Islam and Modern Science

A Lecture by Seyyid Hossein Nasr

The following is a lecture by Seyyid Hossein Nasr entitled, "Islam and
Modern Science", which was co-sponsored by the Pakistan Study Group, the
MIT Muslim Students Association and other groups. Professor Nasr,
currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown
University, is a physics and mathematics alumnus of MIT. He received a PhD
in the philosophy of science, with emphasis on Islamic science, from
Harvard University. From 1958 to 1979, he was a professor of history of
science and philosophy at Tehran University and was also the
Vice-Chancellor of the University over 1970-71. He has been a visiting
professor at Harvard and Princeton Universities. He has delivered many
famous lectures including the Gifford Lecture at Edinburgh University and
the Iqbal Lecture at the Punjab University. He is the author of over
twenty books including "Science and Civilization in Islam",
"Traditional Islam in the Modern World", "Knowledge and the Sacred",
and "Man and Nature: the Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man". The verbatim
transcript of the lecture was edited to enhance clarity and remove
redundancies. We have tried our best to preserve the spirit of what was
said. Any errors are solely the responsibility of the Pakistan Study
Group. * and ** indicates places where either a phrase or sentence was
indecipherable. Words in [ ] were added to improve continuity.

Bismillah hir rahmanir rahim

First of all, let me begin by saying how happy I am to be able to
accept an invitation of the MIT Islamic Students Association, and that of
other universities and other organizations nearby, to give this lecture
here today at my alma mater. I feel very much at home not only at this
university, but being the first muslim student ever to establish a muslim
students' association at Harvard in 1954, to see that these organizations
are now growing, and are becoming culturally significant. I am sure they
play a very important role in three ways. Most importantly, in turning the
hearts of good muslims towards God, Allah ta'allah. At a more human level
to be able to afford the possibility for muslims from various countries to
have a discourse amongst themselves, and third to represent the views of
muslims on American campuses where there is so much need to understand
what is going on at the other side of the world. That world which seems to
remain forever the Other for the West, no matter what happens. The
Otherness, somehow, is not overcome so easily.

Now today, I shall limit my discourse to Islam and its relation to
modern science. This is a very touchy and extremely difficult subject to
deal with. It is not a subject with any kind of, we might say, dangerous
pitfalls or subterfuges under way because it is not a political subject.
It does not arouse passions as, let's say, questions that are being
discussed in Madrid, or the great tragedy of Kashmir or other places. But
nevertheless, it is of very great consequence because it will affect one
way or the other, the future of the Islamic world as a whole.