Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 32
ISLAMIC SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT nor was there any need to search for contradictions and attempts to resolve them. . This was the age when Muslim scientists were making rapid progress in Spain in their pursuit of scientific knowledge. They did so undeterred by the fact that some religious scholars of the older schools were issuing edicts of Ilḥād (innovation) against them. Ibne Rushd may have thought it better not to get involved in such controversies, lest it should impede the progress of science. . What he evidently avoided was the danger of finding contradictions between religion and science. A true believer in Islam and a scientist dedicated to the truth without prejudice as he was, this policy served the cause of both religion and science in Spain admirably for a long time to come. The danger of contradiction between the revealed truth and the observed truth was never squarely confronted. . Hence the issue of preferences never arose seriously. This 'no-conflict policy' remained predominant in Spain for many centuries, thanks largely to the prudence of Ibne. Rushd. . When we re-examine the possible issues of controversy in the afterglow of what followed, we can say with certainty that the age was not yet ripe for such issues to be addressed. The possibility of defective or partial perception or even a complete misunderstanding of the observed facts could not be ruled out. . For example, in medieval times the ideas adopted by. Muslim scientists about the universe were not really based on the Holy Quran or Ḥadith, but were, for the greater part, influenced by the prevailing ignorance of that age. The religious scholars as always happens, considered their own views to be Islamic and as such final, while there was little they could understand of the true Quranic views in the context of the prevailing knowledge. 32