Abstract
Islam teaches the virtue of the progressive acquisition of new knowledge as the Qur’an calls upon man to constantly pray to his Lord for increase in knowledge. However, this teaching does not legitimise the pursuit and acquisition of just any kind of knowledge regardless of its ethical implications. The Prophet’s well-known prayer seeking God’s protection from knowledge that is useless serves to remind Muslims of the kind of knowledge that ought to be shunned for the sake of their wellbeing. According to Islamic ethics, each human virtue is attained through the moderation of two extremes. In the case of the virtue of pursuing new knowledge, it is attained as a result of moderating two extreme tendencies, namely, shunning acquiring new knowledge so as to remain in a state of ignorance and indulging actively in the pursuit of non-beneficial knowledge without any constraint. Thus, Islamic ethics of knowledge, by which the pursuit of science and technology (S&T) in Islam ought to be governed, seeks to liberate man from these two negative tendencies. The key idea discussed in this paper is the concept of beneficial knowledge with particular reference to S&T. In the history of Islamic thought, this idea is articulated primarily in the context of theories of cognitive psychology and maqasid al-sharī‘ah (higher purposes of the Sharī‘ah) that pertain essentially to individual and societal quests of knowledge, respectively. The Muslim pursuit of beneficial S&T is discussed in three historical contexts: first, when Muslims were the world’s leading producers of S&T knowledge; second, in the period of decline when they no longer dictated the direction of science and third, in the possible ‘history’ of the future as may be gauged from present Muslim trends in the field. The paper concludes with some suggestions on how today’s Muslims can help pave the way for the creation of a more enlightened scientific and technological culture in Muslim societies of the twenty-first century.
Keynote address delivered at the International Conference on Developing Synergies between Islam and Science and Technology for Mankind’s Benefit, coorganised by IAIS, Kuala Lumpur, and SOASCIS, Universiti Brunei Darussalam on 1–2 October 2014.
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Notes
- 1.
For detailed comparative discussions of the scientific and technological cultures in traditional Islamic and modern Western civilisations, see Nasr (1968) and Bakar (2008). In his critical preface to Nasr’s Science and Civilisation in Islam, the noted American historian of science, Giorgio de Santillana provided corroboration of the contrasting spirits embodying the two scientific and technological cultures, similarities notwithstanding.
- 2.
The Qur’an, 2:143. For a detailed discussion in civilisational terms about wasaṭiyyah, see Bakar (2014a).
- 3.
Tawḥīd is understood here as referring to the absolute Principle of Divine Unity and Its applications to the various levels of cosmic reality of which It is the Source resulting thereby in the idea of unity of each of these cosmic levels as well as the corresponding unity of the science that studies it. Like all other domains of Islamic life and thought, Islamic S&T was essentially and thoroughly shaped by this understanding of Tawḥīd.
- 4.
Sharī‘ah refers to the all-embracing Sacred Law of Islam that serves as the source of organising principles of human activities, both individual and collective in all domains of life, including S&T.
- 5.
The heliocentric and mechanical views of the cosmos are attributed to Nicholas Copernicus (1473–1543) and Isaac Newton (1642–1727), respectively.
- 6.
For a detailed study of this simultaneous secularisation, see Bakar (2014b).
- 7.
See Bakar (2014a) where this theme is discussed in several chapters.
- 8.
The Qur’an, 30:7.
- 9.
The Qur’an, 30:4; 30:6.
- 10.
The Qur’an, 32:10.
- 11.
The Qur’an, 2:67.
- 12.
The Qur’an, 7:11–13.
- 13.
The Qur’an, 15:26–33.
- 14.
The official worldview of contemporary science excludes non-physical and nonquantitative realities from the world of nature for the purpose of its scientific study, whereas traditional Islamic science sought to exhaust the whole of its multidimensional reality, both physical and non-physical. For detailed discussion of this issue, see Bakar (2014a), Chap. 3.
- 15.
