Islam Vs Science

As your ludricous assertions about science in the Quran, this is a modern fallacy as Muslims feel threatened by the scientific prowess of Europe. In a feeble attempt to prove their rationality and compensate for the hopeless state of scientific investigation, some Muslims have resorted to linguistic gymanastic, stretching the meaning of the Quran’s grammatical and linguistic structure to breaking point in order to justify ”scientific discoveries”.

May I ask why the early classical scholars and interpreters of the Quran never practiced this? Why did many Muslim scholars like Al Biruni instead say that the science is independent from religious teaching?

http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/08/quran-muslim-scientific

What these thinkers are doing is to take scientific developments and fit them into the Quran,and the proof of this is that for the last 1400 years Muslim scholars never claimed to find scientific facts in the Quran. This phenomenon was begun by Maurice Bucaille. Before Bucaille no one attempted this ridiculous idea, because of the immense scientific and linguistic problems involved. Its a method of inte

rpretation which is hopeless.

Could you cite the words ”Government” and ”Politics” in the Quran directly? Can you even cite the word ”State” in the Quran in the context of the modern nation state? Why are we resorting to this hopeless textual literalism instead of using God given reason?

The Quran speaks of justice,compassion, mercy, impartiality, wisdom and knowledge as values, moral commandments and encourges the reader to ponder over its verses and to travel the world in search of knowledge. The Quran does not contain political theory. Where in the Quran are the concepts of ”separations of power” ,”independent judiciary”? The Quran has no theory of government, instead the Quran urges upright moral conduct not political engineering and how to construct a State.

Also those who call for the supremacy of God in political rule are falling into an old fallacy:

Khaled Abou El Fadl in his essay, ”Islam and the Challenge of Democracy” first writes:

”Although Muslim jurists debated political systems, the Qur’an itself did not specify a particular form of government. But it did identify a set of social and political values that are central to a Muslim polity. Three values are of particular importance: pursuing justice through social cooperation and mutual assistance (Qur’an 49:13; 11:119); establishing a non-autocratic, consultative method of governance; and institutionalizing mercy and compassion in social interactions (6:12, 54; 21:107; 27:77; 29:51; 45.20). So, all else equ

al, Muslims today ought to endorse the form of government that is most effective in helping them promote these values.”

The fact of the matter that Al Ghazali, Al Mawardi, Ibn Khaldun and Al Farabi who were all excellent philosophers and scholars reached different conclusions about government and politics proves that the Quran does not have one theory of government. These scholars recognized this and hence constructed different theories.

And El Fadl then writes:

”Early in Islamic history the issue of God’s political dominion (hakimiyyat Allah) was raised by a group known as the Haruriyya (later known as the Khawarij) when they rebelled against the fourth Rightly Guided Caliph ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib. Initially supporters of ‘Ali, the Haruriyya turned against him when he agreed to arbitrate his political dispute with a competing political faction led by a man named Mu‘awiya.

‘Ali himself had agreed to the arbitration on condition that the arbitrators be bound by the Qur’an and give full consideration to the supremacy of the Shari‘ah. But the Khawarij—pious, puritanical, and fanatical—believed that God’s law clearly supported ‘Ali. So they rejected arbitration as inhere

ntly unlawful and, in effect, a challenge to God’s sovereignty. According to the Khawarij, ‘Ali’s behavior showed that he was willing to compromise God’s supremacy by transferring decision making to human actors. They declared ‘Ali a traitor to God, and after efforts to reach a peaceful resolution failed they assassinated him. After ‘Ali’s death, Mu‘awiya seized power and established himself as the first caliph of the Umayyad Dynasty.

Anecdotal reports about the debates between ‘Ali and the Khawarij reflect an unmistakable tension about the meaning of legality and the implications of the rule of law. In one such report members of the Khawarij accused ‘Ali of accepting the judgment and dominion (hakimiyya) of human beings instead of abiding by the dominion of God’s law. Upon hearing of this accusation, ‘Ali called upon the people to gather around him and brought a large copy of the Qur’an. ‘Ali touched the Qur’an while instructing it to speak to the people and inform them about God’s law. Surprised, the people gathered around ‘Ali exclaimed, “What are you doing? The Qur’an cannot speak, for it is not a human being!” Upon hearing this, ‘Ali exclaimed that this was exactly his point. The Qur’an, ‘Ali explained, is but ink and paper, and it does not speak for itself. Instead, it is human beings who give effect to it accordi

ng to their limited personal judgments and opinions.

Such stories are subject to multiple interpretations, but this one points most importantly to the dogmatic superficiality of proclamations of God’s sovereignty that sanctify human determinations. Notably, the Khawarij’s rallying cry of “dominion belongs to God” or “the Qur’an is the judge” (la hukma illa li’llah or al-hukmu li’l-Qur’an) is nearly identical to the slogans invoked by contemporary fundamentalist groups”

Taken from http://bostonreview.net/BR28.2/abou.html
This essay is one of the best commentaries on Muslim political philosophy and dismantles all the fundamentalist arguments one by one using reason and religious texts.

The fact is that, ”God’s sovereignty provides no escape from the burdens of human agency”. You still have free will, you still have human reason and the fact you choose to ignore, surrender or not use these blessed faculties is depressing.

“Islam Discovered America Before Columbus..”