Exploring Abu Raykhan Beruni's Scientific Paradigm and

Ontological Dialectics

Ortikova Dilbar

, Masharipova Gularam

, Bahrom Orzikulov

and Farida Umarova

Tashkent Institute of Textile and Light Industry, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Tashkent Medical Academy, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

National University of Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan

Keywords: Scientific Heritage, Paradigm, Ontological Views. Dialectics, Man, Universe, Nature, Social Life, Creation

of the World.

Abstract: The article scientifically explores the dialectic of the natural science paradigm and the ontological views of

Abu Rayhan Beruni. For Abu Rayhan Beruni, experience is one of the methods of knowing existence. The

natural scientific heritage of Abu Raikhan Beruni, the problems posed by specific sciences, play an important

role in creating a general picture of the world, that is, in the formation of a philosophical worldview.

1 INTRODUCTION

A study of the scientific aspects of the creation of the

Universe, the creator and the doctrine of man, the

universe, nature and social life in the scientific

heritage of thinkers who have made a significant

contribution to world civilization, revealing the

essence of the relationship between man and nature,

a relevant today justification for the place of natural

scientific views in the development of social and

philosophical thinking. Studying nature and its

objective laws, Abu Rayhan Beruni stated that nature

is constantly changing and developing, matter creates

and changes the shape of things, and the soul

(thought, spiritual phenomena) is an important

property of the body. He writes about this: “Only

experience and repeated testing can eliminate my

doubt... despite the unanimous opinion of the

speakers, its validity is not confirmed by experience”

(Abu al-Beruni, 1963; p.44). At the same time, the

scientist describes experience and experimentation as

a way of understanding existence.

According to the researchers, “Beruni can with

good reason be considered one of the creators of the

empirical method in medieval science. He conducted

a number of experiments to determine the properties

and specific gravity of metals and minerals”

(Khairullaev, 1988; p. 39). Experienced knowledge is

interpreted by the thinker as reliable knowledge

according to certain standards.

2 MAIN PART

Observation plays an important role in the work of

Abu Rayhan Beruni. In the scientific study of nature,

observation is interconnected with other forms of

knowledge. In his opinion, the observer perceives the

observed phenomenon in the place where it occurs

(Abu al-Beruni, 1963; p.57). Consequently,

observation records this or that phenomenon in its

specific form (Abu al-Beruni, 1963; p.260). Old

observational data can greatly distort the true

characteristics of an object. Beruni notes that the

experiment conducted by the researcher and its result

are practically reliable. He writes: “There is no other

priority program other than testing; there is no

program leading to success other than testing by

experience” (Abu al-Beruni, 1963; p. 340).

With the help of astronomical observations,

Beruni tried to solve complex problems such as

eclipses of the Moon and the Sun, their impact on life

on Earth, climate, natural and artificial selection,

conservation, developmental anomalies, with the help

of new progressive methods and theoretical

principles.

One of Beruni's contributions to improving the

scientific picture of the universe and solving the most

important philosophical problems associated with it

is posing the question of the equality of his teachings

on the movement and movement of the Earth from a

geometric point of view. In his work “India,” Beruni

pays great attention to the theory of the Indian

Dilbar, O., Gularam, M., Orzikulov, B. and Umarova, F.

Exploring Abu Raykhan Beruni’s Scientiﬁc Paradigm and Ontological Dialectics.

DOI: 10.5220/0012676000003882

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR-2 2023), pages 99-104

ISBN: 978-989-758-723-8

scientist Oryabhata that the Earth moves, but the sky

remains in its place without movement, and expresses

his critical thoughts on this matter. Also, Beruni’s

correspondence with ibn Sina contained various

socio-philosophical and natural science discussions.

According to Beruni, man differs from other creatures

in his mind. Beruni tries to rely on material factors

and laws of nature and reflects on the important role

of the geographical factor in the life of humanity and

society. In his work on India, he analyzes the

differences in the traditions of Hindus and Muslims

and comes to the conclusion that they also depend on

geographical conditions. Abu Rayhan Beruni

expresses the opinion that “... people were forced to

unite into society in order to protect each other, to do

something necessary to provide for themselves and

others” (Abu Beruni, 1968; p. 236). According to

him, in addition to this, a person needs to work

honestly.

Abu Rayhan Beruni is considered one of the

greatest thinkers not only of Central Asia, but also of

the East as a whole, in the history of world science

and culture. His works “India”, “Historical

Monuments of Ancient Peoples”, “Mineralogy”

studied issues such as people’s lifestyle, social life

and social relations. The preface to the work

“Mineralogy” contains valuable thoughts about the

social status of man, the nobility, social life, duty on

earth, and social justice.

Abu Rayhan Beruni is literally one of the

politicians and statesmen of his time. In his work

“Historical Lies of Ancient Peoples,” he left

necessary and interesting information about various

peoples: Greeks, Persians, Malikian Christians, Jews

and pagans, Christian Christians, pagan Arabs,

Sabites, Turks, Muslim Arabs and other peoples.

