ISLAMIZATION OF SCIENCE OR SCIENTIFICATION OF ISLAM? BRIDGING THE DICHOTOMY OF SCIENCE

Abstract

There is a big controversy and debate over how to reconcile science and Islam without much results as two have quite different perspectives. The dispute is not only how science and religion should be positioned in relation to one another, but in adopting one of the two paradigms: One, Islamization of science, which questions whether religion is superior to science and that science must be subjected to religion or integrated in Islam; two, Scientification of Islam, the other paradigm which perceives that Islam needs to be integrated in science through a process of objectification in order to be valid. There are serious implications of both paradigms and there is a need to examine both perspectives to see whether there is room for compromise. This study examined the experiments being carried out by Muslim intellectuals at several campuses of Indonesia's State Islamic Religious University (PTKIN), including UIN Malang, UIN Bandung, UIN Yogyakarta, UIN Semarang, UIN Jakarta, and UIN Surabaya to rethink alternative solutions to the long debate between the two paradigms of Islamization of science and Scientification of Islam. The dialogical integration paradigm, one of the results of this study, offers an alternate strategy for bridging the gap between science and religion. It is expected that the ramifications of this study would lead to a rethinking of the conceptual relationship between science and religion as well as a shift in the formats being experimented to implement science and religion integration in educational institutions.