Developing Scientific Thinking Methods and Applications in Islamic Education.

Introduction Many people in the West, who have not been acquainted with the traditions of Islam as a religion and doctrine as well as a cultural legacy, might be surprised by learning that classic Islam made a significant contribution to the rise and development of scientific thinking as manifested in early Western scholarship. The Islamic perspective views science, the study of nature, as ancillary to the principal tenets of Islam - Tawhid (the Oneness of God), as are all other branches of knowledge (Iqbal, 2007). As such, the Islamic view of science and nature is in continuity and consistency with that of religion and God. This integral association between science and religion in Islamic faith has ignited into Muslims the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Science is seen in the Qur'an as the method to recognise and identify the Divine, and therefore, Islamic scholars encouraged, initiated and developed scientific understanding of nature along Islamic civilizations, specifically during the eighth to sixteenth centuries, prior to the colonization of the Muslim world (Izutsu, 1964; Sabra, 1996). According to most historians, the modern scientific method was first developed by Islamic scientists, pioneered by Ibn Al-Haytham, known to the west as 'Alhazen' (Gorini, 2003). Even the most fair of Western historians of science believe that the very existence of science, as it is understood in the modern sense, is rooted in the scientific thought and knowledge that emerged in Islamic civilizations during this time (Briffault, 1928; Rosenthal, 1967; Makdisi, 1981). Therefore, most science historians maintain the view that the acquisition of knowledge and scientific pursuit in general is not in disaccord with Islamic thought and religious belief (Iqbal, 2007; Nasr, 1933). The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how early Muslim education advocated critical and scientific thinking, and to offer insight into the foundations of educational thought in Islam and show that medieval Muslim scholars have made significant, innovative contributions to various fields of pedagogy and the didactics of scientific reasoning. Towards achieving this purpose, the author seeks to demonstrate the richness, diversity, and intricacy of the Islamic pedagogy and educational philosophy embedded in scientific reasoning development. Critical reasoning in Islamic faith Islamic traditions, especially its written legacy, basically the Qur'an and the Sunna of Prophet Muhammad, have long emphasised the importance of critical reasoning and scientifically verifiable thinking according to logical steps, the purpose principally being to ponder over life and how God created the universe. (1) The sayings of Prophet Muhammad clearly guided Muslims to think over all that is created in the entire cosmos, but not to think over the nature of God. Ibn Abbas, one of the authorities of Prophetic Hadiths, narrated that Prophet Muhammad said, Contemplate everything, but do not ponder over the soul of Allah, for if you do, you spoil your minds. (Fathu-l-Baarii, 13/383). Islamic education has, since the inception of Islam, been interested in developing the human intellect and nurturing scientific reasoning, being the key to the development of human communities (Hasanein, 2003). No wonder then that so many intellectual and philosophical trends have burgeoned in Islam, each having provided its own scientific methods and approaches at solving man's philosophical and scientific dilemmas; however, all of these methods were created to provide an intellectual forum for educating the spirit and intellect of man as well as nurturing his/her body (Al-Nahlawi, 1999). In his Knowledge Triumphant: the concept of knowledge in medieval Islam, Franz Rosenthal (2006) has adeptly observed that Islamic civilizations down history, especially during the Omayyad and Abbasid eras, were essentially characterized by a methodological pursuit of knowledge; knowledge, basically naturally sciences rooted in Islamic faith, were one of those concepts that have dominated Islam and given Muslim civilization its distinctive shape and complexion. …