In his work “India,” he gave reliable opinions

about Indian society, customs, internal structure,

family relationships, year, month and historical dates,

rituals, and marriage issues.

Abu Rayhan Beruni put forward and proved

important scientific and philosophical ideas about

nature, natural phenomena and processes endlessly

occurring in it. It reveals the ontology of changes in

the world, that is, the structure, specific reasons for

the appearance and disappearance of disturbances, as

well as natural scientific and sociological

considerations.

Abu Rayhan Beruni recalls his youth in the work

“Saidana” and says: “Since childhood, I have longed

to learn as much as possible, depending on my age

and circumstances. The following fact can be cited as

proof of this: a Greek moved to the place where we

live (at that time). I took all sorts of grains, seeds,

fruits, etc., showed them to him, asked what these

things were called in his language, and wrote down

their names” (Shamsi, 1974; p. 194-195).

The rich cultural heritage of Abu Rayhan Beruni

was not limited to his scientific and cultural works; in

addition, the encyclopedist was also interested in

political and legal issues. One of the political ideas of

Abu Rayhan Beruni is his views on the emergence of

the state. In his opinion, he puts forward the idea that

people are forced to come together in an organized

way to fight their enemy and satisfy their basic needs.

Therefore, the basic rules of people's social life

should be based on principles such as mutual

assistance, living peacefully with each other, and

working in the name of common interests. The main

task of a person is to work. Because everything is

achieved through hard work. People explain the main

reason for the division of people into oppressors and

oppressors by property inequality, based on concepts

such as rich and poor, and labor and barter contracts

concluded between citizens are divided into two

types: first, legal or fair contracts - in which they

receive wages payment commensurate with their

work. The second is illegal or unfair contracts - where

deception, coercion and inequality are used, where

the interests of only one party are taken into account

(Masharipova, 2019; p. 171-172).

Abu Rayhan Beruni Beruni was an encyclopedist

who was also interested in political and legal issues

and was literally a very knowledgeable person of his

time in matters of state and administration. He seeks

questions about the state, the emergence of law and

his duties from natural needs, like Abu Nasr Farabi.

His ideas have a sense of opposition to despotism, and

people unite into a state based on an agreement to

establish a system of social justice, says Abu Raihan.

- Although enlightened kings are glorified, in his

opinion, society should not serve the king, but the

king should serve society. “The essence of

administration and management is to protect the

rights of those who have suffered under the

oppressors, to lose their own peace for the sake of the

peace of others. It consists of physical exhaustion in

order to protect and defend one's family, one's life and

property. According to his political views, the head of

state must have the ability to govern by nature. The

head of state must have the natural ability to govern,

be firm in his opinions and decisions, and follow the

laws of the sages when solving important issues of the

state. Explaining this with the example of Aristotle's

advice to Alexander and the story of Alexander's

adherence to it, he says: “The task of a just ruler is to

establish equality and justice between the higher and

lower classes, the strong and the weak” (Abu Beruni,

1968; p.73).

To do this, the head of state should follow the

laws of the sages when resolving important issues of

the state. In this, Abu Rayhan Beruni gives the

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example of Aristotle's advice to Alexander, and

Alexander followed it. According to Abu Rayhan

Beruni, “the task of a just ruler is to establish equality

and justice between the upper and lower classes, the

strong and the weak.”

Abu Rayhan Beruni, seeing that the reign has

become a legacy, opposes the law of the state, which

is passed on from one generation to another, and the

position of a person in society is determined by the

antiquity of the generation and the merits of the

ancestors. On this occasion, he says: “Whoever says

that he will receive a position (royal or gubernatorial)

through his deceased relatives and ancestors, he

himself has died, such descendants are alive.” In his

opinion, the leadership of the state depends on the

abilities of a person; he puts forward the idea that the

ability of a particular statesman to manage power

does not depend on the abilities of his descendants.

Nowadays, the skin color, language and appearance

of people differ not only depending on the generation,

but also depending on the environment, air and water

in which they live. In his opinion, the existence of

different states and the existence of different rulers

depend on the above (Abu-р-Raihan, 1963; p.235).

В политических воззрениях Абу Райхана

Беруни выдвигается идея о том, что правитель,

избранный народом для управления

государством, должен быть справедливым и

человеколюбивым (Abu-р-Raihan, 1963; с.237).

Эта мысль поясняется на примере рассказа в

произведении «Минералогия»: «Там между

представителями управления земли

собственниками земли они переходили друг к

другу по очереди, и кому доставалась очередь,

правил эти три месяца. По истечении срока он в

знак благодарности раздает милостыню и

возвращается к своему народу, радуясь вместе с

ним, как будто освободившись от оков, и

занимаясь своим делом. Это потому, что

говорится, что управлять

государством – это

лишение удовольствия. В данном случае он имеет

в виду, что сделает угнетателей в этом месте

справедливыми по отношению к угнетенным. А

это истязать свою жизнь с целью подготовки

военного мероприятия для защиты своих

подчиненных и себя» (Abu-р-Raihan, 1963; p.237).

