عربي

 There is a common perception that the spread of superstition in Arab societies is one of the most important underlying causes for the Arab world’s shortcomings in the fields of science and scientific research.

There is no doubt that this theory sounds reasonable and drives one to accept the outcome based on the principle of causality. How can the lame mind explain mysterious occurrences that need informed analysis, a perceptive mind and ability to differentiate phenomena and reach conclusion, and not superficial explanations sought through dreams.  Though this seems sound but it is not the case. What we are witnessing in the world contradicts this rational vision as if the illogical becomes  logic.

An opinion poll conducted in the United States showed that half of Americans, if not more, believe in superstitions. Despite this fact, the U.S. scientific mind did not become inactive. In his book “The Age of Science”, Egyptian Nobel laureate in physics Ahmed Zewail makes an important remark that the number of prestigious U.S. scientific research academies, “in charge of preserving the position of science on the forefront of the latest scientific breakthroughs”, is very limited.  This is why Zewail suggested the creation of what he called “centers of excellence” to light the way for science that rely on a solid and coherent scientific base and are managed by an active and daring leadership.

Visitors to Japan will admire the country’s scientific breakthroughs in spite of the level to which myth and customs dominate Japanese society. The same goes for Malaysia and Singapore. This is why there it is futile to waste time rationalizing the minds of a whole society in the hope of a general renaissance..

Some believe that there are other factors in tradition that control or influence scientific thought. They stop at the non-mental approach to knowledge, and especially deny the theory of causality which is no longer a fundamental postulate for the foundation of the scientific method. 

How should we act when faced with the quantum mechanics theory of Max Plank? Plank undermined the basic concepts of science when he and other physicists after him - especially Werner Heisenberg - reached the conclusion that a factor of randomness exists in science and that the principle of uncertainty is dominant as a law of physics. With that, the theory of inevitability as a firm scientific law is no more supreme.

Scientific certainty is the quality that has distinguished scientific thought for ages and both are connected by an iron-clad bond. Scientific certainty made of scientific thought a secure and precise method that gave its followers an infinite sense of self-confidence and the transcendent power of scientific prediction. Undoubtedly science is facing the complex mission of reaching a unifying theory that incorporates both phenomena: certainty and randomization. The first still controls the macrocosm world and allows science to make the most precise predictions on the level of greater space while suspicion still controls the microcosm world i.e. the subatomic world.  

Do Arabs have non-scientific traits? Some analysts suspect the presence of other factors that dominate and direct scientific thought including a talent for scientific research in addition to scientific qualities and inclinations. Many scholars, like Shahristani, Ibn Khaldoun and orientalist Hamilton Gibb, said that Arab-Islamic culture or mentality possess qualities or general leanings that reduce or restrict its scientism in general and that undermine, in one way or the other, its scientific thinking.

In reality, what Arabs produced in the Middle Ages makes us more inclined toward adopting the opposite opinion. And this is a historical paradox. Until recently, we were taught, in our schools, that Arabs and Muslims contributed to the history of the world civilization by merely acting as a bridge between the Greeks and Europe; between Greek science and the modern scientific revolution. We’ve always been proud of this achievement, while the truth is much greater than this. Historical research, stretching over the second half of the past century, lifted the veil on the significant role that Arabs and Muslims played in paving the way for the modern scientific revolution. They developed genuine theories in astronomy to the point that new historians discovered that Copernicus, to whom the modern scientific revolution has been attributed, in fact adopted from Arab and Muslim scientists the cornerstone of the modern concept – the principle of the sun’s centrality which nullified Ptolemy’s astronomical system – and adopted their alternative suggestions. Mathematical illustrations in the recently recovered manuscripts of Ibn Al Haytham, Ibn Al Shater, Al Tusi and Al A’aradi are the same ones included in Copernicus’ works 

Quotes: “The United States’ distinguished position on the scientific map is not the result of outstanding miracles rather it was the product of a solid and coherent scientific base, under an active and daring leadership.”

“There is a limited number of prestigious scientific centers in charge of preserving the position of science on the forefront of the latest scientific breakthroughs. Ahmed Zewail

2009 - ISSUE 89