تاريخ و تحقيق  HISTORY AND RESEARCH

The world in which we live today is very different from the medieval times and the difference can be attributed to science and its technological offspring. The advances made during the last two hundred years in the physical and biological sciences, have expanded our understanding of the world in an unprecedented manner. Similarly, the advances in the practical applications of science has given us an enormous control over the forces of nature and human minds. Scientific and technological knowledge has increased physical comforts, life expectancy and the standards of living beyond any expectation of our ancestors. But, several other things have accompanied the development of science.

1-Science and technology have been used for the destruction of our fellow human beings and the pollution of our environment, and a large number of scientists have been working in military research establishments producing means of mass destruction, and unfortunately the scientific community has played a passive role in this regard.

2- The goal of scientific activity has changed. Before the dawn of modern science, there were two main goals for the pursuit of scientific knowledge:

   For some people, scientific activity satisfied their sense of curiosity about nature and its mysteries and beauties. In this view, the most rewarding aspect of the pursuit of science lied in the aesthetics of its accomplishments, rather than in its practical results.

   Another old popular view about the goal of scientific enterprise is the outlook of the monotheistic religions towards nature. Here, scientific activity is for the sake of understanding God’s Handiwork in nature and to make care of essential needs of human individuals and human societies.

During the twentieth century a third attitude toward science became prevalent: seeking science for its practical or material benefits. This view has become dominant among many of the contemporary governments of the world, and since a large proportion of scientific activities is currently financed be governments and big industries, its effect is very much visible.

3- Before the development of modern science, scientists had a more comprehensive outlook towards the study of nature and were after giving a unified picture of the world. All parts of science had to be accommodated within their holistic world view. We can see this attitude among all of the eminent Muslim scientists of the Islamic civilization and among the pioneers of modern science ( Galileo, Kepler , Newton, Boyle,…).

In our time, however, scientists have become specialists who are mostly concerned with their own specialty rather than being after a holistic view of nature.

One reason for the development of this attitude has been the absence of philosophical concern among scientists and the prevalence of an instrumentalistic attitude among scientists ,being content with empirically adequate theories. The existence of some conceptual problems in some empirically successful theories, like quantum theory , has intensified this outlook.

4- Modern science confines itself to the material real, and confers reality only to those things that can be rooted in sense data. Empirical verification is the court of ultimate appeal.

Therefore, spiritual realities are considered either as unreal or reducible to physics. This has led to the negligence of God and the spiritual dimension of humankind and the separate development of science and culture, and it has led to the confinement of human beings to the material realm, with no higher aspiration than fulfilling their material needs.

5- It is a commonly held view in the scientific circles that science and ethics are two independent spheres of human concern.

The Need for a Change of Attitude

During the last fifty years, an increasing number of scientist have reached the conclusions that:

   Science alone cannot handle all problems of human concern

   Science cannot answer our so-called ultimate questions

   Science cannot answer even some of the questions which originate in science. Furthermore, it is silent about the meaning and purpose of human life and about morality.

   Science need some metaphysical basis to explain sciences’ success.

   Physical and natural sciences have become more or less divorced from what is going on in humanities and what is needed by human societies.

Now ,on the one hand, science and technology have brought many blessings for mankind and ,on the other hand, humankind is presently confronted by environmental pollution and degradation, mismanagement of natural resources, and enormous means of mass destruction. As we move into the future, the effects of science upon humanity increases at a rapid pace, and the question arises as to whether science should be allowed to develop freely without restrictions. Thus there is an urgent need to eliminate the causes of curses that could be brought about by science and technology. We believe that this could be achieved, if the following steps are taken.

   There has to be a revival of moral concern in the scientific enterprise. This means that future science should be frame in a more comprehensive framework that integrate science and moral values.

   contemporary science deals with the physical aspects of our world and ignores supra-sensible realities. This has resulted in contemporary science presenting a limited view of reality, and has made science and its products as demonic tools for deviating humanity from its God-assigned role. The solution lies in changing the direction and goal of science and technology and in seeking a unifying framework – a worldview-which accommodates all levels of reality and all aspects of human life.

In the Islamic outlook, science is framed within a theistic worldview that considers God as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, does not confine the existence to the material realm, believes in a telos for the created world and admits a moral order. The received view of science, however, is indifferent with respect to all these points. The Islamic view and the received view of science share the same methodology , i.e. they both involve experimentation ,observation and theoretical work. Their difference is in their underlying worldview which affects their outlook towards God, cosmos and humanity , and affects their decisions concerning the practical consequences of their scientific work. Contrary to what some scholars think, I don’t think that the commitment of Muslim scientists to the Islamic worldview would dissuade them from being equal partners in the world scientific community. The history of the glorious Islamic civilization is a good witness to this claim.

The Islamic conception of knowledge does not confine the knowledge of reality to the one obtained through experimentation and theoretical reasoning alone, and does not consider the scientific study of the world as exhaustive. Rather, by accommodating revelation and intuition, it encompasses spiritual as well as physical aspects of humanity and the cosmos, and it claims that there is more to reality than meets human eyes.