Science Islam and Cosmology ---A Detailed Survey!

Prof. Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi

In the following Pages we will discuss the matters relating to creation of the
universe and man and the Quranic perspective about the same. The theory
propounded about the creation of the universe and life on earth from Big Bang
is supporting creationist viewpoint against the perennial emanationistic view
and this comes closer to Islamic view about creation. Though there are many
grey areas where science cannot say anything as it has its inherent limitations
and secondly the anti-religion and anti-god stance science has adopted after
renaissance also prevents it to reach to such perfectionist understanding is
also to be taken into consideration .But despite all these points science is
reaching to its dead end by showing its inability regarding most of the unseen
realities or beings and creates scope for religious or philosophical
interpretation of the phenomena and noumenon .
The philosophers and scientists are divided in their opinions about the creation
of the universe and what was before the big bang, and they have different views
about the creation of the universe as at times they assume that the world came
into existence from nothing or from something like an egg. They are just
conjecturing and the conjecture is not any scientific truth and while as religion,
especially Islam has given very convincing arguments in favour of creation of
the universe at a point of time. But since there have been attempts by some
scientists and philosophers who have denied any role to the religion while the
discussion about the creation of the universe is taking place and they think that
religion has nothing to say about the universe creation cosmos or any other
science related matter, therefore, we will also discuss the relationship between
science and religion in Islamic perspective before discussing about Islamic
views about the creation and time etc.
To start with Cosmology is the most ambitious of all branches of science. It
aims to build a coherent unified description of the entire Universe as a single
system. This means not just the disposition of everything that exists at a
particular time, but also how this current state came about, and how it will
evolve into the future. This subject has made tremendous advances in recent
times. Remarkable observation developments, such as the Hubble Space
Telescope, have revealed the structure of objects so distant that the light we see
from them must have set out billions of years ago. These discoveries are rightly
applauded in the popular press and broadcast media alike, and the general
public seem generally fascinated by them. The ability to see ten billion light-
years across the Universe rightly fills us with wonder.1/
The word ‘cosmology’ is derived from the Greek ‘cosmos’ which means the
world as an orderly system. To the Greeks, the opposite of cosmos was ‘chaos’.
In their world-view the Universe comprised two competing aspects: the orderly
part that was governed by laws and which could be predicted, and the ‘random’
part which was disordered and unpredictable.
To make progress in scientific cosmology we do need to assume that the
Universe obeys laws, and that the same laws apply everywhere and for all time.
With the rise of quantum theory and its applications to the theory of subatomic
particles and their interactions, the cosmology has gradually ceded some of its
territory to chaos.
In the early twentieth century, the first systematic world models were
constructed based on Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This is a classical
theory, meaning that it describes a system that evolves smoothly with time. It is
also entirely deterministic. Given sufficient information to specify the state of
the Universe at a particular epoch, it is possible to calculate with certainty what
its state will be at some point in the future. In a sense the entire evolutionary
history described by these models is not a succession of events laid out in time,
but an entity in itself. Every point along the space-time path of a particle is
connected to past and future in an unbreakable chain.
If ever the word cosmos applied to anything, this is it. But as the field of
relativistic cosmology matured it was realized that these simple classical models
could not be regarded as complete, and consequently that the Universe was
unlikely to be as predictable as was first thought.
The Big Bang model gradually emerged as the favoured cosmological theory
during the middle of the last century, between the 1940s and the 1960s. It was
not until the 1960s, with the work of Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose,
that it was realized that expanding world models based on general relativity
inevitably involve a break-down of known physics at their very beginning.
The so-called singularity theorems demonstrate that in any plausible version of
the Big Bang model, all physical parameters describing the Universe (such as its
density, pressure, and temperature) become infinite at the instant of the Big
Bang. The existence of this ‘singularity’ means that we do not know what laws
if any apply at that instant. The Big Bang contains the seeds of its own
destruction as a complete theory of the Universe. Although we might be able to
explain how the Universe subsequently evolves, we have no idea how to
describe the instant of its birth. This is a major embarrassment. Lacking any
knowledge of the laws we do not even have any rational basis to assign
probabilities. We are marooned with a theory that lets in water.
The second important development was the rise of quantum theory and its
incorporation into the description of the matter and energy contained within
the Universe. Quantum mechanics (and its development into quantum theory)
entails elements of unpredictability. Although we do not know how to interpret
this feature of the theory, it seems that any cosmological theory based on
quantum theory must include things that cannot be predicted with certainty. 2/
One thing that has changed radically since the early twentieth century is the
possibility that our Universe may actually be part of a much larger collection of
Universes. The potential for semantic confusion here is enormous. The
Universe is, by definition, everything that exists. Obviously, therefore, there can
only be one Universe. In the ‘Many Worlds’ interpretation of quantum
mechanics there is supposed to be a plurality of versions of our Universe, but
their ontological status is far from clear. On the other hand, some plausible
models based on quantum field theory do admit the possibility that our
observable Universe is part of a collection of mini-universes, each of which
‘really’ exists. This is quite a different thing from the ‘quantum ensemble’
required by the many worlds doctrine.
According to the Big Bang model, the Universe (or at least the part of it we
know about) began about 14 billion years ago. We do not know whether the
Universe is finite or infinite, but we do know that if it has only existed for a
finite time we can only observe a finite part of it. We cannot possibly see light
from further away than fourteen billion light years because any light signal
travelling further than this distance would have to have set out before the
Universe began.
Roughly speaking, this defines our ‘horizon’: the maximum distance we are
able to see. But the fact that we cannot observe anything beyond our horizon
does not mean that such remote things do not exist at all. Our observable
‘patch’ of the Universe might be a tiny part of a colossal structure that extends
much further than we can ever hope to see. And this structure might be not at
all homogeneous: distant parts of the Universe might be very different from
ours, even if our local piece is well described by the Cosmological Principle.
Some astronomers regard this idea as pure metaphysics, but it is motivated by
plausible physical theories.
The key idea was provided by the theory of cosmic inflation. In the simplest
versions of inflation, the Universe expands by an enormous factor, perhaps, in
a tiny fraction of a second. This may seem ridiculous, but the energy available
to drive this expansion is inconceivably large. Given this phenomenal energy
reservoir, it is straightforward to show that such a boost is not at all
unreasonable.
With inflation, our entire observable Universe could thus have grown from a
truly microscopic pre-inflationary region. It is sobering to think that everything
—galaxy, star, and planet—we can see might be from a seed that was smaller
than an atom.
Peter Coles says: “But the point I am trying to make is that the idea of inflation
opens up one’s mind to the idea that the Universe as a whole may be a
landscape of unimaginably immense proportions within which our little world
may be little more than a pebble. If this is the case then we might plausibly
imagine that this landscape varies haphazardly from place to place, producing
what may amount to an ensemble of mini-universes. I say ‘may’ because there
is yet no theory that tells us precisely what determines the properties of each
hill and valley or the relative probabilities of the different types of terrain”. 3/
Many theorists believe that such an ensemble is required if we are to
understand how to deal probabilistically with the fundamentally uncertain
aspects of modern cosmology. This is not the case. It is perfectly possible to
apply probabilistic arguments to unique events like the Big Bang using
Bayesian inductive inference. If there is an ensemble, of course, then we can
discuss proportions within it, and relate these to probabilities too. Bayesians
can use frequencies if they are available, but do not require Them.4/
Often one particular theory emerges as most probable for a while, such as in
particle physics where a ‘standard model’ has been in existence for many years.
But this does not make it absolutely right; it is just the best bet amongst the
alternatives. Likewise, the Big Bang model does not represent the absolute
truth, but is just the best available model in the face of the manifold relevant
observations we now have concerning the Universe’s origin and evolution. The
crucial point about this methodology is that it is inherently inductive: all the
reasoning is carried out in ‘hypothesis space’ rather than ‘observation space’.
Science is, essentially, inverse reasoning. 5/
I am a cosmologist, and I do believe in the Big Bang. I do not believe it in
some religious sense. 6 /
Given a variety of competing hypothesis, it is more rational to believe in the
one that explains the largest number of experimental facts with the smallest
number of parameters. In the Bayesian framework the word ‘probability’ can be
used in place of ‘reasonable belief’. I think the Big Bang theory is more
probable than any other. This does not make it ‘right’ or ‘true’. It may be that
in future some other theory fills some of the gaps in modern cosmology, or
improves upon the Big Bang’s numerous successes. It may also be that
forthcoming observations are incompatible with the Big Bang, so that we will
be forced to ditch it even if there is no viable alternative.
To begin with, I have to outline the structure of the standard framework for
scientific cosmology. Cosmology, in some sense of the word, has been around
since the dawn of human existence.
Probably every human civilization has wondered about its place in the
Universe, why Nature is the way it is, and whether it all could have been
different. Many different modes of thought can be applied to these questions.
Painters, musicians and writers celebrate Nature and try to convey its
relationship to human life through their art. Theologians discuss the idea of
Nature as a manifestation of God. Science represents a relatively recent
innovation in human learning. In particular, the modern era of scientific
cosmology began less than a century ago with the work of Albert Einstein.
To understand how the Big Bang theory is constructed we have to look a little
bit at the mathematical theory that underlies it: Einstein’s general theory of
relativity, which was completed in 1915.
Einstein has still in a subtle way alluded to the Design of this Universe and has
shown wonder about this magnificent cosmos: “All of my life, I have been
fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific
answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make
sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe
exist." 7/
What could the scientists arrive at by their efforts after studying the Design and
working of the Universe is just the Big Bang. The big bang concept alleges that
some twenty billion years ago (give or take ten billion), all of the matter in the
known universe was tightly packed into a microscopic cosmic “egg.” One
writer expresses it this way: “Astonishingly, scientists now calculate that
everything in this vast universe grew out of a region many billions of times
smaller than a single proton, one of the atom’s basic particles”8/
This is truly an incredible statement! There were scientific explanations provide
by various religious communities about the origin of the universe. But it is very
strange that Carl Sagan arbitrarily says: “...the emerging scientific civilization
on our planet is mainly a Western civilization...”9/
Stephen Hawking, who is one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in
history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help non-scientists
understand fundamental questions of physics and our existence: where did the
universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if
so, how? He has asked the questions as asked by Sagan, but his tone is not that
harsh as that of Sagan.
Hawking attempts to deal with these questions (and where we might look for
answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully
covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time and
physicists' search for a grand unifying theory.
This is deep science; the concepts are so vast (or so tiny) that they cause mental
vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to
synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like
alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking for as Hawking
says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind
of God".
Dr. Mart de Groot, who views the big bang concept as “a possible way of
understanding the opening statement of the Bible, ‘in the beginning God . . .’,”
admits that there is an objective difficulty to the theory. And it is this: even if
the “primordial matter” exploded, he says, resulting in our present universe,
“what is the origin or source of this matter?” He confesses that “probably the
most serious shortcoming of the big bang is its inability to go back to the very
beginning of time and space” (1999, 20-23). The theory has far more
shortcomings than the matter of “matter commencement”!
According to the scientific calculated fifteen billion years age our universe did
not exist. Cosmic explosion the big bang “expanding from nothing to 2billion
km (1.25 billion miles) wide in single second, and it is still expanding today. At
present, scientists can only speculate about why the Big Bang occurred, but we
are beginning to understand what happened in the first few moments. The
term Big Bang was facetiously coined by the astronomer Fred Hoyle, who did
not believe in the theory. He considered it a return to an almost Biblical
version of creation. 10/
While talking about compatibility or incompatibility between science and
religion, there are diverse viewpoints. Moreover, there are scientists who
support the thesis that science and religion have parallel positions visa vis
various dimensions while describing the cosmos or the world and the related
issues. However, there are others who are for the reconciliation between
religion and science.
To start with Marcus Aurelius Antoninus says that: “The world is either the
result of order or of chance. If the latter, it is cosmos all the same. That is to
say it is a regular and beautiful structure. 11/
Interestingly to the much consternation of the reconcilers of science and the
religion, this saying of The Mahapurana (The Great Legend) Jinasena (India,
ninth century) as quoted by Sagan in the beginning of chapter x of his book is
a crude reminder:
“Some foolish men declare that Creator made this world. The doctrine that the
world was created is ill –advised, and should be rejected. If God created the
world, where was He before creation? How could God have made the world
worth out any raw material? If you say He made this first, and then the world,
you are faced with an endless regression.... Know that the world is uncreated,
as time itself is, without beginning and end. And it is based on the principles ...
12/
But this saying seems to be just a figment of imagination of this otherwise
great scientist and as is expected from modern scientist who have been
educated in the universities where religion was long back banished in all its
shades from all courses.
He calls the beginning of the universe a mystery and says: “Ten or twenty
billion years ago, something happened ---the Big Bang, the event that began
our universe. Why it happened is the greatest mystery we know. That it
happened is reasonably clear.” 13/
Yet a second blow to these reconcilers is :“If the general picture of an
expanding universe and a Big Bang is correct ,we must then confront still more
difficult questions .What conditions like at the time of the Big Bang ?What
happened before that ?Was there a tiny universe ,devoid of all matter ,and then
the mater suddenly created from nothing ?How does that happen ?In many
cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing
.But this is mere temporizing .If we wish courageously to pursue the question,
we must of course ask next where God comes from .And if we decide that the
origin of the universe is an unanswerable question .Or ,if we say that God
always existed ,why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always
existed “.14/
In one of his books, Dr. Robert Jastrow asserts that in the beginning “all matter
in the Universe was compressed into an infinitely dense and hot mass” that
exploded. Over many eons, supposedly, “the primordial cloud of the Universe
expands and cools, stars are born and die, the sun and earth are formed, and
life arises on the earth” (1977, 2-3). Dr. Jastrow is describing, of course, what is
commonly known as the big bang theory, and it does not require much critical
acumen to conclude that the concept is evolutionary to the core.
To generalize this very critical issue, Sagan, asks a question which is to avoid
the imminent and lurking natural question which is always a collarary to any
creation theory. He cursorily dismisses the religious view about ten creation of
the world.
Carl Sagan says: “We have far surpassed the science known to the ancient
world. But there are irreparable gaps in our historical knowledge. Imagine what
mysteries about our past could be solved with a borrower’s card to the
Alexandrian Library. We know of a three –volume history of the world, now
lost, by a Babylonian priest named Berossus.The first volume dealt with the
interval from the Creation to the Flood, a period he took to be 432,000 years or
about a hundred times longer than the Old Testament chronology. I wonder
what was in it”.15/
Carl Sagan cursorily denies religion any role in the description of a theory
about the cosmos and that is a biased approach.
The ancients knew that the world is very old. They sought to look into the
distant past. We know that the Cosmos is for older than they ever imagined.
We know now that our universe ----or at least its most recent incarnation ----is
some fifteen or twenty billion years old. This is the time since a remarkable
explosive event called the Big Bang. At the beginning of this universe, there
were no galaxies, stars or planets, no life no civilizations, merely a uniform,
radiant fireball filling all of space. The passage from the Chaos of the Big Bang
to the Cosmos that we are beginning to know is the most awesome
transformation of matter and energy that we have privileged to glimpse. And
until we find more intelligent beings elsewhere, we are ourselves the most
spectacular of all the transformations ---the remote descendants of the Big
Bang, dedicated to understanding and further transforming the Cosmos from
which we spring.” 16/
But presenting the Big Being as the beginning of the cosmos and thus denying
the Creator of the Universe does not solve the mystery behind the creation of
the world.
“The hydrogen was made in the big bang, the explosion that began the
Cosmos”17/.
The epic of cosmic evolution had begun, a hierarchy in the condensation of
matter from the gas of the Big Bang ----clusters of galaxies, stars, planets, and
eventually, life and intelligence able to understand a little of the elegant process
responsible for its origin” 18/
Though the scientists accept the creation of the universe with big bang and
then the expansion has taken place uninterrupted. But who brought this
Cosmos into existence and who gave motion to this universe, about this
question they are silent or resort to guess work. “It seems much more likely
that the universe itself was expanding, carrying the galaxies with it. Humason
and Hubble ---it gradually became clear, had discovered the Big Bang –if not
the origin of the universe then at least it’s most recent incarnation.”19/
It was not only Sagan, but there were people, before him even, who believed
that that religion has been always against science, come what may. For
example, Lenin regards religion opposite to sciences and says: “the proletariat
of today takes the side of socialism, which enlists science in the battle against
the foe of religion, and frees the workers from their belief in the life after death
by wielding them together to fight in the present for a better life on the earth.
20/
He says further that religion has no concern with State and for a communist it
has no validity in any sphere of life. “We demand that religion be held a private
affair so far as the State is concerned.”21/
The views of other communist writers are also very negative about religion as
in their view Religion is deeply hostile to science. Thus writes Afenssaya:
“Science and religion are incomparable, science gives man true knowledge of
the world and the laws of its development. It helps him to master natural and
social forces to arrange production. Religion on the other hand distorts the
essence of the world, gives wrong interpretation to it, stultifies the mind and
will of man and progress.”22/
Thus we can say that the conceptions about science old and new do not match
still, however certain modern ideas about science are found throughout history.
Both being “complex social and cultural endeavors” and there has been change
in these relations between science and religion given the milieu in which we
talk about science.
Before scientific revolution many technical innovations were achieved by the
societies orgainsed by religious traditions. Elements of the scientific method
were pioneered by ancient pagan, Islamic, and Christian scholars. Roger Bacon,
who is often credited with formalizing the scientific method, was a Franciscan
friar. Hinduism has historically embraced reason and empiricism, holding that
science brings legitimate, but incomplete knowledge of the world and universe.
Confucian thought has held different views of science over time. Events in
Europe such as the Galileo affair, associated with the scientific revolution and
the Age of Enlightenment, led scholars such as John William Draper to
postulate a conflict thesis, holding that religion and science have been in
conflict methodologically, factually and politically throughout history. This
thesis is held by some contemporary scientists such as Richard Dawkins,
Lawrence Krauss, Peter Atkins, and Donald Prothero. However, the conflict
thesis is not a favoured one in the circles of most contemporary historians of
science
Many scientists, philosophers, and theologians throughout history, such as
Francisco Ayala, Kenneth R. Miller and Francis Collins, have seen
compatibility or independence between religion and science. Biologist Stephen
Jay Gould, other scientists, and some contemporary theologians hold that
religion and science are non-overlapping magisteria, addressing fundamentally
separate forms of knowledge and aspects of life. Some theologians or historians
of science, including John Lennox, Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme and Wilber
propose an interconnection between science and religion, while others such as
Ian Barbour believe there are even parallels.
In one of his books, Dr. Robert Jastrow asserts that in the beginning “all matter
in the Universe was compressed into an infinitely dense and hot mass” that
exploded. Over many eons, supposedly, “the primordial cloud of the Universe
expands and cools, stars are born and die, the sun and earth are formed, and
life arises on the earth” (1977, 2-3). Dr. Jastrow is describing, of course, what is
commonly known as the big bang theory, and it does not require much critical
acumen to conclude that the concept is evolutionary to the core.23/
BIG BANG: "Penrose says: "As far as we can tell from using our most powerful
telescopes-both optical and radio--the universe, on a very large scale, appears to
be rather uniform; but, more remarkably, it is expanding. The farther away that
we look, the more rapidly the distant galaxies (and even more distant quasars)
appear to be receding from us. It is as though the universe itself was created in
one gigantic explosion --an event referred to as the big bang, which occurred
some ten thousand million years ago. )24 /
BLACK HOLE: According to the strict classical theory of general relativity,
black holes can only swallow things; they cannot emit things. But by taking
quantum-mechanical effects into account, Hawking (1975) was able to show
that black holes ought, at the quantum level, to be able to emit things after all,
according to the process of radiation. 25/
BIG CRUNCH: Einstein’s general relativity that this positively closed universe
cannot continue to expand forever. After it reaches a stage of maximum
expansion, it collapses back in on itself, finally to reach zero size again in a
kind of big bang reverse. This time-reversed big bang is sometimes referred to
as the big crunch.26/
RATIONAL LAWS: "At the time of receiving Wolf prize in Physics in Israel
given to Hawking and Penrose in 1988, he took opportunity to speak for peace:
"The progress of science has shown us that we are a very small part of the vast
universe, which is governed by rational laws. It is to be hoped that we can also
govern our affairs by rational laws, but the same scientific progress threatens to
destroy us as all.... Let us do all we can to promote peace and so insure that we
all survive till the next century and beyond. 27/
While in Israel, Stephen was asked by a reporter about his religious beliefs.
Stephen said that he " did not believe in God and there was no room for God
in his universe." Larsen. He called brief history of time "history of the universe
"28/
However, this book facilitated our "being in touch with the big questions:
Where did we come from, and how did it all begin"29/
Despite its reputation as a formidable text, readers were immediately grown in
by the introduction, written by famed American popularizer of science, Carl
Sagan. He described the work as "a book about God ...or perhaps about the
absence of God,” drawing attention to Hawking scientific goal of understanding
the mind of God. Sagan also wrote that this understanding “makes all the more
unexpected the conclusion of the effort, at least so far: a universe with no edge
in space, no beginning or end in time, and nothing for a Creator to do."30/
"We shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take
part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe
exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human
reason---for then we would know the mind of God."31/
This according to Larsen was a "controversial passage destined to become an
often repeated and cited quotation, that claimed that when and if the true
unified theory in physics is discovered "32/
"It seems entirely natural to wonder what happened before the Big Bang. The
question has been posed, especially though not exclusively, by the theologically
motivated, who wish to explore the relation of God to the moment of the
universe creation. In fact, though the question itself is essentially meaningless,
because both space and time were created at the moment of Big Bang. In the
analogy used by the British physicist Stephen Hawking, it is like asking what
lies north of the North pole -a question that is generally acknowledged to make
no logical sense. In his celebrated 1988 book A Brief History of Time, Hawking
explains the concepts involved more fully: “one may say that time had a
beginning at the Big Bang, in the sense that earlier times simply would not be
defined. It should be emphasized that this beginning in time is very different
from those that had been considered previously. In an unchanging universe a
beginning in time is something that has to be imposed by some being outside
the universe; there is no physical necessity for a beginning. One can imagine
that God created universe at literally any time in the past. On the other hand,
if the universe is expanding, there may be physical reasons why there had to be
beginning. One could still imagine that God created the universe at the
instant of the Big Bang, or even afterwards in just such a way as to make it
look as though there had been a Big Bang, but it would be meaningless to
suppose that it was created before the Big Bang. An expanding universe does
not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he might have carried
out his job!”.33/
The idea that the universe had a specific time of origin has been philosophically
resisted by some very distinguished scientists. We could begin with Arthur
Eddington, who experimentally confirmed Einstein's general theory of relativity
in 1919. He stated a dozen years later: "Philosophically, the notion of a
beginning to the present order is repugnant to me and I should like to find a
genuine loophole." He later said, "We must allow evolution an infinite amount
of time to get started."
Albert Einstein's reaction to the consequences of his own general theory of
relativity appear to acknowledge the threat of an encounter with God. Through
the equations of general relativity, we can trace the origin of the universe
backward in time to some sort of a beginning. However, before publishing his
cosmological inferences, Einstein introduced a cosmological constant, a "fudge
factor," to yield a static model for the universe. Einstein later considered this to
be the greatest blunder of his scientific career.
Einstein ultimately gave grudging acceptance to what he called "the necessity
for a beginning" and eventually to "the presence of a superior reasoning
power." But he never did accept the reality of a personal God.
In 1946, George Gamow, a Russian-born scientist, proposed that the primeval
fireball, the "big bang," was an intense concentration of pure energy. It was the
source of all the matter that now exists in the universe. The theory predicts that
all the galaxies in the universe should be rushing away from each other at high
speeds as a result of that initial big bang. A dictionary definition of the hot big
bang theory is "the entire physical universe, all the matter and energy and even
the four dimensions of time and space, burst forth from a state of infinite or
near infinite density, temperature, and pressure."
The 1965 observation of the microwave background radiation by Arno Penzias
and Robert Wilson from the Bell Telephone laboratories convinced most
scientists of the validity of the big bang theory. Further observations reported
in 1992 have moved the big bang theory from a consensus view to the nearly
unanimous view among cosmologists: there was an origin to the universe
approximately 15 billion years ago.
About the 1992 observations, which were from the COBE (the NASA satellite
Cosmic Background Explorer), there was a story on the front page of virtually
every newspaper in the world. The thing that the London Times, New York
Times, etc. seemed to pick up on was a statement by George Smoot, the team
leader from the Lawrence-Berkeley Laboratory. He said, "It's like looking at
God." Obviously, this captured the public's attention. A somewhat soberer
assessment of the findings was given by Frederick Burnham, a science-
historian. He said, "These findings, now available, make the idea that God
created the universe a more respectable hypothesis today than at any time in
the last 100 years."
Not everyone was ecstatic about these observations that revealed the so-called
"big bang ripples." Certainly, those who had argued so strongly and
passionately for a steady-state model of the universe didn't like the
interpretation of these results at all--primarily two persons, Fred Hoyle, the
British astronomer, and Jeffrey Burbidge, a very distinguished astrophysicist at
the University of California at San Diego.
In the early part of the 20th century the universe was considered to be
static and this was extremely puzzling, because due to gravitational attraction
the matter would move towards each other and clump together.
The solutions of the Einstein’s equations of General Relativity
predicted that the universe is not static; it is either expanding or contracting.
Soon after this, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe was indeed
expanding and Einstein had to retract the extra term “cosmological constant”
that he had introduced into the equations, purely to get a static universe. The
introduction of the cosmological constant was termed as his biggest blunder by
Einstein himself. In 1922 Alexander Friedman also found that the universe is
expanding. The discovery that the universe is expanding was one of the greatest
intellectual revolutions of the 20th century. Once the expansion of the
universe is established, two questions arise naturally. First is whether the
universe will continue to expand forever or will it start contracting after some
time? Secondly if one extrapolates back in time, it follows that the universe
must have become denser and denser as one moves back in time. Could it be
that the universe began from a singularity popularly known as the big bang?
Big Bang: The big bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the
expanding universe and its large-scale evolution. The model accounts for the
fact that the universe expanded from a very high density and high temperature
state and offers a comprehensive explanation for a broad range of phenomena,
including the abundance of light elements, the cosmic microwave background,
large scale structure and Hubble's Law. If the known laws of physics are
extrapolated beyond where they have been verified, there is a singularity. Some
estimates place this moment at approximately 13.8 billion years ago, which is
thus considered the age of the universe. After the initial expansion, the universe
cooled sufficiently to allow the formation of subatomic particles, and later
simple atoms. Giant clouds of these primordial elements later coalesced
through gravity to form stars and galaxies.
According to Lawrence Krauss:"The big bang picture is too firmly grounded in
data from every area to be proved invalid in its general features." In the mid-
1960s two researchers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, working at Bell Labs
in New Jersey, detected leftover, cooled down radiation from the early universe
by carefully scanning the sky with a device called the Holmdel horn antenna.
Their discovery is important evidence in support of the Big Bang theory and
won them the Nobel Prize in 1978.
As a description of the origin of the universe, the Big Bang has
significant bearing on religion and philosophy. As a result, it has become one
of the liveliest areas in the discourse between science and religion. Some believe
the Big Bang implies a creator and some see its mention in their holy books,
while others argue that Big Bang cosmology makes the notion of a creator
superfluous.
But if we see this phenomenon yet seriously the Big Bang may be the
endorsement of the scientific community about the act of creation rather than
emanation. Because before the modern renaissance mostly the emanation
theory was being invoked to show that this world has emanated from the
Divine being and there had been the gradation and hierarchy in these
emanatory processes and the Enneads of Plotinus was instrumental in making
people to think in these terms. Muslims Christians Hindus and many others
communities received Hellenistic philosophy religiously and many Sufi groups
and individuals accepted the emanation consciously or unconsciously and thus
denied the act of creation on the part of the Divine Being but when we say that
there has been a Big Bang and this was the starting point of creation and
expansion of the universe, diversified in different life forms subsequently ,it
becomes a plausible explanation contrary to the eternity of world theory of
Greeks and others untenable and even makes Ghazzalian rebuttal and labelling
philosophers infidels meaningful , because of their various erroneous beliefs
including their belied in the eternity of the world.
Thus seen in this backdrop we can say that there are different views about
science and religion and the status of both regarding each other .Islam has also
a view point about the universe and the creation about the universe .In the
Quran as many as 750 verses deal with natural phenomena and there are scores
of verses which demand from the believers to study nature after observing the
alternation of day and night and difference in the process of creation of heavens
and earth, which also is a fact alluding to go for scientific inquiry. The history
of Muslim scientists like Al-Biruni and Al-Battani have derived their inspiration
from verses of the Quran. The "scientific observation, experimental knowledge
and rationality" are the primary tools with which humanity can achieve the
goals laid out for it in the Quran. There are Muslim scholars like Ziauddin
Sardar, who have gone to the extent of saying that Muslims have developed the
foundations of modern science, because in his view there repeated calls of the
Quran “to observe and reflect upon natural phenomenon”. It is believed that
“the 'scientific method,' as it is understood today, was first developed by
Muslim scientists" like Ibn al-Haytham and Al-Biruni, along with numerous
other Muslim scientists.
The astrophysicist Nidhal Guessoum has also endorsed that the Quran, helped
in the process of developing "the concept of knowledge." He writes: "The
Qur'an draws attention to the danger of conjecturing without evidence (And
follow not that of which you have not the (certain) knowledge of... 17:36) and
in several different verses asks Muslims to require proofs (Say: Bring your proof
if you are truthful 2:111), both in matters of theological belief and in natural
science." Guessoum cites Ghaleb Hasan on the definition of "proof" according
the Quran being "clear and strong... convincing evidence or argument." Also,
such a proof cannot rely on an argument from authority, citing verse (5:104).
Lastly, both assertions and rejections require a proof, according to verse
(4:174).
Ismail al-Faruqi and Taha Jabir Alalwani are of the view that any reawakening
of the Muslim civilization must start with the Quran; however, the biggest
obstacle on this route is the "centuries old heritage of Tafsīr (exegesis) and
other classical disciplines" which inhibit a "universal, epistemological and
systematic conception" of the Quran's message. The philosopher Muhammad
Iqbal considered the Quran's methodology and epistemology to be empirical
and rational.
The physicist noble laureate Dr. Abdus Salam believed there is no contradiction
between Islam and the discoveries that science allows humanity to make about
nature and the universe; and that the Quran and the Islamic spirit of study and
rational reflection was the source of extraordinary civilizational development.
Salam highlights, in particular, the work of Ibn al-Haytham and Al-Biruni as
the pioneers of empiricism who introduced the experimental approach,
breaking away from Aristotle's influence, and thus giving birth to modern
science. Salam differentiated between metaphysics and physics, and advised
against empirically probing certain matters on which "physics is silent and will
remain so," such as the doctrine of "creation from nothing" which in Salam's
view is outside the limits of science and thus "gives way" to religious
considerations.
When we talk about Islam, the cosmology of it rests upon faith in the unseen
being definable as the unknown actuality that exists beyond senses and to an
intellectual scientific, and empirical perceptions, and which constitutes higher
order of reality and the control focus of all the movements, laws, and
phenomena of this world.” 34/
Nobel laureate, Dr. Abdus Salam says: “As a scientist the Quran speaks to me
in that it emphasizes reflection on the laws of nature, with examples drawn
from cosmology, physics, biology and medicine, as signs for all men. Thus “can
they not look up to the clouds, how they are created; and to the heaven how it
is upraised; and the mountains how they are rooted, and to the earth how it is
put spread.35/
And again he says: “Verily in the creation of heavens and of the earth; and in
the alteration of the night and day, there are indeed signs for men of
understanding. (3:190)” Seven hundred and fifty verses of Quran (almost one
eighth of the book) exhort believers to study nature, to reflect, to make the best
use of the reason in their search for the ultimate and to make the acquiring of
knowledge and scientific comprehension part of the community’s life. The holy
prophet of Islam (P.B.U.H) emphasized that the quest for knowledge of science
are compulsory for each Muslim men and women. Abdul Salam continues and
says: “This is the first premise on scientific knowledge with which any
fundamentalist thinking in Islam must begin. Add to this the second premise
eloquently reinforced by Maurice Bucaille in his essay on the Bible, the Quran
and Science. There is not a single verse in the Quran where natural
phenomenon is described and which contradicts what we know for certain
from our discoveries in sciences.” 36/ `
“Add to this the third premise in the whole of Islamic history there has never
been an incident like that of Galileo’s persecution, ex-communication (takfeer),
even today there may be over doctrine difference, but never, to my knowledge
for scientific beliefs. And paradoxically, the first inquisition (mihna) in Islam
came to be instituted, not only by the orthodox theologians but by the so-called
rationalists, the mutazhala themselves who prided themselves on the use of
reason. The saintly Ahmed Ibn Hanbal was one of those subjected to the lash
of their fury. 37/
One of the important features of Islam is that it has provided its own scheme
of epistemology, ontology, ethics and philosophy and has discussed all these
matters in relation to the “ultimate reality”, and has never missed the
teleological orientation of its scientific worldview. Since the Quran is the final
revelation of God for the guidance of humankind, it caters all the needs of
human life and Science being the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of
the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on
evidence, there can be no contradiction between the basic objectives of religion
and science .Though ,when science has been reoriented towards atheistic and
materialistic weltanchuaaangs by many scientists ,we have to be careful about
over simplifying the relation between science and Islam . Generally science is a
system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation and
methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge
human beings have gained by such research. Scientists maintain that scientific
investigation needs to adhere to the scientific method, a process for evaluating
empirical knowledge that explains observable events without recourse
to supernatural notions.
In Islam, nature is not seen as something separate but as an integral part of
a holistic outlook on God, humanity, the world and the cosmos. These links
imply a sacred aspect to Muslims' pursuit of scientific knowledge, as nature
itself is viewed in the Qur'an as a compilation of signs pointing to the Divine.
[
 It was with this understanding that the pursuit of science, especially prior to
the colonization of the Muslim world, was respected in Islamic civilizations.
The mastery over scientific and technological enterprise is a pre requisite for leadership in
Islamic perspective also. To start with the Quran says that for leadership of the world two
ingredients are urgent: Excellence in knowledge and bodily prowess. For example, Samuel
has been reported to have said: "Allah hath chosen him above you, and hath gifted him
abundantly with knowledge and bodily prowess”.

