The BA Festival of Science: Science in the Islamic world
Posted by Katrina Charles, BA Media Fellow
There was an interesting session on science in the Islamic world this morning.
It was hosted by physicist Jim Al Khalili, born in Baghdad to an Islamic Iraqi father and Christian English mother, and brought up with religious debate. He is currently researching the golden days of science in Islam as part of a BBC series on the subject, and for a book “House of Wisdom”. In his travels researching the documentary, devout Muslims he came across mostly said that the Qur’an is not a scientific text, but it teaches you how to live your life, and encourages you to study and understand the world. But a minority did say that the Qur’an provides all the keys to science.
In the past, there was no problem with the compatibility of science and Islam, including when notions of evolution were introduced. Hakim M Salim Khan, of the Mohsin Institute, gave the example of the ‘incurable’ illness. Khan says that the Qur’an teaches that Allah doesn’t create illness without creating a cure, so Islamic scientists will continue searching for that cure.
The session was organised by British think-tank Demos who is working with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Nature and a range of European and Islamic world organisations to produce an Atlas of Islamic-World Innovation.
