“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.

• Harmony/complementarity viewpoint: Holds that Islam and science are fundamentally compatible and mutually reinforcing, with the Quran encouraging empirical inquiry into nature as a sign of divine creation. See islam-and-science-harmony-viewpoint.
• Scientific exegesis (i'jaz 'ilmi) viewpoint: Holds that the Quran contains specific, verifiable scientific knowledge unavailable at the time of its revelation, and that this constitutes evidence of divine authorship. See islam-and-science-scientific-exegesis-viewpoint.
• Critical/separationist viewpoint: Holds that the Quran is not a scientific text and should not be read as making or anticipating empirical claims, and that conflating revelation with science risks distorting both; some proponents of this view are themselves religious. See islam-and-science-separationist-viewpoint.
• Islamization of knowledge viewpoint: Holds that modern science is not value-neutral and that a genuinely Islamic approach to knowledge requires reframing scientific epistemology within an Islamic metaphysical and ethical framework. See islam-and-science-islamization-of-knowledge-viewpoint.
• Secular/conflict viewpoint: Holds that religious doctrine, including Islamic doctrine, is in tension with scientific findings or methods in specific domains (e.g., evolutionary biology, cosmology), and that such tensions cannot be fully reconciled. See islam-and-science-conflict-viewpoint.

• Disputes over claims of “scientific miracles” in the Quran, including challenges to specific embryological and cosmological interpretations advanced by popularizers, have drawn criticism from both secular scientists and Muslim scholars who argue the methodology is unsound. See islam-and-science-quran-scientific-miracles-controversy.
• The 2016 controversy surrounding Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar's distribution of anti-evolution literature, and broader disputes over the teaching of evolution in Muslim-majority countries, have drawn sustained public attention. See islam-and-science-evolution-education-controversy.

• History: Islamic Science - History
• Debate: islam-and-science-islamization-of-knowledge-debate
• Viewpoint Debate: islam-and-science-harmony-separationist-viewpoint-debate
• Controversy: islam-and-science-quran-scientific-miracles-controversy, islam-and-science-evolution-education-controversy
• Related Main Topics: evolution-and-religion, Creationism, religion-and-science

1. Toshihiko Izutsu, *God and Man in the Koran: Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschauung* (Tokyo: Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1964).
2. Ahmad Dallal, *Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History* (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010).
3. Muzaffar Iqbal, *Science and Islam* (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007).
4. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, *Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study* (London: World of Islam Festival Publishing, 1976).
5. Taner Edis, *An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam* (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007).
6. Ziauddin Sardar, *Explorations in Islamic Science* (London: Mansell, 1989).
7. George Saliba, *Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance* (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007).