3.3.1 CONCEPTS
Methodology started with Adam naming and classifying all things followed by trial and error discoveries
and later by systematic methodological investigation. Inspired by the Qur’an, Muslims developed the empirical scientific
methodology that triggered the European reformation, renaissance, and scientific and technological revolution starting in
the early 16th century CE. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) knew Arabic, learned from Muslims, and was the first European
to write about the empirical methodology. Europeans copied the empirical methodology without its tauhidi context, rejected
wahy as a source of knowledge, and later imposed badly-copied secularized
science on the Muslim world. Ancient Muslim scientists had shown that wahy, ‘aql,
and empiricism were compatible and had used methodological tools from the Qur’an to
correct deficiencies and improve Greek science before passing it on to Europeans. They replaced Aristotelian deductive logic
and definitions with an Islamic inductive logic inspired by the Qur’an.
3.3.2 METHODOLOGY FROM THE QURAN, manhaj qur’ani
The Qur’anic provides general guiding principles and is not a substitute for empirical research.
It enjoins empirical observation; liberates the mind from superstition, blind following, intellectual dependency, and whims.
Its tauhidi paradigm is the basis for causality, rationality, order, predictability,
innovation, objectivity, and natural laws. Laws can be known through wahy,
empirical observation and experimentation. The Qur’anic teaches the inductive methodology, empirical observation, nadhar
and tabassur; interpretation, tadabbur, tafakkur, i’itibaar & tafaquhu; and evidential knowledge,
bayyinat and burhan. It condemns blind following, taqliid, conjecture, dhann; and personal whims, hiwa al nafs. The Qur’anic concept of istiqamat calls for valid and un-biased knowledge.
The Qur’anic concepts of istikhlaf, taskhir, and isti’imar are a basis
for technology. The concept of ‘ilm nafei underlies the imperative to transform basic knowledge into useful technology.
3.3.3 METHODOLOGY FROM THE CLASSICAL ISLAMIC SCIENCES
Classical sciences and their concepts are applicable to S&T. Tafsir ‘ilmi and tafsir mawdhu’e parallel data
interpretation in empirical research. ‘Ilm al nasakh explains how new
data updates old theories without making them complety useless. ‘Ilm
al rijaalcan ascertain the trustworthiness of researchers. ‘Ilm naqd
al hadith can inculcate attitudes of critical reading of scientific literature. Qiyaas
is analogical reasoning. Istihbaab is continued application of a hypothesis
or scientific laws until disproved. Istihsan is comparable to clinical intuition. Istislah is use of public interest to select
among options for example medical technologies. Ijma is consensus-building among empirical researchers. Maqasid al shariat are conceptual tools for balanced use of S&T. Qawaid al shariat are axioms that simplify complex logical operations by using established axioms without going through detailed
derivations.
3.3.4 ISLAMIC CRITIQUE OF THE EMPIRICAL METHOD, naqd al manhaj al tajribi
Using methodological tools from the Qur’an and classical Islamic sciences, Muslims developed a new empirical and inductive methodology in the form of qiyaas usuuli and also pioneered the empirical methods by experimentation and observation in a systematic way as illustrated
by the work on Ibn Hazm on optics. They criticize ancient Greek methodology as conjectural, hypothetical, despising perceptual
knowledge, and based on deductive logic. They accept the European scientific method of formulating and testing hypothesis
but reject its philosophical presumptions: materialism, pragmatism, atheism, rejection of wahy as a source of knowledge, lack of balance, rejection of the duality between matter and spirit, lack of
human purpose, lacks of an integrating paradigm like tauhid, and being Euro-centric
and not universal. European claims to being open-minded, methodological, accurate, precise, objective, and morally neutral
have been observed not to hold in practice. In its arrogance it treats as absolute probabilistic and relativistic empirical
knowledge based fallible human observation and interpretation.
3.3.5 TOWARDS AN ISLAMIC METHODOLOGY
A tauhidi universal, objective and unbiased methodology
must replace the Euro-centric and philosophically biased context and not the practical experimental methods. The precepts
of tauhidi science are: unity of knowledge, comprehensiveness; causality
is the basis for human action, human knowledge is limited, investigation of causal relations is based on constant and fixed
natural laws, harmony between the seen and the unseen, 3 sources of knowledge (wahy,
aql & empirical observation); khilafat; moral accountability; creation and existence have a purpose, truth is both absolute and relative, human free will is the basis of
accountability, and tawakkul.
