Islam and Peace
Non-Violence and Islam
~ 270 ~
What is called scientific or technical progress is the
result of the discovery of some of the great secrets
of nature. But if nature and its mysteries have
always existed in our world, why has there been
such a long delay in their discovery? Why could not
the scientific advancement of the last few hundred
years have been made thousands of years ago?
The reason was that in ancient times scientific
enquiry was anathema to men of religion, to the
point where religious persecution had become an
inseparable obstacle to the progress of science. Since
ancient times, religion and science (divine
knowledge and human knowledge) were linked
with one another. What Islam did was separate
religion (which had become, in essence, a set of
irrational beliefs) from scientific research and
investigation. For instance, eclipses of the sun and
moon had been linked with human destiny. The
Prophet of Islam declared that eclipses had nothing
to do with the lot of human beings. These were
astronomical events, not events pertaining to the
fate of mankind.
(Fathul Bari, 2/611)
