Philosophy of science in the Quran- analysing the diverse approaches on how science can be read in Quran

Abstract

Describing the scientific findings in Quran is one of the popularised task among all over the Muslims of the world. This come out of the comparison between Quran and science. Quran is not a book of science, but it contains some of the verses which indicates to the scientific facts. The scientific knowledge works as a mean to strengthen the belief of the followers and its divinity. The question ‘does Quran contains scientific miracle or scientific truths?’ comes from the comparison between Quran and science. The quest for comparison come out of the conclusion that Quran inspires people to think about the creations of god, the universe, the nature and science is the study about the nature. But the comparison between Quran which is absolute truth and science which is constantly changing is impossible. Here the question arises that how Muslim philosophers approached the science and Quran. The scientific facts in the Holy Quran has been discussed among classical, pre-modern and modern Muslim scholars and philosophers. But they all concluded on divergences of technics. The approach introduced by pre-modern scholars like imam al-Gazzali got acceptance as it gives philosophical background for the scientific reading. But when modern ideologies influenced the Muslim theological and intellectual discourses, the problem became more sophisticated. Scientific interpretation of the religious texts and ideologies got worldwide popularity. Dr. Mourris Bucaille, a French scientist in his book ‘The Bible, The Quran and science’ explained that Quran is a book of science. It got wide acceptance among Muslims, but, it got academic and scientific criticism from mainstream academicians and scientists. Even the criticism of the interpretations doesn’t affect the divinity of the Holy Quran the basic philosophy i.e. scientific interpretation of the verses or scientific miracles should be examined. As a result of this, modern and contemporary Muslim Academicians introduced new approach which is called ‘multi-layer and multi-level approach’ which is complete negation of the scientific facts in holy Quran. This paper analyse the philosophy of the scientific reading of the Holy Quran and describe diverse scholarly approaches to the science in the Quran and analyses them critically. This paper also suggest a new approach as it can resolve the holes and answer the criticism philosophically.