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SCIENCE versus RELIGION"? - An Islamic Perspective
Dr Umar Azam BA PhD DCL Dip.FJ Dip.IM FRSA FRSSA
MARCH 2004
Manchester, UK
INTRODUCTION
"Science"
is defined as "Knowledge gained by systematic experimentation
and analysis, and the formulation of general principles; a branch
of this; skill or technique". (1)
"Religion"
is defined as "A belief in God or gods; a system of worship
and faith; a formalised_expression of belief". (1)
"Belief",
in its turn, is defined as "A principle or idea considered
to be true, religious faith". (1)
1.
ALLAH ALMIGHTY AS THE SUBJECT OF ALL DESTINY
It is
a scientific law that actions don't happen by themselves.
For example, the probability that nuts, bolts, pistons, tyres,
alternator, battery etc. would all somehow float and then assemble
themselves into a motor car is zero. The fact that
everything in the heavens and the Earth follows celestial laws
is evidence that there is an element of control.
There must always be a subject who controls a certain
action so as to produce an occurance. It is very surprising,
therefore, that no formula has yet been invented in science
which dispels this fallacy of anarchy once and for all from
the minds of erring scientists. If Einstein's formula
is E=mcxc, [energy equals mass times the speed of light squared],
then light would be the catalyst of the process and thereby
the essential subject. The light of our sun, and
the other bodies in the Universe, though natural, would be artificial
light when compared to the Supreme Light of Allah Most High.
ALLAH
IS THE LIGHT OF THE HEAVES AND THE EARTH. THE PARABLE
OF HIS LIGHT IS AS IF THERE WERE A NICHE AND WITHIN IT A LAMP:
THE LAMP, ENCLOSED IN GLASS: THE GLASS AS IT WERE A BRILLIANT
STAR: LIT FROM A BLESSED TREE, AN OLIVE, NEITHER OF THE EAST
NOR OF THE WEST, WHOSE OIL IS WELL-NIGH LUMINOUS THOUGH FIRE
SCARCE TOUCHED IT: LIGHT UPON LIGHT! ALLAH DOTH GUIDE
WHOM HE WILL TO HIS LIGHT: ALLAH DOTH SET FORTH PARABLES FOR
MEN: AND ALLAH DOTH KNOW ALL THINGS. [XXIV, 35]
2.
IT IS THIS LIGHT WHICH CONTROLS AND COMMANDS ALL ENERGY.
WHATEVER
BEINGS THERE ARE IN THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH DO PROSTRATE THEMSELVES
TO ALLAH [ACKNOWLEDGING SUBJECTION] WITH GOODWILL OR IN SPITE
OF THEMSELVES. [XIII, 15]
3.
ALLAH IS TIME, BUT MAN EXISTS WITHIN THE RELATIVITY OF TIME.
HAS
THERE NOT BEEN OVER MAN A LONG PERIOD OF TIME WHEN HE WAS NOTHING
- [NOT EVEN] MENTIONED? VERILY WE CREATED MAN FROM A DROP
OF MINGLED SPERM, IN ORDER TO TRY HIM: SO WE GAVE HIM [THE GIFTS]
OF HEARING AND SIGHT. WE SHOWED HIM THE WAY: WHETHER HE
BE GRATEFUL OR UNGRATEFUL [RESTS ON HIS WILL]. [LXXVI,
1-3]
YUSUF ALI'S COMMENTARY:
THE TITLE OF SURAH DAHR ['TIME'] [LXXVI] RECALLS A PAGAN ARAB IDEA, WHICH
PERSONIFIED TIME AS EXISTING SPONTANEOUSLY FROM ETERNITY TO
ETERNITY AND RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MISERY OR HAPPINESS OF MANKIND.