Through a progressive reductionism of the reality of human consciousness in modern Western civilisational experience, the contemporary scientific mind has become reduced to reason that is nonetheless still a powerful and consequential human cognitive tool, endowed as it was with a miraculous discursive and analytical power. In contrast, the traditional Muslim scientific mind is wholesome in its character. It has not only discursive reason at its disposal but also the intellect, which it recognises as a cognitive organ distinct from reason. The intellect is endowed with the cognitive power of intuition and synthesis, and the capacity to harmonise divinely revealed data and humanly acquired rational and empirical data. A Muslim scientific mind that is rooted in the Qur’an is also receptive to the idea of the spiritual heart (qalb) as the most fundamental human cognitive faculty to which all the other cognitive powers or organs are related. What is known in the Western tradition as cardiac knowledge as contrasted with cerebral knowledge flows from this very spiritual source. See Bakar (2008), Chap. 2.
- 16.
Ibn Sina. (1328/1910). Manṭīq al-m(a)shriqīyīn (‘Oriental Logic’). Cairo: n.p.; quoted by Nasr (1963, p. 187).
- 17.
The elitist preference in classical Islamic science for public ignorance of the heliocentric system is not to be viewed simply as Islam’s ‘covering up the truth’. While Islam democratised knowledge and truths, Islam also believes in the ethics of knowledge in which the ‘rights of truths’ and public interest are also to be respected. Classical Islamic astronomy was based on the Ptolemaic system which could be viewed as its ‘exoteric’ worldview with its own distinctive symbols inasmuch as it is the popularly accepted one. The heliocentric system on the other hand might be viewed as the ‘esoteric’ astronomical worldview. The Ikhwan al-Safa’ showed that the heliocentric system also lends itself to a symbolic interpretation, albeit a different one, since no part of cosmic reality could exist without a symbolic meaning inasmuch as the whole cosmos is replete with symbols. Classical Muslim scientists did not make the first move to develop a heliocentric astronomical system at the expense of the Ptolemaic system nor did they forecast its future in Islamic science. Of course, now that the heliocentric system is popular knowledge, contemporary philosophers and scientists especially can help restore faith in God and religion by popularising the symbolic significance of heliocentric astronomy as explained by Ikhwan al-Safa’.
- 18.
Commenting on al-Biruni, first his neutrality on the contention between the geocentric and heliocentric theories until the end of his life and then finally his decision favouring the former theory mainly for physical reasons, Nasr writes: ‘… the choice between the two hypotheses was not one to be made by astronomy but something which depended on the one hand upon the cosmological and psychological questions which have a profound bearing upon human culture and on the other upon the science of physics’ (Nasr 1963, p. 135).
- 19.
According to many religious authorities, including al-Ghazzali, the protection of religion (al-dīn) is the highest purpose (maqāṣid) of the Sharī‘ah. The collective wisdom in classical Islam preferring the Ptolemaic system to the heliocentric model that prevailed from the times of Ikhwan al-Safa’ and al-Biruni to the Ottoman period may be viewed as a consequence of applying this first maqāṣid to the S&T domain.
- 20.
The Qur’an, 32:9.
- 21.
The Qur’an, 96:5.
- 22.
The Qur’an, 20:114.
- 23.
Sahih Muslim, Hadith no. 6568.
- 24.
For al-Farabi’s detailed theory of cognitive psychology, see Bakar (1998), Chap. 2.
- 25.
For detailed discussion of these three categories of knowledge according to al-Ghazzali, see Bakar (1998), Chap. 9.
- 26.
Unlike al-Ghazzali, al-Farabi discussed the Sharī‘ah from the perspective of political science under the subject of moral goods and moral-ethical values and technology under the subject of intellectual-rational goods and artistic values.
References
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Bakar, O. (2014a). Islamic civilisation and the modern world: Thematic essays. Brunei Darussalam: Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
Bakar, O. (2014b). From secular science to sacred science: The need for a transformation. Sacred Web, 33, 25–49.
Nasr, S. H. (1963). An introduction to Islamic cosmological doctrines. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nasr, S. H. (1968). Science and civilisation in Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Bakar, O. (2016). Science and Technology for Mankind’s Benefit: Islamic Theories and Practices – Past, Present, and Future. In: Kamali, M., Bakar, O., Batchelor, DF., Hashim, R. (eds) Islamic Perspectives on Science and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-778-9_3
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