Islam and Pseudoscience

This Element is the first work in English offering a systematic survey and critique of pseudoscience in the Muslim world.

This Element discusses different ideas and approaches that combine pseudoscience and Islam. It begins by reconstructing the debate on Islam-related pseudoscience developed by Muslim and non-Muslim critics. It then analyzes three areas: iʿjāz ʿilmī; Islamic creationism; and ideas and approaches related to hygiene, nutrition, health, and illness.Pseudoscience includes any practice or argument that is presented as scientific but systematically violates criteria that distinguish science, particularly experimental verification. This Element discusses, in critical fashion, different ideas and approaches that combine pseudoscience and Islam. It begins by historically reconstructing the debate on Islam-related pseudoscience developed by Muslim and non-Muslim critics. It then analyzes three areas which these critics have identified as pseudoscience: iʿjāz ʿilmī or the “miraculous scientific content of the Qur'an”; Islamic creationism; ideas and approaches related to hygiene, nutrition, health, and illness. Each area is dissected, identifying the exact reasons that characterize some of its versions as pseudoscientific. After a section discussing other malpractices and erroneous approaches, which do not strictly qualify as pseudoscience but accompany and foster it, the Element ends with the discussion of overarching questions constituting an agenda for future discussions of Islam-related pseudoscience.