IN XLV, 24 WE READ: 'THEY SAY ... 'NOTHING BUT TIME CAN
DESTROY US'. THIS ATTITUDE IS OF COURSE WRONG. TIME
IS A CREATED THING: IT HAS ITS MYSTERIES BUT IT IS NO MORE ETERNAL
THAN MATTER. IT IS ALSO RELATIVE TO OUR CONCEPTIONS AND
NOT ABSOLUTE AS EINSTEIN HAS PROVED. IT IS ONLY GOD WHO
IS SELF-SUBSISTING, ETERNAL FROM THE BEGINNING AND ETERNAL TO
THE END, THE ABSOLUTE EXISTENCE AND REALITY. WE MUST NOT
TRANSFER HIS ATTRIBUTES TO ANY FIGMENTS OF OUR IMAGINATION.
THIS DEIFICATION OF TIME [DAHR] AS AGAINST A LIVING PERSONAL
GOD HAS GIVEN RISE TO THE TERM DAHRIYA, AS APPLIED TO
AN ATHEIST OR A MATERIALIST. [p. 889]
4.
ALL KNOWLEDGE BELONGS TO ALLAH.
HE
IS THE IRRESISTIBLE, AND HE IS THE WISE, ACQUAINTED WITH ALL
THINGS. [VI, 18]
FROM
ALLAH, VERILY NOTHING IS HIDDEN ON EARTH OR IN THE HEAVENS
[III, 5]
THE HOLY
QURAN TALKED OF THE 'RED ROSE NEBULA' HUNDREDS OF YEARS
BEFORE HIGH SPECIFICATION TELESCOPES PHOTOGRAPHED THIS PHENOMENON
[SEE THE PHOTOGRAPH AND RELEVANT VERSES FROM THE HOLY QURAN
IN THE 'ASPECTS OF ISLAM' SECTION OF THIS WEBSITE]. ALSO,
THE HOLY QURAN DESCRIBED THE BIOLOGICAL FACTS OF THE CREATION
OF MAN HUNDREDS OF YEARS BEFORE MODERN SCIENCE CAME TO KNOW
OF THESE SAME FACTS:
VERSES:
READ VERSES IN ‘ASPECTS OF ISLAM’ ON WWW.DR-UMAR-AZAM.COM
5. ALLAH
HAS SECRETS OF CREATION BEYOND THE INTELLECT OF MAN:
PRAISE BE TO ALLAH, WHO CREATED [OUT OF NOTHING] THE
HEAVENS AND THE EARTH, WHO MADE ANGELS MESSENGERS WITH WINGS,
- TWO, OR THREE, OR FOUR [PAIRS]: HE ADDS TO CREATION AS HE
PLEASES: FOR ALLAH HAS POWER OVER ALL THINGS. [XXXV, I]
In Islam,
it is held that there is absolutely no
conflict
between science and religion. The only ones who say that
there is such a conflict are those who do not believe in God, or are agnostic. All knowledge belongs
to Allah and, in fact, originates from Allah, so any systematic experimentation and formulation
of general principles, and/or the accumulation of skills and
techniques must
inevitably prove that Allah is the Originator of
all science, The Mighty, The Wise! Allah Most High is Time and
Space, and has created science as completely subservient to
Allah, and not rebellious to Allah. How can it be shown that
all of science declares Allah's Glory and Majesty?
6. THE
THEORY OF THE 'BIG BANG' IS CORRECT. ALLAH ALMIGHTY
REVEALED THIS FACT IN THE HOLY QURAN ONE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED
YEARS BEFORE SCIENTISTS REACHED THE SAME CONCLUSION AFTER CHECKING
THE COSMIC RADIATION WHICH DISPERSED AS A RESULT OF THE 'BIG
BANG', AND WHICH IS STILL DISPERSING EVEN
NOW.
DO
NOT THE UNBELIEVERS SEE THAT THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH WERE
JOINED TOGETHER [AS ONE UNIT OF CREATION], BEFORE WE CLOVE THEM
ASUNDER? [XXI, 30]
THE FOLLOWING
ARE VERY INTERESTING PHOTOGRAPHS OF HOW THE UNIVERSE LOOKED
IN 'ITS EARLY DAYS'!
