Islam Rediscovered
11. Non-Violence and Islam
~ 177 ~
The reason was that in ancient times religion and
science (divine knowledge and human knowledge)
were linked with one another. Religious persecution
had become an insuperable obstacle to the progress
of science. Scientific enquiry was anathema to men
of religion.
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 Muhammad, may
peace be upon him, 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)
In this connection, an incident of the pollination of
dates is recorded in the books of
Hadith
. The
Prophet of Islam observed that in worldly matters
such as these, “you should act according to your
experience, as you know these matters better.”
(
Sahih Muslim bi Sharh An-Nawawi
, 15/117)
This meant delinking religion and science from one
another. In this way scientific research acquired an
