Science and philosophy flourished not because of Islam but despite it

 

 —Agrah Pandit

 

 

 

 

 

The referenced article goes on to make other ludicrous claims like “By treading on the path shown by Holy Qur’an, the Muslims were not only successful in acquiring knowledge in a short span of time, rather, they added stars to it.” and “It was Akbar whose government for the first time took interest in education.” The article is an excerpt from a book by one Mr. Mohammad Aslam Parvaiz.

 

The same type of argument can be found from official history books of Islamic nations to cheap books hanging from a stall outside a dargah. Every noble thing is made traceable to Muslims and Islamic world. Every scientific discovery or achievement of humankind is contained in Islamic scriptures. The world before Islam was one of Jahiliyyah (ignorance). However, my focus in the present article is not to counter all such absurdities. I will rather throw light on 2 free thinkers viz., al-Razi and al-Kindi whom Mr. Parvaiz especially mentions as foremost face of Islamic Science.

 

 

Also known as the father of “Arab philosophy”, al-Kindi along with Al-Khwarizmi was responsible for introducing Indian numerals and Hindu mathematics to the Islamic world, which then reached the Western world, and eventually was adopted by modern world. He introduced Neoplatonic ideas and defended reason at all cost. The scholar Ibn Warraq comments about his legacy, “The spirit of philosophical inquiry did eventually however lead to a questioning of the fundamental tenets of Islamic belief, something which led people like al-Kindi’s pupil, Ahmad b. al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi, into deep trouble… Sarakhsi incurred the wrath of the caliph for discussing heretical ideas rather openly such that the caliph was obliged to order his execution.” This is how Islamists honored the legacy of al-Kindi!

 

 

Mr. Parvaiz especially and rightly glorifies al-Razi as he was the finest of Muslim scientists. He was dismissive of religions and prophets. He rejected many Islamic dogmas like creation ex nihilo (creation out of nothing). The author Ibn Warraq describes al-Razi’s work as: “In his ethics, the Spiritual Physick, al-Razi is absolutely unique in not once referring to the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet—a practice common in such works—or to any specific Muslim doctrine.” He authored a book titled On the Tricks of False Prophets wherein he attacked the necessity of the prophets. He described prophets disdainfully as “billy goats” with long beards;

 

“These billy goats pretend to come with a message from God, all the while exhausting themselves in spouting their lies, and imposing on the masses blind obedience to the ‘words of the master’. The miracles of the prophets are impostures, based on trickery, or the stories regarding them are lies. The falseness of what all the prophets say is evident in the fact that they contradict one another—one affirms what the other denies, and yet each claims to be the sole depository of the truth; thus the New Testament contradicts the Torah, the Koran the New Testament. As for the Koran, it is but an assorted mixture of ‘absurd and inconsistent fables’ which has ridiculously been judged inimitable, when, in fact, its language, style, and its much vaunted “eloquence” are far from being faultless. Custom, tradition, and intellectual laziness lead men to follow their religious leaders blindly. Religions have been the sole cause of the bloody wars that have ravaged mankind.”

 

As one scholar has summarized Al-Razi’s views: “Al-Razi believed one could live in an orderly society without being terrorized by religious law or coerced by the prophets. Certainly the precepts of Muslim law, such as the prohibition of wine, did not trouble him in the least…al-Razi’s criticisms of religion are the most violent that appeared in the entire Middle Ages, whether European or Islamic.”

 

 

Furthermore, Mr. Aslam Parvaiz cites George Sarton in support of his argument, conveniently sidestepping the view of the same Sarton who was critical of Muslims’ attitude towards science: “The Muslims, with but few exceptions, were hardly interested in the scientific aspects of these matters, but rather in their theological implications; they were not thinking so much of evolution from the human or naturalistic point of view as of creation from the divine one.”

 

As far the claim that 90% of scientists of author-chosen-era were Muslims, it is apt to quote Martin Plessner: “Islamic science did not remain exclusively in the hands of Muslims, even after its “Arabization.” Christians and Jews continued to make so active a contribution that the Fons vitae of Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) could pass for the work of a Muslim until the nineteenth century when S. Munk identified the author as Jewish… Science was perhaps the one cultural area that was least accessible to “Islamisation”. Moreover, the continued and undiminished hostility of official orthodoxy against the ancient sciences remained as characteristic of Islam… Knowledge not founded on revelation and tradition was deemed not only to be irrelevant but to be the first step on the path to heresy.”

 

However, it is not uncommon for a pious Muslim to trace any and every scientific breakthroughs or novel discovery to the Quran. Muslims have even claimed that information regarding novel Coronavirus and COVID-19 could be found in their holy book. Mr. Parvaiz’s schoolboy-like enthusiasm can be sympathized therein. Science, if at all pursued, was pursued as a religious duty to confirm the claimed prescience in Quran. Arabic or Urdu do not even have a proper word for science or many of the modern specialized fields of study.

 

In fact, Islam has a history of persecuting free thinkers and pursuers of knowledge and science. The Islamic world attained many scientific feats not because of Islam but despite Islam. I will conclude the present write-up with the following scholastic insights by Renan:

 

“Science and philosophy flourished on Musalman soil during the first half of the middle ages; but it was not by reason of Islam, it was in spite of Islam. Not a Musalman philosopher or scholar escaped persecution… To give Islam the credit of Averroes and so many other illustrious thinkers, who passed half their life in prison, in forced hiding, in disgrace, whose books were burned and whose writings almost suppressed by theological authority, is as if one were to ascribe to the Inquisition the discoveries of Galileo, and a whole scientific development which it was not able to prevent.”