Before talking about technology we need to talk about knowledge in the Qur’anic
perspective.

Lisan al-Arab mentions that the term ilm is one of the attributes of Allah, as He has been
described as Aleem, Alim and Allam in the Quran. He is the Most Exalted and His
knowledge encompasses everything of the world, His knowledge is inclusive of all things and
covers their external and internal reality, niceties and shortcomings to the most perfect level.
(ala atama imkan), while as aleem is on the measure of faieel and is an extensive noun, its
usage can be extended to man as well, as the prophet Joseph said :“(Joseph) said: "Set me
over the storehouses of the land: I will indeed guard them as one that knows (their
importance)."(12:55) Or “And so amongst men and crawling creatures and cattle are they of

various colours. Those truly fear Allah among His Servants who have Knowledge: for Allah
is exalted in Might Oft-Forgiving”. (35:28), in this verse Allah the most exalted informs us
that among the servants only the scholars fear Allah the most. Here by scholars the scientists
are meant as the phenomenon of nature mentioned here pertains to science and not to purely
theological subjects.

The Interpretation of dreams, given to Joseph, was also called ilm, which in a sense was a
realm falling outside the domain of seen world, apart from the knowledge about economic
matters based on inspirations.

Sometimes the term ilm has been used in the sense of action. According to Ibn Mas’ud
knowledge is not merely the excessive information about the traditions but rather it is
consisting on fear of Allah. Some people say that in real sense of the term the meaning of the
Alim is a person who also puts his knowledge to actions. 38/

According to Raghib Isfahani the mention of teaching the Adam the names of things,
indicates that the talent of speech had been kept latent in Adam by Allah as a propensity by
using that talent Adam was able to name everything, this naming of all the things was made
possible by revealing the same on the heart of Adam. This process can be understood by
making an analogy to the revealing the names of animals of the jobs they are performing and
He has given them the voice they are making use of.

“One person who had knowledge of the Book said: "I can bring it to you in the twinkling of
an eye." As soon as Sulaiman saw the throne placed before him, he exclaimed: "This is by the
grace of my Rabb to test me whether I am grateful or ungrateful. Any who is grateful? Surely
his gratitude is a gain for his own soul, and any who is ungrateful should know that surely my
Rabb is Self-Sufficient, Self-Exalted." (27:40) is also about a person who had the knowledge
of the book and that ilm indicates the special knowledge as we have already discussed.

The aalamun is such a thing by which we know anything as it is used as an instrumental

noun like tabih meaning ma yutbah bhi or katamun meaning thereby ma yukhtama bhi and in
the same way since we get knowledge about Allah through the universe therefore the whole
universe is called as an Al-Aalm. It is perhaps for the same reason that we have been exhorted
again and again by the Quran to have a ponderous consideration on the universe in order to
get the gnosis of the unity of Allah. 39/

Thus the concept of knowledge from the above seems most comprehensive and includes
science technology and other all branches of sciences which are found in the world by the
name of knowledge even interpretation of dreams and information about economic matters
etc.

