TAWHID and SCIENCE by OSMAN BAKAR

This is, in my own view, one of the magnum opus I ever read. At first, I thought this will only deliver intellectual enlightenment, but to my delight, it also conveys spiritual enlightenment as well. The author tries to convey the Muslim readers that Islam can still keep up with progress and development generated by the modern science by reviving the Islamic science and that the former has delivered physical development yet it is coupled with destruction of spiritual and ethical aspects. Then, religion or knowledge guided by tawhidic spirit cater solutions to these ethical issues and harmful aspects generated by modern science. This book is designed to motivate Muslims readers especially intellectuals to revive the glory that was left by their predecessors.
 in order to bring the lost glory of the scientific and technological glory of the Ummah, the author posits that we need to indentify the major factors to the rise of the Islamic science and tecnnology so we can take inspiration from it and the major negative factors to its stagnation and decline to eliminate them if they are ever found in our contemporary times. According to author the major factor for the rise of the Ummah are the following:

1. The role of religious consciousness as a motivating force for the quest of science and technology.
2. Faithfulness to the Shari’ah inspires the study of various sciences.
3. The birth and rise of great translation movements that lasted for several centuries.
4. The flowering of philosophy that is dedicated to scientific learning, progress, and advancement.
5. Widespread patronization of scientific and technological activities by rulers and wazirs.
6. The existence of healthy intellectual climate as illustrated by the fact that scholars of different thought.
7. The important role played by educational and scientific institutions, especially with the rise of universities.
8. The equilibrium attained between the major intellectual perspectives of Islam.

For the negative factors that contributed to the decline can be attributed to internal and external factors that led to the gradual disappearance of the positive factors mentioned above. Examples of these internal and external factors are lack of patronization of science, political corruption, internal strife, the rise of religious legalism and sectarianism, the neglect of the inner dimension of knowledge in the religion, and untold destruction at the hands of the Mongols.


In addition to the negative factors, there are other factors I deemed to be contributing to the stagnant status of the Ummah today is the lack of commitment, with some exceptions, of the scholars to its contributions to the uplift of the status of nation. What I mean here commitment is sincerity that which Islam is the true motivating force and that Allah is an inspiration for their quest. Some Muslim scholars are engaged in intellectual discourse for the sake of their intellectual race. On the other hand, others are indulged in debate. They argue for the sake of argument. They argue because of their egoistic tendencies. It is true that there were some intellectual debates during our predecessors like that of encounter between al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd but they were sincere, honest and devout Muslims. Both have contributed to the intellectual culture of Islam. Their encounter is for the mere sake of contributing of Islam that we take benefit from it until now. Sadly, this is rarely found in our times. As mentioned above, religion is the lasting motivating force. Then, mindfulness to God is the effective force. If we have these forces, only then we can become sincere and honest to our responsibilities as outline above by the author.

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