Page 135 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

The Quran and the universe are two aspects of the same
reality. The Quran is a statement in words of God’s revelations,
while the universe is a practical demonstration of God’s scheme
of things—“He ordains all things.” Science is nothing other than
a study of the divine manifestation of the universe. Furthermore,
since this divine management expresses itself through the laws of
nature, which always function in strict uniformity, it is essential
to engage in exact thinking of a mathematical kind in order to
understand and apply these laws. While, literature and rhetoric
tend to exaggerate, science on the contrary produces precision
of thought and a realistic approach which are indispensable to
an understanding of the workings of the universe. Science comes
to the support of Islam in two ways: first, it makes man study the
wonders of God—the only direct means of the realization of God
in this world; and second, it produces scientific thinking, which is
exactly what is desired by the Quran.
It must be conceded that the ‘rebellion’ of science against
religion was a matter of chance. That is why, within less than a
century, the inner logic of science asserted itself in order to make
science revert to its original position.
The first demonstration of this reversion, from the Islamic
point of view, took place in the form of a change in orientalism.
After the Crusades (1099-1270), the literature produced by
orientalists in Europe poisoned Western literature with anti-
Islamic thinking. After the failure in the Crusades, they took their
revenge on the Muslims with their old weapon of pious fraud
against Islam, the religion of their adversaries. Since they were
dominant in the entire Europe they managed to fill the books of
history, religion, and literature with anti-Islam views. Even the
dramas of Shakespeare and Milton were not immune from this. In
the modern age, since all the books were being published in the
West, this Western orientalism influenced not only the European
mind but also the educated mind of the whole world.
But, according to the Quran, ‘God has power over all things,’
(12:21). By the end of the nineteenth century, objective thinking
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