschfeld says:We must not be surprised to find the Qur’an the fountainhead of sciences. Every subject connected with heaven or earth, human life, commerce and various trades is occasionally touched upon and this gave rise to the production of numerous monographs forming commentaries on parts of the Holy Book. In this way the Qur’an was responsible for great discussions, and to it was indirectly due the marvelous development of all branches of science in the Muslim world. This again not only affected the Arabs, but also induced Jewish philosophers to treat metaphysical and religious questions after Arab methods. (Hirschfeld, 1902)

Spiritual activity once aroused within Islamic bounds was not confined to theological speculations alone. Acquaintance with the philosophical, astronomical and medical writings of the Greeks led to the pursuance of these studies. In the descriptive revelations Muhammad [salla-llahu ’alayhi wa sallam] repeatedly calls attention to the movement of the heavenly bodies, as parts of the miracle of God forced into the service of man and therefore not to be worshipped. (ibid.)

Muslim minds tried to find the physical principles that govern the universe because to do so is a part of their obligatory worship. This is so clearly stated in the Holy Book that when Islam was in its golden age the practice of science was very common in the society. Brian Stock has remarked in his perceptive review Science and Technology and Economic Progress in the Early Middle Ages: ‘The most remarkable feature is . . . that science in one form or another was the part-time or full-time occupation of so a large a number of intellectuals-most of these men were not scientists, they were universalists, physicians, astronomers, lexicographers, poets and even theologians at the same time.’

In what way did Islam contribute to the Renaissance?In the West, after the establishment of Christianity, the Christian-dominated West was sunk in barbarism.

Yet two centuries after the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, the Islamic world under the Caliph Harun al-Rashid was far more active culturally than the contemporaneous world of Charlemagne-although the latter started earlier. At the time when restrictions on scientific development were in force in the Christian world, a very large number of studies and discoveries were being made at Islamic universities. George Sarton, a professor in the history of science at Harvard University, stated in his book The Life of Science that the foundations of science were laid for us by the Mesopotamian civilization (present-day Iraq) whose scholars and scientists were their priests. The second development in science came through the Greeks. The third stage of development, however, is to be credited to the meteoric rise of Islam. For nearly four hundred years Islam led the scientific world as, from Spain to India, the great body of past knowledge was exchanged between Muslim scholars and carried forward with new discoveries and new ideas. Scholars in Christendom, from about the eleventh century, were mainly occupied for over two hundred years in translating from Arabic

into Latin. Thus Islam paved the way for the European Renaissance, which in turn led to science’s fourth great development in the modern world (Sarton, 1971, pp.146-66).

For the very first time science took on an international character in the Islamic universities of the Middle Ages. At that time Muslims were more steeped in the religious spirit than they are today; but that did not inhibit, still less prevent, the best minds of the age from being both believers and scientists. Scientific knowledge was the twin of religious knowledge and it should never have ceased to be so.

In this century, most of the reformers of the Muslim world tried to preach the full message of the Qur’an, they did not exhort the Muslims to only religious knowledge. They understood that because of serious neglect of science, the Muslims had ceased to occupy the intellectual mainstream and thus gradually lost their ideological, social and political superiority. The great Turkish scholar Bediuzzaman Said Nursi asserted that the success of the contemporary Muslims in exalting God’s Word will be proportional to their advances in science, technology and civilization. He indicated the importance of science by saying: ‘For the Muslims it is a great adventure that the West has acquired science and knowledge, and Islam can therefore appeal to them more easily than at any time before’ (Nursi, 1960, p.78). In fact, Bebiuzzaman Said Nursi can be offered as an example of a true, devout Muslim whose love for science is stated in his beautiful expression: ‘There is a tendency in the cosmos towards perfection. Thus the creation of the cosmos follows the law of perfection’ (Nursi, 1977, p.13).

