Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

Given these inherent relationships between God, humanity,and nature, it is impossible in Islam to conceive of nature asan independent, self-subsisting entity. Likewise, science—asan organized enterprise that studies and explores the naturalworld—cannot be conceived as a separate entity which has to besomehow externally related to Islam. In fact, the much-touted lack ofseparation of state and religion in Islamic polity is applicable to allother domains, as Muslims believe that Islam is not merely a set ofcommandments and rituals but a complete way of life, encompassingall domains of knowledge and human activity. This worldview isbased on an uncompromising insistence on Tawhid, the Oneness ofGod, a ubiquitous concept in Islamic thought that unifies all realmsof knowledge, making them branches of the same tree. Difficult asit may be for the modern Western mind—accustomed to regardingreligion solely as set of personal beliefs—to understand this aspectof Islam, it is impossible to construct a relationship between Islamand science—or any other domain of knowledge—as a relationshipbetween two distinctively separate entities.We need to understand this relationship like that of a motherand a child, in which a particular branch of knowledge—science—emerges from within the greater body of knowledge dealing withthe world of existing things, a world conceived as created by andontologically dependent upon the Creator. It is a relationship that isinherently inseparable from the well-articulated concept of nature asa Divine Sign.The next chapter explores the emergence of science in Islamiccivilization, its relationship with the Greek, Persian, and Indianscientific traditions and its flowering.z