By: Hamdan Suhaemi
The world, with all its possibilities, is progressing faster in all aspects. It’s no longer evolution and resolution, but a digital revolution that shortens distances, brings distant ones closer, makes difficult things easier. This silent revolution is about the speed of development of information technology which is difficult to predict when stagnation will occur, instead it accelerates quickly leaving human subjectivism which is still arrogant in itself, as the operator of world civilization.
Today’s civilization no longer talks about ideology, but is about the speed of information technology innovations, the speed of information, the ongoing symbolic clash between the perennial and the rational. The ideological clash is only the front page of the real clash of civilizations, and is not the main thing in strategic discussions, but rather maintains our “ignorance” who has the desire to enjoy life.
In the development of the times, science and technology always develop from time to time. It is characterized by the discovery and development of various branches of science. The development of science and technology is very beneficial for humans. The result is that humans are driven towards globalization or there are no boundaries between countries. However, what is the Islamic view of technological development?.
With the development of time and human intelligence, science and technology are also developing. One example is that ancient people who wanted to communicate with other people at long distances had to visit or order other people. But now we only need communication tools without being limited by distance and time.
Unfortunately, the progress of Islamic science did not continue until now. This is because the Western world, which has begun to master Islamic science, has taken a chance, even threatening the Islamic caliphate, which has started to have problems due to internal problems.
In Islam itself, the Qur’an never restrains its people from progressing and being modern, in fact Islam strongly supports the progress of its people to conduct research and experiment in any field, including in the field of technology. For Islam, technology is part of Allah’s verses that we need to explore and seek for the truth.
This spirit needs to live on and be transferred from one generation of scientists to another to grow a collective consciousness. Therefore, I am happy to witness that in this seminar, both experienced scientists and young scientists come and sit together to share knowledge, discuss research findings, exchange ideas, and motivate each other.
Tunjung Teja, 20-2- 2023