Moreover, apart from such a holistic view about knowledge the Quran has given us such
notions like caliphate, which indicates that we are responsible creatures to make the earth a
better place. But to guard against arrogance man has been admonished to walk around to see
the fate of earlier nations. Some of the important tenets Islam has integrated with ilm
are:  Khilafah, 2-ibadah, 3-tawhid 4 akhirah, 5-ilm, 6 Halal
Islam has prohibited haram things for man as a caliph and commanded him to enjoin adl and
remain away from all kinds of Zulm.
Moreover, man has been made master of the universe and he has been given enormous
potential to explore this universe. But to stop man from aggrandizement, Khilafah is to be
reconciled with Ibadah.
Surah Rehman talks about sultan which is taken by modern scholars in the sense of the
capacity of man to acquire knowledge to travel to space.
These objectives inculcated by Islamic vision and weltanschauung in all activities of man
including knowledge and science were espoused by people for some time, in the context of
modern science also. For example, the great chemist Sir Robert Boyle maintained that the
science was for the “Greater glory of God and for the good of mankinfd”.40/
Furthermore, earlier the natural sciences were seen as a progressive force closely linked to
the enhancement of human welfare. To Francis Bacon, science was subordinate to charity and
of charity there could be no excess. However, the perception of the natural science, which
was close to the Islamic epistemology, could not stand the onslaught of new materialism of
the West. The natural sciences in their new incarnation came to the help of chauvinistic self-
interest. Hitler was helped by these sciences in claiming the overall superiority of the Aryan
race.
The framework of Darwin’s Evolutionary Biology was set by metaphors (i.e. competition of
the species, struggle for existence and survival of the fittest etc.) which reflected the norms
for the new society ad contributed to the subsequent development of a dehumanised social
ideology based on these biological notins,”41/
With the gross materialization of modern science and technology the perception of the people
has undergone a drastic change. Noble Laureate E.B Chain claimed: “science has no moral
and ethical quality and this applies to the physical as well as biological sciences.” 42/
In this situation if we ignore this aspect any more it will be suicidal for our Islamic
individuality and personality and we will face challenges which will be unprecedented. In the
back drop of the fact that the secular education is dominant in Muslim countries, Muslim
thinkers are  becoming worried that gradually the Muslim world will lose its identity by
losing its Islamic character and will thus suffer from the same moral disintegration and
confusion as the west. They think that Muslim world can preserve that identity and preserve
the Ummah from the confusion and erosion of values and from the conflict between religious
and secular groups only if Muslims receive a truly Islamic education. They further have
started realizing the fact that education can be truly Islamic if Muslim scholars can produce
Islamic concepts for all branches of knowledge and Muslim countries can disseminate them
among Muslim intellectuals and students. This requires research projects, production of text
books, and properly devised teacher –training programmes. 43/
In presence of these all challenges before us, how can we teach our Muslim generations
science and technology is worth consideration.
To start with Qur’anic observations with respect to scientific and physical phenomenon have
astonished scientists and scholars throughout history. The Quran is a book that has produced
a fresh and energetic Civilisation which has restored to humankind its dignity, purpose, and
honour. 44/
Islamic education begins with the development and training of human mind and character,
which has been explained by the term Tazkiyah. The skills in learning processes ensue
simultaneously and lead finally to the phases of enlightenment, civilization and
spiritualization of an instructed, which has been explained by the Qur’anic terms
of Hikmah and Taileem-al-Kitāb. However, since Islam does not make any bifurcation
between mundane and spiritual spheres of life, questions which advocates of "utility and
ornamental" theories of education have raised seem irrelevant. Here, the scope for "making
machines and men” is intact. The bodily desires are to be fulfilled alongside the mental,
psychological and spiritual urges of the educated in particular and the commonality of the
people in general. However, the teleological Paradigm remains glaringly present in all such
educational and techno-scientific activities, which saves the instructed from lapsing in the pit
falls of one-sidedness.
In each of the early Surahs, God spoke intimately to the individual, often preferring to pose
many of his teachings in the form of a question…” have you not heard”? Do you consider?
’Have you not seen? ” Each listener was thus invited to interrogate him or herself. Any
response to these queries was usually grammatically ambiguous or indefinite, leaving the
audience with an image on which to meditate but with no decisive answer. This new religion
was not about achieving metaphysical certainty: the Quran wanted people to develop a
different kind of awareness.”45/
In his famous “History of Human Society”, Professor Frank Blackmore of the University of
Kansas writes:” In every country that was conquered, the first duty of Islam to build a
mosque in which Allah would be worshipped and his prophet honoured. Attached to this
mosque was a school where people were taught to read and study the Quran. From this initial
point they enlarged the study, the science, literature and art, and, through the appreciation of
these sublime things, they collected the treasures of art and learning wherever these could be
found. From imitation they passed on to the great field of creation, and great advances were
made to the sum of human knowledge. Schools were founded, great universities established,
and libraries were built which laid the permanent foundations of knowledge.”46/
Hart wig Hirschfield says: “we must not be surprised to find the Quran the fountain head of
sciences. Every subject connected with heaven or earth, human life, commerce and various
trades are occasionally touched upon, and this gave rise to the production of numerous
monographs forming commentaries of the holy book………how successfully Moslem people
of all races pursued the study of astronomy is shown by the fact that for centuries they were
its principal supporters. Even now many Arabic names of stars and technical terms are in use.
Medieval astronomers in Europe were pupils of the Arabs …. In the same manner the Quran
gave an impetus to medical studies and recommended contemplation and study of Nature in
general”47/
Thus, in light of the above confessions of the leading scholars, Uloom can be classified
as nafiah and ghair nafiah but not as Islamic and non-Islamic from the religious point of
Islam. Because the Muslims in the times of the Prophet (SAW) and even afterwards were
ahead of all other nations in the acquisition of all sciences and technologies though these
were in crude form given the pace of technological advancement in medieval period.
For example the prophets’(SAW) adopting the Khandaq technology during the battle
of Ahzab on the advice of Salman of Persia  (RA) and sending letters to the rulers with the
prophetic seal .The arranging of education of Ansar boys by the prisoners of war belonging
to Makkan infidels and taking Areqat as the guide at the time of Hijrah by none else than the
Prophet (SAW ) and exhorting Umar Ibn Abdullah Ibn Aas (RA) to learn Hebrew language
and the mastery of Zayd Ibn Thabit of  Hebrew and Syraic languages are only few examples
of that glorious past where knowledge of various crafts, sciences, languages and skills was
not  considered profane or sacred but either useful or useless .
This holistic educational scenario has always engaged attention of Muslims down the age and
with this rich background, even Madrasah kept on changing according to the needs of the
times.
During the period of the Prophet (SAW), the Quran, and the fundamental religious teachings
constituted the syllabus of the children education. Moreover, the training of calligraphy was
also given to the children with this primary education. As mentioned above the prisoners of
Badr were employed to teach the children of Medina art of writing. Ubaydah Ibn Samit also
gave training in the art of calligraphy to the people of the Bench. Hazrat Umar likewise
issued a commandment to his rulers and governors, which included mention of training of the
children in swimming, horse -riding, and making them to memorize and read wise old
sayings (Amthal) and poems (Asha'r). Likewise, he wrote to the rulers of Syria that the
children may be instructed to learn arrow throwing, running between two posts bear-footed,
and calligraphy and swimming. 48/
After the details about this obvious fact of Islamic epistemological legacy which ushered in
the new phase of renaissance not only in the Muslim world but finally led to the
enlightenment of Europe, this reality is now being realised and it is believed  that modern
science owes its origin to Islam and modern progress is the outcome of the freedom of
thought and spirit of enquiry proscribed for the Muslims by the Holy Quran, and not a
product of Christianity which for a long time relentlessly proscribed all free thinking and
liberal reasoning and even scientific researches on original lines, and horribly persecuted all
those who indulged in these. The impression that it was Christianity that advanced science
and civilisation is, therefore, as erroneous as the idea that Islam hampered their progress. 49/
For example in a highly critical book, Hagarism the Making of the Islamic World, Patricia
Crone, Michael Cook say that it was due to renaissance and not because of Muslim
contribution that science could flourish  : “Both the Europeans and the Islamic worlds
inherited the concept of immutable celestial laws from the Greeks, together with the main
doctrines of the Hellenic philosophical schools, but such concept was acceptable to only
heretical circles ,therefore it fell short of the level achieved  in the renaissance., therefore
speculative reasoning was not taken to logical conclusion so to say. Plato and Aristotle was to
be presented in a “united form” as it was made necessary by “orthodox hostility “while the
mathemisation of the universe in the thought of Galileo marked the triumph of speculative
treason in Europe. Islamic Speculation in mystical proportion of numbers marked the flight of
reason to the esoteric wisdom of the imam”50/
They say further: “Islam, thank God, has no need of logic whatever, Europe, thanks to
science, had no need of God whatever”.51/
Watt thinks that under the notion of self-sufficiency Muslims have not taken knowledge from
the Roman or Christians and Jews though during early few centuries they would get some
information from some Jewish converts but latter they have even kept themselves aloof from
that source. However, Muslims have borrowed from Greek intellectual culture and Iranian
culture. They were particularly interested in Greek science and philosophy. In medicine and
astronomy, “the latter being useful in their far flung empire in determining the direction to be
faced in prayers (towards Mecca).
It seems Montgomery Watt is repeating the same allegation against Muslims which was long
back levelled by Renan who was befittingly rebuked by Jamaluddin Afghani by saying that
when Aristotle was neighbour of the west he was neglected but Muslims inherited his views
and presented these finally before the west, though being away from him.
Watt says something conspicuous:” …. Muslims were not willing to seek knowledge even
from the alien cultures within their empire. This is probably to be explained by the fact that
when Muslims think of knowledge, they think primarily of what may be called knowledge for
living, whereas when westerner thinks of knowledge it is mainly of knowledge for power,
that is such knowledge as enables one to control natural and material objects and human
individuals and societies. It is introspecting of knowledge for living, consisting of religious
and moral values, that Islam claims finality and self –sufficiency.52/
It should perhaps be noted here that Sr. Hamilton Gibb has characterized the medieval
Islamic conception of knowledge in a somewhat different way. He writers:” the old Islamic
view of knowledge was not a reaching –out to the unknown but a mechanical process of
amassing the ‘known. ‘The known was not conceived of as changing and expanding but as
‘given’ and eternal. Not everybody, of course, could possess all knowledge, but there was at
least a fixed sum of knowledge, most of which was in the possession of some persons or
other.”53/
But if we see minutely this allegation (and seen in the context of Watt’s remarks that
Muslims abhorred the Greek and Christian legacy they had inherited and rather accepted
Iranian influences) when scrutinized on the whetstone of hard realities seems hallow.
Apart from this inherent bias of some of the European scholars about the actual contributions
of Muslims to pure sciences and technological enterprise there are people who deliberately
give the impression that the gap between Islamic ascendancy during medieval period and
Renaissance could not be bridged by Islam. Thus, conspicuously, the Histories of science and
culture show a break between the period of the Greeks and the renaissance, as no
breakthrough was found during this long span of time.
In other words, they give the impression that the history of science was blank for nearly one
thousand years, and scientific knowledge made a sudden leap, taking a millennium in its
stride after the renaissance only. These histories ignore the fact that the intervening ages from
the first /seventh to the eight/fourteenth century constituted the era of the Arabs and other
Muslim peoples.54/
But when we analyse these perceptions or I may call the misperceptions, we see that instead
of the speculative approach of Greek philosophers like Plato to knowledge and the action
oriented and faith based knowledge of Islam, surfaced again and made its headway as a
consequence. Because, Islam purifies knowledge through the Tazkiyah and gives it
orientation through faith leading its beholder finally to dhikr culminating in pious actions. In
contrast, Greek philosophy in most cases has led to worst kind of speculative corpse of
knowledge, which was deductive in nature and not inductive. It gives a metaphysics that
assumes a phenomenon, of ‘news from nowhere.’ It needs to be understood here that it was
under the influence of Islamic epistemology that the west could get rid of the age old question
begging and hair-splitting, which was the hallmark of the peripatetic legacy of Greek
philosophy.
Robert Briffault says in his famous book the Making of Humanity: "The light from which
civilization was once more rekindled did not arise from any embers of Greco-Roman culture
smouldering amid the ruins of Europe, nor from the living death on the Bosporus.  It did not
come from the North, but from the Saracens.  It was under the influences of the Arabia and
Moorish revival of culture and not in the fifteenth century, that the real Renaissance took
place.  Spain, not Italy, was the Cradle of the rebirth of Europe”.
He writes further: “Science arose in Europe as a result of new spirit of inquiry, of new
methods of investigation, of the method of experiment, observation, and measurement of the
development of mathematics in a form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and those methods
were introduced into the European world by the Arabs.”55/
And as a matter of fact “...The edifice of modern science,” says Hifizur Rahman Siddiqui
“however impressive it might appear today, is based largely on the achievements made by
Muslim masters in the past. Had science been confined to Greece, it could revolve merely
round philosophy,”56/
According to him the modern philosophy has been fully on the lines of Greek philosophy.
But “modern science is related closely to Muslim science”. It has no links whatsoever with
Greek science, for it appears today something ridiculous. Explaining the point further he
says: “To know facts with the help of reason is common to both the Greek and the modern
philosophy. Moreover, Greek philosophers made claims to have known physical realities in
the light of only reason. However, Muslim masters relied on sense power in ascertaining
physical realities. To put in scientific terms, Muslims abandoned deductive and analogical
methods and opted for the experimental method.”57/
Greek masters never realised the need for establishing laboratories. Aristotle, Pythagoras,
Galen and Aristocres had no laboratories. The tall claims which they made about physical
realities were not substantiated by experiments. Even in matters where no elaborate
arrangement for experiment was called for, they did not take the trouble of mere counting.
That females have less teeth than males was stated on the basis of deductive logic. It never
occurred to them that they can verify this contention by counting the teeth,”58/
On the contrary, Muslim masters not only employed but also insisted on using the
experimental methods in studies related to material realities. For them it was the only
criterion. As a result, one finds their work duly supported by experiments. In pursuance of the
aim of arriving at tenable conclusions Muslims funded laboratories and observatories and
invented number of instruments. Western historians of science have also borne testimony to
the above, mentioned facts. So do the instruments invented by Muslims preserved in
museums stand witness to it. For example, Jaber been Hayyan’s laboratory, the mortar used
by him and a piece of gold have been excavated near Baghdad”.59/
The west, though acquainted with the intellectual activities of the Greek, was amazed to note
the scientific development of the Islamic world, which was a fruit of their having practiced
experimental method. Ray, Merv, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Cordova and Granada, the
centres of the Islamic world, were reflective of the scientific progress achieved by
Muslims.”60/
From Granada to Delhi they had blazed heavenward establishing colleges libraries and
observatories wherever they went. Even Basrah and Kufah originally founded as military
cantonments, had become humming centres of literary activity to quote Carlyle.
This scientific and technological knowhow provided Muslims the military superiority on their
rivals. According to Graham Fuller, Arab armies, energized by the new social, political and
religious ideas of Islam in the mid-seventeenth century, quickly advanced north out of
Arabia. We witness here a classic encounter of the old and the new.61/
He says further: “If there had been no Islam and the Eastern Orthodox Church had held onto
its power in the Middle East, it would still have been only the Latin Church, Rome, that was
challenged by the budding Protestant German princes and others in contestation for political
power, wealth, and control of doctrine. Constantinople would likely have remained a bulwark
of stern Orthodoxy, more convinced than ever of the misguided, dangerous, even disastrous
course of Christianity in the West.”62/
Thus it can be safely said that when the Christianity had broken the back of scientists and
rationalists on the name of inquisition, it was Islam which gave a new lease of life to science
and technology and added new dimensions to it which could not be find in its Greek
dispensation due to obvious reasons.
Canon Isaac Taylor says while endorsing these facts that: “Islam has done more for
civilisation than Christianity”.26/ Bosworth Smith challenged these erroneous notions that
Islam was not responsible for facilitating the Renaissance in the Europe and says: “During the
darkest period of European history, the Arabs for five hundred years held up the torch of
learning to humanity”.63/
Draper has a point: “...The systematic manner in which the literature of Europe has continued
to put out of sight our scientific obligations to Mohamedans. Surely they cannot be much
longer hidden, injustice founded on religious rancour and national conceit cannot be
perpetrated forever.”64/
After the conquest of Spain, the Muslims established there several universities which opened
their doors to all students without distinction of creed, caste, colour or country; and also
boarded and lodged them at public expense. Spain thus also became the centre of European
culture, and scholars from all parts of Christian Europe looked to her seats of learning. Roger
Bacon and other pioneers of the Rationalist movements in Europe, all received their
education in the Muslim university of Cordova. Even the great Emperor Charlemagne had to
send his son to Spain to be educated by the Muslim teachers, for nowhere else in Europe was
there any seat o learning worthy of the name .65/
Ernest Renan talks about this scientific taste fostered by Islam that: “The taste for science and
literature had by the 10th century established, in this privileged corner of the world, a
toleration of which modern times hardly offer us an example. Christians, Jews and Muslims
spoke the same tongue, sang the same songs, and participated in the same literary and
scientific studies.”
“...That all the knowledge, whether of physics, astronomy, philosophy or mathematics, which
flourished in Europe from 10th century, as originally derived from the Arabian schools, and
the Spanish Saracen may be looked upon as the father of European philosophy?”
When we compare this glorious phase with the ignorant Arabia before Islam, we can easily
discern the contribution of Islam in bringing about this clandestine civilizational revolution.
According to Bulazhri in Futuh ul Buldan only 17 persons among the Quraysh are reported to
be literate, able to read and write, at that time when Islam appeared in Makkah.66/
And according to Karen Armstrong: during pre-Islamic Arabia “the poet was the spokesman,
social historian, and cultural authority of his tribe …...”67/
Whatever progress Muslims and Arabs made it was only after their acceptance of Islam.
Before the advent of Islam in Arabia there were only few persons who knew how to read and
write. Arab education was restricted to poetry, oratory, and a primitive form of
astrology, kahana, or augury. The prophet did not encourage poets, condemned story tellers
and abolished the gathering of Ukaz, but recommended and even persuaded his followers to
acquire knowledge which has been repeatedly mentioned and praised in the Quran.
The detailed argumentations of the Quran and reflective verses had ignited the zeal and zest
of the Arabs that they started to find knowledge from anywhere or any one they could
find.68/
After the Prophet (SAW) the process of assimilation of new sciences and intellectual
activities remained a continued process and never were disrupted. The grandson of Mawiyah 
Khalid was interested in logic and alchemy while as Mawiyah was interested in hearing
legendary stories .Before the end of Umayyad rule Muslims had begun to study history 
geography and astronomy ,besides tradition,philososphy and theology .The Abbasid rules not
only encouraged learning but also enjoined public discussions and founded schools where
besides Arabic literature ,theology ,philology grammar rhetoric arithmetics,physics astrology
astronomy and other branches of science were studiesd.69/
Here it needs to be emphasized that the translations the Muslims got from the Greek books
were not merely philosophical ones but also scientific.
Arabs did not remain confined to Greek sciences only but even benefited from the Indian
sciences as well. Russell endorses this universalistic aptitude of early Muslims to knowledge
when he says:
“Meanwhile, in Persia, Muslims came in contact with India. It was from Sanskrit writings
that they acquired, during the eighth century, their first knowledge of astronomy. About 830,
Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a translator of mathematical and astronomical books
from the Sanskrit, published a book which was translated into Latin in the twelfth century,
under the title Algoritmi de numero Indorum. It was from this book that the West first learnt
of what we call "Arabic" numerals, which ought to be called "Indian." The same author wrote
a book on algebra which was used in the West as a text book until the sixteenth century.”
The authors of the encyclopaedia, entitled Brethren of Purity, in 52 parts included seventeen
parts on natural sciences, Al. Biruni (973-1048) AD) after acquiring a good knowledge of
Sanskrit, Indian history and philosophy, wrote his monumental works on these subjects and
on science. His works on mathematics, physics, geography and astronomy are all invaluable;
His chronology of ancient nations is often quoted by European authors.
In his physics, he has given the exact specific weight of eighteen precious stones. Abdullah
Khwarizmi (820, AD) from whose surname the word Algorithm is derived was among the
earlier Muslim Mathematicians. He translated the India Siddhanta and revised Ptolemy’s
tables. According to Roger Penrose: the word algorithm comes from the name of the ninth
century Persian mathematician Abu Ja’far Mohammad Ibn Musa al Khwarizmi, who wrote
an influential mathematical textbook, in about 825 AD, entitled Kitāb al –Jabr wal-
Muqabala .70/
Jabir, son of Hayyan, supposed by some to have been an Iranian of Khurasan and by other a
Syrian of Harran (776A.D), was the author of twenty –seven works. He discovered sulphuric
and nitric acids and aqua regia. He wrote several woks on chemistry. He is known as Geber
in European languages. Jabir gained also the distinction of preparing lead carbonate and
separating arsenic and antimony from their sulphides. He explained the preparation of steel,
the polishing of metals, the dyeing of cloth and leather and distillation of vinegar into
concentrated acetic acid. Modern chemistry says Humboldt “was “admittedly the invention of
the Muslims “they found out the chemical affinities of mercury, lead, copper, silver and gold
and knew the chemical processes of oxidation, and calcoination. A number words such as
alembic, alkali, etc., were derived from Arabic. Jabir bin Hayyan, known as Geber in the
western world, wrote some five hundred treatises on chemistry. He discovered for the first
time, nitric acid, sulphur acid, aqua regia, silver nitrate and several compounds .71/
Umar Khayyam was a great astronomer and mathematician. He has written on Algebra,
Geometry, Chemical Analysis and Mineralogy and helped to reform the calendar known
as Jalali, still in use in Iran.
Jghamini wrote an abridged treatise on astronomy. The Arabs obtained their knowledge of
alchemy from the Iranian school of Alexandria and made it an important subject of science.
Other Muslim chemists discovered that mercury and sulphur combine into a brilliant red
supphide.Ibn Musa and Jabir wrote original works on spherical trigonometry .In Zoology
Muhammad Damiri (1283a.d)has also given a fair description of animals ,plants and
stones.Khazini of Merv (1200A.D)has ,in his valuable work entitled The Balance of
Wisdom ,written on the specific weight of alloys and the density of water.Jazari (1206-
AD)wrote an important work on Mechanics and  the manufacture of clocks .Rizvan (1203)
has furnished a description of a water-clock made by his father. Muslims are also credited
with having invented wind-mills. 72/
Less than two hundred and thirty years after the Hijrah Muslims were borrowing and
successfully adapting techniques and knowledge which they wanted from their neighbours
belonging to different Civilisations.73/
According to H .J.J Winter “recent research has shown that in regard of both time and space
the influence of Islamic science was of greater significance than has hitherto been supposed,
and the nature of this culture based science will repay examination.”
The industries developed by the Muslims during their rule in Spain were many and of far
reaching consequences. Shipbuilding, horticulture, tanyards, glassware, silver mines, cotton
manufactures, silks, woolen carpets, iron and copper utensils and inland metal work were
some of these.
Draper: “in whatever direction we look, we meet in various pursuits of peace and war, of
letters and science, Saracenic vestiges”.74/
Dr Campbell, a reputed British scientist, in his book “Arabian Medicine”, writes: when
Europe was lying torpid in the depth of intellectual obscurity and gloom in the dark ages,
culture and civilisation were spread in the Islamic States under the high patronage of the
caliphs of Baghdad and Cordova, and at a time, when Barons and ladies of medieval Europe
could not even sign their names, almost every adolescent boy and girl in Islam could read and
write freely and with ease.”75/
According to Murad “joyful curiosity combined with a readiness always” to exert one’s mind,
was the right platform for the extraordinary development of the Islamic sciences from the late
eight centuries onwards. He provides fourteen examples like: Ibn Firmas (died) to whom first
flying machine is attributed.A.Hassan b.Al Haytham /al-Hazem (965-1039) inventor of the
camera obscura. 76/
Umar AL Khayyam (died between 1123 and 1131) poet and mathematician. He also
reformed the Indian calendar with greater accuracy than the 1582 Gregorian calendar.77/
The Egyptian physician ibn Nafis (died 1288) who discovered blood circulation. Ibn Batutah
(1304-1368 0r 1377), Motoccan globetrotter on a par with Marco Polo who reached
Timbuktu, Peking, and the Volga. The navigator Ahmad Ibn Majid, fifteenth century
authority on ocean voyages.
The Turkish ocean geographer and admiral Piri Reis (1480-1553) who Kitāb –i-Bahriye, with
its precise maps of the seas, still amazes us (Istanbul1988) and his scientific colleague Sayyid
Ali Reis (died 1562) who measured the Asiatic coasts and developed nautical astronomy.
Islamic sciences flourished during the zenith of Muslim civilisation, a period of some seven
hundred years from 700 to 1500 ce. The science that evolves during this period has a distinct
Islamic identity. This identity manifests itself in terms of epistemology –which shaped the
outlook and goals of science; and in terms of methods which affected the ways of doings well
as the content of science. Mathematics is central to al-Baruni’s scientific research .78/
For, Ibn Haytham the pursuit of science without an ethical framework is inconceivable. And
ethics for al Haytham is apargamatic concern not some abstract philosophical notion. He
says: there are three disciplines which go to make philosophy: mathematics, physical
sciences, and theology.”
He introduced the inductive method and is an arch believer in rationality. But his rationality
is subservient to his ethical system.79/
With this rich background in science and technology and all branches of sciences when we
try to reorient our studies about Islamic civilizational contribution several names come to our
mind.

