Islam and Science

Islam and Science

The 6th century Islamic empire inherited the scientific tradition of late antiquity. They preserved it, elaborated it, and finally, passed it to Europe (Science: The Islamic Legacy 3). At this early date, the Islamic dynasty of the Umayyads showed a great interest in science. The Dark Ages for Europeans were centuries of philosophical and scientific discovery and development for Muslim scholars. The Arabs at the time assimilated the ancient wisdom of Persia and the classical heritage of Greece, as well as adapting their own ways of thinking (Hitti 363).

The Islamic ability to reconcile monotheism and science prooves to be a first time in human thought that theology, philosophy, and science were coordinated in a unified whole. Thus, their contribution was "one of the first magnitude, considering its effect upon scientific and philosophic thought and upon the theology of later times" (Hitti 580). One of the reasons for such development of science is probably due to God's commandment to explore the laws of nature. The idea is to admire all creations for its complexity and to cherish the creator for His ingenuity. Possibly holding to this belief, Islam's contributions to science had covered many roots of thought including mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy.

A common misconception today is that religion and science cannot coincide because they contradict each other. In the case of Islam, however, this statement has been disproven by verses in the Qur’an, hadeeth (prophetic tradition), and scientific discoveries by prominent Muslim philosophers. On the contrary, one of the traditions left by Prophet Muhammad teaches Muslims “to seek knowledge, though it be in China,” or not at arm’s length (Science in the Golden Age 8). Muslims are encouraged to use intelligence