In December 2024, a thoughtful and specialized meeting was held at Astan Quds Razavi Research Foundation, attended by a group of Iran’s most distinguished basic sciences professors. This gathering, which included scholars from prestigious institutions such as Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Sharif University of Technology, University of Tehran, University of Isfahan, and the Institute for Fundamental Sciences, alongside prominent researchers from Sepand Organization, provided a unique opportunity for influential scientific elites to deeply analyze the current state of science in Iran and the Muslim world in an intimate yet profound and problem-oriented atmosphere.
What clearly emerged in this meeting was a deep consensus among participants about a key concern: The challenge facing Iran’s and the Muslim world’s scientific community today goes beyond increasing paper production and improving international indicators to the necessity of rethinking the origin, meaning, and direction of scientific movement. This issue particularly manifests in the Muslim world as science’s detachment from the cultural and spiritual identity of the Islamic Ummah and its disconnection from the Quran’s cognitive sources.
Rather than addressing the often-repeated cliché of “linking science and Quran,” the meeting emphasized a Quran-inspired approach to scientific production – an inspiration that could play a creative and fundamental role in question formulation, theorizing, defining research horizons, and even revising scientific methodology. The Quran, as a book of guidance and reasoning, doesn’t limit itself to ethics and spirituality; through its repeated invitations to contemplate natural phenomena, understand cosmic systems, and comprehend the world’s complex relationships, it provides fertile ground for forming a new scientific approach.
Participants demonstrated examples of hidden potentials in Quranic verses related to creation, life, cosmic physics, biological structures, and human psychological dynamics, showing how the Quran could plant seeds of new scientific thought in researchers’ minds – provided this inspiration isn’t approached with rushed intentions of matching scientific findings with verses, but rather through problem-solving methodologies that combine free thinking with commitment to Quranic foundations.
Constructive criticisms were directed at the current state of scientific systems in Muslim countries, including neglect of profound and challenging subjects, lack of theoretical courage, and excessive dependence on imported research models often alien to Islamic intellectual foundations. Participants agreed that for science to regain its civilizational position in the Muslim world, mere imitation must be transcended toward defining indigenous knowledge production models based on Quranic cognitive heritage.
The meeting envisioned a future-oriented picture of the Muslim scientific community’s evolutionary path. According to this vision, establishing credible scientific assemblies, elite networks, and Quran-inspired research institutes could lay the foundation for a generation of scientists thoroughly familiar with scientific methodology while drawing inspiration from Quranic thought depth, raising questions rooted in existential, human, and civilizational concerns.
It was emphasized that this transformation requires serious infrastructure: supporting interdisciplinary research projects focusing on Quranic inspiration, enhancing scientific output quality based on Quranic and Islamic references to nature, and creating international collaboration platforms for Muslim researchers worldwide.
The meeting concluded with hope that this beginning would mark not just a marginal note in scientific gatherings, but a first step toward building a new scientific paradigm where Muslim scientists – armed with faith, reason, and academic courage – would lead global theorization and make original contributions to shaping humanity’s scientific future. This meeting heralded the birth of a movement that would liberate science from dry instrumentalism and return it to meaning, wisdom, and truth.