The Limitations of Science and the Teachings of Science from the Islamic Perspective

Abstract

What is Science?
In Latin "Scientia" means "knowledge." So science is defined as all the
knowledge men have achieved in different places and at all times, arranged
according to their subject-matter. This includes knowledge gained through
Divine revelation; or by the way of human thinking and creative intellect,
as well as through human legacy and tradition in these two areas. The prevailing
direction, however, tends to limit the term Science to natural and experimental
studies of all that is within reach of the senses and intellect in this universe
(i.e. matter, energy, living beings and natural phenomena). This is usually
carried out through observation and conclusion or through experimentation,
observation and conclusion, in an attempt to discover the characteristics of
matter, energy and living things, classify all these and discover the laws governing
them. As thus defined, Science also includes deductions, suppositions,
hypotheses and theories which are put forward to explain prevailing phenomena.
This definition has limited Science to "a branch of study which is concerned
either with a connected body of demonstrated truths or with observed facts
systematically classified and more or less collated by being brought under
general laws, and which includes trustworthy methods for the discovery of
new truth within its own domain."
Accodingly, human knowledge has been divided into scientific studies (both
pure and applied), literary and art studies and religious studies (studies of
faith). Writers, however, differ much in classifying and chaptering human
knowledge, but the following classification seems appropriate: ...