LET KNOWLEDGE OF ISLAM BE THE FOUNDATION OF LIVING
THE repurposing of the astrolabe in the eighth and ninth centuries to determine Muslim prayer times (waqt) and direction (qiblah) is an example of Islamic ingenuity (hiyal) in solving problems encountered when performing religious obligations.
It shows that through their worldview, Muslim engineers and scientists had developed solutions to problems related to elements that concerned the community.
The works of Muslim engineers and scientists who repurposed the astrolabe, such as Banu Musa in the ninth century, were fitting examples of how the worldview of Islam and the appreciation of science as a study of signs of God (ayatu’-Llah) promoted the advancement of science and technology, which benefited not only Muslims, but also the world.
Although the origin of the astrolabe was Greek, it has gained the emblematic status of technological advancement in the Muslim world that just by invoking its name conjures up the picture of Islam and its adherents.
Prophet Muhammad’s exhortations, such as to maintain cleanliness and to place premiums on water as the primary cleaning agent, have always been at the centre of their design consideration. For example, Banu Musa and the 13th-century successor, Al-Jazari, who focused on facilitating the transportation and dispensation of water, took them seriously when devising their ingenious mechanical devices.
Muslim scientific and technological activities should let us realise that the civilisational aspect of Islam is able to perfect what it inherited, and endow what it made with beauty. Such is the case with the astrolabe — its image popularly adorns the cover of books discussing Muslim advancements of science during what orientalists refer to as the “Golden Age” of Islam.
Indeed, science and technology are useful to mankind. However, it is also important to realise that it is the human being who is giving the value of utility based on his experience, as well as his education, in the knowledge of virtues and morality.
In his book Tinjauan Ringkas Peri Ilmu dan Pandangan Alam (A Brief Examination of Knowledge and Worldview), Muslim thinker Professor Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas alluded science and technology to the metaphor of the knife — their oldest, simplest and closest application as a tool that is indispensable in today’s modern-day living — that can be used for either good or evil.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance for society to produce from within it good men who will ensure that science and technology are used for good.
With its ever-changing values and redefinitions, science and technology cannot, and should not, be made the supplier of our moral compass; rather, right and complete knowledge of our religion must be made the foundation of living because it is the one that evaluates life.
So it is clear that it is the human being who needs to be educated with good values supplied by religion as a source of worldview, but there is a need to extend the question on much more complex technology, given that our lives today have grown more in complexity that necessitates the proliferation of more laws to rectify social, economic and political disharmony.
Today, our ability to resolve crises has not surpassed our tendency to cause them, despite scientific and technological advances. For this reason, we need to re-examine our concepts and notions of technology. Our worldview, ethics and epistemology are determinants in the conception, implementation and deployment of science and technology. For Muslim scientists and engineers, these are supplied by their understanding of Islam.
For Muslims, watchfulness and vigilance must be exercised against purposeless materialism resulting from a false sense of the greater abundance of physical means at the expense of time, as well as excessive enjoyment of the present that impedes worship and contemplative life.
Thus, Muslim technologists must include in their work the removal of elements that are contrary to Islam by restoring all spiritual meaning in our understanding of the world as created by God.
Senior research officer,
Centre for Science and Environment Studies, Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia