The Limitations of Science and the Teachings of Science from the Islamic Perspective

Abstract

What is Science?In Latin "Scientia" means "knowledge." So science is defined as all theknowledge men have achieved in different places and at all times, arrangedaccording to their subject-matter. This includes knowledge gained throughDivine revelation; or by the way of human thinking and creative intellect,as well as through human legacy and tradition in these two areas. The prevailingdirection, however, tends to limit the term Science to natural and experimentalstudies of all that is within reach of the senses and intellect in this universe(i.e. matter, energy, living beings and natural phenomena). This is usuallycarried out through observation and conclusion or through experimentation,observation and conclusion, in an attempt to discover the characteristics ofmatter, energy and living things, classify all these and discover the laws governingthem. As thus defined, Science also includes deductions, suppositions,hypotheses and theories which are put forward to explain prevailing phenomena.This definition has limited Science to "a branch of study which is concernedeither with a connected body of demonstrated truths or with observed factssystematically classified and more or less collated by being brought undergeneral laws, and which includes trustworthy methods for the discovery ofnew truth within its own domain."Accodingly, human knowledge has been divided into scientific studies (bothpure and applied), literary and art studies and religious studies (studies offaith). Writers, however, differ much in classifying and chaptering humanknowledge, but the following classification seems appropriate: ...