Tawhid and Science

by Osman Bakar

From the foreword to the 1st "The essays presented in this book deal with the various facets of the history and philosophy of Islamic science. By 'Islamic science' we mean the totality of the mathematical and natural sciences, including psychology and cognitive science, cultivated in Islamic culture and civilization for more than a millennium beginning from the 3rd century of the Islamic era (the 9th century of the Christian era).
These sciences are Islamic not just because they have been produced by Muslims. As a matter of fact, many non-Muslims made important contributions to the growth and development of Islamic science. Rather. these sciences deserve the name 'Islamic science' because they are, conceptually speaking, organically related to the fundamental teachings of Islam, the most important of which is the principle of al-tawḥīd. This book seeks to reveal different dimensions of the organic link between al-tawḥīd and science as seen through Muslim scientific eyes.
The essays cover four major themes, namely, (1) the epistemological foundation of Islamic science, (2) Man, Nature, and God in Islamic science, (3) Islamic science and the West, and (4) Islam and modern science. Through these essays, we seek to convey the important message that Islamic science, the most immediate predecessor of modern science, shares with the latter many outstanding features such as the rational and logical nature of its language, the adoption of scientific and experimental methods of inquiry, and the international character of its scientific practice and organization.
However, we strongly feel that it is incumbent on us to highlight the fact that there are also important differences between the two sciences. Islamic science is at the same time of a religious character in the sense that it is consciously based upon the metaphysical, cosmological, epistemological, and ethical and moral principles of Islam. In light of its spiritual and moral conception of nature, Islamic science adopts goals and methodological principles that are different in several respects from those of modern science. In Islamic culture, the place of science in relation to other branches of knowledge such as the religious and social sciences is also somewhat different from the one we see in modern Western culture.
A salient feature of our essays is their interdisciplinary character. We have also adopted a blend of historical and philosophical approaches to the study of Islamic science. We hope this book is of value to all who are concerned with the problem of knowledge in all its dimensions, whatever their discipline.

Genres: Islam

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Listed in Top500 list of influential Muslim, Osman Bakar is currently Al-Ghazali Chair of Islamic Thought at ISTAC-International Islamic University Malaysia and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Science at University of Malaya. He was formerly Distinguished Professor at Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies (SOASCIS), Universiti Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia Chair of Southeast Asian Islam at the Prince Talal al-Waleed Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Dr Bakar is author and editor of 38 books and numerous articles on various aspects of Islamic thought and civilization, particularly Islamic science and philosophy and interreligious and inter-civilizational dialogue. His writings have been translated into many languages. He has served as advisor and consultant to a variety of international academic and professional organisations, including UNESCO, the Qatar Foundation, and The European Science Foundation. He was awarded a Datukship by the Malaysian King in 2000.

Reviews

[Idealist- Realist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, in my own view, one of the magnum opus I ever read. At first, I thought this will only deliver intellectual enlightenment, but to my delight, it also conveys spiritual enlightenment as well. The author tries to convey the Muslim readers that Islam can still keep up with progress and development generated by the modern science by reviving the Islamic science and that the former has delivered physical development yet it is coupled with destruction of spiritual and ethical aspects. Then, religion or knowledge guided by tawhidic spirit cater solutions to these ethical issues and harmful aspects generated by modern science. This book is designed to motivate Muslims readers especially intellectuals to revive the glory that was left by their predecessors.

This book is a compilation of essays regarding tawhid and science. So, I am going to lay important insights taken from different chapters below:

Firstly, Science and Islam are not totally incompatible. Scientific spirit is inherent in Islam. Allah desires to be known. To know God, we must resort to scientific inquiry. According to one hadith qudsi: “Before creation I was alone, I desire to be known. So I create the universe. From this, we can discern that the main purpose of man is to know God and serve him. Every Muslim knowledge seeker must be in line in this purpose. Knowing is science. The universe, cosmos, metaphysics are expected to decipher to know the existence of God. Moreover, the universe is in perfect order because of God’s power. A man should know this fact that this reality is transcendental.

Secondly, it is true that science is compatible with Islam. However, modern science poses threats to Islamic science on some issues. This doesn’t mean that Islamic science should reject modern science but it has to identify the foundation of the latter. The former has to identify the epistemological nature of the latter. Philosophical and ethical issues should be dealt with.

