Islam and the West: The Description of Philosophy and Science Produced by Two Civilizations in terms of Their Aims and Results (original) (raw)
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Nature and Scope of Knowledge in Islam
Inter-linked with the Theology The Quran has described nature, natural sciences, social sciences, theological doctrines and the socio-political moralities all inter-linked with the Islamic fundamentals of belief. No discussion of the nature and scope of knowledge in the Quran independently are possible. Islamic design of knowledge is rooted in the belief, the Quran has defined. The Quranic worldview essentially provides with the rationale of its specific concept of ilm. The three Abrahmic monotheistic religions Judaism,1 Christianity and Islam share a certain degree of commonality with respect to belief in one God and certain aspects of creation , their concepts of the natural world and its relationships to humanity has considerable divergences.2 In the case of Islam the Quranic view of nature is characterized by an ontological and morphological continuity with the very concept of God linkage that imparts a certain degree of sacredness to the world of nature by making it assign pointing to a transcendental reality. However, just as the Quran presents the world of nature to humanity as a sign, it also calls its own verses. This semantic linkage is further strengthened through various Quranic descriptions and modes of communication. God communicates, according to the Quran by " sending " His Ayat. As Izutsu has noted, On this Level, there are no essential differences between linguistic and non linguistic signs; both types are equally divine ayat….. the meaning of this, in the sense in which the Quran understands , it is that all that we usually call natural phenomena ,such as rain, wind the structure of the heavens and the earth ,alternation of day and night, the turning about of the winds, etc., all these would be understood not as simple natural phenomena , but as so many 'signs' or 'symbols' pointing to the divine intervention in human affairs, as evidence of the divine providence, care and wisdom displayed by God for the good of human beings on this earth.3 Science, as a systematic study of nature and as it developed in Islamic Civilization, could not treat nature and its study as an entity separate from Islam. Furthermore, the Quran views nature as a vast system pregnant with movement rather than an inert body.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RELIGION, 2024
This discussion on the integration of Islamic values within the sciences is focused mainly on the views and preoccupation of Malaysian proponents of the Islamization of human knowledge (IOHK) concept who expressed their views and views of their other Muslim associates either in Malaysia or abroad. Necessarily, a historical backdrop on the significance and centrality of knowledge in Islamic civilization is mentioned to emphasize why some proponents of IOHK regard this approach as a jihad of the 21st century. It is in particular to them a jihad to restore science to its rightful position within the trajectory in conformity with the teaching of Islam so that science would not be used without impunity to fuel human greed that could cause serious hazards to humankind. Islamization enterprise or Islamicization (a more appropriate term) has been triggered mainly to protect the sanctity of knowledge as conceived and understood in the Islamic perspective from the onslaught of the conception of knowledge purported by Western scientists and scholars within the worldview formed and shaped by naturalism, materialism, and positivism perspectives. The analytical and critical approaches are used as methods of discussion.
The Science of Knowledge in Islam: An Anthropological Perspective
ABSTRACT In the last decade and a half, anthropologists have devoted increased attention to the practice and perception of science. Many scholars of anthropology point to science as one of three broad areas of opportunities for anthropological study. These scholars also claim that anthropological studies of science will lead to important discoveries about our contemporary world while helping anthropologists bridge their own internal differences. The emergence of the anthropology of science occurred simultaneously with the rise of science and technology studies (STS). Science and technology studies (STS), which is dominated by Western oriented disciplines of history, philosophy, and sociology, has focused almost exclusively on Euro-American science. The researchers have ignored the majority of socio-cultural contexts in which science is practiced. This study will improve knowledge of the practice and perception of science outside the Euro-American context, the Islamization of knowledge debate. The examination of the intersection of the “local” and “global” context of knowledge production is central to this study. This study identifies two major strands of research in the anthropology of science namely, cultures of science and science of cultures. Substantive contributions of researchers studying cultures of science include greater understandings of the processual nature of knowledge formation and experimentation, the social structure of laboratories, internal scientific communication, and the production of scientific texts. Studies of science and culture examine the ways that science transcends its traditional settings like laboratories and becomes embedded in society. This study attempts to describe the history and philosophical underpinnings of the contemporary Islamization of knowledge debate. It will argue that Muslim intellectuals engaged in the Islamization of knowledge advocate one of the three distinct philosophical positions which can be labeled as the modernization, indigenization, and nativization approaches. After a discussion of similar debates during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the study will then describe these three approaches in terms of their philosophies, legitimation strategies, and political implications before concluding.
