Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

120 • The Making of Islamic Sciencethe word; they can neither be a “definition” nor a “description” ofexistence itself.The foregoing survey shows some of the inherent connectionsthat existed between Islam (the religion) and the science practiced inthe Islamic civilization. We have seen that the application of certaincontemporary frameworks of studying the relationship betweenscience and religion to Islam and science discourse often producesmisconceptions. We have also examined certain key cosmologicalschemes that emerged in Islamic civilization, and explored how theyconstrued the natural world. This discussion leads to a realizationthat there is a need to reinvestigate and reexamine certain basicnotions about this relationship on the basis of primary sources.Islamic scientific tradition was to gradually decline and eventuallydisappear. When did this decline start? Why? What was done toprevent it? These questions are discussed in the next chapter alongwith certain aspects of the transmission of science from Islamiccivilization to Europe.z