Science

What were the extent of Muslim contribution to the development of science and knowledge and how did this contribution impact on the Western Civilization?

What were the extent of Muslim contribution to the development of science and knowledge and how did this contribution impact on the Western Civilization?

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to make an analysis on the extent of the Muslim contribution to the development of science and knowledge and the impact of this contribution on Western Civilisation. The Islamic civilization was the flagship of science and knowledge throughout the middle Ages. Muslims lived an era of splendor and scientific influence in all areas at a time when Europe was entering a dark period in its history. Favorable conditions encouraged the integration by the conquerors of the cultural achievements of their fellow citizens, especially since the beginning of the Umayyad reign in the year 661 of the Christian era. Thus, the process of receiving knowledge and foreign cultural goods grew rapidly in the first half of the eighth century, both from a qualitative and quantitative, and spread to almost all disciplines of the time. The Muslim world has met modern science in the nineteenth century as a double challenge both physically and intellectually.

Discussion

The pressure of modern science on Islam, which began more than two hundred years is still very powerful. The West came out to be the model of success which we should adopt for the purpose of bringing developments. But the encounter between Islam and modern science was especially thought provoking intellectual, that is to say, philosophical and doctrinal, somehow caused by an initial event which is the conference "Islam and the science "given in 1883 by Ernest Renan (1823-1892). In the positivist perspective Renan criticized the inability of Muslims to produce scientific discoveries and their inability to rational thought (Faragher, 2003). The conference was seen as a provocation by Muslim intellectuals who were dealing with the Western intellects. These intellectuals, including Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897) were the precursor, who further defended the idea that Islam does not follow any split between science and religion.

Every Muslim remembers what God says: "We have neglected nothing in the Book" (wa ma farratnâ fi-l-kitab min shay). It is actually "miraculous" that the Qur'anic discourse on the world refers to "facts", and is consistent with what the world is simply because there is no "double truth", as al -Ghazali and Ibn Rushd had already gotten it. At the same time, as al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd had also noticed, God asks us to contemplate the wonders of His Creation to read his signs (Sirasi, 1987). This approach to understand the world with our intelligence was that of philosophy at the time of these two thinkers, but it is now that of science. Everything is to understand what God wants to reveal to us in the sacred text, and what He wants to show us around the world. By revelation, God brought this knowledge that man could not acquire on its ...