Islamic Thought: An Approach to Reform
Islamic Thought: An Approach to Reform , 2006
For the first time, Muslims are faced with a worldwide positivism which is working to use knowledge, the sciences and their discoveries and achievements in a manner which severs the relationship between the Creator, the created universe and man, thereby disregarding the world of the unseen and driving a wedge between science and values. Lacking even the most modest store of vital Islamic doctrine on the intellectual level, university students and researchers in the Islamic world are confronted with doctrines and philosophies which are presented to them together with a flimsy, miserable defense of Islam. There is not a single academic institution in the Islamic world in which Islamic thought is taught and in which the Islamic vision is given a deep-rooted foundation with the same force and persuasiveness with which Western ideas and the Western vision are taught to students in the West, in a coherent, comprehensive manner accompanied by seriousness and commitment on the part of all. The books argues that this approach is diametrically opposed to the Islamic perspective and that we must disengage human scientific achievement from positivistic philosophical premises and reemploy these sciences within a systematic epistemological framework based on divine revelation, conferring honor upon all forms of knowledge, as having been bestowed upon man by their Creator.
Integrative-Multidimensional Science Paradigm: A Perspective of Islamic Epistemology
Journal of Islamic Studies and Humanities
Science and human life are inseparable. Without science, human life cannot develop properly. Thus, epistemologically, humans must be placed as the basic foundation of science; that is, humans who have religious and spiritual dimensions equipped with sensory, reason, intuition, and revelation potentials. These dimensions and potentials are the main structure and characteristics of integrative-multidimensional science. This type of science is quite different from modern and contemporary science developed by the West. Western science has reduced the dimensions and potentials of humans into materialistic and mechanical beings; that is, humans who do not have spiritual nor metaphysical dimensions. The Western science is no longer meant for humanity, but for science itself. This study seeks to examine the structure and characteristics of integrative-multidimensional science from the perspective of Islamic epistemology. It makes use of philosophical methods which involve descriptive analys...
Some Remarks on the Islamic and the Secular Paradigms of Knowledge
Some Remarks on the Islamic and the Secular Paradigms of Knowledge - The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol.12, No.4, 1995
By the time secularist thought had succeeded, at an intellectual level, in challenging the authority of the Church, its roots had already taken firm hold in western soil. Later, when western political and economic systems began to prevail throughout the world, it was only natural that secularism, as the driving force behind these systems, should gain ascendency worldwide. In time, and with varying degrees of success, the paradigm of positivism gradually displaced traditional and religious modes of thinking, with the result that generations of third world thinkers grew up convinced that the only way to “progress” and reform their societies was the way of the secular West. Moreover, since the experience of the West was that it began to progress politically, economically, and intellectually only after the influence of the Church had been marginalized, people in the colonies believed that they would have to marginalize the influence of their particular religions in order to achieve a similar degree of progress. Under the terms of the new paradigm, turning to religion for solutions to contemporary issues is an absurdity, for religion is viewed as something from humanity’s formative years, from a “dark” age of superstition and myth whose time has now passed. As such, religion has no relevance to the present, and all attempts to revive it are doomed to failure and are a waste of time.
Integrating Islamic and Modern Knowledge—Philosophical Concepts and Their Practical Applications
2017
The study of nature by itself will not lead to God no matter how deeply one delves into the world of matter. The heart of the observer must be responsive to the ‘wonders of God’ so that nature does not present itself as facts to be cast into neat mathematical formulas or just inspire awe and appreciation with no further elevation of the soul. Knowledge of the natural world reinforces evidence for the existence of the almighty Creator and strengthens the belief in meeting with Him ( bi liq ā ’ rabbihim y ū qin ū n ) for those who have opened their hearts to receive the eternal message contained in each speck of the universe. Doing more science will not make Muslims better morally or spiritually unless these values are actively sought and inculcated in their personal lives. Moral and spiritual training is an essential part of education and this training should be built into science education as well. Studying natural phenomena will lead to the knowledge of Allah ( ma ‘ rifatull ā h ) ...
Islamization Of Knowledge In Qur’anic Perspective
Studia Quranika
Islamization is a discipline that describes the form of the character and Islamic identity as a way of life or worldview in which there is an integral view of the concept of knowledge (epistemology) and the concept of God (theology). In Islam, knowledge is formed and sourced from the Islamic view of life, which is closely related to the basic structure of the metaphysics of Islam that has formulated in-line with revelation, tradition, reason, experience and intuition. Formation of those through the educational process. However, due to the influence of western worldview through westernization and globalization, Islamic education lost its role in linking science with Islamic view of life. Therefore, the muslim scholars, among others, Ismail al-Faruqi in his "Islamization of Knowledge: General Principles and Workplans" and Naquib al-Attas in his "Islam and Secularism" that initiated the Islamization of science, are determined to restore science having judged it to have its axiology misrepresented. In perspective of the Quran, the Islamization of science described in Sura al-Fathir 35/28, Islamization actually leads to faith, faith related to instinct, while science to adjust to the surrounding situation. Truly, Allah is The almighty.