Osman Bakar Brief Introduction
Osman Bakar Brief Introduction
Winner of Global Humanities Award International Department
Dr. Osman Bakar was born in 1946 in Malaysia. He has graduated in mathematics in England. He has felt enthusiastic about religious and philosophical issues and studied many books about Islamic thought as well as western philosophy while he became interested in contemporary scholar, Dr. Seyed Hussein Nasr.
After graduation in PhD of mathematics in 1973, Dr. Bakar had returned to Malaysia and started teaching mathematics. His enthusiasm about philosophy and the history of science in Islamic era made him to go to Temple University and under the supervision of Dr. Seyed Hussein Nasr, he started studying philosophy as well as the history of science. His thesis in this research opportunity has been published as a book under the name of “Classification of Knowledge in Islam”. In another research opportunity in history department of Harvard University, Bakar started a research about mathematics in Muslim culture.
Dr. Osman Bakar has become professor in 1992 as chair of philosophy of science in Malaya University and started teaching philosophy and the history of science in Greek, Indian, Chinese and Islamic civilizations.
Osman Bakar is of the main founders of Islamic World Academy of Science in Malaysia. Moreover, he worked as secretary-general in 1977-1981 and later the president 1987-1992. Some of the objectives of the academy is to promote research and studies in philosophy and the history of science, particularly from Islam point of view. In 1991 he founded the academy’s bilingual journal. He was the first chief editor of the journal.
More than 160 books and articles have been published and presented, mostly in English, in the field of philosophy and the history of science among which 2 books of “Classification of Knowledge in Islam” and “The History and Philosophy of Islamic Science” have translated to Persian and published by Islamic Research Foundation of Astan Quds Razavi.
The Atomic Conception of Nature in Ash’arite Theology,
Ibn Sina’s Methodological Approach Toward the Study of Nature,
Economy as a Science: Insights from Classical Muslim Classification of the Sciences,
Designing a Sound Syllabus for Courses on of Applied and Engineering Science in a 21st Century Islamic University,
Abortion: Islamic Perspectives,
Critique of Evolutionary Theory,
Al-Farabi: Life, Works and Significance,
Asian Islam in 21st Century,
The Challenge to the Dialogue of Civilization,
Islam and Confucianism: A Civilization dialogue,
Contemporary Higher Education Needs in Muslim Countries,
Cultural Pluralism in the Age Globalization- Islam and Civilization Renewal,
Cultural Symbiosis and the Role of Religion in the Contemporary World: An Islamic Perspective,
Environmental Health and Welfare as an important aspect of Civilizational Islam,
Family Values, The Family Institution and Challenges of 21st Century,
are some of the other works of Dr. Bakar.
In summary, it is possible to say that in the last 3 decades Osman Bakar has had a major role in the progress of studies about philosophy and the history of science in Islamic era of Islamic world.
In order to thank the scientific efforts of Dr. Osman Bakar, the Committee of the 4th Islamic Humanities Global Award, grants him the award of the International Department of this round.
It is good to notice, The Supreme Council of the Islamic Humanities has invited Dr. Osman Bakar, in order to participate in the congress, have a presentation and scientific discussions with the scholars and researchers, but as the doctor forbid him long travels, he could not make it to be here. Dr. Bakar apologized for his absence and sent his message to the congress through a film.
Within the movie he notices that he has visited Iran years ago and he missed Iran, but due to health problems doctor forbid him long travels so he cannot make it to be in The 4th Islamic Humanities Global Congress.
Moreover, he reviews some of his works especially “The Classification of Knowledge in Islam”, as well as “A Study about Islamic philosophy” which was published in 1992 and absorbed a lot of attention. As Dr. Bakar highlights, this is his major work because within the book he discussed many issues such as: world, human, human science, epistemology, philosophy of science, interrelation between religion and science in Islam, philosophy and Islamic mysticism perspective.
The second book Dr. Bakar describes about in the movie is “Tawhid and Science” which contains his articles about the philosophy of Islamic humanities and interrelation of science and religion and “this is known to be an introduction to understand The Classification of Knowledge in Islam” he clarifies.
The third book he talks about in the movie is “Qur’anic Pictures of the Universe” which is published in 2016. He declares that the book contains many important notions while it has not absorbed the scholars yet.
He also talks about other ideas of himself in the movie to the 4th Islamic Humanities Global Congress. Of the most important ideas is the environmental humanities which is a novel field of study in humanities. He emphasizes that Islam has many valuable points of view which worth publishing universally. In a monotheistic point of view, Islam, considers the Earth as a homeland to all human being which paves the way for the excellence of the humane. His point is a notice to Iranian Muslim scholars who analyze the global issues from the Islamic perspective and find solutions for them.
The new topic Dr. Bakar is busy with these days is combining Islamic humanities with the modern science and whether it is possible or not. He is focused on how the natural philosophy of Islam can be intermingled with quantum physics so as the result the Islamic Physics would be formed. Also how Islamic philosophy of nature can be mixed with biomolecules and Genetics or how the combination of Farabi, Ibn-Khaldun and Samuel Huntington can lead to a new civilization.
About receiving the Global Award of Islamic Humanities, Dr. Osman Bakar said: “to be honest, I find it hard to talk about this issue. I usually do not talk about the awards I receive. I have been researching about Islam and Islamic civilization for 40 years regardless of receiving any awards or presents.”
He also added: “I would like to talk about a person who has influenced my thoughts the most, Professor Seyed Hussein Nasr, who certainly is one of the contemporary leading Iranian scholars. When I was studying physics and mathematics in London University, I got to know about his thoughts and attitudes about philosophy and Islamic science and later I had this opportunity to work on Philosophy and History of Science in Islamic Era as PhD thesis under his supervision.”