Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

212 • The Making of Islamic Sciencethe unerring functioning of all the laws of matter according to theirproperties, and the interplay of a wide range of dualities to producelogical results in the phenomenal world.In conclusion, let us mention a last example of the metaphysicaldiscourse on science. The writings of Syed Naquib al-Attas stand apartfrom the traditionalist school, but there are several common featuresas well. His writings on the relationship between Islam and sciencecan best be understood within the integrated system of thought hedeveloped on the basis of the application of traditional Islamicphilosophy (hikmah) to the contemporary situation. Examining sciencefrom the metaphysical perspective of Islam means a constructionthat takes into consideration the authority of revelation, soundtraditions of the Prophet, and intuitive faculties granted humanityby the Creator. One key aspect of al-Attas’s views on modern scienceis the epistemological considerations he brings to the discourse. Heobserves that Islamic metaphysics and modern science are based ontwo divergent foundations with regard to their respective positionsconcerning the sources and methods of knowledge. “It is implicit inal-Attas’s conception of science as ‘definition of reality’ that ‘science’is to be understood in the wide sense of the term as any objectivesystematic inquiry, including the intellectual, psychological, natural,social and historical disciplines” (Setia 2003, 172). In his opinion,modern science and philosophy suffer from a myopia that limits ourunderstanding of reality. “God is not a myth, an image, a symbol,that keeps changing with the times,” he wrote in his Islam and thePhilosophy of Science:He is Reality itself. Belief has cognitive content; and one of themain points of divergence between true religion and secularphilosophy and science is the way in which the sources andmethods of knowledge are understood. (al-Attas 1989, 3)Al-Attas’s critique of modern science considers the denial of thereality and existence of God—an implied component of modernscience—as the key source of all problems. Modern science conceivesthe existence of things in terms of their coming into being from otherthings, as a progression, a development or evolution. This perceptionof the world construes it as a self-subsistent system evolving accordingto its own laws.