Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

74 • The Making of Islamic Scienceit serves its needs. In the case of individuals, a certain amount ofknowledge of Islam is deemed essential; for a community, knowledgeof various sciences is essential for fulfilling the practical needs ofthe community. This recognition has produced two categories ofobligations: personal and communal. It is the personal obligation(fard ‘ayn) of a believer to have a certain amount of knowledge ofhis or her dîn, but it is not everyone’s obligation to have expertisein astronomy or mathematics; this is instead the obligation of acommunity, if the need exists. Thus defined, scientific knowledge,whether furthering our understanding of the cosmos and its workingor merely fulfilling the practical needs of the community, becomesa “religious” duty incumbent on the whole community, meaningthereby that a certain number of individuals from the communitymust pursue it with the full financial, logistic, and moral support ofthe entire community. It is this religious obligation that provides anexus between Islam and the quest for scientific knowledge.The conceptual scheme for the “interaction of science andreligion” that emerges from this primary understanding of the natureand function of knowledge removes the duality inherent in the twoentitymodel, and allows us to understand the scientific endeavors ofMuslim scientists and scholars of the classical period on their ownterms. “I confined this book,” wrote al-Khwarizmi in the introductionto his Algebra, “to what men constantly need to calculate theirinheritance and legacies, [their] portions and judgments, in theirtrade and in all their dealings with one another [in matters involving]measurement of land, the digging of canals, and geometrical[calculations], and other matters involving their crafts” (Khwarizmi,tr. 1989, 4). In writing his book, which would inaugurate the scienceof algebra, al-Khwarizmi was fulfilling a fard ‘ayn, for which (he wrote)he hoped to receive recompense from the Creator.It can be argued that perhaps not all Muslim scientists saw theirscientific research in this manner; that they were interested in sciencefor its own sake, or that they were merely pursuing a career, providingbread and butter for their families. While these arguments hold someweight, and while it may even be shown that some Muslim scientistsof the period under consideration had no or very little commitmentto Islam, these and similar arguments do not render invalid the