ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Science and Our Ummah Proposals We have seen how Islam has strongly emphasized the need for acquisition of knowledge in its widest sense, and how the Muslims, following the teachings of Islam, created a brilliant civilization and were the leaders of human intellectual advancement for centuries. We saw how the separation of religion from science in Muslim societies caused the Muslims to abandon their role of intellectual leadership of mankind.

But now that the Muslim community is showing gradual reawakening, and enthusiasm has emerged in almost every corner of the Muslim world, the time seems most suitable for taking decisive steps towards bringing about a scientific renaissance. In this context, we call the attention of the honoured reader to the following proposals: Like the scholars and scientists of the early centuries of the Islamic civilization, we should acquire the knowledge of all useful sciences from others.

We can liberate scientific knowledge from its attending Western materialistic interpretations and rehabilitate it in the context of Islamic world-outlook and ideology. The kind of alliance which existed between religious and natural sciences during the peak days of Islamic civilization should be re-established, since, as has been pointed out, there is no separation between the ends of religion and science.

Religion teaches that all creation is oriented towards God as stated in the Quranic verse: All that is in the heavens and the earth magnifies God, the Supreme, the All­ holy, the Almighty, the All-wise. (62:1) Modern science is engaged in an attempt to unravel a comprehensive unity in the laws of nature. The present day physicists are involved in an effort of reducing all apparently independent forces of nature to a single fundamental principle and have obtained some success in this field.

For the achievement of this goal, it seems inevitable that the latest scientific principles should be taught in theological centers, and, in the same way, religious sciences should be taught in universities on a com­paratively advanced level. This will be instrumental in familiarizing Muslim research scholars with the Islamic world-outlook.

Moreover, it would give the opportunity to theological schools to utilise latest scien­tific findings for interpretation and elucidation of the laws of the Shari `ah.