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/
Islamic/science.htm
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/
Science.html
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/
sc1_main.htm
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/
HistoryofScience.htm
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/
ISLAMSCI.HTM
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 |
http://www.it-is-truth.org/
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 |
http://www.iio.org/science/
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 |
http://www.srf-tr.org
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/
StudentPapers/Nasr,Seyyed.htm/
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/
~islam/index2.htm
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 |
http://www.harunyahya.com
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 |
http://islamseek.com/Science/ |
Links to other sites on Islam and
science. |
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21 |
http://www.ifrance.com/islam/
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/
science.html
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 |
http://www.cis-ca.org/
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/
science_books.html
Halal Co. Books |
Bookseller with books on Islam
and evolution. |
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26 |
http://web.mit.edu/mitmsa/www/NewSite/
libstuff/nasr/nasrspeech1.html
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 |
http://www.kalam.org/ |
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/
sbook1d.html
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 |