The Internet is being used by students and scholars at all levels to assist them in research and to gain access to information quickly. What is available online for the serious students of Islam and science? Can researchers in the area of Islam and science, whatever their discipline, find what they need on the Internet?
We conducted an online search to see what could be accessed using the terms ‘Islam and Science’. Using Altavista as the search engine we got 1,873,545 entries. The search engine Mamma.com generated 55 entries. Out of these, we visited a random sample of 132 sites.
53% of the sites were of no relevance to our search. Several focussed just on Islam, a few dealt with science in Islam superfluously, and some websites had moved to other places or were taken off the web. Others were completely off the topic.
The remaining 47% of the websites dealt with ‘Islam and Science’, in some way or another. We put them into six categories. 31% of the 132 sites deal with the concept of science in the Qur’ān, and 18% present a historical survey of science in Islam. 5% had book reviews and lectures online, and 7% were the websites of institutes and study centres. 29% were booksellers with lists of books relevant to the topic. 10% were search engines or sites devoted only to links on ‘Islam and Science’; however we found that there was an overwhelming number of sites that were interlinked.
The following table briefly describes 30 sites from this sample.
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1 |
http://www.shu.ac.uk/students/union/socs/ This website highlights some of the scientific achievements of Muslims from the time when Islam was implemented comprehensively, to whom no credit is given by the West, despite the fact that they laid the foundation on which Europe was able to make scientific progress. Sheffield Hallam University Islamic Society |
Chronicles achievement in mathematical discovery by Muslim scholars of the 9th and 10th centuries. Introductory material. |
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2 |
http://www.dawahcentre.org/dawah/ The site offers an essay, accompanied by numerous related links, on the relationship between Islam and science. Canadian Islamic Centre |
Justifies beliefs in the Qur’ān through science. |
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3 |
http://library.thinkquest.org/17137/ This site provides introductory material about Islamic beliefs and contributions to mathematics and science. Ankur Dalal, Caitlin McKenna and Lucy Zhao for Thinkquest |
Provide resources suitable for middle school/high school curriculum. |
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4 |
http://www.ummah.org.uk/science Delves into the historical relationships of Islam and science and details the contributions of Muslim scientists to the range of human knowledge. Gurkan and Leyla Celikkol |
Proving the Qur’ān through science with links to other pages. Subject headings relate to relevant Qur’ānic verses. |
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5 |
http://members.xoom.com/letsthink/ Presents the fundamentals of Islam, the Qur’ān, and its relation to science and religious revelation. (Astronomy, light and movements, the Earth, the creation of Man) Ikra’ |
Proving the Qur’ān’s authenticity through science. Provides a library of quotes and links. |
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6 |
http://users.erols.com/zenithco Biographies of various luminaries, science, civilisation of Islam, history of Islam, al-Andalus, the Americas, the Qur’ān, biography of Muhammad (sws), biographies of Companions, oil industries, other topics, audio, links. Dr. A. Zahoor |
An outstanding resource with a huge amount of information. |
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7 |
http://www.al-muslim.org/science/ Presents what the Qur’ān has to say about astronomy and other science disciplines, with a focus on Islam’s relation to modern scientific theories. Shabir Ally for Islamic Information and Da’wah Centre International |
Proving the Qur’ān through science. |
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8 |
http://home.swipnet.se/islam/quran-bible.htm Maurice Bucaille examines the sacred texts of Islam and Christianity in relation to the advances in modern scientific knowledge. Light of Islam |
The text of The Qur’ān, the Bible and Science by Maurice Bucaille. |
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9 |
http://home.swipnet.se/islam/articiles/ Presents an article which catalogues the advances made by Islamic scholars in a number of scientific fields Light of Islam |
A summary narrative of how the Islamic world was ahead of the Western on the level of science during the middle ages. |
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10 |
http://www.islamicity.org/Science/ The Qur’ān and science. Provides some biographies of scientists. Historical review. IslamiCity in Cyberspace |
Introductory descriptive material on the disciplines of science relating to the Qur’ān and science. |
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11 |
Presents astounding scientific facts that modern science has discovered, which, however, were accurately described in the Qur’ān 1400 years ago. Web designer unknown. |
A beautiful website designed to convince of the truth of the Qur’ān as proven by modern western science. Quotes by leading scientists who were astonished by the level of accuracy as shown in the Qur’ān by recent studies. |
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12 |
Provides articles, extracts and lectures looking at the role and place of science in Islam. Islamic Information Office, Hawaii |
An introductory presentation of science in Islam and why science fails to explain God. Creative. |
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13 |
This website is essentially ‘a center for public enlightenment’. The self-proclaimed purpose of this site is to ‘reveal the scientific facts that refute the theory of evolution in all fields and to inform people about the ulterior, underlying, and real purpose of this so-called “science”, which is in fact a fraud’. Science and Research Foundation, Istanbul. (Founded 1990). |
Evolution vs. Creation… Harun Yahya’s The Evolution Deceit in its totality, videos, and conference reports. |
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14 |
