The Unison of Heavenly Knowledge and Science

Abstract

A fundamental component of a Muslim’s knowledge of God is the knowledge of the universe as an effect of the divine creative act. Knowledge of the relationship between God and the world, between Creator and creation, or between the Divine Principle and cosmic manifestation constitutes the most fundamental basis of the unity of science and spiritual knowledge. In Islam, the most important sources of this type of knowledge are the Qur’an and prophetic hadiths. To understand the Islamic conception and experience of the unity of science and spiritual knowledge, it is necessary to refer to some of the key concepts ideas embodied in this knowledge. Nature is a source of many types of knowledge: mathematical physical and metaphysical, scientific and spiritual, qualitative and quantitative, practical and aesthetical. This is because, as a world and viewed in its totality, the reality of nature is comprised of many aspects. Each type of knowledge corresponds to a particular aspect of nature that is singled out for study. This paper focuses on the liaison between the heavenly knowledge and modern knowledge of sciences.