SO LONG as natural phenomena were attributed to supernatural causes, they were regarded as objects of worship. Natural phenomena and objects such as fire, water, sun and moon were venerated and feared. The laws of nature, the application of which would enable man to reach the moon and make use of nature to one’s advantage, have existed throughout the universe since time immemorial, yet it took man centuries to discover them. Given the possibilities of nature, why did so many thousands of years have to elapse in the course of man’s development before he felt ready to conquer nature? The answer to this is the prevalence of culture of worshipping nature. For instance man considered the moon a deity. The moon, with its brilliant silvery light, inspired man to bow before it rather than try to conquer it. Holding the moon to be sacred was a major obstacle to even thinking of conquering it.

Islam in the 7th century paved the way for modern science by distinguishing between a Creator and the rest of the universe. The entire universe is created by one God. No creation possesses any form of divinity. This creed revolutionized human thought. Nature which was once held to be object of worship became an object of investigation. Observation and experiment replaced assumption and speculation. In a magnificent 5-volume work A History of Science by Henry Smith Williams and Edward Huntington Williams, it is mentioned that:

There cannot well be a doubt that the adoption of those broad principles of right and wrong which underlie the entire structure of modern civilization was due to scientific induction, in other words, to the belief, based on observation and experience, that the principles implied were essential to communal progress. (Vol. 1)

Islam in the 7th century paved the way for modern science by distinguishing between a Creator and the rest of the universe.

The role of Islam in the emergence and development of science is generally acknowledged. Dennis Overbye in The New York Times, dated Oct. 30, 2001 writes:

“Commanded by the Koran to seek knowledge and read nature for signs of the Creator, and inspired by a treasure trove of ancient Greek learning, Muslims created a society that in the Middle Ages was the scientific center of the world. The Arabic language was synonymous with learning and science for 500 hundred years, a golden age that can count among its credits the precursors to modern universities, algebra, the names of the stars and even the notion of science as an empirical inquiry."

“Nothing in Europe could hold a candle to what was going on in the Islamic world until about 1600,’’ said Dr. Jamil Ragep, a professor of the history of science at the University of Oklahoma. It was the infusion of this knowledge into Western Europe, historians say, that fueled the Renaissance and the scientific revolution."

Science does not negate the Creator, as its goal is to understand and explain the natural phenomena. It makes no claim to account for the underlying reason of the events. This is a prerogative of the divine revelation to satisfy the natural urge of human beings to find meaning and purpose of the creation, including themselves. This is reiterated thus:

In the attempt to explain (the) fact of terrestrial gravitation Newton made no advance, and we of today are scarcely more enlightened than the man of the Stone Age. Like the man of the Stone Age, we know that an arrow shot into the sky falls back to the earth. We can calculate, as he could not do, the arc it will describe and the exact speed of its fall; but as to why it returns to earth at all, the greatest philosopher of today is almost as much in the dark as was the first primitive bowman that ever made the experiment. (A History of Science, Vol. 1)

The nature of human intellect and his urges demand that his mental prowess is guided by a divine guidance. Islamic scripture, the Quran, is the preserved revelation from the Creator to guide man about the meaning and purpose of his existence.

The nature of human intellect and his urges demand that his mental prowess is guided by a divine guidance. Islamic scripture, the Quran, is the preserved revelation from the Creator to guide man about the meaning and purpose of his existence.