ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islamic Thought (Ma‘arif Islami) Book One Section Four: Cosmology [jahān shināsī] In addition to endeavoring to understand our Lord and ourselves, our human curiosity and inquisitiveness provokes us to attempt to understand the world by studying the phenomena around us and the laws governing them. Basically, we can regard the inception and development of many human sciences an effect of the innate human need to understand the universe.

In other words, the sphere of our awareness is not restricted to Allah-awareness and self-awareness. In fact, the perfection of humanity’s knowledge depends on understanding the third side of the triangle of knowledge, that is, world-awareness.[^1] In previous sections, we briefly explained the Islamic perspective about theology and anthropology. Herein, the question discussed is whether Islam has presented information regarding understanding the world in addition to these two subjects.

In other words, essentially, can one speak of an issue called Islamic cosmology? A glance at Islam’s revelational knowledge (i.e. the Holy Qur’an and authentic narrations [riwāyāt al-mu’tabar]) presents us with an affirmative answer. Yea, Islam has presented many truths regarding the origin of the universe, natural and metaphysical phenomena, and the laws governing them. There are innumerable Qur’anic verses and Hadith that speak of cosmological matters.

Due to the infallibility of divine revelation, the intellect requires that all Moslems have faith in the eternal verity of these teachings and consider them the absolute truth. Religious and Scientific Cosmology The existence of cosmological truths in the Qur’an does not make it a cosmogonical, geological, or biological textbook; rather, there are differences that completely differentiate the Qur’an from texts on natural sciences.

Even disregarding the infallibility of Qur’anic teachings, one of the fundamental differences is in its objectives. The ultimate mission and aim of the Qur’an is guiding humans toward true perfection, salvation, and bliss. Therefore, everything that the Qur’an states about the world is related to and serves this purpose.

Even though the cosmological verses of the Qur’an present us with truths about world phenomena, understanding these truths is not the ultimate purpose, but a passageway to better understanding God, His attributes, humanity’s status in existence, and the telos of human creation.