“Islam and Science” refers to the relationship between Islamic religious tradition - including the Quran, hadith, and Islamic theology and jurisprudence - and the natural sciences. The topic encompasses the historical role of Muslim scholars in the development of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and other sciences during the medieval period; the philosophical and theological question of whether Islam and modern science are compatible, complementary, or in tension; and contemporary movements that attempt to relate Islamic scripture to scientific findings. Some commentators distinguish between “Islamic science” (science as practiced historically within Islamic civilization) and “Islam and science” (the conceptual relationship between the religion and the scientific enterprise); this article addresses the latter, with the former treated more fully at Islamic Science - History.
Discussion of Islam and science today centers on several distinct strands. One is historical: scholars broadly agree that during the so-called Islamic Golden Age (roughly the 8th through 14th centuries), scholars working within Islamic societies made significant contributions to algebra, optics, astronomy, and medicine, often building on Greek, Persian, and Indian sources. The causes of the later relative decline of scientific output in the Muslim world, and whether religion played a causal role, remain debated; see Islamic Science - History.
A second strand concerns contemporary epistemology: whether Islamic theology, with its doctrines of divine creation and revelation, is compatible with methodological naturalism as practiced in modern science. Positions here range from views that see no necessary conflict to views holding that certain scientific claims (e.g., regarding human origins) conflict with literal readings of scripture.
A third strand, often called “scientific exegesis of the Quran” ('tafsir 'ilmi') or popularly “Quran and science,” involves efforts - largely arising in the 20th century - to identify correspondences between specific Quranic verses and modern scientific findings, for example in embryology, cosmology, or oceanography. This approach has drawn both popular enthusiasm and significant scholarly criticism, including from Muslim scientists and theologians; see islam-and-science-quran-scientific-miracles-controversy.
A related, narrower debate concerns whether Islamic civilization needs a distinct philosophical framework for science - sometimes termed “Islamic science” or “Islamization of knowledge” - as opposed to adopting the methods of modern science developed largely in the West while remaining Muslim in personal or civilizational identity. Figures associated with this debate include Ziauddin Sardar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Muzaffar Iqbal, among others; see islam-and-science-islamization-of-knowledge-debate.