Ismail Raji Faruqi wants to tell us that the Muslim scientists of today are obliged to the
Muslim ummah to bring the spirit of sciences back in accordance with the spirit of Islam.
Concrete proposals with specific plans ought to be further pursued, both academically and
practically in the process of Islamisation. Moreover, Islamic philosophy as such which is
being taught in our universities and educational institutions, is devoid of the Islamic content
as whatever has been passed on the name of philosophy from the Muslim adherents of Greek
like Ibn Sina and Farabi is considered Islamic by the students or they are made believe that it
is so.

While as from Ghazzali to Ibn Taimiyah and Ibn Qa’im, this corpse of Knowledge, including
epistemology has been severely criticized for inclusion in it of the pagan Hellenistic and un-
Islamic elements. The process of Islamisation of Knowledge has given impetus to this desire
that we need to purge epistemology and Muslim philosophy from all these foreign and un-
Islamic influences which have been received by it from time to time.

Mawdudi has also given a scheme of education in his treatise Talimat. The only real
difference between Mawdudi and the traditionalist Ulama is that, whereas they tend to be out
of touch with reality, concerning themselves with arcane and usually irrelevant questions,
Mawdudi has the courage to confront modernity with the whole of the traditional Shari’ah
edifice. In his hands 'Islam' becomes much more than a succession of hair-splitting legal
judgments emanating from an archaic social system. It is a full-blown 'ideology' offering
answers to every human and social problem.

It is mainly for this reason that, despite his rigidity, Mawdudi is widely admired by Muslim
scholars from Egypt to Malaysia....’ In the fashion of 'Abduh in contradiction to Iqbal, he
holds the ‘essentially medieval view’ that 'science' consists of a 'systematized body of
knowledge', whose discoveries can be appropriated for the benefit of Islam without causing
an ‘epistemological upheaval’ that must lead to a radical revaluation of Islam's intellectual
premises as understood by the traditionalists - a revaluation that must affect all traditional
formulations of the Shari'ah.

Sir Syed was the staunch supporter of scientific knowledge and western education. The
spread of western education among Muslims and the general enlightenment which the
introduction of modern science brought about in the public was the greatest challenge. In one
of his lectures he refers to the spread of doubt and misgivings in the hearts of the people
about Islam. He says, while I am endeavouring to introduce these sciences among Muslims, it
is my duty to defend the religion of Islam and to reveal its original bright face”. At another
place he said, “Today we are in need of a modern ‘Ilm al Kalam by which we should refute
the doctrines of modern science and undermine their foundations or show that they are in
conformity with the articles of Islamic faith. Yet he also sensed that his own ways on
religion, his own interpretation of Islam, and the endeavours which his own mind was making
to synthesize and harmonizes his religious tradition with the spirit and knowledge of
modernity, were unacceptable to most of his fellow Muslims. Accordingly, he concedes that
in the new college, Islamic instructions should be provided by the recognized-i.e. the
traditional-religious leaders of the community, in a traditional way.

Bediuzaman Nursi argued that “Islam is the master and guide of the sciences, and the chief
and father of all true knowledge.” For integration of knowledge, his view is that religious
subjects are taught in the new secular schools (mektebs) and that the positive sciences are
taught in the religious schools (medreses).

He argued that if the students are taught in this method, those in the secular schools will be
saved from being without religion, while those in the religious schools will be saved from
bigotry. A beautiful combination of Scientific and religious sciences as envisaged by Nursi
can be seen from this statement: “The light of the conscience is the religious sciences. The
light of the mind is exact sciences. Reconciliation of both manifests the truth. The student’s
skills develop further with these two (sciences). When they are separated, from the former
superstition and from the latter corruption and scepticism is born.” Said Nursi observed all
scientific events through the eyes of a theologian and he explained his approach successfully
within the boundaries of the reasoning of the mind. He stated that the Qur’an included exact
sciences and encouraged them.

On the other hand, according to Nursi the approach of science that neglects belief in Allah
and overlooks the place and function of religion brings about “literal meaning”, that is,
viewing beings on behalf of themselves, in terms of causes. The scientific approach that takes
into consideration the power of creation and effect of Allah is related to “signified meaning”.
That is, viewing things on behalf of Allah is the correct approach. He thinks science found in
the west originally “belonged to Islam”
. “It saddens me “says Muhammad Ghazzali “to see Muslims today have not carried on this
tradition of engineering and technical skill. When it comes to scientific and practical
innovation and application, the Muslims have been left for behind. Unfortunately, our
energies and skills are wasted in ‘innovation ‘in religious matters which has brought us
confusion and discord and hampered our progress and scientific advance.”80/
In light of the above discussion the students of colleges and universities are to be told that the
solution of the crisis of duality between world sciences and religious sciences can be found
by integrating Islamic values and concepts in all disciplines of learning. Therefore, the
Epistemology and curriculum reform is the basis for knowledge/education renaissance in the
ummah and we have to embark on Education reform as it is the basis for social reform, islah
and Tajdid.

-Clarification of basic epistemological issues and relations and an Islamic critique of basic
paradigms, basic assumptions, and basic concepts of various disciplines using criteria of
Islamic methodology and Islamic epistemology is very important task. Islamic reviews of
existing text-books and teaching materials to identify deviations from the tauhidi episteme
and the Islamic methodology are needed.

The most important manifestation of the knowledge crisis is dichotomy in the education
system: traditional Islamic vs. imported European. Integration of the 2 systems has failed.
Secularization of education eliminated the moral dimension and violated the aim of Islamic
education to produce an integrated and perfect individual, Insan kaamil. The ummatic
malaise due to the knowledge crisis that started with the fall of the khilafat rashidah when the
authentic ‘ulama were marginalized. Society became ‘secularized’ because the rulers were in
one valley and the scholars in another valley. This dichotomy between the sources of Islamic
guidance and the political leadership of society eventually led to and nurtured the knowledge
crisis we have today.

After establishing the relation between Islam and science and the Muslim contribution to
scientific enterprise. let us see some aspects of the creation of the universe.

So far as Islamic approach to cosmos is concerned, Islam has shown great

interest in this subject for various reasons. According to Nasr: “No sacred
scripture of which we have knowledge speaks more about the cosmos and the
world of nature than does the Quran, where one finds extensive teachings about
cosmogenesis, cosmic history, eschatological events marking the end of the
cosmic order as it now exists, and the phenomena of nature as revealing Divine
Wisdom. In fact, the Quran refers to these phenomena as Ayât (“signs,” or
symbols), employing the same word that is used for the verses of the Sacred
Book. The Quran also speaks of life and its origin and of the relation of all
beings, animate as well as inanimate, from animals and plants, to mountains,
seas, and stars, to God. In a sense the Quran was revealed to a whole cosmic
sector as well as to humanity, and many Muslim sages over the ages have
referred to the cosmos itself as a revelation, in fact the primordial revelation.
That is why they have so often referred to the cosmos as “the cosmic Quran”
(al-Qurʾān al-takwīnī), the meaning of whose “verses” can only be understood
by means of “the written Quran” (al-qurʾān al-tadwīnī), that is, the book of the
Quran, which is Islam’s sacred scripture.81/
Moreover, in fact, in Islamic metaphysics, the whole of the cosmos is
considered to be in reality nothing but reflections or theophanies (tajalliyāt) of
the Divine Names and Qualities. 82/
Not only the fact that this whole cosmos is created by Allah, but this is why v.
39 begins with a demonstration of the futility of taking gods alongside God
(Razi). The rhetorical question Are diverse lords better, or God, the One, the
Paramount? alludes to the Quran’s teaching that if there were more than one
god, the cosmic order would contain fissures and would go to ruin, whereas the
being of the One God, who is the Source of all reality, makes possible the order
and beauty in the cosmos (Razi), as in 21:22: Were there gods other than God
in them, they would surely have been corrupted (Razi). 83/
About the end of the universe the Quran says: “That Day We shall roll up the
sky like the rolling of scrolls for writings. As We began the first creation, so
shall We bring it back—a promise binding upon Us. Surely We shall do it”.
The destruction or transformation of the cosmos is described in similar terms in
39:67: The heavens will be enfolded in His right Hand. Here scrolls renders
sijill, understood to mean rolled up pages upon which one writes, but which is
interpreted by some to be the name of an angel (this is not unlike other normal
Arabic words understood to be also the proper names of things, as described in
2:19 and 2:79; Ṭabari).
So shall We bring it back means that people will be brought back in the same
condition in which they were created the first time—that is, barefoot, naked,
and uncircumcised (Ṭabari), an interpretation deriving from a ḥadīth. The
Prophet stated, “O people! You will surely be resurrected unto God barefoot,
naked, uncircumcised,” after which he recited, As We began the first creation,
so shall We bring it back (Qurtubi). This verse is similar to 6:94: And [God will
say], “Now you have come unto Us alone, just as We created you the first time,
and you have left behind that which We had bestowed upon you. See also 18:48:
They shall be arrayed before thy Lord in ranks. “Indeed, you have come unto
Us as We created you the first time.”
For some this verse signifies the destruction and new creation of the heavens
and the earth, as mentioned in 14:48: On that Day the earth shall be changed
into other than the earth, and the heavens [too], and they will appear before
God, the One, the Paramount. Theological disputes surrounding such verses
center on whether the heavens and the earth will become nothing and a new
creation will come into being from nothing, or whether in some sense the
“parts” of the heavens and earth will be rearranged and reformed into a new
creation (Razi).84/
The Quran presents the entire cosmic order as proof for its message.
Observable processes of the manifest cosmos—such as the movement of stars
and planets—are not orderly merely because they observe certain laws of
nature, but rather because the One Who created them has set a specific course
for them. In fact, the concept of “laws of nature” independent of a Lawgiver is
essentially a secular concept, because it makes “nature” a giver of law or at least
imbues nature with some inherent order independent of the Creator. The Quran
asserts, however, that authority to make laws rests with God alone—the
Sovereign and Ruler of the Cosmos: The sun runs to a dwelling place of its
own. That is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing. And for the moon, We have
decreed mansions, till it returns like an old palm stalk. It befits not the sun to
overtake the moon, nor the night to outstrip the day. Each glides in an orbit.
(36:38–40) 85/
Thus placed within the broader thematic structure of the Quran, these references
to nature have traditionally been understood as integrally linked to its overall
message. These signs were considered worthy of deep reflection, and it was
understood also that one cannot fathom the mysteries of these signs without
understanding their scientific content in the traditional sense. The sign verses,
therefore, remained a central focus of scientific activity in Islam, and
generations of scientists and commentators of the Quran wrote on their
significance.
“The principles of these sciences which we have enumerated as well as those
which we have not are not outside the Quran,” writes Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī
(d. 505/1111) in his Jawāhir al-Qurʾān (Jewels of the Quran), “for all of these
sciences are derived from one of the seas of the knowledge of God—may He be
exalted—that is, the sea of His actions.” He continues: We have already
mentioned that [the Quran] is like an ocean without a shore, and indeed,
If the sea were ink for the Words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before
the Words of my Lord were exhausted (18:109). Among the actions of God—
may He be exalted—which are like a sea of actions, are recovery and disease, as
He—the highest—mentioned in the story of Abraham, upon whom be peace:
The Lord of the worlds, . . . Who, when I am ill, heals me (26:77, 80). This
action can only be understood by the one who knows the science of medicine
completely. For this science means nothing but the knowledge of all aspects of
diseases, their symptoms, and the knowledge of their cure and its means.
And among the actions of the Most High and Exalted are the determination of
the course of the sun and the moon and their stages according to a fixed
reckoning, as God—the Highest —has said: The sun and the moon are upon a
reckoning (55:5). And He said: He it is Who made . . . the moon a light, and
determined for it stations, that you might know the number of years and the
reckoning [of time] (10:5). And He said: And the moon is eclipsed, and the sun
and the moon are brought together (75:8–9). And He said: He makes the night
pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night (35:13). And He said:
The sun runs to a dwelling place of its own. That is the decree of the Mighty, the
Knowing (36:38). The real meaning of the movement of the sun and the moon
according to a fixed reckoning and their eclipse, of the merging of the night into
the day and the manner of the wrapping of the one onto the other can only be
known to him who has the knowledge of the composition of the heavens and the
earth, and this in itself is a science.86/
Likewise, the complete meaning of His saying—may He be Exalted—O
mankind! What has deluded you with regard to your noble Lord, Who created
you, then fashioned you, then proportioned you, assembling you in whatever
form He willed? (82:6–8)—cannot be known to any except the one who has
mastered the science of anatomy of man’s apparent and hidden parts along with
their numbers, kind, uses, and the underlying wisdom [of their creation]. And
He has pointed to these in many verses of the Quran and [the knowledge] of
these belongs to the sciences of the ancients and of later generations.87/
“ And the sky We established with might; truly We
make vast! And the earth We laid out—what
excellent spreaders!” These verses return to the motif of the first
verses of the sūrah, which point to the composition of the natural order as
bearing signs of God. We make vast indicates God’s ability to create as He
wills and His Generosity in providing for all things (Ālusi, Shawkani).
What excellent spreaders refers to God Himself with a plural noun because
the sentence is in the first-person plural and indicates both the wisdom
behind the manner in which God created the earth and God’s Generosity in
doing so. Spreaders translates māhidūn, which derives from the same root,
m-h-d, as cradle (mahd), to which the earth is likened elsewhere: He it is
Who made the earth a cradle for you and made paths for you therein, that
haply you may be guided (43:10; see also 20:53).
“And of all things We created pairs, that haply you
may remember”. Pairs can be seen as a reference to the fact that all
animals are created both male and female (Ālusi) or to the manner in
which creation is made up of opposites, such as night and day, Heaven and
earth, distress and happiness, and so forth (Ālusi). Here that haply you
may remember is understood to mean that creation is for people to reflect
upon and to realize that God is the Creator (Ālusi, Razi, Shawkani).88/
Even there is the evidence in the Quran about the expansion of the universe.
The phrase inna la-musi'un clearly foreshadows the modern notion of the
"expanding universe" - that is, the fact that the cosmos, though finite in extent,
is continuously expanding in space. 89/.
Literally., "and that which has built it" - i.e., the wondrous qualities which are
responsible for the harmony and coherence of the visible cosmos (which is
evidently the meaning of the term sama' in this context).
Similarly, the subsequent reference to the earth, which reads literally, "that
which has spread it out", is apparently an allusion to the qualities responsible
for the beauty and variety of its expanse.90/
27. Not without purpose did We create heaven and earth and all between! that
were the thought of Unbelievers! but woe to the Unbelievers because of
the Fire (of Hell)! See also (3:191). Unbelief is the subjective negation of a
belief in Order, Beauty, Purpose, and Eternal Life. Unbelief is to Faith as Chaos
is to Cosmos, as the Fire of Misery is to the Garden of Bliss. 91/p-319
Moreover, He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke:
He said to it and to the earth: "Come ye together, willingly or unwillingly."
They said: "We do come (together), in willing obedience." For istawa see also
(10:3) and also (2:29).
From (79:30) it would appear as if the earth was spread out after the sky was
made. In the present passage the creation of the earth and the evolution of life
on our globe are mentioned first; and the making of the sky into the seven
firmaments is mentioned last. The two statements are not inconsistent. It is
stated here that when the sky was made into seven firmaments, it had existed
previously as smoke, or vapour, or steam. The idea I derive from a collation of
the relevant Qur'anic passages is that Allah first created primeval matter, which
was as yet without order, shape, or symmetry. This state is called Chaos as
opposed to Cosmos in Greek Cosmogony. The next stage would be the
condensation of this primeval matter, into gases, liquids, or solids: on this
subject no precise information is given us: it belongs to the realm of Physics.
About the earth we are told of four stages or Days, and about the heavens, of
two stages or Days. If these stages proceeded or proceed together in time, it is
obvious that each stage as we know it on earth is half as long as each stage in
the heavens. But these are questions of Physics, Astronomy, or Geology, not
questions of Religion.92/
According to Yusuf Ali this means that Allah's design in creation was not to
keep heaven and earth separate, but together, as we indeed are, being part of the
solar system, and travellers through space, crossing the path of several comets.
Anp-336d all matter created by Allah willingly obeys the laws laid down for it.
The Meaning of the Glorious Quran .93/
According to the Quran the universe was created by Allah by His Will and there are many
details about it in the Quran. The Quran says Allah created (the universe) and bestowed
order and proportion to it. And then he measured and granted guidance. (87:1-3) This verse is
very important so far as the processes of creation of the universe and man and other life
forms on earth and elsewhere are concerned. In this verse “Allah says: “Who has created, and
then proportioned it” meaning, He created and He fashioned every creation in the best of
forms. The verse says further: “And Who has measured; and then guided”. Mujahid said: "He
guided man to distress and happiness, and he guided the cattle to their pastures.'' This Ayah is
similar to what Allah has said about Musa's statement to Pharaoh (Fir’aun), “Our Lord is He
Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright,” (20:50) meaning, He
decreed a set measure and guided the creation to it. This is just as is confirmed in Sahih
Muslim on the authority of `Abdullah bin `Amr that the Messenger of Allah[SAW] said:
“Verily, Allah ordained the measure of all creation fifty thousand years before He created the
heavens and the earth, and His Throne was over the water.” Concerning Allah's statement:
"And Who brings out the pasturage”, meaning, all types of vegetation and crops. “And then
makes it dark stubble.” Ibn `Abbas said, "Dried up and altered.'' It has been narrated that
Mujahid, Qatadah and Ibn Zayd, all made similar statements (Ibn Kathir).

The first attribute is khalaqa which does not simply mean 'to make' or 'manufacture'. It has a
deeper significance: 'to bring out something from pure non-existence into the realm of
existence without the help of any Pre-existing matter’. This is the correct meaning of
'creation'. If something is made with the help of some pre-existing matter, it cannot be called
'creation' in its original sense. This is not within the power of anyone else. Only the perfect
power of Allah can bring things into existence, whenever He wills, without the help of any
pre-existing matter. The second attribute, which is connected with takhliq (creation), is
sawwa. This word is derived from taswiyah, and it literally means 'to make well or equal'.
The verse signifies that Allah made the constitution of everything symmetrical or made it
congruously consistent in its several parts, the body structure, shape and size, limbs and
organs. Man and every other animal is adapted to the requirements of wisdom. The hands and
legs, the tips of the fingers and toes have joints with different types of springy connective
tissues that make it possible to bend and fold in different ways. If we look at another limb or
organ of human body, its symmetry and balance baffles our imagination and is sufficient for
us to believe in the consummate wisdom and power of the Creator of the universe. The third
attribute is qaddara which is derived from taqdir and it means 'to determine; to measure; to
balance; to design symmetrically; to decree/decide'. The word is used in the last sense here.
The verse purports to say that things in the world have not been created without purpose.
Everything has been created for a specific purpose, and has been endowed with natural
capacities to fit its function. If we look carefully, the principle does not apply only to specific
species. Every member of the universe has been assigned a specific function to perform. We
witness the manifestation of the assignments in the sky, the stars, lightning, rain, humans,
animals, vegetation and minerals. Maulana Rumi says: “The earth, the wind, the water and
the fire - all of them are slaves of Allah. According to me and you, they are senseless, but
according to Allah, all of them are alive and sensible”.

Allah has especially geared man and every species of animals to do particular works and they
perform them according to their natural inclination, and their predisposition pivots around
their respective tasks.

Allah has created everything for a particular purpose. And has filled its heart with inclination
towards it. The fourth attribute of Allah is fa-hada 'then guided it'. In other words, The
Creator of the universe did not create things and left them to their own mercy to perform their
particular function as they like, but they are shown the way in which they should be
performed. As a matter of fact, He guided the entire creation by equipping each member of it
with suitable nature to function for which it was created, whether the member is the sky or
celestial creation, or it is the earth or the earthly creation. They all possess a special type of
sense, though it is of a lower than that of man. The Qur'an says: 'Our Lord is He Who gave to
each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright. [20:50]'

As a result, since the inception of their creation, the skies, the earth, the stars and planets,
mountains and oceans are all performing their functions accurately, without any failure or
deviation. Humans and animals, in particular, whose intellect and sensibility can be observed
easily, have been invested with capabilities of fulfilling their minute needs and repelling
harmful things in a way that baffles the one who thinks about it. Since man possesses sense
and intelligence of a higher degree, his capabilities may not be so much surprising, but let us
look into wild animals, ferocious animals or beasts of prey, birds and insects. Each and every
one of them is able to obtain its necessities of life. They are able to find their habitats. They
have not acquired the skills of fulfilling their individual and communal needs through a
teacher that may educate or train them, nor did they need any school or college to acquire this
knowledge and skill. Their education and training comes directly from the Creator of the
universe.

It is this divine guidance that has been referred to in the Holy Qur'an by saying: 'Our Lord is
He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright. [20:50]' and in this
Surah thus: 'and who determined a measure (for everything), then guided (it). [Note: In other
words, Allah has placed in them potentials and capabilities to perform their natural functions.
But alas! the scientists are getting more and more negligent, rather blind to these realities day
by day]

The Knowledge of Science is a Divine Gift to Man: Allah has equipped man with the higher
order of intelligence and sense. The entire universe is made subservient to him; the earth,
mountains and oceans and everything created therein are made to serve man and created for
his benefit. However, full advantage of them is not possible unless man acquires knowledge
and skill to put various things together and produce a new item. Nature has provided man
with intelligence and understanding to excavate mountains and dive into the oceans to obtain
minerals and marine objects. He composes certain items like wood, iron, steel, copper, brass
and so on and makes new items of his need. This knowledge and technology is not dependent
on scientific research and college or university education. Even illiterate people have been
doing this since the inception of human existence. This is intrinsic science that Allah has
endowed upon man as a natural gift. Later, man developed the capability of doing technical
and scientific research. He thus made progress in various fields of science and technology.
The capability to do this is also a Divine gift. Obviously, science and technology does not
create anything, but it merely shows the way to use the created things. The initial knowledge
about their use is taught by Allah, but there is a wide scope to make progress in it by the
capabilities Allah has bestowed to man, the manifestation of which we are witnessing in this
scientific age day by day, and what further range of these abilities and talents will manifest in
future is unknown. All this is the interpretation of hada '[He] guided (it), “and who brought
forth pasturage, then turned it into blackening stubble...”... (87:4, 5). The word mar'a means
'pasturage'. This is the land that has grass growing on it, and that is used for animals to graze.
The word ghutha' refers to 'stubble, and scum borne upon the surface of a torrent'. The word
ahwa is derived from the root huwwah which refers to 'a kind of black colour that comes
upon a dense vegetation'. The verse purports to depict the Divine power and wisdom related
to herbage and vegetation. He grows the green vegetation and then He gradually turns it into
black colour, and it loses its freshness. This directs man's attention also to his end. His body
radiating with health, beauty, smartness and alertness is a Divine gift, but its tenure of life is
limited. Eventually it will come to an end. 94/

In these three verses, it has been said: "Your Lord, glorification of Whose name is being
enjoined, is He Who created everything in the Universe, proportioned it, set it a destiny,
taught it to perform the function for which it is created, and you witness this manifestation of
His power day and night that He creates vegetation on the earth as well as reduces it to mere
rubbish. No other being has the power to bring about spring nor the power to prevent
autumn."

“Who created and proportioned”. That is, He created everything, from the earth to the
heavens, in the universe, and gave whatever he created the right proportion and balance and
gave every creature the best conceivable form and shape. The same thing has been expressed
in Surah As-Sajdah, thus: "Who gave everything He created the best form" (v. 7) Thus, the
creation of everything in the world giving it due order and proportion, is an express sign of
the truth that some Wise Designer is its Creator. Had the creation of the countless things in
the universe been the result of a chance accident, or the work of many creators, there could be
no order and balance, no beauty and inner coherence among the many things existing in the
world.” 95/

The next verses also mention about the processes of creation which are working in the world.
Allah says: “Who set a destiny and showed the way. Who caused vegetation to grow, then
reduced it to black rubbish.”. “Who set a destiny”? "Set a destiny": determined beforehand
what would be the function of a certain thing in the world, and for that purpose what would
be its size, its form and shape, its qualities, its place of location, and what opportunities and
means should be provided for its survival, existence and functioning, when it should come
into being, and when and how it should cease to be after completing its part of the work. Such
a scheme for a thing is its "destiny" (taqdir). And this destiny Allah has set for everything in
the universe and for the entire universe as a whole. This means that the creation has not come
about without a pre-conceived plan, haphazardly, but for it the Creator had a full plan before
Him, and everything is happening according to that plan.

“And showed the way”. That is, nothing was just created and left to itself, but whatever was
created to perform a certain function, it was also taught the method of performing that
function. In other words, He is not merely the Creator but Guide too. He has taken the
responsibility to give guidance to whatever He has created in a particular capacity to fit its
nature and to guide it in the way suitable for it. One kind of guidance is for the earth, the
moon, the sun, and the stars and planets, which they are following in performing their role.
Another kind of guidance is for water, air, light and the solid and mineral elements, and they
are performing the same services for which they have been created accordingly. Still another
kind of guidance is for vegetables, according to which they take root and spread in the earth,
sprout up from its layers, obtain food from wherever Allah has created it for thetas, produce
stem, branches, leaves, blossom and fruit, and fulfill the function which has been appointed
for each of them. Still another kind of guidance is for the countless species of animals of the
land, and water, and for each member of the species, the wonderful manifestations of which
are clearly visible in the life of the animals and in their works, so much so that even an atheist
is compelled to concede that different kinds of animals possess some sort of inspirational
knowledge which man cannot obtain even through his instruments, not to speak of his senses.
Then, there are two different kinds of guidance for man, which correspond to his two
different capacities. One kind of guidance is for his animal life, by which each child learns to
suck milk spontaneously on birth, by which the eyes of man, his nose, ear, heart, brain, lungs,
kidney, liver, stomach, intestines, nerves, veins and arteries, all are performing their
respective functions, without man's being conscious of it, or his will having anything to do
with the functions of these organs. This is the guidance under which all physical and mental
changes pertaining to childhood, maturity, youth and old age go on taking place in man,
independent of his will, choice, even his consciousness. The second kind of guidance is for
his intellectual and conscious life, the nature of which is absolutely different from the
guidance for unconscious life, for in this sphere of life a kind of freedom has been transferred
to man, for which the mode of guidance meant for voluntary life is not suitable. For turning
away from this last kind of guidance, man may offer whatever arguments and excuses he may
like, it is not credible that the Creator Who has arranged guidance for everything in this
universe according to its capacity, might have set for man the destiny that he may appropriate
numerous things in His world freely, but might not have made any arrangement to show what
is the right way of using his choice and what is the wrong way.

“Who caused vegetation to grow”? The word mar`a as used in the Text means the fodder for
animals but the context shows that here it does not imply mere fodder but every kind of
vegetation that grows out of the soil.

“Then reduced it to black rubbish “. That is, "He does not only bring about spring but autumn
as well. You witness both the manifestations of this power. On the one side, He causes lush
green vegetation to grow, the freshness of which pleases the hearts and, on the other, He
renders the same vegetation pale, dry and black rubbish, which is blown about by winds and
swept away by floods. Therefore, no one here should be involved in the misunderstanding
that he will only experience spring and will never see autumn." This same theme has been
expressed at several other places in the Qur'an in other ways. 96/

According to al-Rāzī, this is to indicate that the glorification of God should be and in reality
is constant in the past, present, and future: the past tense conveys glorification from the
beginning of time until the present moment, the present tense conveys glorification from the
present moment into the future until the end of time (as the present tense can be used to
indicate the future in Arabic), and the imperative indicates glorification at the present
moment. ¡ whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is on the earth glorifies God, and He
is the Mighty, the Wise. “(61:1). All that exists bears witness to God’s Lordship and Oneness.
He is the Mighty in that He overcomes all that is other than Him and nothing can overcome
Him (Razi); cf. 57:1; 59:1; 62:1; 64:1. For the meaning of the various modes in which God is
said to be glorified in the Quran. (Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210), al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, also
known as Mafātīḥ al-ghayb)

“Who created, then fashioned, Who measured out, then guided”, (2–3). Here created refers
to human beings in particular, to human beings and animals, or to all of creation (Razi). With
regard to the first, God fashioned the first human being after breathing into him of His Spirit,
leaving him without irregularities. Then He measured out his form and figure and bestowed
the nourishment required for existence (Abū ʿAlī al-Faḍl ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭabrisī (or al-
Ṭabarsī; d. 548/1153–54), Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān). Measured out renders
qaddara, which can also be read qadara, meaning to have power or to determine, in which
case the verse indicates that after God created and fashioned, He maintained direct power
over all that He created (Razi).

Here guidance refers to the instinct God puts in all things to be able to seek the nourishment
that He has already measured out for them or to the manner in which He guides people to His
religion and to knowledge of His Unity by manifesting signs and clear proofs (al-Tabarasi ).
The broader implication is that creation is as it should be, without imperfection or flaw .The
Quran says elsewhere: “Who created seven heavens one upon another; no disproportion dost
thou see in the Merciful’s creation. Cast thy sight again; dost thou see any flaw? Then cast
thy sight twice again; thy sight will return to thee humbled and wearied.”(67:2-3)
 The heavens can be seen as a reference only to the heavens, the whole of the created order,
or the universal levels or grades of existence, the last of which serves as a basis for various
hierarchical cosmological schemes in some commentaries. Disproportion translates tafāwut,
which here indicates something that lacks proportion or balance such that parts of it fail to
connect with other parts of it (Razi, Abu’l-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī (d.
538/1144), al-Kashshāf ʿan ghawāmiḍ ḥaqāʾiq al-tanzīl wa ʿuyūn alaqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl);
thus some say it has the same meaning as rifts in (50:6): Have they not looked upon the sky
above them, how We built it and adorned it, and [how it] has no rifts? The lack of
disproportion can be understood as the absence of rifts between the seven heavens or more
generally as an indication that there are no gaps in God’s creation. As several verses indicate,
all things are created in truth, as in (44:38–39): And We did not create the heavens and the
earth and whatsoever is between them in play. We did not create them, save in truth. But
most of them know not (see also (6:73; 10:5; 14:19; 15:85; 16:3; 29:44; 30:8; 39:5; 45:22;
46:3). That the eye returns humbled could also mean that an eye that tries to find defect
returns “humiliated” or “debased” (Ibn Kathir). This verse is also related to (4:82), which
maintains that for one who contemplates the Quran no discrepancy will be found in it.

“And Who brought forth pasture, then made it as blackened stubble”. (4–5) These verses
allude to the manner in which God maintains power over the creation and destruction of all
living things. Pasture renders marʿā, which refers to all forms of vegetation.97/

[87:2]”Who createth” everything that has a soul, “then disposeth”, He created them with two
hands, two feet, two eyes, two ears and with other organs too;[87:3] “Who measureth”, He
made every male and female, “then guideth” then He made known and inspired how the male
and female come; it is also said this means: He measured a person's creation, thus making
him handsome or ugly, tall or short; it is also said this means: He measured felicity and
wretchedness for His created beings, and so He made plain disbelief and faith, good and evil;
[87:4] “Who bringeth forth the pasturage”, green pasture by means of the rain,[87:5] “Then
turneth it”, after being green “to russet stubble” i.e. He makes it dry and black when it
exceeds a year.98/

“the Most High “an adjective qualifying rabbika”, ‘your Lord’, Who created and
proportioned, His creature, making it of well-proportioned parts, without irregularities, [87:3]
and Who determined, what He wants, and guided, to what He had determined of good or evil,
[87:4]and Who brought forth the pasture, [Who] caused herbage to grow, [87:5] then made it,
after verdancy, blackened stubble, desiccated broken chaff 99/

“Again, the Prophet is right to love this sūrah as it includes the basic ingredients of the
Islamic concept of life and existence: the oneness of the Creator; the reality of divine
revelation; and the certainty of the life to come with the reward and punishment it involves.
The sūrah also affirms that these basic principles have well-established roots in earlier divine
messages. Glorifying the Creator

“Extol the limitless glory of the name of your Lord, the Most High, who creates and
proportions well, who determines and guides, who brings forth the pasturage, then turns it to
withered grass.” (Verses 1-5) The sūrah opens with an order to praise the Lord, which means
to glorify Him, recognize His supremacy and infallibility in everything, and remember His
divine attributes. It is much more than verbal repetition of the phrase ‘Subĥān Allah’, which
we normally translate as ‘limitless is God in His glory.’ It is a genuine feeling of the
sublimity of His attributes.

As the sūrah inspires us with the splendour of a life based on constant appreciation of divine
attributes, we experience a feeling which is very real and very difficult to describe at the
same time.

The two immediately presented attributes are Lordship and Highness. The “Lord” or the
Arabic equivalent, Rabb, is the one who tends and nurtures. The connotations of this attribute
fit in very well with the general atmosphere of the sūrah, the happy news it brings and its
easy rhythm. The ‘Highness’ attribute prompts one to look up to endless horizons. Having a
genuinely vivid feeling of this attribute is indeed the essential purpose of praising God and
glorifying Him.

The sūrah opens with an order addressed by God to the Prophet in the first instance: “Extol
the limitless glory of the name of your Lord, the Most High.” (Verse 1) The order is given
with an air of friendliness and compassion almost beyond description.

“Extol the limitless glory of the name of your Lord, the Highest, who creates and proportions
well, who determines and guides.” (Verses 1-3) Everything God has created is well
proportioned and perfected. Every creature is assigned its own role and given guidance so
that it may know its role and play it. It is told the purpose of its creation, given what it needs
for sustenance and guided to it. This is clearly visible in everything around us, large or small,
important or trivial. For everything is well perfected and guided to fulfil the purpose of its
creation. Furthermore, all things are also collectively perfected so that they may fulfil their
role together. 100/

The creation of the universe and man is a great sign of the Designer and speaks volumes
about the Greatness of the Creator. The Perfection of God’s Creation is such that a man is
surprised to see the order and harmony in Universe. A single atom is well balanced between
its electrons and protons, to the same degree as the solar system, its sun, planets and satellites
are well balanced. Each of the two knows the way it is assigned to travel and fulfils its role. A
single living cell is also perfect and well equipped to do everything it is asked to do, in the
same measure as the most advanced and complex species. This perfect balance, in the
individual and collective sense, is easily noticed in every one of the countless types of
creation that fill the gap between the single atom and the solar system or between the single
cell and the most advanced living creature.

This basic fact, evidenced by everything in the universe, is well recognized by the human
heart as it contemplates what is in the universe. This sort of inspiration and recognition is
within the reach of every man in every age, regardless of his standard of education. All that is
required is an open mind which contemplates and responds.
 Increased knowledge then endorses and emphasizes, with numerous examples, what
inspiration has already proven at first glance. The results of study and research endorse,
within their limited scope, this basic truth which applies to everything in the universe.

