A study of the Quran shows that the Quranic teachings are based on realistic approach. When we use the term “realistic approach” to describe a way of thinking, it always means, thinking that is in accordance with reality. One with such a bent of mind will be scientific in all his dealings in the world. His thinking will be totally in accordance with external realities. According to the Quran, there are two kinds of thinking—sincere thinking and insincere thinking or double-standard thinking. The scientific approach is characteristic of a sincere thinker. A sincere thinker cannot envision an approach which is not based on realism. He bases his life on sound and true foundations. On the contrary, it is the insincere thinker who has no principles or scruples. His approach is based on opportunism and he changes his point of view and way of thinking to serve his own interests. That is why there is not even a grain of the scientific approach in him. His thoughts and deeds are totally unpredictable.
In my childhood, I used to hear people say that science is a discipline of atheists. This idea was very prevalent and I received it continuously. In seminaries, mosques and religious institutions science is taken to be atheism.
Iqbal had said: We had thought education would bring ease, We hardly knew that atheism would come along too! It came to be believed that secular or scientific education makes a person atheist. I began to investigate this. I discovered that science was in accordance with the Quran. There is a prediction in the Quran given in this verse:
Copy Arabic text (41:53) We shall show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves, until it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth.
When has this prediction been proven? When have God's signs manifested in the universe and within ourselves?
This has happened in the present age through science. What is science?
Science is the study or exploration of nature. In other words, it is to know about laws of God. The Quran tells us that the whole of nature is being governed by God's laws. Science studies these laws. Science is not a discipline developed at someone's home or in someone's mind. Science is study of the laws of nature. These are laws of God. When I made this discovery, I began to study more. I realized that science provides logical basis to the Quran. It is the theology of Islam. Science has made discoveries which re-establish the veracity of the Quran. This is why I say science is the theology of Islam. It is indeed strange that something which gives scientific basis to Islam was considered anti-Islam.
