The Quran, Science, and the Limits of Speculative Philosophy: A Rejoinder to Adis Duderija
By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam
25 April 2025
Abstract:
This article offers a critical response to Adis Duderija’s claim that philosophy and metaphysics are indispensable to Islamic theology. Arguing instead for a Quran-alone approach to its decisive verses (Muhkamat) and a science-guided interpretation of its allegorical verses (Mutashabihat), the article contends that speculative philosophy has historically obscured rather than clarified the Quranic message. By grounding theology in the Quran's clarity and the empirical insights of modern science, this rejoinder calls for a return to a more disciplined and verifiable methodology for understanding divine revelation.
Introduction
Adis Duderija’s recent article, “The Indispensable Foundation: Philosophy and Metaphysics as the Bedrock of Islamic Theology,” argues that Islamic theology cannot stand without the scaffolding of philosophy and metaphysics. While his historical survey of Islamic engagement with Greek thought is thorough, his conclusions suffer from two critical oversights: first, the assumption that philosophical reasoning is indispensable to interpreting scripture; second, the dismissal of science as a more reliable aid to understanding both revelation and reality.
Quran as the End of Speculative Philosophy
The Quran, by its own declaration, came as a Furqan—a criterion to separate truth from falsehood. It provided clarity where speculative philosophy offered conjecture. The ninety-nine attributes of Allah, for example, are not products of Neoplatonic or Aristotelian reasoning. They are drawn directly from the Quran. Attempts to systematize them through philosophical categories such as "essence" and "accident" have often complicated rather than clarified their meaning.
This complexity stems from a fundamental issue: metaphysics and speculative philosophy attempt to probe realities that, by their nature, resist empirical verification. When theology leans too heavily on such frameworks, it risks drifting into the abstract and the obscure. The Quran, by contrast, consistently grounds its message in clarity, evidence, and reason.
Metaphysics vs. the Sciences in Understanding the Quran
To understand the Quran’s Mutashabihat—its allegorical verses—requires a foundation more solid than metaphysical speculation. That foundation is science.
Take, for instance, the concept of resurrection. Traditional theology, influenced by Hellenistic notions, postulated an immortal soul distinct from the body. But this dualism is foreign to the Quran. The Quran emphasizes not the immortality of the soul, but the resurrection of the individual based on a divinely maintained record. Today, advances in neuroscience and information theory provide a plausible mechanism for this: the self as information encoded in the brain. Science, not metaphysics, brings us closer to understanding how resurrection might occur without requiring an immaterial, undying soul.
The Real Roots of Religious Mythology
It is not scripture, but speculative metaphysics, that has been responsible for many of the myths associated with religion. In trying to fill the gaps left by a lack of understanding of the Mutashabihat (allegorical) verses—gaps that existed because science had not yet caught up—philosophers conjured doctrines that lacked both Quranic anchoring and empirical grounding. Take, for example, the fanciful tales of Alam-e-Arwah (the realm of souls) crafted to explain verse 7:172, or the notion of Alam-e-Barzakh invented to accommodate disembodied souls between death and Judgment Day. From a modern, scientifically-informed perspective, we now understand that verse 7:172 likely speaks to a genetically transmitted belief in God—passed through the sperm of the father—rather than a pre-birth covenant in a metaphysical realm.
These philosophical constructs, while perhaps intellectually stimulating for their time, ultimately led to confusion and sectarian divergence. Rather than clarifying the faith, they obscured it under layers of conjecture. This underscores the necessity of a more disciplined interpretive approach—one that I have proposed in the form of "A Quran-Alone Methodology for Muhkamat Verses, and Science-Alone for the Mutashabihat." This framework respects the clarity and finality of the Quran's decisive verses (Muhkamat) while using the evolving tools of science to responsibly approach its allegorical content. It is only through such a grounded methodology that we can rescue the Quranic message from the obfuscations of speculative theology and bring it into full light.
Metaphors in the Quran are accessible through language and context, not philosophical speculation. One does not need Plato to understand that “light” as used in Surah An-Nur (24:35) conveys divine guidance. What is needed is sound reasoning and a grounding in the empirical world—qualities far more characteristic of the scientific mind than the metaphysical one.
The Transformation and Decline of Philosophy
The decline of philosophy is due to the fact that philosophy has been outpaced by its offspring: the sciences.
Philosophy has become largely confined to the domains of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and logic. Even in these areas, its influence is waning. In logic, mathematics has taken over. In epistemology, cognitive science now answers many questions once debated endlessly by philosophers. In ethics, philosophy’s failure to generate universal, durable moral principles independent of religion has been laid bare. Even Kant, the most rigorous of moral philosophers, admitted that his categorical imperative requires belief in an afterlife for practical enforcement.
Philosophy's Legacy: From Central Actor to Supporting Role
This is not to say philosophy is obsolete. It continues to serve as a useful tool for critical thinking and ethical deliberation. Fields such as bioethics and the philosophy of technology offer valuable contributions, especially when they remain grounded in empirical realities.
However, philosophy’s modern role is no longer foundational—it is supplemental. The central pursuit of truth has shifted to the sciences, where empirical methodologies produce testable and actionable knowledge. Philosophy can enrich these endeavours but no longer leads them.
A Theology Grounded in the Quran and Science
The Quran remains the primary source of Islamic theology. Its self-evident truths, moral clarity, and cosmological vision do not require metaphysical embellishment. What they do require is responsible interpretation—an interpretation that respects the Quran's own internal logic and coherence.
The integration of science into this interpretive process does not mean abandoning spiritual insight. Rather, it reflects a Quranic ethos that calls upon human beings to reflect on the natural world, to observe, to understand. Where metaphysics asks us to ponder the unknowable, science helps us appreciate the known and the knowable—often illuminating the divine signs (Ayat) in the process.
Duderija’s concern—that one cannot construct theology without philosophical scaffolding—misunderstands the Quran’s nature. The Quran is not a text in need of philosophical completion; it is a text that critiques and transcends speculative philosophy.
Conclusion
Islamic theology, when stripped of speculative accretions and re-engaged through the dual lenses of Quran and science, becomes not only more coherent but more compelling. Philosophy’s historic role in Islamic thought is acknowledged—but its utility should not be overstated. It is time to distinguish between what has traditionally been used and what is truly indispensable.
Today, as science brings new clarity to age-old theological questions, it is not philosophy, but empirically informed reason, that serves as the most faithful ally to revelation.
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A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/debating-islam/quran-science-speculative-philosophy-duderija/d/135307
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