Significance and importance of science, scientific work and research in Islam has been widely elaborated especially since it represents the first imperative and revelation in Islam (Qur’an, 96: 1-5). Many authors, among the basic and elementary causes and reasons of the Islamic civilization stagnation enlist the reduced commitment of Muslims to science and scientific work, as well as a superficial approach to it[1]. Today in most Muslim countries, although there is a positive trend in terms of investment in science and research, which results in an increase in the number of scientific articles and the number of universities, research centers and research itself, the fact actually is that the effect of such efforts is very limited or that such research are unable to follow the path of development that modern world requires.

Facts about Muslim literacy and education

There are many factors, today, by which the progress and quality of life as well as the development of a certain country is assessed and measure in the world. Often, when referring to the Golden age of Islamic civilization, usually understood as the period between the eighth and fourteenth centuries, which characterized development in all fields, especially in the fields of science, new technologies and economic progress that resulted in the overall cultural rise of Islamic civilization. The Muslims of that period were the bearers of the “banner” of science in all fields, while the state government (caliph) largely invested and sponsored in such endeavors.

There are several parameters by which we can present the current state of Muslim countries in context of science, development and education. Above all, it is the quality of education, the number and importance of published scientific papers and research, the number of relevant and influential scientific centers in which the overall social view and advocacy of public policies are partly created. According to the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy the list of the 500 best universities for 2019 includes only 6 from the Muslim world none of which are among the top 100[2]. Furthermore, according to the annual report of the University of Pennsylvania on the most influential think-tank organizations in the world for 2019, out of the 100 most influential only 5 think-tanks are located in Muslim countries[3]. According to the UN, most Muslim countries in context of development and quality of human life (Human Development Index – HDI) are in the second, i.e. developing category. The fourth indicator to be taken into account is the percentage of R&D investment, according to which majority Muslim countries invest less than 1% of GDP for these purposes, unlike the leading Republics of Korea (4.3%) and Israel (4.2%). The only Muslim-majority country that invests over one percent is Malaysia, with 1.3%. Such an approach has resulted in the fact that, apart from Malaysia (2029), Muslim-majority states have less than two thousand researchers per million inhabitants (See Global Spending on R&D).

On the other hand, opponents of this data measurement and development approach often argue that most of these indices are tailored to the West and western-centric and do not objectively reflect the state of science at institutes, universities and research centers in Muslim countries. However, it should be noted here that to date, Muslim countries have failed to offer any relevant supranational index in relation to the above criteria. Moreover, the only relevant supranational organization, the OIC, which includes most Muslim countries today, is in a crisis of functioning, which is reflected in its inability to act more concretely on the various issues and challenges facing the Muslim world today (see Gokhan Backin, 2011).

An additional problem that Muslims face today, but also a fact that they have to face with, is the problem of Muslim (ill)literacy. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the illiteracy rate in Muslim-majority countries is around 45% for men and 65% for women, which is one of the urgent issues and pressing problems of the Islamic world, but it is also, at least, shameful for the Ummah that calls itself the Ummah of science / reading (iqraa)[4].Although it has been agreed in 2003 and in 2005, at the extraordinary/emergency OIC summit in Mecca, adopted a ten-year action plan (TYPOA), very small progress has been made in achieving these goals. According to the OIC report from 2013, there has been some progress in terms of national allocations for science, education and research, which has resulted in nine member OIC universities being among the 400 best ranked universities in the world. However, it is still obvious that some progress in the field of education is not yielding the expected results, as the literacy rate of OIC member states (72.3%) is still far below the world average (82%), or the average of developing countries (84.5%)[5]. Furthermore, although to some extent Muslim countries (at least those gathered in the OIC) try to make some changes when it comes to the education and literacy of their inhabitants, it is a devastating fact that on an individual level Muslims do not pay much attention to this problem. According to the World Cultural Index, in only four Muslim-majority countries residents read more than four hours a week.

