Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

Islam and Modern Science: The Colonial Era • 165Badiuzzeman Said Nursi (1877–1960), founder of an importantintellectual and religious movement in Turkey. The nineteenthcenturyIranian philosophers who wrote in the grand tradition ofIslamic philosophy—which had found its greatest synthesis in theperson of Mulla Sadra (1571–1640)—include Sayyid MuhammadHusayn Tabataba’i (1892–1981), the author of a major commentaryon the QurāĀn, Al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-QurāĀn, Murtaza Mutahari (1920–1979), and Âyâtollah Hasan-Zade Aamuli (1929—). Let us explore thenew discourse in some depth.Islam as a Justifier for ScienceIn the wake of the arrival of European armies in Muslim lands, themost dominant approach to science rests on the perception that Islamis a religion that supports the acquisition of knowledge: modernscience is knowledge; acquisition of knowledge is an obligation of allbelievers; Muslims must, therefore, acquire science. This knowledge,it is further argued, cannot contradict Islam, for science studies theWork of God and the QurāĀn is the Word of God, and there can be nocontradiction between the two. First used by Muslim reformers in thenineteenth century and thereafter constantly promoted, this call to“acquire science” has remained unsuccessful. Most of the championsof this rallying cry were (and are) neither scientists nor religiousscholars but they are reformers, who considered the enterprise ofmodern science a means to power and progress. They saw Muslims inneed of both, and hence they used Islam to justify their agenda.The reformers’ Islam and science discourse often uses materialfrom Christianity and science debates, including the formulationdrawing the link between the “Work of God” (nature) and the“Word of God” (scripture). What they truly desire, however, isfundamentally neither science nor the study of nature; they wantto bring the Muslim world out of its state of dependence and decay.Among the early leaders of this approach to Islam and science wasSayyid Ahmad Khan (1817–1898), who was active in politics andeducation in the Indian subcontinent under British rule. He was toleave a deep mark on the new Islam and science discourse through