Qur'an and science

A specific interpretation of the Qur’an states it contains all sciences, but not all Muslims agree on that. Ilm, the Arab term for science and/or knowledge, appears regularly in the Koran. “Ilm in the Qur’an means “become acquainted with the existence of God”, but many Muslims will naively say the Qur’an contains all sciences”, said historian and professor Mohamed Arkoun during a lecture at the ULB [Free University of Brussels] last April. This misconception was one of the examples he used to illustrate what he calls the institutionalized ignorance – ignorance kept alive by states.
Hajer Mussaoui, teacher Islamic Rights in Brussels says it is wrong to claim the Qur’an contains all exact sciences. “But stating that ilm in the Qur’an means “become acquainted with the existence of God” is not right either. The relation between the Qur’an and science is much deeper. Everybody can read the Qur’an and acquire its spiritual dimension. But for an objective reading one needs scientific instruments. The Qur’an encourages research and learning. When Muslims used to read the Qur’an properly, they not only gained religious knowledge, they also did very well in the exact sciences.”
So from where comes the notion that the Qur’an contains all sciences? M.B. Iltaie, professor General Relativity and Cosmology at the Yarmuk-university in Jordan, wrote in an essay that this conception is the result of all intellectual attempts of the last decennia to associate scientific theories or natural phenomena with signs or indications in the Qur’an who point that way. This intellectual work, at first meant to show God’s greatness and the creation’s complexity, took a wrong turn. People started to consider the Qur’an as an all encompassing book that contains sciences in all their exactness. That is not the approach of scientists, says professor Iltaie. “They are pseudo-specialists who get their information from popular scientific magazines en inaccurate articles.”