Editorial

Abstract

Our first contributor is Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian Minister of
Education. He has described in very convincing style the need to differentiate
between science and non-science. The values, politics, ideology, power, prestige
and polemics of science play an important role in it. In shaping a contemporary
philosophy of science, Anwar Ibrahim emphasizes the need to infuse the entire
system of science, its method, its processes, and its goals with the ethical
and value concerns of the world-view of Islam. Our study of the history of
science in Islam should help us to understand what was original and Islamic
about Islamic science and how the Muslim scientists infused their wrk with
Islamic ethics and values and interpreted their task through Muslim eyes.
The purpose of developing a contemporary philosophy of Islamic science,
according to Anwar Ibrahim, is to help our scientists to construct a global
foundation for contemporary Islamic knowledge and science. This would allow
the development of a pragmatic philosophy which takes the ethical concerns
of Islam into the laboratory. This kind of theory should help prioritize certain
research, and formulate science policies for Muslim societies.
This theory should be able to demonstrate to both Muslims and non-
Muslims alike that science not only helps in meeting the intellectual and
physical challenges of modern times but can also solve contemporary problems
of mankind in more satisfying and ethically sound ways.
In his opening remarks at the Seminar on ‘‘Paradigms in Pblitical Science:
Muslim Perspectives,” organized by the International Institute of Islamic
Thought (IIIT) and The Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) in
Jumada al Awwal 1410/Dec. 1989, Dr. Taha Jabir Al ‘Alwani, President of
IIIT, traced political science in classical Islamic heritage. Al ‘Alwani
that we do not have specializep studies in our classical legacy
that may be described today as political thought. Issues related to subjects
like international relations, systems of government, history of diplomacy,
political development, or methods of political planning, however, were treated
through the medium of fiqh. There were no well-defined divisions between
all other aspects of life and the political issues as there are’in contemporary
social sciences. Al ‘Alwani argues that the fiqh of contemporary politics and
government must turn to the goals and purposes of Islam, to its general
principles and to its precepts. This will build a complete system of political
thought that will interact with contemporary realities for the realization of
Islam’s greater purposes. Al ‘Alwani, however, warns that theories will have
to be erected upon the basis of accepted Shari‘ah source-evidence, while
drawing from the experience of historical and contemporary humanity ...