The American scientist, A. Cressy Morrison, Head of the Science Academy in New York,
says in his book Man Does Not Stand Alone: Birds have the homing instinct. The robin that
nested at your door may go south in the autumn, but will come back to his old nest the next
spring. In September, flocks of many of our birds fly south, often over a thousand miles of
open sea, but they do not lose their way. The homing pigeon, confused by new sounds on a
long journey in a closed box, circles for a moment then heads almost unerringly for home.
The bee finds its hive while the wind waving the grasses and trees blots out every visible
guide to its whereabouts. This homing sense is slightly developed in man, but he supplements
his meagre equipment with instruments of navigation. We need this instinct and our brain
provides the answer. The tiny insects must have microscopic eyes, how perfect we do not
know, and the hawks, the eagle and the condor must have telescopic vision. Here again man
surpasses them with his mechanical instruments. With his telescope he can see a nebula so
faint that it requires two million times his vision, and with the electron microscope he can see
hitherto invisible bacteria and, so to speak, the little bugs that bite them.

If you let old Dobbin alone he will keep to the road in the blackest night. He can see, dimly
perhaps, but he notes the difference in temperature of the road and the sides with eyes that are
slightly affected by the infra-red rays of the road. The owl can see the nice warm mouse as he
runs in the cooler grass in the blackest night. We turn night into day by creating radiation in
that short octave we call light.

The honey-bee workers make chambers of different sizes in the comb used for breeding.
Small chambers are constructed for the workers, larger ones for the drones, and special
chambers for the prospective queens. The queen bee lays unfertilized eggs in the cells
designed for males, but lays fertilized eggs in the proper chambers for the female workers and
the possible queens. The workers, who are the modified females, having long since
anticipated the coming of the new generation, are also prepared to furnish food for the young
bees by chewing and predigesting honey and pollen. They discontinue the process of
chewing, including the predigesting, at a certain stage of the development of the males and
females, and feed only honey and pollen. The females so treated become the workers.

For the females in the queen chambers the diet of chewed and pre-digested food is continued.
These specially treated females develop into queen bees, which alone produce fertile eggs.
This process of reproduction involves special chambers, special eggs, and the marvelous
effect of a change of diet.

This means anticipation, discretion, and the application of a discovery of the effect of diet.
These changes apply particularly to a community life and seem necessary to its existence.
The knowledge and skills required must have been evolved after the beginnings of this
community life, and are not necessarily inherent in the structure or the survival of the honey
bee as such. The bee, therefore, seems to have outstripped man in knowledge of the effects of
diet under certain conditions.
The dog with an inquiring nose can sense the animal that has passed. No instrument of human
invention has added to our inferior sense of smell, and we hardly know where to begin to
investigate its extension. Yet even our sense of smell is so highly developed that it can detect
ultra-microscopic particles. How do we know that we all get the same reaction from any
single odour? The fact is that we do not. Taste also gives a very different sensation to each of
us. How strange that these differences in perception are hereditary.

All animals hear sounds, many of which are outside our range of vibration, with an acuteness
that far surpasses our limited sense of hearing. Man by his devices can now hear a fly
walking miles away as though it was on his eardrums, and with like instruments record the
impact of a cosmic ray.

One of the water spiders fashions a balloon-shaped nest of cobweb filaments and attaches it
to some object under water. Then she ingeniously entangles an air bubble in the hairs of her
under-body, carries it into the water, and releases it under the nest. This performance is
repeated until the nest is inflated, when she proceeds to bring forth and raise her young safe
from attack by air. Here we have a synthesis of the web, engineering, construction, and
aeronautics. Chance perhaps, but that still leaves the spider unexplained.

The young salmon spends years at sea, then comes back to his own river, and, what is more,
he travels up the side of the river into which flows the tributary in which he was born. The
laws of the States on one side of the dividing stream may be strict and the other side not, but
these laws affect only the fish which may be said to belong to each side. What brings them
back so definitely? If a salmon going up a river is transferred to another tributary, he will at
once realize he is not in the right tributary and will fight his way down to the main stream and
then turn up against the current to finish his destiny.

There is, however, a much more difficult reverse problem to solve in the case of the eel.
These amazing creatures migrate at maturity from all the ponds and rivers everywhere, those
from Europe across thousands of miles of ocean, all go to the abysmal deeps south of
Bermuda. There they breed and die. The little ones, with no apparent means of knowing
anything except that they are in a wilderness of water, start back and find their way to the
shore from which their parents came and thence to every river, lake and little pond, so that
each body of water is always populated with eels. They have braved the mighty currents,
storms and tides, and have conquered the beating waves on every shore. They can now grow
and when they are mature, they will, by some mysterious law, go back through it all to
complete the cycle. Where does the directing impulse originate? No American eel has ever
been caught in European waters and no European eel has ever been caught in American
waters. Nature has also delayed the maturity of the European eel by a year or more to make
up for its much greater journey. Do atoms and molecules when combined in an eel have a
sense of direction and willpower to exercise it?101/

A female moth placed in your attic by the open window will send out some subtle signal.
Over an unbelievable area, the male moths of the same species will catch the message and
respond in spite of your attempts to produce laboratory odours to disconcert them. Has the
little creature a broadcasting station, and has the male moth a mental radio set beside his
antennae? Does she shake the ether and does he catch the vibration? The cricket rubs its legs
or wings together, and on a still night can be heard half a mile away. It shakes six hundred
tons of air and calls its mate. Miss Moth, working in a different realm of physics and, in
apparent silence, calls quite as effectively. Before the radio was discovered, scientists decided
it was odour that attracted the male moth. It was a miracle either way, because the odour
would have to travel in all directions, with or without the wind. The male moth would have to
be able to detect a molecule and sense the direction from whence it came. By a vast
mechanism, we are developing the same ability to communicate, and the day will come when
a young man may call his loved one from a distance and without mechanical medium and she
will answer. No lock or bars will stop them. Our telephone and radio are instrumental
wonders and give us means of almost instant communication, but we are tied to a wire and a
place. The moth is still ahead of us, and we can only envy her until our brain evolves an
individual radio. Then, in a sense, we will have telepathy.

Vegetation makes subtle use of involuntary agents to carry on its existence —insects to carry
pollen from flower to flower and the winds and everything that flies or walks to distribute
seed. At last, vegetation has trapped masterful man. He has improved nature, and she
generously rewards him. But he has multiplied so prodigiously that he is now chained to the
plough. He must sow, reap, and store; breed and cross-breed; prune and graft. Should he
neglect these tasks starvation would be his lot, civilization would crumble, and earth return to
her pristine state?

Many animals are like a lobster, which, having lost a claw, will by some restimulation of the
cells and the reactivation of the genes discover that a part of the body is missing and restore
it. When the work is complete, the cells stop work, for in some way they know it is quitting
time. A fresh-water polyp divided into halves can reform itself out of one of these halves. Cut
off an angle worm’s head and he will soon create a new one. We can stimulate healing but
when will our surgeons, if ever, know how to stimulate the cells to produce a new arm, flesh,
bones, nails, and activating nerves? An extraordinary fact throws some light on this mystery
of recreation. If cells in the early stages of development are separated each has the ability to
create a complete animal. Therefore, if the original cell divides into two and they are
separated, two individuals will be developed. This may account for identical twins but it
means much more — each cell at first is in detail potentially a complete individual. There can
be no doubt then, that you are you in every cell and fibre.

An acorn falls to the ground — its tough brown shell holds it safe. It rolls into some earthy
crevice. In the spring the germ awakes, the shell bursts, food is provided by the egg-like
kernel in which the genes were hidden. They send roots into the earth, and behold a sprout, a
sapling, and in years a tree. The germ with its genes has multiplied by trillions and made the
trunk, bark and every leaf and acorn identical with that of the oak which gave it birth. For
hundreds of years in each of the countless acorns is preserved the exact arrangement of atoms
that produced the first oak tree millions of years ago.

The author says in another chapter: Every cell that is produced in any living creature must
adapt itself to be part of the flesh, to sacrifice itself as a part of the skin, which will soon be
worn off. It must deposit the enamel of teeth, produce the transparent liquid in an eye, or
become a nose or an ear. Each cell must then adapt itself in shape and every other
characteristic necessary to fulfil its function. It is hard to think of a cell as right-handed or
left-handed, but one becomes part of a right ear, the other becomes part of the left ear. Some
crystals that are chemically identical turn the rays of light to the left, others to the right. There
seems to be such a tendency in the cells. In the exact place where they belong, they become a
part of the right ear or the left ear and your two ears are opposite each other on your head,
and not as in the case of a cricket, on your elbows. Their curves are opposite, and when
complete, they are so much alike you cannot tell them apart. Hundreds of thousands of cells
seem impelled to do the right thing at the right time in the right place.

Elsewhere in his book Morrison says: In the melee of creation many creatures have come to
exhibit a high degree of certain forms of instinct, intelligence, or what not. The wasp catches
the grasshopper, digs a hole in the earth, stings the grasshopper in exactly the right place so
that he becomes unconscious but lives as a form of preserved meat. The wasp lays her eggs
exactly in the right place, perhaps not knowing that when they hatch, her children can eat
without killing the insect on which they feed, which would be fatal to them. The wasp must
have done all this right the first and every time, or there would be no wasps of this species.

Science cannot explain this mystery, and yet it cannot be attributed to chance. The wasp
covers a hole in the earth, departs cheerfully, and dies. Neither she nor her ancestors have
reasoned out the process, nor does she know what happens to her offspring. She doesn’t even
know that she has worked and lived her life for the preservation of the race.

In the same book we also read: In some species, the workers bring in little seeds to feed the
other ants through the winter. The ants establish what is known as the grinding room, in
which those which have developed gigantic jaws especially built for grinding, prepare the
food for the colony. This is their sole occupation. When the autumn comes and the seeds are
all ground, ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ requires that the food supply be
conserved and as there will be plenty of grinders in the new generation, the soldier ants kill
off the grinders, satisfying their entomological conscience by believing perhaps that the
grinders had had reward enough in having had first chance at the food while they ground.

Certain ants, by means of instinct or reasoning (choose which you prefer), cultivate
mushrooms for food in what may be called mushroom gardens, and capture certain
caterpillars and aphids (plant lice). These creatures are the ants’ cows and goats; from which
they take certain exudations of a honey-like nature for food. Ants capture and keep slaves.
Some ants, when they make their nests, cut the leaves to size, and while certain workers hold
the edges in place, use their babies, which in the larval stage are capable of spinning silk, as
shuttles to sew them together. The poor baby may be bereft of the opportunity of making a
cocoon for himself, but he has served his community.

How do the inanimate atoms and molecules of matter composing an ant set these complicated
processes in motion? There must be Intelligence somewhere.102/
True, there must be a Creator who guides these and other creatures, large and small. He is the
One “who creates and proportions well, who determines and guides.” (Verses 2-3)

The examples we have quoted above are but a few of the large number of remarkable aspects
science has recorded in the worlds of plants, insects, birds and animals. But all these aspects
reflect only a part of the import of the two verses: “who creates and proportions well, who
determines and guides.” (Verses 2-3) For our knowledge covers only a scanty part of what is
in the visible universe, beyond which extends a whole world of which we know nothing apart
from the few hints God has chosen to drop us, as befits our limited abilities.
Having fired such a great volley of praises to God, resounding in even the remotest corners of
the universe, the sūrah complements this with an inspiring insight from the realm of plants:
“who brings forth the pasturage, then turns it to withered grass.” (Verses 4-5) The pasturage,
as used here, refers to all plants. Every plant is suitable for one sort of species or another. The
term then has a much wider sense than the familiar pastures where cattle feed. God has
created this planet and provided on it enough food to nourish every single living creature
which walks, swims, flies or hides itself underground.

The pasturage is green when it first shoots forth, but it withers away and blackens. It may be
used for feeding when green, after it blackens and withers, or in between. Thus, it is useful in
every condition, and it serves a purpose according to the elaborate planning of the One who
creates, proportions, determines and guides. The reference here to the life of plants carries
also an implicit connotation that all plants are reaped and harvested. Similarly, every living
being will come to its appointed end. This connotation fits in well with the reference to the
two worlds of man: “Yet you prefer this present life, while the life to come is better and
longer lasting.” (Verses 16-17) This life is a pasture which comes to its end when it withers
away and blackens, while the life to come is the one which lasts.103/

“who determines the nature [of all that exists], and guided it accordingly”. It is quite evident
that there is planning in the creation of man and the world. This planning strongly implies
that there must be some purpose behind this creation. And indeed, this purpose has been
revealed to man through divine revelation. However, only that individual learns a lesson from
revelation who is of a receptive nature. Such people will be introduced to the eternal bounties
of God. But those whose arrogance prevents them from accepting guidance, will be doomed
to being cast into the flames of the eternal fire.104/

Dahr (Qur’an 45:24, 76:1)

‘Dahr’ means time or period of time. In fact, ‘ dahr’ applies to the entire
period covering from the beginning of the universe till its end. On the
other hand the word ‘asr’ is used for a period of time (both long and
short).
Since time brings to pass events, good and evil ‘dahr’ was applied by
the Arabs to fortune or fate and they used to blame ‘dahr’:
“And yet they (men who have gone astray) say: there is nothing
beyond our life in this world. We die as we come to life, and
 nothing but time (dahr) destroys us, but of this they have no
knowledge whatever. They do nothing but guess.” (Qur’an 45:24)
Dahr also applies to a long period: “Surely there came over man a
period of time (dahr) when he was not a thing that could be spoken of
(mentioned) “ (Qur’an 76:1)
To Bergson time is an infinite line drawn across the space, where we
traverse in length and breath. This is the wrong conception of time. In
pure duration there is no length or breadth. When we divide time into
small rows, then space comes in between, thus time becomes
unconquerable to know the real nature of time we have to introspect.
Real time is the self which is sustained by the tension of the self. As far
as we try to understand time in relation with space, we become the slaves
of time. This spatialized time is the product of intellect. In fact, man is
above time. His transcendence can be realized in this life, although this
feeling is temporary.
According to Prof. Whitehead, therefore Nature is not a static fact
situated in a dynamic void, but a structure events possessing the character
of a continuous creative flow which thoughts cuts up into isolated
immobilities out of whose mutual relations arise. The concepts of time and
space.
With Einstein space is real but relative to the observer. He rejects the
Newtonian concept of an absolute space. The object observed is variable;
it is relative to the observer, its mass, shape and size change as the
observer’s position and speed change. Movement and rest too are relative
to the observer. There is therefore, no such a thing as self-subsistent
materiality of classical physics.
“Einstein Relativity presents one great difficulty i.e. the unreality of
time. A theory which takes time to be a kind of fourth dimension of space
must, it seems regard the future as something already given in dubitably
fixed as the past. Time as a free creative movement has no meaning for the
theory. It does not pass. Events do not happen; we simply meet them. It
must not, however, be forgotten that the theory neglects certain
characteristics of time as experienced by us; and it is not possible to say
that the nature of time is exhausted by the characteristics which the theory
does note in the interests of a systematic accounts of those aspects of
nature which can be mathematically treated. Nor is it possible for us
laymen to understand what the real nature of Einstein’s time is. It is
obvious that Einstein time is not Bergson’s pure duration. Nor can we
regard it as serial time. Serial time is the essence of causality as defined by
Kant. The cause and its effect are mutually so related that the former is
chronologically prior to the latter. So that if the former is not, the latter
can’t be. If mathematical time is serial time, then on the basis of the theory
it is possible by a careful choice of the velocities of the observer and the
system in which a given set of events is happening to make the effect
precede its cause. It appears to me that time regarding as the fourth
dimension of space really ceases to be time”.
 Iqbal had neither agreed to the Greek concepts of the unreality of time
nor Newtonian objective point of view of time. To him time is the creator
of new things in future which coincides with the Qur’anic verse every
moment appears a new glory.
He Said: “Real time is not serial time which is marked by present, past
and future. Serial time transitory which has been made divisible and
measurable by human intellect. By dint of which the ultimate Ego
manifests. His infinite creativity, the Qur’an also makes a mention of this
time”.
Iqbal admitted to reveal the secrets of time is a Herculean task. To
know the reality of time one has to dive down into one’s heart. As life is
basically spiritual, Meghtgart and Ibn-Hazm had not understood the
importance of time because they considered time objective and serial
besides they considered the universe static. Despite the fact that behind
the serial time there is the existence of pure time.
Iqbal had given due attention to the western philosophy, science and
Muslim philosophy and the ideas of Muslim mystics while taking the
stock of space and time. He criticized the Asharites concepts time who
considered time a series of individual ‘rows’ and in between every two
rows there is a void of time. Since they studied time at surface level and
objectively. Like modern science their concept is devoid of the experience
of the self. In our constant pursuit after external things we weave a kind
of veil round the appreciative-self which thus becomes completely alien to
us. It is only in the moments of profound meditation, when the efficient-
self is in abeyance, that we think into our deeper self and reach the inner
centre of experience…………. It appears that the time of the appreciative-
self is a single ‘row’ which the efficient-self in the traffic with the world of
space. The atomism of time and the atomism of space are two different
things. We can’t apply Atomism of time to God. Jalalu-Din Dawani
considered life as a straight line in which all the events from the
beginning to the end are consecutively in the mind of God. This idea
coincides with the idea of Prof. Royce.
He wrote: “The time of immaterial beings is also serial in character, but
its passage is such that a whole year in the time of grass bodies is not
more than a day in the time of an immaterial being. Rising higher and
higher in the scale of immaterial beings we reach divine time——time
which is absolutely free from quality of passage and consequently does
not admit of divisibility, sequence and change. It is above eternity; it has
neither beginning nor end. The eye of God sees all the visible and His ears
hear all the audibles in one indivisible act of perception. The priority of
God is not due to the priority of God’s priority. This Divine time is what
the Qur’an described as “the mother of Books”, in which the whole
history, freed from the net of causal sequence, is gathered up in a single
super eternal ‘row’ of all the Muslim theologians, however it is Fakhr-u-
din Razi who appears to have given the most serious attention to the
problem of time. In his Eastern Discussions, Razi subjects to the searching
examination all the contemporary theories of time. He too is in the main
objective in his method and finds himself unable to reach any definite
conclusions”. Until now, he says, “I have not been able to discover
anything really true with regard to the nature of time; and the main
purpose of my book is to explain what can possibly be said for or against
each theory without any spirit of partisanship, which I generally avoid,
especially in connection with the problem of time”. After quoting the
Muslim philosophers and the dialectician, Iqbal reached the conclusion
that by taking the objective point of view of time, we can’t discover the
nature of time. For that we need to divulge into our insight or inner
experience.
God’s time is an eternal now. Iqbal is of the view that one can have
different experiences at the view that one can have different experiences
at the different levels of time. Here we can view time as specialized time
only, and we do interrupt time in the series of ‘row’ and ‘not row’.
Practically this means ‘here’ and ‘not here’. Present does not exist. It is
either the part of the near part or a part of near future. According to
Bergson it is duration where there is neither continuity nor change. On the
relation between self and time Iqbal wrote: “Neither pure space nor pure
time can hold together the multiplicity of objects and events. It is the
appreciative act of an enduring self only which can seize the multiplicity
of duration—broken up into infinity of instants—and transforms it to the
organic wholeness of a synthesis. To exist in pure duration is to be self
and to self is to be able to say ‘I am’. Only that truly exists which can say
‘I am’. It is the degree of intuition of ‘I-amness’ that determines in place of
athing in the scale of being. We too can say ‘I am’. But our ‘I-amness’ is
dependent and arises out of the distinction between the self and not self”.
A time process can’t be conceived as a line already drawn. It is a line in
the drawing-an actualization of open possibilities.
Shabir Ahmad Gori has blatantly criticized Iqbal’s conception of time
and space. According to him Iqbal’s point of views on space and time had
varied from time to time. He said: when the impact of the unicity of God
was dominant on Iqbal he refused / denied the existence of time and
space. The theories of philosophers and physicians to which he had
appended in support of the reality of time and space at times; terms them
mere hereby and idolatry.
When the existence of man seems very diminutive time as compared to
the expanse of the universe. This very Imaginary time becomes a reality
for him.