Thirdly, one important discovery is that the author defended the critique of al-Ghazali that he was skeptics with regards to the Reality (God). The reason he challenged taqlid was to satisfy his intellectual thirst to know the truth. In his intellectual journey, he came to realize that one cannot rely solely on rationalization. It should also be coupled with instinct (ilham), knowledge directly from God. It is important to note here that in Islam, revealed knowledge (Qur’an and Sunnah) is the ultimate truth. So, rationalization should be guided by it.

Fourthly, Islamic philosophy of nature, Kalam, begun by Mu’tazilite and later refined by Al-ash’arite then become the dominant philosophy of nature in Sunni theology. There were hot debates on whether Qur’an is created or uncreated, the relation of faith to work, the definition of a believer and many more. These debates led to the emergence, during the first/seventh century, or various sectarian groups like that of Murji’ites, Qadarites, and Khawarij.


Fifthly, it is important to know that there was a classic encounter between two great minds; al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd. It was a confrontation of two perspectives and two philosophies within Islam, one theological and the other scientific. The author neutralizes the encounter. According to the author, both were honest, sincere, and devout Muslims. Both in their own ways, made significant contributions to the past glory of Islam. Their conflicting views can be defended by appealing to Qur’an. Together the two perspectives enriched Islam’s intellectual culture. Both are living perspectives in the sense that in every age we can always find the two types of minds, the theological and the scientific.
Sixthly, there were two approaches to modern science; Positive and negative response. The first category is Muslim intellectuals who respond that Modern science is compatible with Islam. Whilst the second category is Muslims are who reject modern science. To name some of Muslim intellectuals who were positive to modern science were; Hasan al-Attar al-Khalwati, Jamal al-din al-Afghani and his disciples, Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida and their contemporary Mohammad Iqbal. Author criticizes the approach of Afghani to which he praised modern science without a critical approach towards it for having argued by the latter the there is no incompatibility between religion and science. His main defect is his view of modern science is an exact continuation of Islamic science. He committed an error by viewing that modern science is value-neutral intellectual and cultural enterprise. Because of the legacy left by positivist, Muslims voices championing modernist grew louder as decades went by. Unfortunately, their uncritical pursuit of modern science and technology has brought about many problems and posed increasing challenges to Muslim life and thought. Consequently, this is the primary concern of the contemporary Muslim scholars most especially the vanguards of the project, Islamization of knowledge.
Seventhly, what is problematic on modern science is its philosophical foundation. It sets aside religious aspect whereas an Islamic science should embrace tawhidic spirit or divine unity. Islamic science embedded with spiritual consciousness. It doesn’t sideline the role of religion in acquiring scientific knowledge. Because of the absence of religion that could govern the modern scientific quest, it begot ethical issues that are raised by the theoretical applications which can lead to harmful knowledge that will lead to production of harmful and destructive objects.

Ninthly, the role of Muslims is to be liberated from this quagmire. Nasr argues that Muslims must confront modern science and technology with a deep sense of intellectual and moral responsibility and integrity in light of the Islamic intellectual tradition. The author also adds that Muslims must acquire scientific knowledge and technological know-how to the point of being self-reliant and highly competitive and even to the point of again assuming world leadership. Islam must serve as the main motivating force for the realization of this goal.
Lastly, our Muslim predecessors have vast contributions to the intellectual universe. This is the time when Islamic civilization was at its peak. Islamic tradition and Islamic science should be revived and Islamic worldview should be defended. To realize this, we should study both the “golden period” and the period of decline and stagnation of Islamic science and technology with the view of deriving useful lessons from that history. Muslims today must be committed to the idea of making Islam the primary motivating force for their scientific and technological development. In the view of Islam, THE MOST AND MOST LASTING MOTIVE IS THE RELIGIOUS MOTIVE. THE IDEA OF THE ‘RELIGIOUS’ INCLUDES THE SPRITUAL, ETHICAL, AND PHILOSOPHICAL.

