Searching for Scientific Facts in the Qur'an: Islamization of Knowledge Or a New Form of Scientism‪?‬

Over the past decades, numerous Muslim and non-Muslim scholars have recognized that scientific knowledge is not necessarily neutral and objective, but instead carries values and concepts that are specific to modern Western civilization. This has led to a concerted effort by Muslim scholars to "Islamize Knowledge" but the focus of this effort has been on social sciences. Concurrently, some Muslim scholars working in biomedical and other natural sciences are attempting to show that the Qur'an contains "scientific facts". This article examines these assertions and their implications. It argues that these assertions are often inconsistent with the principles of Islamization of Knowledge and instead may, in fact, even foster a new form of scientism. The paper also discusses approaches to study natural sciences from Islamic perspectives which may be more consistent with the framework of Islamization of Knowledge. Keywords: Qur'an and science; scientism; Islam and natural sciences; religion and science; secularism; philosophy of science.