Muslims, Science, Technology and Modern Age: What went wrong?

Mohammad Iqbal had said something very profound and meaningful in his book Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. I quote:

“No doubt, the immediate purpose of the Quran in this reflective observation of nature is to awaken in man the consciousness of that of which nature is regarded a symbol. But the point to note is the general empirical attitude of the Quran which engendered in its followers a feeling of reverence for the actual and ultimately, made them the founders of modern science……. The Quran recognizing that the empirical attitude is an indispensable stage in the spiritual life of humanity, attaches equal importance to all the regions of human experience (of physical Universe and Human existence therein) as yielding knowledge of the ultimate reality (Allah) which reveals its symbols both within and without.”

Here, the empirical attitude of the Quran and its reflective observation of nature refers to the Quranic call to observe the material and physical universe such as the perpetual change of the winds, the alternation of day and night, the clouds, the starry heavens, the planets swimming through infinite space. This empirical and practical attitude also deal with the real issues of This-Worlds-Life, its ethical, social, economic, political needs and human interactions, while emphasizing on the ultimate profundity, reality and worth of the Other-Word-life–after-Death, which is the ultimate fate of the human soul, directly related to and dependent on This-world-life.

Before Islamic civilization, the Greek and Roman civilization were the leading lights of knowledge. Though Greeks contributed immensely to Science and their contributions are tremendous, but the fact remains that their method and approach to knowledge was philosophical-rationalism and their tools consisted of an approach to pure reason, thought and intellect. Rationalists believed that the highest truths reside in our minds and need to be discovered by pure reason as a-priori knowledge. That is why Plato is said to have remarked,” All true knowledge does not come from our senses bur rather from the judgment our mind passes on our sensations”. Greek Philosophers were so proud of their philosophical methods that they are said to have debated for three days in Athens to settle the question whether women have the same number of teeth as men do or not. They were proud enough of their philosophical prowess so as not to resort to physical observation but to reason it out. 

However, it was the empirical approach of the Quran which established “the empirical method” as a fundamental source of knowledge, and laid the foundations of Modern Science, in Iqbal’s words, which sowed the seeds of Scientific Renaissance in Muslim Spain (of which our Scholars are still talking about) and later in Modern Italy (Prof Jacob Bronowski in The Ascent of Man). Empiricism asserts and acknowledges that the truth resides outside our minds and need to be discovered by observation and experimentation on outside physical and material world as a-posteriori knowledge. 

Though the main emphasis of Quran is on the perfection of the ethical and spiritual self of Man, its assertions on serous observation of nature indicates and recognizes that from Quranic point of view Matter and material universe ( which includes space-time, and matter-energy interactions as well) is fundamental, profound and real and its knowledge and understanding is one of the ways of exploring the Allah’s creative will, His signs (Aayaat) and attributes (Sifaat), and therefore constitutes another way of Ibadah. Probably this was the spirit of early Muslim Scholarship which stimulated them for the studies of Physical and Material Sciences and made them the beginners of Modern Science. And, in that sense the early Muslims were the beacon lights of Modernity and the Prophet of Islam and his message was an important bridge between the ancient world and the modern world.

Where are Muslims Today? 

This question got me to do a quick online search for the religion of the Nobel Prize Winners between 1901 -2000. The answer I got is this: Christians (65.4%), Jewish (21.1%) Atheists (10.5%), Buddhists (1.1%), Muslims (0.8%), Hindu ( 0.7%) and others (0.6%). Though one may argue, and rightly so, that Nobel Prize is not an indicative of the scientific advancement of a community, nevertheless it highlights some facts, for example the Jewish population makes up roughly 0.2% of the world's population with 21.1% Nobels, whereas Muslims make 25.8% of the world's population with (0.8%) Nobel laureates.  On technology front, it is not a secret that for most of technology or technology products, Muslim World is mostly dependent on the West. It is obvious that since the fall of Spain, we have missed much of the progress in human intellectual thought which has taken place in the realm of science and technology along side the arrow of Time.

During the last hundred years, the most fertile and intelligent minds of Muslims have dedicated their lives and contributed immensely for the development of the religious discourse and religious thought in Islam. However, Muslim scholarship somehow detached the empirical knowledge of the world from religious discourse, and established the religious thought purely on theological and social perspectives; consequentially the pursuits of modern knowledge became an inferior objective driven only by the needs of bread and butter. One exception to this perspective was the Scientific Society of Aligarh (1864) and Aligarh Movement founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (17 October 1817-27March 1898), which focused on inspiring Muslim youth for Modern education and laid the foundation for creating an enabling environment for critical and scientific thinking in Muslim masses. By now, largely the Muslim world is immensely rich in religious theory and pure theological knowledge resources.  But what is missing is the focus and emphasis on the empirical understanding of nature, understanding of the modern world, its dynamics and its evolutionary thought process in science and technology and other modern sciences. Unless this temperament, attitude and zeal for scientific approach to understanding, exploration, innovation and research becomes once again (in Quranic Spirit) a religious obligation for Muslims, particularly for intelligentsia, scholars, ulema and religious leaders of Muslim society, as part of their religious belief system (Imaniyat) and talk of the Pulpit, to instill the spirit of scientific thinking and scientific pursuits in  followers, nothing much looks inspiring and a cause for a change.

Second, the Muslim religious thought needs to understand and accept the significance, reality and profoundness of This-Word-Life and vastness of this Universe, its richness, potential and possibilities in order to truly appreciate the significance and profundity of world and life after death. It is in richness of this life, Allah has hidden the secrets of unbound and unlimited possibilities for the triumph of human soul and its future, here and hereafter. So the contempt, the dismissal and rejection of this life and the glorification of other-worldliness in religious discourses is at the cost of both the worlds. We put both to peril.