Time to Iqbal in his poem “Song of Time” seems to be the main cause
behind the ongoing systems of the universe.
After quoting the above verses from Iqbal Gori said, “Obviously there
is a hell of difference between calling time imaginary and calling the same
time the creator / cause of the existence of the universe. As such there is
no coherence in this thought”.
Similarly Gori has denounced the Iqbalian thought that time is destiny
and blamed him for plagiarizing German thinker Splenger. “The proper
destiny and time are interchangeable words”. Splenger in term had
borrowed this thought from ancient Zoroastrians which had been the royal
religion of the ancient Persia from 438-45 B.C. He further rejects the
Iqbal’s view that the intense feeling of the reality of time is based on the
teachings of the Qur’an. Which is nowhere confirmed by the Qur’an. But is
based on the blind initiation of the western philosophy. He further adds
that Iqbal’s conception of time as the time is the beginning of the existence
of the universe (in Secrets of the Self) is neither derived from the Qur’an
or Hadith nor is Iqbal’s own brain child but is the derivation of an ancient
Zoroastrian philosophy which he had studied in Germany during his
studies and had unconsciously influenced him a lot.
Gori has further blamed Iqbal that in spite of being inquisitive in his
attempt to unravel the search of time and space he had not perused the
thought of Muslim thinkers. Despite his sincere efforts he failed. In brief
Gori’s objection against Iqbal can be enumerated as:
1. Iqbal’s view on space and time are not coherent. His views in poetry
are different than those of his prose.
2. That Iqbal considered “time is destiny” does not coincide with
Islamic thought but had plagiarized German philosopher Spenger and
Zoroastrianism.
3. Iqbal considers time real which is not acceptable in light of the
Qur’an.
4. Iqbal has not followed / perceived either Islamic teaching or the
thought of Muslim philosophers or the Sufis which they have said about
time and space though he had a keen desire for it.
5. Taking the conception of time and space as the question of life and
death for Muslim is the manifestation of tinge of modernism in Iqbal.
All the aforesaid objections are of serious nature and deserve our
attention. Prior to Iqbal, Altaf Hussain Hali had made the nature of the
tradition of time in his poem ‘Hope’.
“Have you ever heard the meaning of don’t vilify time.
Tape it nothing but the glory of God”.
In past, time was considered to be the prophet of doom. Now it is
nothing but the glory of God. Had not been Hali in know of the meaning
of this tradition he would be mourned and defined historical changes
nothing but the acts of an unrelenting God. Thus Hali is the profounder of
the new concept of time in Urdu poetry.
In the compilations of tradition like the Sahih Bukhari and the Sahih
Muslim there is a tradition:

“Men vilify time. I am time. The alteration

of day and night is in my hands”.
Time here means the master of time and the planner of the events.
Since he changes time into day and night. So He is the real doer. In
Bukhari Sharief there is another tradition:
In the tradition (la tassabu al Dahar fa Inna Alaha al dahar) means any
untoward accident which makes men mournful and attribute the
misfortune to time. As it had been in vogue in Arab. But the tradition
prohibited the Arabs from vilifying time because the subject or doer of the
action is not time but God. Thus to vilify time is to vilify God.
 In the commentary of Sahih Muslim, Al-Nawi had written:
Abu Bakar Mohammad Bin Dawood Asfahani Tahri has explained
the meaning of ( ) the span of time and the alteration of day
and night. Najas said God is eternal and his eternity is everlasting
thus the meaning of the tradition is don’t vilify God the sender of
calamities. God being the creator of time is the real subject. The
relation between God and time is analogous to the creator and the
creation besides the curse against time is very often found in the
pagan poetry. The tradition prohibits from cursing time. Imam Shafi
has also explained that by prohibiting the curse against time, the
Prophet meant by cursing time one curses God, the creator. God is
the Main cause of the effects. Thus the belief of Pagans (Our life is
only worldly. We are born here we die here. It is time which kills
us) is refuted by this tradition.
Dhar according to the Qur’an is the life span of the universe (has there
not been over man a long period of time). Certainly there had been a time
when man was naught. Superficially the meaning of Dhar has been
mentioned as longer duration on the contrary the meaning of ‘ Zaman’ is
both shorter span and the longer span of time.
Dhar, Dhahir, Dhaheer mean time and time timeless time. In his book
“Kitabul Malal wa Nahal” Shahristani has explained the meaning of Dhar”:
During the pre-Islamic period in Arabic there were many sects one
among them was Mutala ( ) and the second was Muhsala ( ). Mutala
did not believe in God, the Hereafter and the Resurrection. They were of
this view that life is made up of material and is destroyed by time. The
Qur’anic verse “that it is time which destroys us” (Sura45 v.14) is
referential to the belief of this sect.
The first verse of Surah time or man (mentioned above) refers to serial
time extending from the beginning up to the end of the universe. It is the
totality of space-time. This time is creative time; which Iqbal expresses as
(the alteration of day and night are the two minute strands black (night)
and white (day) through which god manifests the attire of is attributes).
About the pure duration, Iqbal writes:(the alteration of day and night
is unreal time. Beyond this time there is neither day nor night that is the
real time or pure duration).
Pure duration is eternal; seconds or centuries are unaccountable there.
Serial time began with the birth of the universe. It will end along with the
end of the universe. It will end along with the end of the universe. Among
all other creation time is one. Thus to vilify time is to vilify its creator.
The materialistic outlook of the pagans: “that it is time that kills us” is
nothing but the Hedonistic philosophy of Greeks which his believes in
self-indulgence and in enjoying the luxuries of life.
Majid Daryaabdi has given the meaning of Dhar as fortune; fortune
from the beginning up to the end. Since the Arabian believed time is the
creator of all events whether favorable or unfavorable. Thus they
attributed destiny to time and that is why they used to curse time. They
also believed in time as a good among many gods of their mythology.
Similarly, in pagan Arabic poetry poets have mentioned time as the
bringer of calamities, cause of the changes slaughterer, a bowman hitting
the mark and a hunter with stores. Pagans believed in the omnipotence of
time and denied the supernatural powers.
Mohammad Ahsan Islahi and Kashaf are of the same opinions.
Regarding the meaning of Asar, Majidi writes; “Asar is any unlimited
extent of time during which people pass away and become extinct”.
Qastilani gives us the meaning of time: “ Asar signifies time or
succession of ages”. To him Asar mean serial time and Dhar means pure
duration. Serial time is unredeemable.
From the aforesaid discussions we came to the conclusion that Dhar is
an immensely long span of time and Zaman or Asar is a short span of
time.105/

REFERENCES AND NOTES

1- Peter Coles, From Cosmos to Chaos, The Science of Unpredictability,

Oxford University Press First published 2006, P-138
2-Ibid.P-162
3-Ibid.pP- 161-164
4-Ibid.p-62
5-Ibid.
6-Ibid, p-139
7- “Do not worry if you do not understand the theory—few people do. I just
want to give some idea of its complexity so that you can have some idea of the
historical process by which it arose. The basic theoretical structure of modern
cosmology consists of a family of mathematical models derived from Einstein’s
general theory of relativity in the 1920s by Alexander Friedmann and George
Lemaitre, the two founding fathers of the Big Bang. Given the conceptual
difficulty of the underlying physics, it is surprising how simple these models
are. In essence they contain three components:
(1) a description of the space-time geometry;
(2) a set of equations describing the action of gravity;
(3) a description of the bulk properties of matter.
The most difficult aspect of the theory to understand is probably the first
because we are so used to the idea that space has ‘normal’ geometrical
properties: parallel lines never meet; the sum of the angles of a triangle is 180,
and so on. In Einstein’s theory space is curved in the presence of matter. Light
rays travelling near a massive body like a star get bent away from the path they
would follow in empty space. Where gravity is particularly strong, space can
become so strongly curved that light can be completely trapped. Such regions
are called black holes.
The space-time may be expanding or contracting, however, so different time
slices can differ by a scale factor a(t).
In the basic Big Bang theory, the early Universe is radiation-dominated; as it
expands and cools the matter becomes non-relativistic and the equation of state
changes smoothly to that of dust.
So far this probably looks very complicated. How can such a complex system
possibly be consistent with the requirement that it be the simplest theory
consistent with the data? The mathematics may indeed be difficult, but
Einstein’s theory is indeed the simplest way of constructing a gravity theory
based on the idea of curved space. It does not have adjustable parameters.
There are many other variants, such as Brans–Dicke theory, that are similar to
general relativity but with additional mathematical functions. Moreover, just
think about what this theory incorporates. Because it entails a four-dimensional
description of space and time, a solution of the system of equations furnishes a
description of the entire evolutionary history of the Universe. It is quite
impressive to be able to do that with only two equations!
Big Bang model does have some free parameters. We have no way of
calculating the density of the Universe, or the pressure exerted by its contents,
or its global space-time curvature from first principles.
These have to be estimated from observations, which I shall describe shortly.
The basic framework can describe an entire family of different Universes.
Which one do we live in?
Regardless of the specific values of the free parameters in the model, this
general framework accounts naturally for Hubble’s law, relating the apparent
recession velocity v of a galaxy at a distance which is of the form v¼H0d. In
the Friedmann models this is a consequence of the global expansion of the
spatial slices as a function of cosmic time. The Hubble constant H0 is just (a/a)
evaluated at the present epoch. This is a rare example of an observational result
becoming simpler when viewed through relativistic theory. Hubble’s law is
actually based on observations of the apparent Doppler shift of galaxy spectra,
from which their velocities are inferred. The redshift z is simply the fractional
increase in wavelength (Dl/l) of a line with wavelength l measured by an
observer at rest with respect to the source of radiation. In cosmology this effect
arises as a consequence of the light having travelled along a path through an
expanding space time.
Successful though this framework is, it also contains a glaring anomaly. For
dust or radiation equations of state, the Universe is always decelerating. Since it
is expanding now, it must have been expanding more quickly in the past. There
is a stage, at a finite time in the past, at which the scale factor must shrink to
zero and the energy density becomes infinite. This is the Big Bang singularity
at which the whole framework falls apart. Einstein’s equations themselves break
down under such extreme conditions. One would expect this (classical) theory
to be superseded by a quantum theory of gravity at times earlier than the
Planck time, which is of order seconds. Since we do not have such a theory we
can say nothing about the Universe’s birth. This is why there are free
parameters in the theory: we do not know how to set the initial conditions
from which the Universe grew”. See From Cosmos to Chaos, op.cit, pp-142-144
8-Gore 1983, 705, See From Cosmos to Chaos, op.cit
9- Carl Sagan, Cosmos, Ballantine Books, New York, 1980, see (Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus, Mediations, IV. 22), p-p-281
10-Edited Alison Braving to Liz Casen etc. facts at your fingerprints, Readers
Digest (Australia) PTV limited ,26-32 Waterloo Street, Surry Hills NSW
2010,2002, 16-17)
11-Carl Sagan, Cosmos, Ballantine Books, New York, 1980, see (Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus, Mediations, IV. 22)
12-Ibid.Sagan p-200.
13-Ibid.P-200
14-Ibid.p-212
15-Carl Sagan, Cosmos, Ballantine Books, New York, 1980, p-12
16-Ibid.P-12
17-Ibid.p-179.
18-Ibid.p-202
19-Ibid.P-210
20-Ibid p-21
21-Lenin V, Socialist Ideology and Culture, Progress publishers, 1978, p -45
22-V.A. Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Progress publishers, Moscow, 1978, p-
356
23-Where the cosmic egg came from no one seems to know. Certainly no
cosmic chicken has been located! Some allege that the egg always existed. They
speculate that it possibly resulted from some earlier universe that collapsed
upon itself. This assumes that matter is eternal. But this idea is refuted by our
knowledge of physics (e.g., the second law of thermodynamics). Jastrow
concedes that “modern science denies an eternal existence to the Universe,
either in the past or in the future”. Others, like Professor Victor Stenger of the
University of Hawaii, muse that perhaps the universe came from nothing (the
egg laid itself!): [T]he universe is probably the result of a random quantum
fluctuation in a space less, timeless void . . . the earth and humanity, are not
conscious creations but an accident. . .. [I]t is not sufficient merely to say, “You
can’t get something from nothing.” While everyday experience and common
sense seem to support this principle, if there is anything that we have learned
from twentieth-century physics, it is this: Common sense is often wrong, and
our normal experiences are but a tiny fraction of reality (1987, 26-27).
24- One thing is certain: one is required to lay aside his “common sense” in
order to accept the foregoing incomprehensible speculation. None of these
materialistic theories has any credibility—biblically or scientifically. Some
scientists should take a hint from the Scottish sceptic David Hume: “I have
never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without a
cause” (1932, 187). In 1931, Belgian cosmologist George Lemaitre (1894-1966)
was the first to put forward the theory that the Universe started from a dense,
single unit of material in a big explosion. The name Big Bang followed in 1950,
introduced by Fred Hoyle, a British astronomer and supporter of the Steady
State theory. In 1920s, analyzing starlight from galaxies showed that the
galaxies are moving away from earth. This is true of galaxies in every direction
from Earth. Over time, the Universe is becoming larger and less dense. The
idea that the universe started in an explosion from a single point grew out of
observations that the Universe is expanding. However according to the
scientists nobody knows for certain what is going to happen to the Universe. At
present, it is getting larger and less dense. Most astronomers believe there will
be a time when it stops expanding. But there is disagreement about what
happens then: will the Universe live on forever, wither and die, or start to
contract? There is one view that universe may end in a Big Crunch if it starts
to contract until it is hot and dense once more. But even this may not mean the
end of the Universe. The Big Crunch might be followed by another Big Bang
explosion, and the whole process could start over again. See Sagan, op.cit p-130
24- Roger Penrose, The Emperor’s New Mind, With a New Preface by the
Author, Oxford University Press, New York 1999, p-418
25-Ibid p-468
26-p-422, Penrose
27-Lawrence Zalcman, "Mathematicians Sweep1988Wolf Prizes, “The
Mathematical Intelligence 11, no.2(1989):46, see Kristine Larsen, Stephen Hawking, A
Biography, Jaico Publishing House, Delhi 2010, p-82

28- Kristine Larsen, Stephen Hawking, A Biography, Jaico Publishing House, Delhi 2010, ibifd. pp-
82-83
29-Stephen Hawking, interview by Larry King, Larry King Weekend, Cable
News Network, December 25, 1999.See Kristine Larsen, Stephen Hawking, A
Biography, Jaico Publishing House, Delhi 2010Larsen p-83
30-A Brief History of Time, Toronto: Bantam Books,1988, X, see also Kristine
Larsen, Stephen Hawking, A Biography, Jaico Publishing House, Delhi 2010 P-83

31-Ibid. p-175
32-ibid. pp-83-84
33- Ben Dupré,50 Big Ideas Quercus Publishing PLc ,21 Bloomsbury Square, London ,2009, p-202
34-Dr. Abdul Salam, Review of Religions, Newyork, July, 1986, p-33
35-Ibid
36-Ibid. p-34
37-Ibid.
38-Allamah Jamaluddin Muhammad ibn Mukarram Ibn Manzoor, Lisan – al -Arab, vol. 14, Daru
Sadir Beirut 1997, pp- 416-417. The knowledge is the antonym of ignorance (jahalat). Knowledge is
thus a process when we say alima wa ilman wa aluma it will mean that a person has taught his own
self this knowledge and first he became the seeker of that knowledge (mutaaliman) and later a
scholar (aaliman), when the propensity and faculty of knowledge in man was activated. The plural of
Aalim will be ulama which is the antonym of juhla and the plural of it is on the analogy of hulama
because the knowledge is a cause of politeness for a person (muhhalaman), who is knowledgeable. On
the same analogy it is maintained that fahashun wa fuhsha, is from the genre of ignorance and thus
opposite to politeness (hilm). When we say alimtu al-shayin it means that I understood it (ariftuhu),
Ibn Bari says that when you say Alima wa faqiha it means to learn (taalama) and to comprehend
(tafaquhu) indicating that the people with these traits have become learned and the scholars and jurists
(ulama wa fuqaha). The Qur’anic verse Alamal-al-Quran means that Allah the most exalted has
made the Quran easy for understanding and remembrance (lian yuzakuru) and the meaning of
alamahul al-Bayan is that He has taught the Quran in which there is mention (Bayan) of everything.
There is very interesting discussion on the subject of ilm in the Mufradat al-Quran of Imam
Raghib Isfahani. He says that ilm means to understand or comprehend anything and it
consists of two kinds, first to understand essence of something and second to pass a
judgement about something with assigning a quality to it, which could also be proved for it in
reality. Or to deny one thing by another which in reality may be different from it also. In the
first case it will be a transitive verb with one passive participle as in the Quran it is
mentioned: - “Muster against them all the military strength and cavalry that you can afford so
that you may strike terror into the hearts of the enemy of Allah and of your, and others
besides them who are unknown to you but known to Allah…”. (8:60)

Yet from a different angle there are two kinds of knowledge, i.e. Theoretical and practical
(Nazari, Amali), the former is completed and perfected with its acquisition, as for example
the knowledge pertaining to the existence of the creations of the world and the latter is such a
knowledge which is not perfected unless it is put into action, for example, the knowledge
about the prayers. From yet different perspective there are still two categories of knowledge
i.e., Aqli and Samie (rational and testimonial and transmitted through listening and
recording).

In reality the meaning of the terms aalamtuhu and, allamatuhu is same, however, others say
that the actual meaning of taileem is to make mind prepared for conception, ialam indicates
telling something hurriedly and taailim on the other to inform and educate again and again so
that it may have its impact on the mind of the learner.

