ISLAM AND SCIENCE (I)

The most important reason why Prophets and heavenly books were sent and the first command that is absolutely necessary to be declared is to declare that the Creator of the heavens and earth exists, that He is one, that He has superior attributes such as knowledge and others, and that His power and greatness are infinite. Because most people believe the things which they see and hear as they see and hear them and cannot understand their inner natures and delicate particulars, Allâhu ta’âlâ, in His Books, described the moon, the sun and the stars, which are the symptoms of His existence and greatness, the biggest and the most obvious creatures, which amaze people very much and which seem precise in every respect, so that every sort of people could understand them. By not explaining their calculations, laws and inner natures, He did not force the ignorant majority to busy themselves with the things which they could not understand, and He encouraged the intelligent, wise and distinguished among mankind in every century to understand them by studying them. Man’s discoveries have been changing in process of time; discoveries that were thought of as correct and dependable at one time have been understood to be wrong afterwards. Because the people of each century have believed in the correctness of the latest discoveries of their time, the beliefs of each century have been different from those of the others; these beliefs did not become sins or a matter of disbelief, for the beliefs that are sinful are those which disagree with the Prophets’ books and which deny what is stated in them. To protect His slaves against disbelief and sins, Allâhu ta’âlâ did not explain scientific knowledge, which not everybody could understand, in His books, but He only pointed it out, and by describing the earth, the sun and the skies as they appear, He commanded us to take a warning from them and to understand His existence and His greatness.

While explaining the command, “Introduce Me to My slaves through hikmat and through beautiful preachings!” which is in the hundred and twenty-fifth âyat of Nahl Sûra, Qâdî Baydâwî says: “It means, ‘Communicate to the intelligent and to the educated through scientific knowledge and to the ignorant people, who follow their emotions, by describing what is seen.’ ”