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An
international team of astronomers may have set a new record
in discovering what is the most distant known galaxy in
the universe. Located an estimated 13 billion light-years
away, the object is being viewed at a time only 750 million
years after the big bang, when the universe was barely
5 percent of its current age. The primeval galaxy was
identified by combining the power of NASA (news - web sites)'s Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites) and CARA's W. M. Keck Telescopes on Mauna Kea
in Hawaii. The newly discovered galaxy is likely to be
a young galaxy shining during the end of the so-called
'Dark Ages' - the period in cosmic history which ended
with the first galaxies and quasars transforming opaque,
molecular hydrogen into the transparent, ionized universe
we see today. Image released February
15, 2004.
REUTERS/ESA, NASA, J.-P. Kneib (Caltech/Observatoire Midi-Pyrnes) and R. Ellis (Caltech)-Handout
EDITORIAL USE ONLY
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Hubble Shows Ultra-Deep Vision
of Cosmic Infancy |
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By Deborah Zabarenko
BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Scientists
unveiled a monster baby picture of the universe
on Tuesday, in an image snapped by the Hubble Space
Telescope (news - web sites) that looks deep into the cosmos, back 13 billion
years to just 700 million years after the Big Bang.
Hubble
has looked back in time before, but this image,
known as the Ultra Deep Field, is the most profound
vision the orbiting telescope has ever captured,
scientists said at a briefing at the Space Telescope
Science Institute.
The
new picture looks like a scattering of jewels on
black velvet, but it is in fact some 10,000 galaxies
crammed into a section of sky about one-tenth the
size of the full moon.
The
image peers only 300 million years deeper into the
ancient universe than similar Hubble images made
in the 1990s, but this extra distance sees back
to when the very first infant galaxies were forming,
a time of great interest to astronomers because
it marks a transition point from a cosmic dark age.
"This
is the deepest view of the visible ever taken,"
said Rodger Thompson, one of a team of astronomers
who put the image together with two of Hubble's
sophisticated instruments. "It's an amazing
time to be an astrophysicist."
Thompson
and other scientists emphasized the importance of
looking at the earliest times of galactic development,
which can be more dramatic and sweeping than the
evolution of galaxies as they age.
"It
doesn't seem like much ... but when you realize
that this is a time when a phase transition occurred
in the universe/**/... this is a very critical time,
you want to have details on that critical time,"
Hubble astronomer Mario Livio said in an interview.
GIANT
LEAP FOR COSMIC STUDY
Livio
and other astronomers likened the development of
the universe to the development of a human being,
noting that the most dramatic changes occur at the
earliest ages, making even a seemingly slight increase
in the depth of observation a giant leap for basic
study of the cosmos.
The
quality of the image is so fine that galaxies billions
of light-years away show features that scientists
formerly had seen only in galaxies in Earth's cosmic
neighborhood. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles,
the distance light travels in a year.
These
early galaxies are shown to be more chaotic, to
interact more with each other and to be less well-formed
than our own Milky Way, the astronomers said.
Hubble
made the picture over four months as it orbited
Earth, from Sept.
24, 2003 to Jan. 26 of this year, over a total of 1 million seconds
-- 11.3 days -- of viewing time.
The
production of the image was shrouded in such secrecy
that until Tuesday only four people had seen the
whole picture, said Steven Beckwith, director of
the telescope institute.
This
was done to create a level field for research, since
any scientist who saw the whole picture in advance
could begin studying the vast wealth of data it
contained.
"It's
like the great land rush, where the gun is fired
and everybody takes off," Beckwith said. "There
was no advantage to the home team."
Beckwith
and others noted this could be the last such image
made by Hubble. NASA (news - web sites) has decided to forego a scheduled servicing
mission for the telescope, which means its gyroscopes
and battery could doom it to an early demise.