Furthermore, in order to bring the lost glory of the scientific and technological glory of the Ummah, the author posits that we need to indentify the major factors to the rise of the Islamic science and tecnnology so we can take inspiration from it and the major negative factors to its stagnation and decline to eliminate them if they are ever found in our contemporary times. According to author the major factor for the rise of the Ummah are the following:

1. The role of religious consciousness as a motivating force for the quest of science and technology.
2. Faithfulness to the Shari’ah inspires the study of various sciences.
3. The birth and rise of great translation movements that lasted for several centuries.
4. The flowering of philosophy that is dedicated to scientific learning, progress, and advancement.
5. Widespread patronization of scientific and technological activities by rulers and wazirs.
6. The existence of healthy intellectual climate as illustrated by the fact that scholars of different thought.
7. The important role played by educational and scientific institutions, especially with the rise of universities.
8. The equilibrium attained between the major intellectual perspectives of Islam.

For the negative factors that contributed to the decline can be attributed to internal and external factors that led to the gradual disappearance of the positive factors mentioned above. Examples of these internal and external factors are lack of patronization of science, political corruption, internal strife, the rise of religious legalism and sectarianism, the neglect of the inner dimension of knowledge in the religion, and untold destruction at the hands of the Mongols.


In addition to the negative factors, there are other factors I deemed to be contributing to the stagnant status of the Ummah today is the lack of commitment, with some exceptions, of the scholars to its contributions to the uplift of the status of nation. What I mean here commitment is sincerity that which Islam is the true motivating force and that Allah is an inspiration for their quest. Some Muslim scholars are engaged in intellectual discourse for the sake of their intellectual race. On the other hand, others are indulged in debate. They argue for the sake of argument. They argue because of their egoistic tendencies. It is true that there were some intellectual debates during our predecessors like that of encounter between al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd but they were sincere, honest and devout Muslims. Both have contributed to the intellectual culture of Islam. Their encounter is for the mere sake of contributing of Islam that we take benefit from it until now. Sadly, this is rarely found in our times. As mentioned above, religion is the lasting motivating force. Then, mindfulness to God is the effective force. If we have these forces, only then we can become sincere and honest to our responsibilities as outline above by the author.


NOTE: I have reservation on the sufist style adopted by al-Ghazali. I still need to know more about it.

[Buchori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hari ini tepat 40 hari menyelami karya beliau, dan finally akhirnya finish.

Pada kesempatan ini, saya ingin membahas salah satu bab dalam karya yg ditulis oleh penulis membahas terkait 'Posisi Keraguan dalam Epistemologi Islam: Pengalaman Filosofis Al-ghazali'. Dimana beliau membahas keraguan yg dirasakan oleh Imam Al-ghazali, dimana sang imam 'meragukan/skeptis terhadap kenyataan tetapi tidak dengan perkataan dan doktrin' yg dialami sang alim selama 2 bulan. Lantas apakah sikap skeptis sang imam termasuk skeptis filosofis atau kritikus pengetahuan?

Selanjutnya, saya jadi ingin mempertanyakan, apakah cara belajar imam al-ghazali yg dimulai dengan keraguan ini berarti beliau menjadi pendahulu dari orang yg menemukan 'Metodologi meragukan' itu yg tertuang dalam karyanya 'Al-munqidz min adh-dhalal (Pembebas dari Kesesatan)'? Lantas bagaimana dengan rene descartes, dimana dia juga memulai belajarnya dengan meragukan segalanya? Atau apakah mungkin Metodologi yg dilakukan descartes yg dituangnya dalam tulisannya 'Discourse on the Method' merupakan pengembangan karya dari sang imam?

Saya hanya membahas dan mempertanyakan sebagian kecil dari luasnya isi karya ini, saya cukup rekomendasikan kepada teman-teman untuk membaca karya ini, dan terima kasih kepada penulis atas karyanya.

Next baca apalagi ya, boleh dong, coba rekomendasikan kepada saya?

[Siddiq Husainy · Rating 4 out of 5]

[ Tawhid and Science by Prof Osman Bakar ]

Part from the back-cover:-
"The essays presented in this book deal with various facets of the history and philosophy of Islamic science. By Islamic science the author means the totality of the mathematical and natural sciences, including psychology, cultivated in Islamic culture and civilisation for more than a millennium beginning from the third of the Islamic era(9th BCE)."

