“Say: Travel through the Earth and deeply observe how God did originate the creation; then God produces the next creation; surely God has power over all things” (Qur’an 29:19-20)
Welcome and May the peace and blessings of God be upon you.
Source: Islam’s Quantum Question
“Looked at properly, there is nothing (except pure materialism) that can oppose science and Islam”
dr. NIDHAL GUESSOUM
“I grew up in a cultural environment which, while firmly grounded in Muslim tradition, encouraged open explorations and varieties of learning sources. My father, like many boys in his days, memorized the entire Qur’an by the time he was a teenager; he went on to obtain doctorates in Philosophy from Cairo University and Paris Sorbonne; later he became Dean of the College of Religious Studies at the University of Algiers, and for a number of years now he has been the President of the Association of Algerian Ulama. My mother was more of a literary type and got a Master’s degree in Arab literature. Interestingly, all five of their children grew up to be scientists, medical doctors, or science teachers, and all were deeply imbued with the rationalism of philosophy, the methodology of modern science, the strife for beauty in arts and literature, and the holistic worldview of Islam/Religion.
My family was one of cultural interface and synthesis. While my siblings and I excelled in mathematics and the natural sciences, my father was doing his thesis in Cairo on “the concept of time in the philosophy of Averroes” and, almost simultaneously, his Sorbonne thesis on “the concept of time in modern Arab thought”, in the process surveying western philosophy as well. Our home library, although scant on the natural sciences, was very rich in philosophy, religion, and literature. Our education was bilingual (Arabic and French) from the start; English was added in our teenage years. No wonder then that during and after my formal education in physics (followed by research in astrophysics), I was always reading and sometimes reviewing philosophical books, especially those relating to science and religion.
“…they could devote themselves to studies in religion, and admonish the people when they return to them, – that thus they (may learn) to guard themselves (against evil)” (Quran, 9:122)
The first topic to pull me into serious explorations in science and religion was cosmic design, fine-tuning, and the anthropic principle. I must admit that early on I too was impressed by the “miraculous science in the Qur’an” discourse, and it took me several years to recognize the deep flaws in that “theory” (something I have explained in my books(1)). Then in 1989 I discovered and read Barrow and Tipler’s seminal book, “The Cosmological Anthropic Principle”, and I was mesmerized not only by the wealth of data pointing to some metaphysical principle behind our existence in this finely-tuned universe, but also by the erudition and rigorous methodology displayed by the authors. And although I had previously greatly appreciated Paul Davies’s “The Cosmic Blueprint”, to me “The Cosmological Anthropic Principle” was a quantum leap in both concept and scholarship. Similarly, Dyson’s “Infinite in All Directions” showed me how a scientist can construct a personal philosophy of nature and existence.
Source: Natmonitor
In the following years I kept that strong interest; for instance I reviewed for Arab readers Davies’s “The Mind of God” and “About Time” and Dyson’s “The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet”, among others, but I did not pursue such explorations in any systematic or academic way for almost a decade. Instead, I turned my attention to astronomical/scientific topics of societal and cultural relevance.
During the early nineties, while the conditions of life and work (in Algeria and then in Kuwait) were extremely difficult, I focused my attention on the practical – and socially relevant – problem of the observation of the new, thin lunar crescent, which determines the start of the Islamic months and the religious holidays of Ramadan, Eid, and Hajj. This remains one of my proudest contributions to my society, for indeed I introduced (2) into the classical Muslim considerations new, modern astrophysical approaches that had been shown (by western researchers) to be highly useful, concepts such as the luminosity contrast between the crescent and the background sky, and ideas by Muslim scientists, e.g. the lunar date line; these new approaches have now become standard in the scientific and religious treatment of the problem. To me that kind of work represented an ideal synthesis of modern scientific expertise, strife to solve societal problems, and fusion of western methods and knowledge with Islamic topics, precisely fitting my general philosophy.
"(God) is the One Who has set out for you the stars, that you may guide yourselves by them through the darkness of the land and of the sea. We have detailed the signs for people who know." (Qur’an 6:97)
In the same spirit, I have collaborated with the UAE’s ministry of education and produced high school textbooks of Physics, where for the first time chapters were included on astronomical topics of importance and relevance to the Muslim public: crescent observations, Islamic calendar, evolution of the universe, etc. The implicit and overarching principle in that work was indeed to instill in young Muslim minds the idea that science is both relevant to their worldview and evolves continuously… in an evolving world.
By the late nineties I began to take a more serious interest in the interface of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. First, I started to make systematic efforts at exploring the subject, thus reading many essential works, such as those of Barbour, Peacocke, Polkinghorne, Ruse, and others. I also turned to Muslim philosophy, from Al-Ghazzali and Ibn Rushd to Muhammad Iqbal and Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Then, around the year 2000, my friend and collaborator Karim Meziane suggested that we undertake a three-way comparison of “cosmology” as it has been defined and developed: a) by Muslim philosophers of medieval times (the “golden age” of the Islamic civilization), b) by contemporary Muslim thinkers, c) by modern science. We thus wrote a short article (in French), which we circulated by email among friends and acquaintances; the article drew some attention, so we started getting invited to workshops on Science and Islam.
A common thread runs through all my intellectual and educational works: finding harmony between modern science and religion/Islam, with the interfacing help of philosophy. My main principles are: 1) science brings some important objective knowledge about the world that we must not ignore or reject; 2) science can help humans make progress not only materially (this is obvious), but intellectually, culturally, and even religiously; 3) theology should be dynamic, making progress by benefiting from new knowledge and ideas; 4) looked at properly, there is nothing (except pure materialism) that can oppose science and Islam”
Source: NASA - farthest view seen from the Hubble space telescope
References
1. Islam’s Quantum Question; The Young Muslim’s Guide to Modern Science, Manchester (UK): Beacon Books, 2018.
2. My contributions on the topic include the book “The Determination of Lunar Crescent Months and the Islamic Calendar” (in Arabic), co-authored with M. El-Atbi and K. Meziane and published in Algeria (Dar al-Oumma) in 1993, and in Lebanon (Dar al-Taliaa) in 1997, and several general-readership articles, lectures, and conferences.
“…And when ye are told to rise up, rise up. Allah will raise up, to (suitable) ranks (and degrees), those of you who believe and who have been granted (mystic) Knowledge. And Allah is well-acquainted with all ye do” (Quran, 58:11)
“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.” (Carl Sagan)
For more information:
Islam’s Quantum Question: reconciling Muslim tradition and modern science,
Islam’s Quantum Question; The Young Muslim’s Guide to Modern Science, Manchester (UK): Beacon Books, 2018.
“The Determination of Lunar Crescent Months and the Islamic Calendar” (in Arabic), co-authored with M. El-Atbi and K. Meziane and published in Algeria (Dar al-Oumma) in 1993, and in Lebanon (Dar al-Taliaa) in 1997
Nagamia Institute of Islamic Medicine and Science: https://www.niims.org
1001 Inventions: the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization: http://www.1001inventions.com
