An Analysis on Cosmology in the West and in the Malay World

Ideas of the cosmos is quite an ancient idea where we find it mentioned in the earliest of writings of the Greek philosophers. It seems that ever since man looked at the sky they have often wondered how, what the universe is and of course their place in it. Much of what man had discovered and theorized were based on ideas connected to the Greeks and world religions. In Islam the universe or ‘alam in Arabic has dual meaning, one it points to the physical universe and more, and secondly it points to what is not God but are His manifestations. Thus an understanding of cosmology in Islam is frequently based upon that connection between the profane and the sacred, the earthly and the transcendent. However since western scientist had discovered that the universe is in a perpetual state of expansion, much of western cosmology is based upon a material/ physical understanding of science. Since the discovery of the cosmic microwave background in 1965, the theory of the big bang became the standard model of the physical universe. Much of this has issues with how cosmology is approached in Islam. Therefore this paper will analyse this often tense relation between religion and science philosophically. The development and discussion on the foundations of western science especially cosmology will be exposed for the sake of reimagining the boundaries of science. Avenues of mergence between the two have been suggested in the past in various guises the most famous of which is the Islamic science idea. This paper will look critically at the notion of Islamic science and suggest ways of application which will be done via the utilization of Islamic cosmology as propounded by Ibn ‘Arabi and his followers in the Malay world. Reimagining’s and paradigm shifts has to be undertaken in order for the Islamic science project to take off from an obscure basis towards being grounded in local and traditional wisdom. The usage of sources close to Nusantara is one such example