In
what sense could the theories and data of modern science ``fit''
in the world view elaborated for centuries by Islamic thinking?
To address this issue, we have first to recall that the Islamic
tradition envisages a strong connection between faith and the
pursuit of knowledge, which is considered as ``a religious duty
incumbent to all Muslims, Male and Female''. The nature of this
knowledge is three fold: it is religious through the study of
the Koran and the submission to its prescriptions and prohibitions,
intellectual through the investigation of the world and reflection
upon it, mystical through inner enlightenment directly granted
by God to whom He wants among His servants. As a matter of fact,
these three paths to knowledge must necessarily converge to
a unique Truth, since God Himself is unique. In this prospect,
there cannot be any actual contradiction between the results
of scientific investigation and the religious doctrines,provided
they are not a complete illusion. However, and precisely for
that reason, the connection of the evolving results of science
with the symbolic teachings of religion should be more subtle
that the ``cheap concordism'' which would consist in taking
the literal meaning of some Koranic verses as alluding to ``scientific
facts'', and in interpreting allegorically those whose literal
meaning seems to be discrepant. This is rather the metaphysical
worldview of Islam which could provide clues for criticizing
the reductionalist interpretations of the discoveries brought
forth by modern science, and for grasping their possible meaning.
In this context, this lecture will address the possible interpretation
of some basic features of modern cosmology in terms of the Islamic
teachings on the nature of reality. The fundamental mystery
which subtends physics and cosmology is the fact that the world
is intelligible. The Koran strongly recommends to ponder and
meditate upon the Creation to find the traces of the Creator
in its harmony. Hence the so--called
``cosmological
verses'' which are frequently quoted as one of the many miracles
included in the Koranic text.The exploration of the world is
encouraged, provided the explorer is wise enough to recognize
that the harmony that is present in the cosmos originates in
God. By looking at the cosmos, the intelligence He put in us
constantly meets His Intelligence. Several Koranic verses draw
the reader's attention to the numerical order that is present
in the cosmos. The cosmic regularities which are a consequence
of God's Will can thus be qualified as ``mathematical regularities''The
esoteric doctrines of Islam go one step further. According to
the views of the Akbarian school, funded after the work of Muhyi-d-din
Ibn Arabi (1165 -- 1240), the Creation is God's self-disclosure
to Himself through the veils and signs of the creatures. The
things “are” not, since only God is. They only own
a given preparation to receive being and qualities from God.
The (relative) stability of cosmic phenomena is rooted in God's
(absolute) immutability. However, the status of the cosmos is
paradoxical, between absolute Being, God Himself, and absolute
nothingness. As a consequence, we cannot expect to reach clear--cut
statements about the fundamental reality of the world. According
to the Islamic theology, God does not act by fixing the laws
of physics and the initial conditions and letting the world
evolve mechanistically. As a matter of fact, there is nothing
like secondary causes, simply because God, as the “primary”
Cause, does not cease to create again the world at each instant.
In this continuous renewal of creation, the atoms and their
accidents are created anew at each time. The regularities that
are observed in the world are not due to causal connection,
but to a constant conjunction between the phenomena, which is
a habit or custom established by God's Will. This principle
of the Islamic theology apparently contradicts the views of
modern science, which of course stipulate the existence of secondary
causes. But we must understand the negation of causality by
the Islamic tradition as an emphasis on the metaphysical mystery
of the continuous validity of the laws.This questioning on causality
is not an obstacle to our scientific investigation of the cosmos.
On the contrary, it prompts us to reflect upon the way God acts,
and shows His signs “upon the horizons”(Koran, 41:53).
In the Middle Ages,the distance to God's throne was “measured”
by the Arab astronomer al-Farghani to 120 million km, under
simple assumptions on the properties of the planetary spheres
in the paradigm of the Ptolemaic cosmology. This ``spatial horizon''
was eventually evacuated by the scientific revolution of the
Renaissance and the emergence of the Newtonian paradigm. In
a simplistic interpretation of the standard Big--Bang model,
which has been rather fashionable during the last decades, God
takes place at the horizonof the singularity t=0 and at the
``particle horizon'' located 15 billion light-years from us.
