The Meaning of ʿIlm
Since the concepts of “ʿilm” and “science” are central to Razan Muhammad Sakkal’s Mukhtaṣar Kitāb Uṣūl al-Manhajiyyah al-ʻIlmiyyah fī al-Qurʼān al-Karīm, and because the use of the term ʿilm in Arabic and its translation into English (especially as “science”) can be confusing for readers, it is helpful to discuss the usage of these terms and their intended meaning within the content of this work.
Sakkal’s use of the term ʿilm reflects how it was understood during the pre-modern and early modern periods in the Arab-Islamic world, and that is a more general, unifying, and holistic view of knowledge. The pursuit of ʿilm within the Islamic ethos, be it contextually worldly or religious, is framed within Islamic beliefs and values that guide the processes of acquiring knowledge. Whatever field of knowledge a Muslim achieves specialization in, be it mathematics, philosophy, engineering, medicine, or religion, falls under the notion of ʿilm, and one possessing it is given the title ʿālim, regardless of the disciplinary content. Thus, the derived agentive nouns ʿālim (singular) and ʿulamāʾ (plural) are used to describe both scientists and Muslim clerics or scholars of Islam — that is, individuals with expert knowledge in either worldly or religious and spiritual matters. ʿIlm in this sense is both broad and unifying. The term ʿilm and its derivatives, as used by Sakkal, also include the understanding of ʿilm as “science” in the sense of “knowledge” or “a system of knowledge,” that is, as a systematic approach to understanding the natural world through observation, experimentation, and evidence-based reasoning, often seen as a cornerstone of rational thought and decision-making.
ʿIlm and the Qur’an
This dual sense of ʿilm — as both a holistic worldview and a systematic pursuit of knowledge — is precisely what makes it possible to read the Qur”an as Sakkal does: not as a scientific manual, but as a text that cultivates the intellectual habits central to scientific inquiry. In Mukhtaṣar Kitāb Uṣūl al-Manhajiyyah al-ʻIlmiyyah fī al-Qurʼān al-Karīm, Sakkal traces how the Qur’an’s repeated calls to observe the natural world, its encouragement of rational reflection, and its use of the term āyah — which denotes both scriptural verses and natural phenomena — together form a framework closely mirroring curiosity, observation, reasoning, and consistency, the core principles of the scientific method.
Sakkal’s analysis does not claim the Qur’an anticipates modern science in any technical sense. Rather, by examining the text’s high regard for acquiring knowledge, its acknowledgment of consistent natural laws, and its criticism of blindly inherited belief, Sakkal’s work shows how these elements form a cognitive framework closely resembling scientific methodology — one where the broader, unifying sense of ʿilm and the more specific, systematic sense converge.
This essay is adapted from the editor’s note in Uncovering Scientific Methodology in Qur’anic Discourse (Herndon, VA: IIIT, 2025).
https://iiit.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Book-in-Brief-Uncovering-Scientific-Methodology.pdf
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).
