ABSTRACT
The Islamic theory of knowledge is entrenched in the affirmation of both the physical and the metaphysical aspects of reality and truth. Islam's affirmative stance on rationality and science did gain recognition and was manifested in the spectacular development of the natural sciences during the Abbasid period, and in Andalusia and Sicily. This chapter reviews some of the relevant passages of the Qur'an and discusses the acceptability or otherwise of some of the tools of science, such as the inductive reason, to the epistemology of the Qur'an. It addresses the claim that Islam did not propose an epistemology of its own and that Islam's outlook on reality and scientific knowledge has been shaped by Greek philosophy and thought. The chapter looks at the pervasive impact of secularism on public education and certain other aspects of law and government in the Muslim world. It deals with a brief characterisation of the principal themes of this inquiry, that is, religion and science.