"There
is not a final act, there is kind of a denouement,"
Beckwith said of Hubble's ultimate fate. |
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7. SCIENCE
AND NATURE ARE INTERTWINED. ALLAH ORDAINS ALL LAWS
SUCH AS THE LAW OF GRAVITY [NEWTON], RELATIVITY OF TIME [EINSTEIN], THE LIFE CYCLE, NITROGEN
CYCLE ETC.
PRAISE
THE NAME OF THY LORD THE MOST HIGH, WHO CREATETH, THEN DISPOSETH;
WHO MEASURETH, THEN GUIDETH; WHO BRINGETH FORTH THE PASTURAGE,
THEN TURNETH IT TO RUSSET STUBBLE. [PICKTHALL] [LXXXVII,
1-5]
8.
ALLAH HAS GIVEN HEAVEN'S CANOPY ITS ORDER AND PERFECTION.
ARE
YE THE HARDER TO CREATE, OR IS THE HEAVEN THAT HE BUILT?
HE RAISED THE HEIGHT THEREOF AND ORDERED IT; AND HE MADE THE
NIGHT DARK THEREOF, AND HE BROUGHT FORTH THE MOON THEREOF. [PICKTHALL] [LXXIX,
27-29]
9.
WHATEVER IS IN THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH GLORIFIES ALLAH. SEE
THE PHOTOS OF NATURE GLORIFYING ALLAH'S NAME, BEING FORMED IN
THE SHAPE OF THE NAME OF 'ALLAH' IN ARABIC, IN THE ‘ASPECTS
OF ISLAM’ SECTION ON THIS SITE: CACTUS, HONEY, TOMATO, WATER
MELON, CLOUD, TREES, BABY’S EAR & others.
WHATEVER
BEINGS THERE ARE IN THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH DO PROSTRATE THEMSELVES
TO ALLAH [ACKNOWLEDGING SUBJECTION] WITH GOODWILL OR IN SPITE
OF THEMSELVES. [XIII, 15]
10.
ALLAH HAS MADE THE ZODIAC.
IT
IS WE WHO HAVE SET OUT THE ZODIACAL SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS AND
MADE THEM FAIR-SEEMING TO [ALL] BEHOLDERS; AND [MOREOVER] WE
HAVE GUARDED THEM FROM EVERY SPIRIT ACCURSED. BUT ANY
THAT GAINS A HEARING BY STEALTH, IS PURSUED BY A FLAMING FIRE
*, BRIGHT [TO SEE]. [XV, 16-18]
* Meteors
chase away the evil spirits.
11.
ALLAH ORDERS ALL THINGS.
SUCH
IS ALLAH, YOUR LORD. THERE IS NO GOD SAVE HIM, THE CREATOR
OF ALL THINGS, SO WORSHIP HIM. AND HE TAKETH CARE OF ALL THINGS.
[VI, 103] [PICKTHALL]
12.
ALLAH MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH WITH ALL ITS PRODUCE.
SCIENCE IS BASED ON ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS [METALS, MINERALS,
ORES etc.] WHICH HAVE BEEN CREATED BY GOD.
XXXI,
10
LUCK
IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
"Twinkle
twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above
the world so high, like a diamond in the sky...."
Jane Taylor penned this song back in 1806.
Like
many Librans, she had a natural ability to weave enchanting
spells of lasting power. Her words took on new meaning
this week when astronomers announced the discovery of a compressed
white dwarf star in the constellation of Centaurus. It
truly is a diamond in the sky. It has a core of crystallised
carbon that stretches for 3,000 kilometres.
The
biggest jewel on Earth is The Star of Africa which weighs in at 530 carats. This star, though,
is about 10 billion trillion trillion carats. To an astrologer,
the meaning is crystal clear. We ALL now have the potential
to become multi-millionaires. Will anyone ever manage
to make a spaceship powerful enough to go out and mine that
diamond? You can bet on it! Will we be any the happier
if we do? That's not so certain.