http://www.minocw.nl/wetensch/islam.htm Has a mandate to develop, organise and make available scientific expertise and scholarship on contemporary political, social, economic and cultural developments of Islam. Institute for the Study of Islam, 1997, Netherlands. |
The website is a forum of the Institute for the Study of Islam. Still under construction. |
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15 |
http://courses.unt.edu/rdecarvalho/h5040/ Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, Science and Civilisation in Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Reviewed by Clara L. Austin, Hist 5040, Spring 1999 |
Book review of Science and Civilisation in Islam. |
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16 |
http://mercury.spaceports.com/ Presents Islam and the Muslim impact on the renaissance in science and philosophy. Tarek Saghir, June 1999 |
Designed as a history project by a Canadian secondary school student. |
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17 |
http://www.fonsvitae.com/scienceiv.html Science and Civilisation in Islam. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. The Islamic Texts Society (1987) ISBN 094662111X. Hardback index/Bibliography 388 pp.216x134 Fons Vitae |
An online bookseller |
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18 |
http://194.170.128.9/islamic/islamhome.htm An up-to-date personal understanding of life as informed by Prophet Mohammed (sws) under the illumination of Modern Science - Islamic Path Mohammed Basheer Perumpadappu, 1998. |
Links and introductory information. A personal website. |
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19 |
Full texts of twelve of Harun Yahya’s books, including The Evolution Deceit, Perished Nations, The Truth of the Life of this World, and more. Pen-name Harun Yahya |
Creationism vs. Evolutionism. His books have a subgroup called ‘Books which demolish evolutionism.’ |
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20 |
Links to other sites on Islam and science. |
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21 |
Islam en France. Musulmans ou non, decouvrez la beaute, la richesse et la lumiere de l’Islam d’aujourd’hui. Allah. Qui est Allah? Est-ce Dieu? Islam en France |
Introduction to Islam in French. Some topics refer to science. |
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22 |
http://www.islam101.com/science/ The Sabr Foundation |
Islam101 is an online introductory course on Islam. Links to other sites on science and Islam. |
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23 |
http://www.ummah.net/history/scholars/ Biographies of Muslim scholars. Walid and Monzur Ahmad |
Nice site. Good course of a lot of introductory information |
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24 |
The Center for Islam and Science (CIS) is dedicated to the promotion of research and diffusion of knowledge on all areas of Islam and science. Basit Kareem Iqbal |
When completed it will have portals leading to century-wise emergence of sciences, glossary of terms, biographical notes, and bibliographic resources. |
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25 |
http://www.islam101.org/guide/ Halal Co. Books |
Bookseller with books on Islam and evolution. |
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26 |
http://web.mit.edu/mitmsa/www/NewSite/ MIT Islamic Students Association |
Full text of a lecture delivered by Seyyed Hossein Nasr to the MIT Islamic Students Association |
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27 |
A forum for scholarly postings on current discourse on Islam and science |
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28 |
http://www.ias-worldwide.org/islamic.html Islamic Academy of Science (IAS), Amman, Jordan |
Working to promote science and technology in the Muslim world. Not a resource for research information. |
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29 |
http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~c1540/mus-sci/index.html Jābir Ibn H~ayyān, Muhammad Ibn Mūsā al-khawārazmī, Ya‘qūb Ibn Ishāq Kindī,………. City University of London |
Biographies of important individuals of Islamic thought, sciences, and history. |
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30 |
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ Islamic history, science in the Abbasid caliphate, and full texts of selected works of Ghazzālī and Ibn Sīnā. Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University, New York |
Website in two parts: full texts and shorter extracts. Primary and secondary sources. |
Many sites, as noted above, were interested in proving that certain specific scientific facts existed in the Qur’ān. One of the best examples of what we call Bucaillism (using verses on a one to one relationship with scientific phenomena to prove the truth of the Qur’ān) can be found at the address of http://www.it-is-truth.org. Beautifully designed with care, there are pictures and quotations from leading scientists who were astonished, nay, speechless at the way the Qur’ān says the same thing they had found out in their respective areas of research.
9% of the sites focused on Muslim history and the contributions to the Islamic scientific tradition. They tended to glorify the achievements of scientists in the past. Many also highlighted the effects the Islamic scientific tradition had on the European Renaissance. A longstanding site developed by Dr. Zahoor provides a great deal of somewhat random information and other sites often have one link or another to it. It can be found at http://users.erols.co/zenithco, and has biographies of Muslim luminaries who contributed most to our understanding of the sciences, mathematics, medicine, technology, sociology, and philosophy. It has chronologies of Muslims in different eras, a variety of interesting lists, and articles on aspects of history of science.
Http://library.thinkquest.org/17137/ provides classroom resources for middle school/high school curriculum. It has educational articles and classroom activities that examine Islamic beliefs about science and contributions to mathematics and science.
Our overall impression of what’s available online is that scholars and researchers cannot find the information they need. There are no comprehensive and systematic reviews of history of Islamic science; bibliographic resources are meagre or nonexistent, and information on the relationship between contemporary science and Islam is limited to attempts to prove the truth of the Noble Qur’ān from science.
Courtesy: The Islamic Studies, Number 4, Winter 2000