Mentality of world-dominating powers: ‘What is yours is ours and what is ours is ours’Developed countries in the world are now playing a great monopoly game over the resources and riches

of the earth. Newton, Maxwell or other geniuses are being used as the private intellectual property, the cultural heritage of the West. ‘Even though the developing countries need the help of industrialized countries to overcome the economic and ecological problems they face, the latter do not intend to share with the third world ‘their’ intellectual resources; in other words they refuse to transfer technology and know-how, however great the need for it . . . Their mentality is-what is yours is ours and what is ours is ours’ (Sayar, 1992).

By contrast, when, in Cordova the Arab built the first university in Europe, knowledge spread throughout Europe from Muslim sources. In the prestigious scientific journal, Nature, of 24th March 1983, Francis Ghiles raised the question: ‘What is wrong with Muslim science? . . . At its peak about one thousand years ago the Muslim world made a remarkable contribution to science, notably mathematics and medicine. Baghdad in its heyday and southern Spain built universities to which thousand flocked: rulers surrounded themselves with scientists and artists. A spirit of freedom allowed Jews, Christians and Muslims to work side by side.’

Scientific enterprise in Islam was of an international character. Muslim society was very tolerant of men from outside it, and of their ideas. Al-Kindi wrote: ‘It is fitting then for us not to be ashamed to acknowledge truth and to assimilate it from whatever source it comes to us. For him who scales the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself; it never cheapens or abases him who seeks’. So the goal of Muslim scientists was revealing the truth, not exploiting mankind by the use of it, as has been done by Western nations in recent centuries. The Muslims thought it to be a common heritage of mankind.

In this century, many influential Western scientists understood that the approach of their civilization towards science is sure to lead the world to a catastrophe. Many tried to find a solution and, just in trying to do so, came closer to the Islamic approach. Now many of them think that religion should be given a chance to make its impact on norms and aspirations, while science and technology are an evil instrument in the hands of cynical Western commercial-political interests.

In the dark years of the Cold War, Einstein said: ‘We, scientists, believe that what we and our fellow-men do or fail to do within the next few years will determine the fate of our civilisation. And we consider it our task untiringly to explain this truth, to help people realize all that is at stake, and to work, not for appeasement, but for understanding and ultimate agreement between peoples and nations of different views’. In 1990, at the Moscow meeting of a global forum of spiritual and political leaders, Carl Sagan (1990) urged: ‘Mindful of our common responsibility, we scientists, many of us long engaged in combating the environmental crisis, urgently appeal to the world religious community to [co-operate] in words and deeds, and as boldly as required, to preserve the environment of the earth.’

‘United Field Theory’This religion-oriented approach is increasingly referred to in the West. For example, merely to

understand how nature works we do not need to unify the fundamental forces-gravitational, electromagnetic and strong nuclear. But for the last thirty years of his life Einstein tried to find a theory that would do just that, called the ‘United Field Theory’, though he did not succeed. He had a deep faith that these forces are different manifestations of one and same entity. Again what Stephen Hawking has sought for a lifetime is a united and consistent theory that encompasses all the mysteries of the universe in a single set of equations. He says: ‘Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God’ (Hawking, 1988, p.175).

Understanding (or as Hawking puts it, reading) the ‘mind’ of God was one of the aims of the glorious centuries of Islamic science. That aim was the easier to pursue as it was supported by the Qur’anic revelation. And in future, God willing, scientific curiosity will be wholly motivated and guided by the Message of God and the resulting science truly be a blessing for mankind.

REFERENCESBucaille, Maurice (1975) The Bible, The Qur’an and Science, North American Trust Publications, Indianapolis.Einstein, A. Out of My Later Years, Greenwood Press Publishers, Westport, CT.Hawking , Stephen W. (1988) A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Bantam Press, London.Nasr, Sayyed Hossein (1964) Science and Civilisation in Islam, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said (1960) Hutbe-i Şamiye, Sinan Matbaasi, Istanbul.

-, (1977) Muhakemat, Sozler Yayinevi, Istanbul.Sagan, Carl (1990) American Journal of Physics, 58 (7) July, pp.15-19.Sayar, M.A. (1990) ’Is Technology a Common Heritage of Mankind’, The Fountain, 1(2), pp.4-7.Sarton, G. (1971) The Life of Science: Essays in the History of Civilisation , Books for Libraries Press, Free Port,

NY.