The need for reform

In the last decade, and especially in the last few years, the Islam and Muslims have been most often portrayed in the media and at many public events in the world, especially in the West, and associated with terms such as terrorism, extremism, migrants and / or Islamophobia. Furthermore, one can often come across articles, public debates and discussions, and public appearances by politicians who, because of all the above, call for or advocate a new approach to the study, understanding of Islam and Muslims, but also more frequent reviews and advocacy of the need for “reform (in/of) Islam“. The imposition of such a public discourse has resonated among Muslims themselves, both because of these debates and, at least in the last century, in which Muslims have been removed from the international political scene as relevant or one of the key actors. This approach of advocating a new approach to understanding Islam and harmonizing and improving the practice of Muslims with the basic postulates of the faith is nothing new – on the contrary, we can find it in Muslim thinkers like Ibn Khaldun in the XV century, but also later in Abduhu and Iqbal in the late XIX and early XX centuries, all the way to Qaradawi, Ramadan and other contemporary thinkers.

The acceptance of the narrative of reform among Muslims further complicated the already complex relations. On the one hand, there are proponents of the thesis of the reform of Islam and Islamic teaching, while others advocate the thesis of returning to the basics and original teachings through the reform of the Muslim understanding of religion and its living. Although there are many scholars / thinkers in Muslim countries who advocate a change of course in the understanding of religion, and a critical consideration of the current position of Muslims, it seems that their voice does not reach the general public in many ways. We could look at this phenomenon from several perspectives. The first is that the world and the public today do not need or are not interested in the voices of the moderate majority, and the second is reflected in the fact that the radical minority is much more successful in imposing public discourse. The third, which is perhaps the most important, is that Muslim-majority countries, due to their disunity, are currently a very weak factor in international relations, i.e. most of these countries could be defined as an object rather than a subject of international relations.

Lack of required quality

Therefore, one of the basic challenges that Muslims face today in terms of science is not the quantity of higher education institutions, research centers or policy-making centers, nor the number of published scientific papers, but the real problem lies in the fact that their quality is not at the required level. Furthermore, these institutions and centers fail to influence, not even to consider to impose / change the course of world politics / actions. Another challenge that Muslims face today is the question of the extent to which knowledge and science from universities and research centers in reality actually reflects or deals with current community problems and issues and quest for their solutions. It seems that Muslims and their intellectual elites today, both because of global movements and because of the general state of the Muslim world, are largely stuck in Islamic apologetics.

The rise and success of Islamic civilization, which occurred during its golden age, was not the result of people living in a given period being better than those living today, but of the fact that they nurtured an open society, rationally questioning and researching the phenomena around them, and above all applied the principle of competence and merits. Therefore, the purpose of education today must not be observed through numbers, rankings or business eyes, on the contrary, the purpose of education, learning and study must give rise to new(old) social values ​​based on valorization of science and knowledge in order to create a better society and better overall social environment. Education in Islam itself wasn’t seldom separated from upbringing, on the contrary. In today’s world, which is mainly focused on the educational dimension, skills development, if we want true progress and development of mankind as well as re-humanization of the entire education system, we must pay special attention to education through building true virtues and values.

So, if we were to use Western terminology and experience, we could say that, although reforms are needed by Muslim communities today, they are far more in need of a renaissance. Therefore, in order for Muslims to get out of the vicious circle of self-pity and blaming others for their own problems, they must approach themselves self-critically and see reality as it is. In history, stronger has never adapted, on the contrary. We have to change and only educated one who can change.

[1] Šekib Arslan, Zašto su muslimani nazadovali a drugi napredovali (Our Decline: Its Causes and Remedies) (Bosnian translation: Sarajevo: Visoki saudijski komitet, 2001), p. 27.

[2] More at: http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU-Statistics-2019.html

[3] More at: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=think_tanks

[4] Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, The Islamic World and Millenium Challenges (The Islamic Education, Science and Culture Organization – ISESCO, 2014), p. 16–17.

[5] OIC – 2025, Action plan (2016), p. 11.