Now, it is indeed possible that quantum cosmology will evacuate
the notion of an initial singularity.The universe might have
emerged as a quantum fluctuation of the vacuum. Moreover, according
to the theory of chaotic inflation, our observable universe
is only a bubble located somewhere in an infinite number of
``patches'' of the physical universe, which could even have
different values for the constants of nature. Is there still
a ``place'' for God if the universe emerges from a random fluctuation
of ``nothing'', if it has no spatial and temporal boundaries,
if the constants themselves could have any value? The answer
to this question should be negative, according to many scientists
who emphasize the efficiency of ``selection principles''to explain
the cosmic order observed in our local patch. But, in fact,
the horizon is always there: why are the laws of quantum physics
valid? As far as we can push it back, the existence of an horizon
seems to be required by the nature of our intelligence. The
renewal of creation taught by the Islamic doctrines also means
the continuous appearance of new creatures. At each level of
the cosmos, there are always new things. God is infinite and
``self--disclosure never repeats itself''. So God's self-disclosure
is endless. What appears in the Creation exactly corresponds
to the flow of possible things. This is why, according to al--Ghazali
(1058 -- 1111), ``there is nothing in possibility more wondrous
than what is'', because what is actually reflects God's desire
to show up to us. This helps us understand the Prophetic saying
: ``Curse not time, for God is time.'' The production of an
infinite number of ``patches'' of the physical universe described
by chaotic inflation, reflects God's eternal self-disclosure.
The appearance of ``emerging properties'' at all levels of complexity,
and particularly the appearance of life and intelligence, is
another aspect of this continuous self-disclosure. This is why
Ibn Arabi comments: ``God does not become bored that you should
become bored.''Now modern cosmology tells us that Man is at
the top of a huge cosmic building. The apparition of Man was
made possible by many ``coincidences'' in the laws of physics
and the values of the constants, which fix the properties of
the cosmic and terrestrial structures. The extension of time
behind us and of space around us is a necessary condition for
our very existence,as the vast extensions of the deserts of
sand and iceare necessary for the ecological balance of the
earth. So we should not invoke our smallness to refuse our spiritual
vocation. This is not the quantityof space and time which matters,
but the quality of complexity that our existence manifests.
Moreover, in spite of the vast extension of space and time,
our location at the center of the observable universe makes
the partial reconstruction of our past possible. Finally, the
strongest connection between science and the spiritual questmight
be found in the very nature of these pursuits.The philosophical
definition of scientific truth is a debated issue. But what
we can define with great accuracy is the method that leads to
the development of scientific knowledge. In other words, the
philosophical ``truth'' of science lies it the fecundity of
its method. So cosmology, as well as the other sciences, is
mainly an on--going process. We can view this process as continuous
approximation of truth, and indeed, it is sometimes so. But,
at other periods of its development, science has opened completely
new paths. We can also defend the point that the scientific
pursuit leads to both a growth of our knowledge and a growth
of our ignorance, since the number of theories that do not work
increases in the process, and the answers to our questions immediately
suggest new questions the existence of which was not even suspected
previously. There are surprising similarities between this open
process leading to the growth of scientific knowledge, and the
pursuit of religious knowledge as it is viewed by the metaphysical
doctrines of Islam. Here, the dogmas represent what can be said,
and must be said, about the spiritual vocation of Man. But,
of course, theideas we make about God are limited to our own
understanding.They immediately become idols if we think we have
gotten the truth. So we have to get the highest idea about God,
by destroying the idols we continuously make in ourselves. We
can progress only if we know that we do not know, in an apophatic
approach to God. In this prospect, we must resist to the tantalizing
idea to transform God into a ``God--of--the--gap'' who only
fills up the ``hole of incompleteness'' that is present is our
knowledge. On the contrary, the growth of scientific knowledge,
and the pursuit of the spiritual quest both require the existence
of this hole.God is not ``in the hole''. He has created the
hole as an intrinsic property of our intelligence so that we
can find Him. Thus, for a Muslim cosmologist, the exploration
of the cosmos is a way of worshiping God. God's creation of
Man makes science possible since our intelligence finds the
trace of God's Intelligence in the harmony of the world. However,
there is a significant difference between the scientificpursuit
and the spiritual quest, which deals withthe ending point of
our existence. Contrary to the scientific pursuit, the spiritual
quest is not limited to the intellectual search for truth and
the production of useful outcomes.It primarily aims at transforming
Man, so that he can be prepared to the After life, which is
also a broader locus for knowledge.