Sunday, July 1, 2012

Science, West and Islamic Origin of Science, Islam and Science, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Science
Science, West and Islamic Origin of Science
By Asghar Ali Engineer

(Islam and Modern Age, December, 2009)

Recently I came across an excellent monograph in the form of a small book Is Science Western in Origin? By Pof. C K. Raju, professor of philosophy who has written earlier a book on Time – a thick volume on philosophy of time. The later work is also of high academic standard. This monologue on origin of science is a significant contribution which tries to shatter the myth that science is western in origin.

We would throw more light on it little later but to begin with it would be quite relevant to discuss whether Islam and science go together or, as many believe Islam is against science. Of course one can say this debate about Islam and science was more relevant to 19th century when the Muslim theologians (Ulama) opposed science as against Islam. What is its relevance today? Ulama no longer oppose science and its discoveries. This is largely true but still there are several problems in this debate which need to be discussed. Also, still some western scholars believe that Islam happens to be inherently opposed to scientific progress.

Recently I came across a book Lost in the Sacred – Why the Muslim World Stood Still by Dan Diner published by Princeton and Oxford and the main theme of the book is how Islam and Muslims oppose progress. That is why it is necessary to throw light on Islam and modern science and the monograph by Prof. Raju tries to prove that science originated from India and the Arab world and the West simply imitated it and then cleverly manipulated and interpolated to show that modern science is of Greek origin.

http://newageislam.com/science,-west-and-islamic-origin-of-science-/islam-and-science/d/2183



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