Philosophical Background of Biological Classification

(Modern and Islamic Perspective)

Abstract

The study of living organisms is called biology. Biologist divide organisms into groups and subgroups. The branch of biology which deals with the description, naming, identification and classification of organisms is called Taxonomy. Philosophical background of modern science has a great and deep impact on a method of biological classification or Taxonomy. Quintessence of modern scientific philosophy is that evolution of life was driven by blind, forces without a goal, if God exists, He played no part in the process. On the other hand Islam has its own philosophy about origin, development, evolution and diversity of life. There is a lot of information provided by the Quran and hadith about groups and subgroups of organisms, about both botanical and zoological, which can provide basis for a new and separate biological classification system. Twenty basic rules of Biological Classification have been derived from the Qur'an & Hadith in our PhD thesis which provide the philosophical background of the Qur'an & Hadith based classification system. Only two of those have been discussed here in this article for example. Objective of this study is to explore the philosophical background of Biological Classification in modern and Islamic perspectives so that we can evaluate the future importance, sustainability and helpful ness of it for humanity. It can be concluded that the classification system based on the philosophy of classification derived from Islamic sources will be more sustainable, more helpful in the biological research for scientific facts. Descriptive method has been used in this research work. Where there is necessary figures have also been used.