ABSTRACT
Drawing a historical distinction between Christianity and Islam, and introducing mechanisms for accommodating revelation to new scientific and political concepts, Muslim scholars suggested that an Islamic society can be revelation-based without being theocratic and without forfeiting any of the blessings of reason and freedom. This approach was modernist in its recognition that certain Western scientific and political concepts can and must be absorbed into Muslim societies if those societies wish to survive and revive themselves. The foundational texts of the modernist-apologetic school were authored in light of a concern about an imminent collapse of the Muslim nation as a social-political reality, and the demise of Islam as an all-encompassing system. The concept of scientific marvel suggests that numerous scientific facts and technological innovations that were unknown, and entirely inconceivable in the lifetime of the Prophet, are alluded to in the Quran, testifying to its divinity.
