Are the claims of the Qurʾan scientific, or beyond the reach of science? And if aliens exist, are humans still the best of creation? In this episode of Thinking Islam, we discuss the relationship between Islam and science with Dr Shoaib Ahmed Malik. We begin with how Muslims have met modern science, from the Islamisation of knowledge to the scientific miracles of the Qurʾān (iʿjāz ʿilmī). Dr Malik is critical of the latter: the Qurʾān is not a scientific book, and a faith built on science is exposed when the science changes. What matters more are the assumptions beneath science, such as causality and divine action, and here the classical traditions offer templates rather than answers. From there we test the line between science and pseudoscience, putting the same question to prophetic medicine, Islamic psychology and intelligent design: where is the evidence? We weigh the contingency argument against the kalām cosmological argument and the stress test of the multiverse, along with al-Rāzī's admission that it is the design arguments that move the heart. We then step into the realm of the unseen (al-ghayb), looking at al-Rāzī's five models of the jinn, possession and mental health, and why the jinn lead Dr Malik to evolution and Adamic exceptionalism. The conversation ends with aliens, human superiority, his "deflationary theology", the limits of theology, and a call to think with our tradition rather than merely defend it. Dr Shoaib Ahmed Malik is Lecturer in Science and Religion at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. A chemical engineer turned theologian, he holds two PhDs, in Chemical Engineering (University of Nottingham) and Theology (St Mary's University, Twickenham). He is the author of Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm, recognised by the International Society for Science and Religion in 2022, and chief editor of Palgrave's Islam and Science book series and encyclopedia.
Audio Chapters: 0:00 – Highlights 2:00 – Why Islam & Science? 15:14 – Scientific Miracles of the Qur'an 25:36 – Islam & Pseudoscience 32:20 – Proof of God's Existence 44:29 – Existence of Jinns 1:02:22 – Islam & Aliens 1:13:01 – Limits of Theology 1:19:00 – Thinking Islam Question