IT is no secret that the Islamic civilisation which peaked in the 13th century left a deep impact on the progress of modern science and technology.
The advent of Islam in the sixth century created faith and confidence among its followers in that Islam had succeeded in liberating their orthodox and paganistic minds.
Subsequently, this led to a spirit of enquiry among Muslims to gain knowledge, which led to the establishment of Islamic centres of excellence in cities such as Baghdad, Basrah, Cairo, Cordova and Toledo.
On this matter, Professor A. Mottaleb commented: “(With) the rise of Islam, one of the wonders of the world brought fundamental changes in faith, philosophy, politics, economics, arts and, above all, science and everything that is needed for civilised living for which there is no second example on Earth”.
This led to the formation of centres of knowledge excellence in the Islamic civilisation, and as such research and development (R&D) in many areas of knowledge began to thrive. Many well-known scholars and scientists became innovators and pioneers of knowledge of their time.
After the downfall of the Islamic civilisation, Europe began to be awakened from its sleep. It was around this time that “modern” science began to rise. In fact, it has been argued that the period beginning with the 14th century up till the 18th century was the one that saw the birth of modern science. It has been argued by Butterfield in The Origins of Modern Science: 1300-1800 that the scientific revolution that began circa 1300 “outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and the Reformation to the rank of mere episodes, mere internal displacements, within the system of Medieval Christendom”. But is it accurate to pinpoint that modern science rose in the 14th century? Another scholar, Hunt identified that there are four characteristics of modern science.
First, “there was a rapid growth in knowledge” that resulted in a revo-lution of knowledge. Second, this rapid growth in knowledge “occurred across many different areas, including medicine, biology, anatomy, electricity, mechanics and astronomy”. Third, scientists during the rise of modern science “built upon” the works of their predecessors rather than “starting from scratch”. Finally, knowledge could be built through “critical discussion” based on “logic” and “observation”.
In effect, all these characteristics identitied by Hunt were already prevalent during the peak of the Islamic civilisation. The first characteristic, which is the existence of a rapid growth of knowledge, had begun during the Islamic civilisation. This was apparent with the fact that there were so many scholars and scientists converging in cities of knowledge excellence of the Islamic civilisation. It was also noted that when books and libraries meant nothing to the Europeans of that time, many Islamic lands had books and libraries in abundance. For example, in Baghdad’s House of Wisdom (Dar al-Hikmah) there were four million volumes, in Cairo’s Sultanic Library one million, in the library of Syrian Tripoli three million volumes, while in Spain alone under Muslim rule there was an annual publication of between 70,000 and 80,000 volumes.
The second characteristic, the rapid growth in knowledge in many fields, was again apparent during the Islamic civilisation when there were so many scholars and scientists endeavouring in many fields. To this the historian George Sarton noted: “It will suffice here to evoke a few glorious names without contemporary equivalents in the West: Jabir ibn Haiyan, al-Kindi, alKhawarizmi, al-Farghani, al-Razi, Thabit ibn Qurrah, al-Battani, Hunain ibn Ishaq, al-Farabi, Ibrahim ibn Sinan, al-Masudi, al-Tabari, Abul Wafa, Ali ibn Abbas, Abul Qasim, Ibn al-Jazzar, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, Ibn Yunus, al-Kashi, Ibn al-Haitham, Ali ibn Isa al-Ghazali, al-Zarqab, Omar Khayyam. All of them flourished within a short period, 750 to 1100 AD.” The third characteristic that stated the rise of modern science was possible because of scientists building upon the work of their predecessors rather than starting from scratch, was also a characteristic that began during the Islamic civilisation. In essence, this approach was in-troduced by the Muslims. This fact was again noted by Sarton when he wrote: “During the reign of Caliph al-Mamun the monarch created in Baghdad a regular school for translation. “Besides the translation of Greek works and their extracts, the trans-lators made manuals of which one form, that of the ‘pandects’, is typical of the period of Arabic learning”.
Finally, the fourth characteristic identified is that modern science progressed because of the existence of critical discussion based on logic and observation. As a matter of fact, Islam and scientific development are indivisibly linked. The Islamic faith is very supportive for the demands of reason (logic) and empirical enquiry. The wellknown Muslim scholar, Shah Waliullah said that religion when backed by reason, carries conviction and fortifies wavering faith. In Islam, logic was never conceived as being opposed to religious faith. Muslim scientists consider logic as an indispensable tool of scientific thinking. They also considered logic as a form of wisdom (hikmah), a form of knowledge glorified by the Quran.
The use of logic in Islam will not lead to secular rationalism which rebels against religion, so also experimentation will not lead to an empiricism which regards sensual experience as the source of all knowledge.
This is being safeguarded by Islamic theory of knowledge based on tawhid. In line with tawhidic perspective, God alone is the Absolute and that everything else is relative. A Muslim, therefore, is committed that the physical world, like all other worlds, owes its existence to God. The moment it is cut off from God, it ceases to exist. Therefore, when Muslims carry out observations and experimentations, they are indeed seeking to know an aspect of the reality of God.
With this religious consciousness, Islam believes that tawhid is the source of scientific spirit in all domains of knowledge. This makes Islam relevant to scientific development and prepare Muslims to participate actively and effectively in scientific development.
This characteristic was clearly evident during the peak of the Islamic civilisation. After all, it is the Quran that instructs mankind to make observations to all the creations of God.
In essence, the Islamic civilisation provided the foundations needed for the advancement of science that began in the 14th century. The 14th century saw the advent of much scientific progress that culminated in contributions made by the likes of Galileo, Boyle and Newton. However, it would be wrong to say that all of this is possible without contributions made by Islam and Muslim scientists that came before them. Muslims introduced detailed and prolonged observation and experi-mental inquiry in line with the true philosophy of obtaining knowledge.
There is no short-cuts to acquiring knowledge. There must exist patience and perseverence. Only then would the “truth” that is being searched upon is unveiled by God.
The historian Robert Briffault ac-knowledged the contributions of Is-lam to science in his book Making of Humanity, in which among others he wrote: “It was under the influence of the Arabs and Moorish revival of culture and not in the 15th century, that a real renaissance took place. Spain, not Italy, was the cradle of the rebirth of Europe. “After steadily sinking lower and lower into barbarism, it had reached the darkest depths of ignorance and degradation when cities of the Sara-cenic world, Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova, and Toledo, were growing centres of civilisation and intellectual activity. It was there that the new life arose.” For today’s Muslims, the past glories of the Islamic civilisation should be a motivating factor in order to move forward. More often than not, Muslims tend to be overly nostalgic with the past. Perhaps, it would be more constructive if Muslims are to use the past as motivation towards achieving future success.