Writer and media figure Ibrahim Essa takes on a prevalent religious discourse that blurs the line between science and faith. He challenges the notion of an inherent rivalry between the two, arguing that this confusion has been used to assert control, suppress critical thinking and distort religion itself.
What follows is the text of an episode from Ibrahim Essa’s program on Alhurra’s digital platforms. It has been edited for readability while preserving, as much as possible, the original wording as delivered on screen.
For a long time, we have been exhausted by a Salafi discourse that drained energy and potential, endlessly repeating that religion is above science and that religion predates science. This raises the obvious question: What is the relationship between religion and science in the first place? And why do these voices insist on placing them in a state of competition or conflict?
In Europe, this conflict between religion and science was resolved centuries ago. The result was the withdrawal of the Church from the scientific arena, leaving science as science—free in its course, unconstrained or obstructed simply for being science.
In our societies, however, religious institutions continue to interfere in the details of daily life in ways that are confusing and obstructive, and states themselves continue to be drawn into this interference. It is enough to reflect on the annual dispute over the sighting of the Ramadan crescent, where clerics reject astronomy, observatories, satellites and modern sensing technologies, insisting instead on naked-eye observation as if time itself had not moved forward.
Thus, we remain captive to a complex narrative in which religious figures present themselves as religion itself, while treating science as an inferior rank or as a rival that must be subdued, rather than as an independent and free field.
A Narcissistic Wound
Across the vast majority of its platforms, Salafi and traditionalist discourse insists that the Quran encompasses all sciences and preceded the universe itself. According to Essa, this insistence grows out of a profound sense of inadequacy—a civilizational defeat felt by societies that no longer produce knowledge or innovation and instead import science and technology, compensating with the claim that “everything you have already exists in the Quran.”
The simple question this discourse cannot answer is: If all of this exists in the Quran, why did you not produce it? Why did it not emerge at your hands? The truth is that this imaginary bubble assumes a relationship between religion and science that does not exist—as if religion were a source of equations, theories and experiments.
The Quran is a book of guidance and light, a religious text—not a book of medicine, engineering, astronomy or physics. Yes, it contains verses that urge thinking, research and reflection, opening the door for reason to explore the universe. But it is not a science textbook. The claim of “scientific miracles” is an intellectual scandal and an insult to the Arab and Muslim mind. It has produced institutions and projects on which vast sums have been spent to promote illusions that cannot withstand any scientific methodology.
Even Muslim scientists during the eras of great accomplishments—physicians, chemists and mathematicians—did not extract their discoveries from religious texts, nor did they rely on verses or hadiths. They worked on science as science. So why do we insist today on burdening religion with what it cannot bear? Is this a civilizational inferiority complex?
The “Prophetic Medicine” Deception
The flaw reaches its peak when discussing “Prophetic medicine,” as if the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, were a physician treating diseases. In reality, the Prophet himself refused to treat himself even while on his deathbed; physicians were brought to him during his illness, and he rejected some of the medications administered to him. So where is this supposed “Prophetic medicine”?
These attempts are not a defense of religion but an offense against it. It is as if religion can only be strong if it competes with science, as if prophecy must prove itself through medical miracles. All of this is a twisting of religion’s arm, turning it into a tool in an imaginary conflict with science—a conflict the world moved beyond centuries ago.
Why did you turn religion into science? Did God Almighty reveal the Quran to be a book of science, or a book of guidance, light and faith? We are facing a profoundly contradictory scene: religious figures emerge to affirm that religion encourages the pursuit of knowledge, then return to claim that religion is science itself, that it precedes science, and that science must seek permission from religion—as if the wearer of the turban were the guardian of the wearer of the lab coat in his laboratory.
This conception is entirely unacceptable. No matter the color or shape of the turban, no one has guardianship over scientists in their laboratories, nor the authority to serve as their reference or watchdog in the name of what is lawful or forbidden.
Religion’s domain is entirely different: in higher objectives, values, acts of worship and the relationship between human beings and their Creator. It has nothing to do with monopolizing judgment over science, positioning itself to evaluate it or subject it.
The more dangerous problem is that some doctors and researchers have fallen into this trap, becoming promoters of superstition and quackery, using their scientific titles to market religious illusions. Thus, religion is transformed from a moral source into deception and commerce, from guidance into fraud and superstition.
The real solution lies in a clear separation: science is science, and religion is religion. Science has nothing to do with turbans, regardless of their colors or shapes.
Oh turbans—black or white, long or wide—science has nothing to do with you. Spare us.
This article is a translation of the original Arabic.
