ABSTRACT
The works of the French surgeon Maurice Bucaille on the subject of science, the Bible, and the Qur'an1'2 have enjoyed a tremendous popularity across the Muslim world, with translations into numerous languages. Much more recently, a number of Muslim philosophers of science have begun to take issue with the kind of approach to science and the Qur'an that his writings exemplify.3'4'5 However, whether it be claims by Bucaille and his supporters that his ideas are something new and extraordinary, or broadside attacks against "Bucaillism" by his critics, both tend to obscure the fact that the "scientific exegesis" of the Qur'an has a long history in Islam. Sheikh Amin al-Khuli, writing a generation ago,6 traces this kind of approach back as far as al-Ghazali (5th century A.M.), and in criticizing it makes use of arguments nearly as venerable going back to al-Shataibi (8th century A.M.). The antiquity of the debate suggests that at least some of the stimulus for scientific exegetical treatments must come from sources internal to Islam, rather than from modern apologetic considerations. These internal sources might include certain Qur'anic passages and Hadith,7 the Islamic view of\the unity of knowledge and the inherent rationality of true religion, and even the broad range of possible meanings of the Arabic word cilm.8
