God, Life and Cosmos: 
Theistic Perspectives 

The international Islamabad conference titled God, Life and Cosmos: 
Theistic Perspectives was held in Islamabad, November 6-9, 2000. 
Sponsored and organized by the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences 
(CTNS), Berkeley, United States, Islamic Research Institute (IRI), 
Islamabad, Pakistan, and International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), 
Islamabad, Pakistan, the conference drew over fifty scholars from the fields 
of natural sciences and religious studies. A number of interesting papers 
were presented on various aspects of the relation between religion and sci- 
ence, and each paper was critically evaluated and responded to by a respon- 
dent. 

The conference commenced with the introductory remarks of Muzaffar 
Iqbal (National Library, Alberta, Canada) and then the keynote speech 
which was delivered by William Chittick, the renowned scholar of Islamic 
intellectual history and Ibn Arabi. Chittick’s keynote address titled 
“Modem Science and the Eclipse of Tawhid” focused on the sharp contrast 
between the Islamic concept of tuwhid (Divine unity) and the secular 
worldview of modem science. Drawing on the traditional distinction 
between the transmitted (naqli) and intellectual (uqli) sciences, Chittick 
emphasized the importance of intellectual sciences in confronting the chal- 
lenges of the modem world. As respondent to Chittick‘s keynote paper, 
Hasan al-Shafi’i (President of the International Islamic University, 
Islamabad, Pakistan) further elaborated on the points raised by the keynote 
speaker. The f i t  day of the conference closed with a wonderful presenta- 
tion about Pakistan and its history by the son and daughter of Muzaffar 
Iqbal, the indefitagiable convener of the conference. 

The papers presented at the conference touched upon nearly all of the 
major aspects of the religion-science relationship: the rise of modem phys- 
ical sciences and the responses of the Islamic as well as Christian worlds, 
philosophy of science, modem cosmology, theory of evolution and its 
meaning for the religious worldview, history of Islamic sciences and its rel- 



Conference Reports 139 

evance for today’s Islamic world, and the question of causality both in its 
religious and scientific context. The scholars and participants present were 
of considerable variety, and this proved to be a good occasion for a num- 
ber of stimulating discussions. William Chittick, Roshde Rashed, Hashim 
Kamali, Muzaffar Iqbal, Mahdi Gholshani, Mustansir Mir, Naumana 
Amjad, Audrey Chapman, Ahmad Dallal, Mark Worthing, Bruno 
Guiderdoni, Syed Nomanul Haq, Yamina Mermer, Ayub Omayya, 
Ebrahim Moosa, and Ibrahim Kalin presented their papers during the con- 
ference. Several scholars sent their papers prior to the conference and were 
not able to attend. The papers of the Islamabad conference can be reached 
at www.kalam.org. We were informed that the proceedings of the confer- 
ence will be edited by Muzaffar Iqbal and Syed Nomanul Haq and pub- 
lished under the same title sometime next year. 

The closing remarks of the conference were delivered by &far Ishaq 
Ansari (director of the Islamic Research Institute and editor of Islamic 
Studies). A n s a r i  underlined the high level of discussions during the confer- 
ence, and expressed his hopes for the further articulation of the issues raised 
by the participants. In addition to the content of the conference, the organ- 
ization committee, headed by Muhammad Jamil (International Institute of 
Islamic Thought) did an excellent job in handling everything from trans- 
portation to room arrangements. Unanimously, the participants proclaimed 
the Islamabad conference a true success, and all of the people who made it 
possible are to be warmly congratulated. 

Ibrahim Kaiin 
George Washington University 

Washington, DC