Non-Violence and Islam
Non-Violence and Islam
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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 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. 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
