Islam And Science by Muzaffar Iqbal pdf

Islam And Science by Muzaffar Iqbal

ISLAM AND SCIENCE

Modern science is also the only part of Western civilization that is unquestionably welcomed in all cultures. It is definitely in high demand in the Muslim world.

From political leadership to reformers and from the common man in the street to the opinion leaders, everyone seems to agree that the Muslim world needs to catch up with the West in science and technology.

 The resolutions adopted by the Organization of Islamic Conference at its regular summits, the mantra of the political leadership in countries as far apart as Morocco and Pakistan, and the writings of various leaders throughout the Muslim world—all incessantly demand more and more science.

It is another matter that in their blissful innocence, they often confuse technology with science, and even when they mean science, they usually only mean the applied sciences.

 Thus, it is not surprising that in public discourse about science in the Muslim world, the phrase most often used is “science and technology” in one breath, without a pause.

Since the time of the nineteenth-century modernist reformers, the general opinion in the Muslim world has been that the West was able to advance and colonize almost the entire Muslim world because of its science and technology, both spoken of as if they are one.

 This has given birth to the “catching up syndrome”—the idea that as soon as the Muslim world acquires science and technology, it will catch up with the West.

This has been articulated by such a large cross-section of leadership and with such regularity that it has become the gospel of contemporary development strategies.