If
we do bring back diamonds in that quantity, they'll end up being
no more valuable than glass beads. Then we will have to
find something else to lust after, kill for - and keep a painfully
primitive, soul-destroying, selfish financial system alive with.
People starve, not because there is insufficient food in
the world, but because there is insufficient will to get
it shared out. This new discovery is telling us that we
should all stop being so tight...because our Universe contains
all the wealth we could ever want...and more besides.
And to get it, we don't actually have to make a space craft.
We just have to alter our attitude and have more faith in the
notion that prosperity is possible.
[A
graphic accompanies this article with the caption: COSMIC
JEWEL: The newly-discovered dwarf star has an immense diamond
at its centre].
Jonathan
Cainer, DAILY MIRROR, Sat
21 Feb 2004,
p. 59]
13.
ALLAH MADE THE SHADOWS AND THE SUN.
HAST
THOU NOT TURNED THY VISION TO THY LORD?- HOW HE DOTH PROLONG
THE SHADOW! IF HE WILLED, HE COULD MAKE IT STATIONARY!
THEN DO WE MAKE
THE
SUN ITS GUIDE; THEN WE DRAW IT IN TOWARDS OURSELVES, - A CONTRACTION
BY EASY STAGES. [XXV, 45-46]
Astronomy
Picture of the Day
Discover
the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of
our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.
2000
January 10
14.
ALLAH MADE SLEEP, AND NIGHT & DAY.
AND
HE IT IS WHO MAKES THE NIGHT AS A ROBE FOR YOU, AND SLEEP AS
REPOSE, AND MAKES THE DAY [AS IT WERE] A RESURRECTION
[XXV, 47]
15.
ONE OF THE USES OF THE MOON IS TO ACT AS A CALENDAR.
IT
IS HE WHO MADE THE SUN TO BE A SHINING GLORY AND THE MOON TO
BE A LIGHT [OF BEAUTY], AND MEASURED OUT STAGES FOR HER: THAT
YE MIGHT KNOW THE NUMBER OF YEARS AND THE COUNT [OF TIME].
NOWISE DID ALLAH CREATE THIS BUT IN TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.
[THUS] DOTH HE EXPLAIN HIS SIGNS IN DETAIL FOR THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND.
[ X, 5]
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Shaukat's Suggested Global
Islamic Calendar (if Ulemaa of the world accept the need
for it) |
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If sighting is required we cannot have Global Islamic Calendar. To achieve
a pre-calculated Global Islamic Calendar, if Ulemaa of
the world accept the need for it, a suggested convention
could be adopted that if the moon is born before 12:00
UT (i.e., 3:00pm Makkah time), then the month begins at
sunset of that day everywhere in the world (starting from
International Date Line going westward). People will not
require any calculations for this. Only the time and date
of new moon birth is needed, and that is easily obtained
from Almanacs, Newspapers, or Internet. This convention
has a strong basis of the visibility that somewhere on
the globe the moon would be definitely visible given clear
horizon, because the age of the moon would be 18 hours
at sunset on a point just to the east of the International
Date Line. All astronomers agree that an 18 hour moon
is visible (in some instances it may not be seen by the
naked eye but with telescope it can be seen). This known
scientific fact can be made the basis which has sighting
requirement according to Qur'an and Sunnah, and then all
the disagreements about when and where the month starts
would go away. We will know ahead of time, when any month
begins. |
http://www.moonsighting.com/calendar.html
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: N.A.S.A. PHOTO
GALLERY
17.