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Ini pertama kali saya membaca buku karangan Prof Osman Bakar walaupun selalu lihat nama beliau sebagai penulis beberapa buah buku. Secara kebetulan terjumpa buku ini dalam timbunan buku di rumah.

Prof Osman merupakan ex-MCOBA, ijazah dalam bidang matematik dan menyambung 'doctoral studies' dalam Islamic Philosophy di Temple University, Philadelphia.

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Struktur buku:-
Buku ini dibahagikan kepada 4 bahagian, epistimologi, kedudukan manusia, alam Dan tuhan dalam sains Islam, sains Dan Islam Dan Barat, Dan sains Islam Dan sains moden.

Cara penyusunan bahagian ini memudahkan pembacaan kerana berbentuk hierarki dan ada ada struktur serta 'flow' yang teratur.

Prof Osman betul-betul menyentuh dari perkara dasar supaya pembaca dapat faham premis dan fundamental yang menjadi basis kepada hujah beliau.

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Isi buku:-

'Nature' buku ini yang merupakan pengumpulan esei-esei Prof bermaksud setiap topik tidaklah disentuh secara mendalam relatif kepada buku-buku yang membincangkan atau fokus kepada satu-satu topik sahaja.

Namun, sebagai pembaca 'beginner' dalam pembacaan sebegini, kumpulan esei ini mudah untuk dibaca dan boleh difahami 'gist' perbincangan. Panjangnya satu-satu bab saya rasa optimal dengan tahap saya.

Prof Osman banyak merujuk kepada sumber-sumber lain terutamanya daripadai Sheikh Hosein Nasr. Setahu saya, dalam pemikiran 'sains Dan islam' ini ada beberapa 'aliran pemikiran' juga. Jadi menarik untuk dibaca jalur-jalur atau pemikiran-pemikiran mereka yang berbeza.

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Pandangan Peribadi:-

Bab yang paling menarik ialah chapter 3 mengenai Al-Ghazzali dan pengalaman beliau dengan 'doubt', dan juga chapter 7, mengenai pengaruh Sains Islam terhadap konsep alam dalam Kristian.

Bab 3 menceritakan tentang pengalaman perjalanan kehidupan Al-Ghazali dengan fungsi 'doubt dalam epistemologi Islam.

Rupanya, dalam kehidupan beliau 2 kali 'penyakit' dominant yang menimpa-nya. Yang pertama epistemological crisis. Yang kedua spiritual crisis. Kedua-dua krisis ini ada 'link' antara satu sama lain.

Chapter 7 pula menceritakan bagaimana perkembangan Islam dalam bidang falsafah memainkan peranan penting Barat daripada 'cengkaman' agama. Tulisan-tulisan daripada ilmuan Islam diterjemah dan ahli falsafah serta saintis mengkaji tulisan mereka.

Tulisan yang paling berpengaruh pada hemat penulis ialah Ibn Sina (dipanggil Avicenna) dan Ibnu Rusyd (dipanggil Averroes). Secara ringkasnya, prof mendedahkan Bagaimana sebenarnya pengaruh ilmuan Islam terhadap sekular dan sains moden sekarang. Pada awalnya, adalah kerana penulisan ibnu sina dan ibnu rusyd tidak diterjemah sepenuhnya da juga hanya mengambil sebahagian daripada idea mereka dan digunakan untuk melawan golongan agamawan semasa itu, terutamanya ibnu rusyd.

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Secara keseluruhannya, sangat digalakkan untuk dibaca buku ini bagi mendapat kefahaman dari segi sejarah dan epistemologi mengenai sains Dan tauhid. Buku ini diterbitkan pada tahun 1991 tetapi idea Dan isinya releven sepanjang zaman bagi membentuk Dan mengharungi cabaran masa depan yang lebih getar.

Wallahua'lam

4.5/5

[Syed Mohammad Daniel al-Habsyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly an opus by Prof Osman Bakar in the attempt of reintroducing Islamisation of knowledge in science which prominently 'owned' by the Western. The secularistic value they pose especially in philosophical aspects is incompatible with that of Islam, hence, reintegrating the innate value laden by Islamic teaching within scientific framework is a must.

[Nabeel]

good work