FAYAZ GANIE

When humans were finding it difficult to survive on the earth, it was largely science that came to their aid and made their survival possible and sustainable. Science has made all the difference and it is the courtesy of science which enabled the human race to reach where it stands today.
At the heights of progress, prosperity, growth and development has human species reached and all the new vistas and endeavors that man has undertaken, and is going to undertake, have been and are going to be accomplished with the aid of science. What was impossible in the past ages is now a minor thing that anybody can do with the aid of science and scientific inventions. The curt and concise statement to summarize everything is to say that it is science which has made our creation the supreme of all the creations.
Science really has achieved great feats for mankind not only in the natural but in social sciences as well. Nevertheless, science has not remained devoid of its share of blame and the grey areas it has. In fact, this blame and these areas are not of science per se but of the people who used, and use, science to satisfy their personal ambitions and false national prestige. Such people either made claims which were unrealistic or claimed to have achieved a feat which actually belonged to scientists other than them, and or deviated so much from the scientific method that their findings and inventions can be called as anything save science or scientific.
Their personal prejudices and biases cease to go while conducting their research. This made the outcomes of their findings to fall within the jurisdiction of their own preconceived notions and ideas. They could not see anything beyond that and were not, and are not, ready to accept anything other than that. Their works would have remained the same had they conducted no scientific research, as they claimed it to be scientific.
Scientific method divides things which are science and those which are non-science. It is the strict observance of scientific methods which is the first and foremost fundamental in conducting a scientific research and reaching to a logical conclusion. Any fault in the observance of this method is bound to produce results which can’t be called scientific by any means.
There is a set procedures of the scientific method in each branch of science. The scientists of these branches need to follow this method again and again to verify and re-verify their conclusions. One should strictly observe the rules and requirements of the scientific methods to reach to conclusions which could be independently verified by other observers by following the same method anywhere in the world.
But, many times there are considerations other than the scientific method which lead to the arriving of conclusions which are far removed from reality and actually observed results. To exemplify, during the First World War when the hostilities between the Germans and the British were very high, in the field of archeology the Germans had claimed to have found the missing connecting link between the human and their ancestor apes. The British blinded by the hostilities and their rivalry were not ready to give anything to Germans even in the field of science and archeology. They made their own claim of finding the missing link.
Naturally, they produced their proof and their specimen to the scientific community of the world and the proof was accepted. But, after some time when the specimens that the British had produced were subject to chemical analysis it was found that they were manipulated and they belonged to the apes species of current times and not that of any ancestor of humans. It is described as the biggest scandal in the history of archeology which was committed not for any other consideration but only to keep Germans away from their feat of discovering the one of the missing link in the evolution of human species.
Had the British followed the scientific method and kept their rivalry, prejudices and biases away they would surely not have faced such embarrassment which they faced. It would have not brought the great scientists, who they otherwise were, into disrepute.
In the domain of religion(s), many claimed scientific studies end up being nothing like scientific. They are fabricated pieces of literature to undermine a religious community or to promote a religious or anti religious claim. There again , it is prejudices and biases of researchers which play the most crucial role in the formulation of the conclusions than anything else. The scientific method which is claimed to have been followed is followed in its violations. Each step of the methods is fiddled with deliberately to make sure that only the preconceived conclusions are reached.
Most of the studies of this kind have been conducted, and are being conducted, against Islam. There are innumerable books have been written against Islam by the western scholars and authors claiming to have been written after following the scientific method but on closer scrutiny it is observed that there is no science and scientific method involved. Nay, the books are the outcome of the feeling of animosity and animus against Islam.
Many biographies which were written about the Prophet of Islam(SAW) carry so much of unrealistic and unhistorical material that a cursory look on these books could turn a faithful follower into an infidel easily. There are abuses and false allegations that have been leveled against the Prophet (SAW). He(SAW) has been accused of many things which had not even the remotest of associations with him(SAW). The giving of scientific look to these prejudices and preconceived notions was nothing but to undermine his person in the eyes of the people who admire and devotedly follow him. This again is a scandal which these western, and some eastern scholars, have committed.
Moving beyond this, there are many other instances where politics and political considerations play a crucial role in deciding the outcomes, and acceptance, of scientific surveys. That can be observed in the scientific research of today as well. The scientists and researchers who are nearer to the corridors of power get their discoveries and inventions easily registered and recognized and for the rest who are away from these power centers it is an uphill and herculean task.
At times, discoveries, and inventions, of the latter group go unnoticed for ages. Many a times, the discoveries and inventions were thrown in the trash cans and it took years and decades to the subsequent scientists to retrieve them from trash. But, this is not done before the authors of these scientific discoveries and inventions have lived the life of dejection for the failure to gain recognition of the scientific community.
Had not Plank picked up the works of Einstein, this one of the greatest scientist of world would have remained an unknown person and would have lived a dejected life, courtesy the unfavorable attitude of the scientific community to which he had sent his papers. These were the same papers which won him a Noble Prize for his work on the Photoelectric effect.
These examples are sufficient to believe that everything scientific is not scientific necessarily and each thing rejected by the scientific community deserves not that treatment. There may be many things and circumstances which might have shaped these inventions and if the discoveries and inventions are true there still the rightful people might not be getting their due. So, every claim about the scientific method needs many scientific methods to verify the claims. If those verifications are not important for any reason but they are important at least for the sake of science itself, to maintain the sanctity of science and the scientific method.
This is the responsibility of each scientist and people to see where from the inventions and discovery comes and to see if there are any hidden interests and agendas in the claims that are being made. At the same time , all the materials and discoveries coming from the scientist unknown should not be out rightly thrown to the trash can before thoroughly verifying them. Who knows how many of Einsteins have been thrown in the state of madness by this attitude of the scientific community, and who knows there is an Einstein in a paper in the trash cane.
The truth which he kept away from the people comes to the fore for the truth has its own means of coming to the forefront. Those who leveled all kinds of allegations against Islam and the Prophet of Islam(SAW) are the same people who force other unbiased people to conduct the research in a scientific way and who reached to the conclusion which were entirely different. They presented the real truth to the world about the glory of Islam and its Prophet(SAW).
Above all , the scandalous science which has caused great harm to many people, scientist and science must be eliminated from the equation. Science alone can make us through in the ocean of challenges subject it is sanctimonious not scandalous.
—The author can be reached at: [email protected]

Guest