There is another opinion about the terms taileem and taalum, the former meaning there by to
attract the self for receiving the conception while as the later means to get attentive towards
such a conception. However sometimes we use the term ialam at the place of taileem when
the stress is required as has been said in the Quran: --“Say (unto them, O Muhammad):
Would ye teach Allah your religion, when Allah knoweth all that is in the heavens and all that
is in the earth, and Allah is Aware of all things?”(49:16) .But in the following verse the word
taileem has been used instead, “The Beneficent, hath made known the Quran.”(55:1-2) Or
“He Who taught (the use of) the Pen.”(96:4) Or “Those people have not valued the attributes
of Allah, the way His attributes should be valued, who say: "Allah has never revealed
anything to a human being." Ask them: "Who then sent down the Book (Torah) which Musa
brought, a light and guidance for mankind? You have transcribed it on separate sheets,
publishing some and suppressing much of that given knowledge, which neither you nor your
forefathers previously possessed." If they do not answer, then just say: "Allah" and leave
them alone with the discourse of their useless arguments.”(6: 91) or “Sulaiman succeeded
Dawud. He said: "O people! We have been taught the tongue of birds and given all sort of
things. This is indeed a great blessing from Allah. (27:16)” or “Allah has done a great favour
to the believers that He raised among them a Rasool from among themselves, reciting to them
the Revelations of Allah, Sanctifying them and teaching them the Book and Wisdom,
although before this they were in manifest error” (3:164). See Imam Raghib Isfahani, Mufaradat
ul-al-Quran, tr.by Maulana Muhammad Abduhu Firozepori Kashmir Block Iqbal Town Lahore –pp-
717-721, vol.2

39- “Have they not pondered the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and whatever Allah has
created, and that maybe their hour of death has come closer? In what message after this would they
then believe?” (7:185) The plural of it is aalamun and since everything of the universe and every
element of it is at its own place and right a complete world, therefore they are called so in their
individual capacity as well. For example, we say aalam –ul- insan, aalamul-maa, aalm ul-nar etc.
etc”. See Imam Raghib Isfahani, Mufaradat ul-al-Quran, tr.by Maulana Muhammad Abduhu
Firozepori Kashmir Block Iqbal Town Lahore –pp-717-721, vol.2

40-Prof M G Hussain, Muslim Youth and Madrasa Education, IOS New Delhi 2004, - p-60,
41-Ibid. P-60
42-Ibid .What is technology and science and what is the role of Islam in its promotion is a question
which needs our special attention at a time when even Muslim thinkers have felt the ill effects of
ignoring this important reality of present life where west has dominated the scene at the exclusion of
all others .It is not now only the matter of technological deprivation Muslims are suffering from ,but
the after math of this scientific and technological advance of the west and rest  is bringing in its wake
dangerous ideological moral and spiritual drawbacks to fore, hence endangering the very identity of
Muslims.
43-First World conference of Muslim education held in Mecca in 1977, see in William Montgomery
Watt, Islamic Fundamentalism and Modernity, Routledge London 1988.p-87 4- Shaykh Muhammad
Al-Ghazzali, A thematic commentary on the Quran, translated by Ashur A. Shamis, International
Institute of Islamic thought Herndon ,2000, p-319-320
44-Karen Armstrong, Muhammad Prophet for our Time, Harper Perennial, London 2007, Pp-53--61
45- Ibid. The Quran has explained this fact in the following verses: -"Behold! In the creation of the
heaves and the earth; in the alternation of the Night and the Day; in the sailing of the ships through the
ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies and the life which
He gives there with to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the
earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and
the earth; (Here)indeed are signs for a people that are wise." (2: 164) and "Behold! In the creation of
the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of Night and Day, there are indeed signs for men of
understanding, men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their
sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (with the thought): "Our
Lord! Not for naught has Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Any whom Thou don't admit to the
fire, truly Thou coverest with shame, and never will wrong doers find any helpers! Our Lord we have
heard the call of one calling (us) to faith; Believe ye in the Lord, and we have believed. Our Lord!
Forgive us our sins, blot and from us our iniquities, and take to thyself our souls in the company of the
righteous." (3: 190 - 193)
Here, these verses of the Quran clearly depict the attitude of a "believing" scientist and researcher,
how he approaches the universe in the course of his study and exploration and is saved from
waywardness of his counter-part, who does not study the universe teleologically.
46- Maulvi Abdul Karim, A Simple guide to Islam’s Contribution to Science and Civilisation, Good
word books Calcutta 1935, reprint 2006, -pp-52-53
47-New Researches into the composition and exegesis of the Quran, London 1902, p-9. The same
fervour and curiosity which was the hallmark of Muslim scientists of the glorious period marks the
modern scientific zeal of people like A P J Abdul Kalam which can be seen from the following
passages. The religion seems nowhere hurdle in his way rather a catalyst...Talking about his friend
Ahmed Jalaluddin Abul Kalam says: “Jalaluddin and I talked mainly on spiritual matters.” P-6
To take an example from my own life, I had been fascinated by the mysteries of the sky and the flight
of the birds from early childhood. I used to watch cranes and seagulls soar into flight and longed to
fly. Simple, provincial boy though I was, I was convinced that one day, I too, would soar up into the
skies. Indeed, I was the first child from Rameswaram to fly.” P-13
Wings of Fire An autobiography, Universities press Hyderabad 2005, A P J Abdul Kalam Zohara, my
sister, mortgaging her gold bangles to get me into engineering college. p-176
Even the mystical or spiritual tendencies cannot hamper the way, if there is resolve to progress
scientifically and technologically. He says for example, in this context ““Always encouraged to
follow Buddha’s or Gandhi’s teachings, how and why did India become a missile power is a question
that needs to be answered for future generations.” P-147
Like any other human being a scientist resorts to religious practices and these practices never stop him
from advancing his scientific credentials. Prayer supports scientific activity if carried on with right
intentions. Abdul Kalam says: “Before Abdul Kalam was asked to proceed to America, for a six –
month training programme on sounding rocket launching technique, at the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) Work centres. He took off some time before going abroad and went to
Rameswaram. His father was very pleased to learn about the opportunity that had come his way. He
took him to the mosque and organised a special namaz in thanksgiving.” I could feel the power of
God flowing in a circuit through my father to me and back to God; we were all under the spell of the
power.” P-32 One of the important functions of prayer, I believe, is to act as a stimulus to creative
ideas. Within the mind are the resources required for successful living. Ideas are present in the
consciousness, which when released and given scope to grow and take shape, can lead to successful
events. God our Creator has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and
ability. Prayer helps us to tap and develop these powers.” (33) He remembers his father starting his
day at 4 am by reading namaz p-5
Even case of modern western scholars and scientists, the lack of faith in God and religion leads them
to faultering and sometimes lopsided conclusions.
Friend Michael Church believed that Hawking “loved the fact that he had created the world and then
created the laws that governed it.” Kristine Larsen, Stephen Hawking –A biography, Jaico Publishing
house Delhi, 2010, P-4
See how Hawking reacts to a remark of Einstein: God does only play dice but also sometimes throws
them where they cannot be seen “—namely into a black hole.” P-42 to Einstein’s god does not play
dice with the universe “p-42
When he received Wolf Prize in physics in Israel by the wolf foundation of Israel he said: “The
progress of science has shown us that we are a very small part of the vast universe, which is governed
by rational laws .It is to be hoped that we can also govern our affairs by rational laws, but the same
scientific progress threatens to destroy us as all,… let us do all we can to promote peace and so insure
that we will survive till the next century and beyond.”(Mathematical sweep 1988 wolf prizes p-82
While in Israel he said in reply of a question about God: he “did not believe in God and there was no
room for God in his universe.” P-82. In brief history of time there is a controversial passage: we shall
all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the
question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the
ultimate triumph of human reason –for then we would know the mind of God (Brief History p-175(p-
84)
Stephen’s wife Jane “even commented to reporters that her role in Stephen’s life had become “telling
him that he was not God”. See A Brief history of a First Wife “Tim Adams, p-87the Observer, April
4, 2004.p
Some people “compared Hawking’s faith in mathematics to religion,” p-102 “
Hawking seems silent about the Designer but tacitly approves Him when he says: “Hawking justified
his use of the anthropic principle, pointing out that “clearly, the universe we live in, did not collapse
early on, or become almost empty. So we have to take account of the anthropic principle, that if the
universe hadn’t been suitable for our existence, we wouldn’t be asking why it is the way it is “p-102
48- Maulana Qazi Athar Mubarakpuri, Khayr-il-al-Quran ki darsgahain aur unka Nizam-I- Tailim
wa tarteeb, Shayk al-Hind Darul al-Ulum Deoband ,1995, pp -344-45
49-Prof Rafiabadi, Hamid Naseem, A Brief Introduction to Islamic Epistemology Ilm al Kalam and
Muslim Philosophy, City Book Centre, Srinagar,2010-pp -139-13. 13-A Simple guide to Islam’s
Contribution to Science and Civilisation, Good word books Calcutta 1935, op.cit. -34-35. Here we
need to bring this fact to the notice of our readers that Christianity only hampered the way for the
development of science and technology and Greek philosophy could not usher into any scientific
enterprise basing its theories on the experimental foundations. Therefore, we need to know the
catastrophic disservice done to scientific enquiry by Christianity and the lethargic Greek method of
deduction at the expense of induction.
For his belief in the theory of evolution, Vanini’s tongue was torn out of his mouth and he was burnt
alive. Hypatia, the renowned commentator on Plato, had to pay the penalty for her intellectual
audacity with her life. Copernicus tried to demonstrate that the earth revolves and not the heavens.
Thereupon even Martin Luther denounced him as “an upstart Astrologer”, and Calvin most severely
condemned him. He had therefore to end h life in disgrace. Baruno, who dared to advance the
Copernican theory, was seized, imprisoned and at last put to death by a  “fire made slow to increase
the torture”. Galileo, who supported the Copernican theory was thrown into a dungeon,
terribly tortured and forced to Recant as follows: “I, Galileo, Being in my seventieth year, being a
prisoner on my knees before your Eminences, having before my eyes the Holy Gospel, abjure, curse
and detest the error and the heresy of the movements of the Earth “.
Not content with mere recantation, the holy Inquisition sent him into exile for the rest of his life. Thus
many a devoted votary of science fell a victim to Christian fanaticism prevalent in the middle Ages,
and some famous libraries, containing the accumulated treasures of ages, were consigned to the
flames.
To start with the most obvious example of conflict of Science and religion in Christian world is that of
the church’s persecution of Galileo (1564-1642). The famous trial of Galileo before panel of cardinals
was held in 1632, and he was condemned by a vote of seven to three for violating an injunction sent to
him in 1616 requiring him not to hold, teach, or defend in any way what so ever that the earth moves.
He recanted and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. This is also a fact to reckon with that
sometimes Galileo had claimed that science and scripture had different goals and were irrelevant to
each other. He had cited Augustine’s assertion that scripture did not teach us about matters that were
not relevant to our salvation. He also had quoted Cardinal Bronius: “The intention of the Holy Ghost
is to teach how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes”.
Moreover, at some places Galileo had asserted that a metaphorical interpretation of scripture was
acceptable only when a literal interpretation would have conflicted with a scientific theory that could
be proved with certainty. Scientific theories that could not be irrefutably demonstrated should be
rejected in favour of a literal interpretation of a scripture.
Similarly, many other scientists like Bruno, Copernicus, Kent were given the punishment of
imprisonment and death. Courts were framed to resist the new trends of learning and philosophy in
France and Italy, persecuting more than 10,000, others were put to jail. Many research books were
thrown into fire under pretence of protecting the religion represented by the priests.
Under such torture, science had suffered a lot, and conflict had started between science and religion
due to irrational and wrong attitude of the church. Perhaps it was a reaction of this hostility and
persecution that science in the West during the last four centuries has become Godless and anti-
religion, because the scientists were persecuted under the authority of Church.)Furthermore, contrary
to the hostile attitude of the Christianity to science and rationalism Islam patronized both in a big
way .According to Professor Abdul Salam we do not find any inquisition in Islamic history which has
punished any scientist for scientific invention or views as we find in case of Church in the western
part of the world. Now there are several other questions also which need to be discussed before our
audiences. There are people who complain that Muslims could not make any additional and original
contribution to the Greek legacy which they had inherited and remained content merely by being the
imitators or the commentators of the Greek scientific edifice of knowledge.p..141
50-Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, Hagarism the Making of the Islamic World, Cambridge University
Press Cambridge, London, 197, p-145.
51-Ibid
52-Op.cit, pp-13-14
53-Ibid.p-14
54- M. R. Siddiqui, M.M. Sharif, A History of Muslim Philosophy, volume two low price publications
Delhi 110052,1989, p-1277
55-Quoted in Rational Sciences in Medieval India, Hamid Rafiabadi, History of Science, Philosophy
and Culture in Indian Civilisation, General Editor D. P. Chattopadhyaya, vol. v11, part 5,
Development of Islamic Religion and Philosophy in India, edited by Mohammad Rafique, Project of
History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, Centre for studies in Civilisations. New Delhi ,
2009, P-39
56- Briffault, The Making of Humanity (quoted in Iqbal, Reconstruction of Religious thought in
Islam (Lahore: Iqbal Academy) p.104.When we compare the positive role of Islam in contrast to the
negative role of Christianity with regard to science, we are convinced that the views of Briffault can
become a beacon light. “The Christian Church was antagonistic to objective study of natural
phenomenon and to manifestation s of spirit of critical enquiry .It rejected understanding and
knowledge based on observation and experiment ,and insisted on acceptance of its doctrines and an
unquestioning  belief in all pronouncements of the Fathers of the Church ---even when these
pronouncements of the Fathers of the church --- were as fantastic as the declaration that lion cubs are
invariably born dead and only given life on the third day to symbolic the Resurrection of the Christ”.
Paul Freedman, op.cit. p-29. While comparing this obscurantist approach of Christians towards
science with the progressive attitude of the Muslims Paul Freedman writes: “That science did not
persh entirely during the eclipse of civilisation was due to the Arabs /. Arab science grew
simultaneously with Muslim theology .......consequently it was not as opposed to science as was the
theology of the Christian church of that period. While it denied both the actual existence of matter and
the duration of any phenomenon a, it at least did so on the basis of a theory of atomicity of space and
time, which was on a higher plane than the Fathers of the Church’s story of the resurrection of the loin
cubs. Thus Muslim theology did not advocate the rejection of science, but merely allocated it
apposition of secondary importance. ” p-29, see A Brief Introduction to Islamic Epistemology Ilm al
Kalam and Muslim Philosophy, op.cit. pp-113-149
57-Hafizur Rahman Siddiqui, Siddiqui, Science from the Muslim World into Europe, in Quest for
New Science, Edited by Rais Ahmad etc. Centre For Studies on Science, Aligarh ,1984, p-126
58-Ibid p-127
59-Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61-Graham E. Fuller, a World without Islam, Little Brown and Company, New York 2010, p-77
62-Ibid –p-119
63- A Simple guide to Islam’s Contribution to Science and Civilisation OP.CIT. P-15
64-Ibid. p-16
65-Ibid.p-17
66-Ibid. p-38
67-Ibid-41. See also Muhammad Prophet for our Time, Harper Perennial, London 2007, P-58
68-Ibid-41. See also Muhammad Prophet for our Time, Harper Perennial, London 2007, P-58
69-Mawlana Hanif Nadvi, Aqiliyat Ibn Taimiyah, Areeb Publications New Delhi, 2005, p-31
70-The Emperors New Mind, Oxford University 1999, p-41
71-Quest for New Science, op.cit pp-125-126
72-Ibid, p-55, Outlines of Islamic Culture, pp-174-176
73-Ibid. pp-58-59
74-Chagatai. An Indian links with central Asia in Architecture “in Indian Art and Letters”, VoL. xi
(2), 85. India society, London 1937.See, Endeavour, London, vol. xxx111, .105, September.
75- Endeavour. Op.cit. p-44
76- Ibid.p-45
77- A Simple guide to Islam’s Contribution to Science and Civilisation, op.cit p- 51
A thematic commentary on the Quran, Shaykh Muhammad Al-Ghazali, translated by Ashur A
Shamis, International Institute of Islamic thought Herndon, 2000; pp-319-320.Ziuaddin Sardar treats
Islam as a civilisation instead as a spiritual phenomenon. Sardar and Manzoor Parvez equates Sufism
with quietism and fatalism. Quest for New Science, op.cit, p-104.
78.. According to Ghazali Dhul Qarnayn carried combined knowledge with power, and he is
introduced in the Quran as a model for strong faith and genuine humanity. Regardless whether he was
Greek, Persian, Chinese or Yemeni, we are told that God had given Dhu’l –Qarnayn substantial
means and considerable power. He was knowledgeable, sincere, wise, and fair, and was clearly in
charge of a vast kingdom. He says further his engineering genius is demonstrated by the way he
constructed the dam. He used a molten mixture of iron, brass and rock to erect a massive wall, rising
to the mountain tops. He says as a conclusion: While explaining the Qur’anic verse (57:25) in which
mention of iron has been made, he says: God created iron with special useful qualities in peacetime
and in war. There is a hint here that these qualities should be studied and understood and harnessed
for man’s civilian and military advantage.

81- General Introduction Nasr, p--xxvi, see The Study Quran, Hossein Nasr et al,
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.195 Broadway New York, NY United States, 10007, 2015

82-Ibid. p-472, see The Heights al-Aʿrāf

83-Ibid. p-601, see Joseph Yusuf

84- Ibid al-Anbiyāʾ, p-828

85-Ibid.P-1680

86-Ibid
87-Ibid.P-1681, See Muzaffar Iqbal, Scientific Commentary on the Quran, The
Study Quran, Hossein Nasr et al, HarperCollins Publishers Inc.195 Broadway New York, NY
United States, 10007, 2015

88. http://www.muhammad-asad.com/Message-of-Quran.pdf,Pp-1278-79
89. The Abdullah Yusuf Ali. https://www.amazon.in/QURAN-Meaning-
Glorious-Translation-Commentry-ebook/dp/B00F0NA7DC.P-805
90.Ibid.p-1288 http://www.muhammad-asad.com/Message-of-Quran.pdf
91.Ibid.p-319 The Abdullah Yusuf Ali. https://www.amazon.in/QURAN-
Meaning-Glorious-Translation-Commentry-ebook/dp/B00F0NA7DC
92.Ibid.
93. The Abdullah Yusuf Ali. https://www.amazon.in/QURAN-Meaning-
Glorious-Translation-Commentry-ebook/dp/B00F0NA7DC THE GLORIOUS
QURAN www.IslamicBulletin.org
94-Maarif al Quran,
https://archive.org/details/EnglishMaarifulQuranMuftiShafiUsmanir.aVol.8)

95 .Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an) See
http://www.englishtafsir.com/Quran/87/index.html,retirved on 04th January 2019

96-Ibid.For example see Yunus: 24, Al-Kahf: 45, Al-Hadid: 20. For example see Yunus: 24,
Al-Kahf: 45, Al-Hadid: 20). (http://www.englishtafsir.com/Quran/87/index.html)

97/ (The Study Quran) The Study Quran, (Hossein Nasr et al, HarperCollins Publishers
Inc.195 Broadway New York, NY United States, 10007, 2015)

98. Tanwīr al-Miqbās min Tafsīr Ibn 'Abbās,PP-747-750,

(https://www.altafsir.com/Books/IbnAbbas.pdf)

99.See Tafsir Jalālayn, P-740-742, https://www.altafsir.com/Al-Jalalayn.asp

100. In The Shade of the Quran, VoL18, PP-118-

120,http://www.masmn.org/Quran/In_The_Shade_Of_The_Quran/086.htm (5 of 5) [1/12/2004 10:04:57 PM]
Surah 87 - The Most High al Al - by Syed Qutb)

101. (Surah 87 - The Most High al Ala - by Syed

Qutb)http://www.masmn.org/Quran/In_The_Shade_Of_The_Quran/086.htm (5 of 5) [1/12/2004 10:04:57 PM])

102.A. Cressy Morrison, Man Does Not Stand Alone, Morrison & Gibb Ltd., London, 1962,
pp. 58-87. At the time when this book was published, such tasks seemed a long time coming.
However, most of them now seem possible. Still, the argument is correct and the more
advancements science makes the more amazing God’s creation appears to be. —(Editor’s
note. Vol. 1, pp. 147-148-155.)

103. Surah 87 - The Most High al Al - by Syed

Qutb,http://www.masmn.org/Quran/In_The_Shade_Of_The_Quran/086.htm (5 of 5) [1/12/2004 10:04:57 PM])

104. Qhttps://www.scribd.com/document/332931733/Tazkirul-Quran-Complete-pdf

105.Prof.(Dr.) Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi, Iqbal’s Reconstruction –A Critical Appraisal, City

Book Center, Srinagar Kashmir .2014, pp52-54