Summary of the concepts of Ahl al-Sunnah
The relationship of religion to science, intellect, and civilization
Indeed, the true religion is not an enemy of science, civilization, and intellect.
Rather, it is a framework for all of that.
Its framework and its axis that governs all affairs of life.
And the religion of Islam was
the comprehensive declaration of the freedom of the human intellect
towards the material universe and its laws, which Allah, the Exalted, has subjugated for this human.
As for false religion,
like the religion of the Church and its superstitions in the Middle Ages,
which was indeed an enemy of science and intellect,
it is what causes secularists and atheistic communists to generalize
the idea that any religion is equivalent to science, intellect, and civilization.
So, the correct concept of the relationship of Islamic religion to science and intellect
invalidates the specious arguments of hypocrites and secularists,
in which they claim to attribute any backwardness of the Ummah to adherence to religion
and steadfastness upon what the salaf of the Ummah were upon,
those who adhere to the Sharia in creed and morals.
And Allah, the Exalted, said concerning such people:
“Wheresoever ye may be, death will overtake you, even though ye were in lofty towers. Yet if a happy thing befalleth them they say: This is from Allah; and if an evil thing befalleth them they say: This is of thy doing (O Muhammad). Say (unto them): All is from Allah. What is amiss with these people that they come not nigh to understand a happening?” (4:78)
“Wheresoever ye may be, death will overtake you, even though ye were in lofty towers. Yet if a happy thing befalleth them they say: This is from Allah; and if an evil thing befalleth them they say: This is of thy doing (O Muhammad). Say (unto them): All is from Allah. What is amiss with these people that they come not nigh to understand a happening?” (4:78)
"What is the matter with these people that they can scarcely understand a hadith?"
And what has happened to the Ummah is the opposite of what they falsely claim.
For when it was adhering to its religion,
implementing its Lord's law, and striving in His way,
it was the most advanced and greatest of nations in civilization and progress in all fields of life.
And when it abandoned its religion and turned away from its Lord's law and striving in His way,
it became backward and a follower of others.
So, the cause of the Ummah's backwardness, then, is abandoning religion to adhere to it.