ALLAH CREATED ALL NATURE
HE
IT IS WHO SENDETH DOWN WATER FROM THE SKY, AND THEREWITH WE
BRING FORTH BUDS OF EVERY KIND; WE BRING FORTH THE GREEN BLADE
FROM WHICH WE BRING FORTH THE THICK-CLUSTERED GRAIN; AND FROM
THE DATE-PALM, FROM THE POLLEN THEREOF, SPRING PENDANT BUNCHES;
AND [WE BRING FORTH] GARDENS OF GRAPES, AND THE OLIVE AND THE
POMEGRANATE, ALIKE AND UNLIKE. LOOK UPON THE FRUIT THEREOF,
AND UPON ITS RIPENING. LO! HEREIN VERILY ARE PORTENTS
FOR A PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE. [PICKTHALL] [VI,
100]
How Your Body
Grows
Your body needs nutritious foods to grow and stay healthy. Nutritious
foods also give you energy for learning and playing. Foods can
be sorted into the Five Food Groups.
Body
needs meat to stay healthy; Allah has given us canine teeth
for ripping and tearing of meat. Allah has created the chick
to grow to a full grown chicken in a matter of a few weeks,
man for man to eat.
18.
ALLAH CREATED THE EARTH
HE
IT IS WHO CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH IN SIX DAYS, AND
IS MOREOVER FIRMLY ETABLISHED ON THE THRONE {OF AUTHORITY}.
[LVII, 4]
19. ALLAH MADE
MOUNTAINS SO THAT THE EARTH WILL NOT SHAKE
AND
HE HAS SET UP ON THE EARTH MOUNTAINS STANDING FIRM, LEST IT SHOULD SHAKE WITH YOU; AND
RIVERS AND ROADS; THAT YE MAY GUIDE YOURSELVES. [XVI, 15]
- ALLAH
MADE IRON AVAILABLE TO MAN
AND
WE SENT DOWN IRON, IN WHICH IS [MATERIAL FOR] MIGHTY WAR, AS
WELL AS MANY BENEFITS FOR MANKIND. [LVII, 25]
IRON
IS PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT MINERAL IN THE WORLD, AND
ALLAH HAS DELIBERATELY MADE IT AVAILABLE TO MAN. THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN PLACE WITHOUT, AMONGST OTHER
RESORCES SUCH AS COAL, THE TREMENDOUSLY INCREASED USE OF IRON
AND STEEL! EVEN TODAY, ALL ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES, MACHINES
ETC. REQUIRE IRON AND STEEL, NOT ONLY FOR THEIR EXTERIOR CONSTRUCTION,
BUT ALSO FOR THEIR ELECTRONIC MECHANISMS.
UPDATE: Story first posted 5:37
p.m. EST, March
27, 2004
Aviation
history was made today as NASA successfully flew its experimental
X-43A research vehicle, a forerunner of craft that could well
offer alternate access to space in the future.
Preliminary
indications are that the craft appeared to meet a major milestone:
propelling itself slightly over Mach 7, seven times the speed
of sound, or some 5,000 miles per hour.
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Comparision
of X-43A hypersonic scramjet engine with
conventional jet engine. Credit: NASA/Dave
Faust |
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NASA's
B-52B launch aircraft takes off carrying
the second X-43A hypersonic research vehicle
attached to a modified Pegasus rocket, on
March
27, 2004.
Credit: NASA/Tom Tschida |
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Illustration
of X-43A March
27, 2004
mission profile. Credit: NASA/Dave Faust |
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"It
was fun all the way to Mach 7," said Joel Sitz, X-43 Project
Manager at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research at Edwards, California during a press briefing
after the flight.
The
X-43A test shot is part of NASA’s Hyper-X program, a research
effort to try out propulsion technologies for high-speed flight
within the atmosphere and into Earth orbit.
A
major objective of the unmanned X-43A flight was shaking out
air-breathing supersonic-combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine
technology.
Unlike
the space shuttle that must haul along weighty amounts of liquid
oxygen to burn with liquid hydrogen, scramjets use the atmosphere
as fuel. Doing so means a scramjet-carrying craft could haul
more payload into orbit.
Without
a hitch
"We
went off without a hitch," said Bradford Neal, test conductor
for the flight Saturday.
Griffin
Corpening, X-43A chief engineer at Dryden, said the X-43A "scooted
out to Mach 7…just an outstanding job." Data was received
from |