Abu Rayhan Beruni, in his teaching on spirituality

and enlightenment, says that thinking determines

manners, intelligence, education, work, human life

and social essence. He proved that such important

factors as joint activities based on mutual assistance,

socio-economic, spiritual and educational ties and

relationships play a large role in the formation of

society even in the Middle Ages. The emergence and

development of society, the formation of the spiritual

and moral image of a person are the result of the need

of people to work together, this is often mentioned in

the teachings of Abu Rayhan Beruni.

The need to jointly perform certain tasks lies at

the core of the existence of human activity. “The

dignity and most important task of a person is to

realize his own interests at an excellent level, so in

this place work is valued, thanks to his work a person

can achieve high positions,” writes Abu Rayhan

Beruni in Geodesy” (Bulgakov, 1966; p. 132).

3 RESEARCH METHODS

The study used analysis, synthesis, structural

analysis, induction and deduction, and comparative

methods. The observability of objects, the

reproducibility of experiments and the verifiability of

observations can be noted in the legacy of Abu

Rayhan Beruni. These considerations suggest that

experience as a method of acquiring knowledge and

testing its reliability was quite widespread back in the

medieval period. It is important that the idea is

developed and the acquisition of reliable knowledge

is associated with experience, the reliability of the

knowledge is verified by experience.

4 APPLYING RESEARCH TO

PRACTICE

According to medieval astronomers and

representatives of the exact sciences, Beruni's series

of astronomical discoveries surpassed those of the

Greek astronomer Ptolemy. Beruni's theory of matter,

units of measurement, speed, linear and angular

velocity, weight, specific gravity, contacting vessels,

springs, arterial wells, atmospheric pressure vacuum,

convection, attraction between liquid particles, free

fall of colliding bodies, simple mechanisms,

experiments. and thoughts have not only a physical,

universal, but also a philosophical meaning.

Labor is the basis for the spiritual and moral

improvement of a person. Through work a person gets

what he wants, he explains that due to the lack of

work there is no joy in life. This idea becomes the

main issue in the socio-political and philosophical

teachings of Abu Rayhan Beruni, especially in his

views on spirituality and enlightenment. In the

teachings of Abu Rayhan Beruni, those associated

with spiritual and educational views, morals, labor,

profession, education, knowledge are analyzed and

interpreted in dialectical unity. No wonder he wrote

that any area of practical human activity cannot be

realized without their interdependence. Honesty,

Exploring Abu Raykhan Beruni’s Scientiﬁc Paradigm and Ontological Dialectics

101

fairness, justice - these are signs of Beruni’s excellent

manners and high spirituality. He teaches that even at

his own expense, not to turn away from the truth, to

speak the truth, to approach everything fairly and

impartially, he himself becomes an example of

lifelong loyalty to these ideas and teachings.

The teachings of Abu Rayhan Beruni about

spirituality and enlightenment, universal ideas such as

science, brotherhood, culture, sincerity, justice,

equality, humanity, goodness, correctness, serve as

the moral, ethical, spiritual and philosophical basis

for the formation of a new national education of

thought.

Alloma's thoughts, on the one hand, creatively

developed the advanced traditions of Central Asia, on

the other hand, Beruni's maturity testifies to the

breadth of the range of thought. It is noteworthy that

he raised the question of the “cause of causes” of man

and the emergence of human society. “The oldest and

most famous of ancient stories is the beginning of

humanity” (Abu Beruni, 1968; p.50). At this point we

see that Beruni takes a position of rationalism

regarding the emergence of an individual society.

When Beruni spoke about the existence of tawafut

between people, he thought only about external

differences. But the internal structure and

organization of people, in his opinion, are the same

for everyone. He notes that there are similarities

between humans and apes.

Analyzing the differences between Muslim and

Indian traditions in his work “India”, he put forward

the idea that they depend on geographical conditions,

continuing to analyze the role of the geographical

factor, he believed that even the diversity of

languages depends on geographical conditions. “The

reason languages vary is because people divide into

groups and stay away from each other.”

Abu Rayhan Beruni admits that social life is built

on the basis of a special “contract”: “A person begins

to realize his needs and the need to live together with

people like him. Therefore, they begin to draw up a

“contract” of mutual consent. The cohabitation of

people does not lead a person to real power, to the

satisfaction of his needs, for this, too, one must

work.” Continuing this thought, he wrote that “the

dignity of man consists in the performance of his duty

at an excellent level: therefore the most important

duty and place of man is determined by work, and

man achieves his desire through work.”

At one time, Abu Rayhan Beruni founded real

scientific natural science; in its various fields, he put

forward ideas and scientific hypotheses that were

amazing for his time, which were proven in European

science several centuries later. Beruniy is one of the

pioneers of precise scientific thinking, based on real

experience, observations and experiments in the

Middle Ages. He also worked in the field of

philology, studied the structure of Indian poetry, and

translated classical Arabic poetry and examples of

Iranian folklore into Arabic. Beruni believed that the

development of the country is inextricably linked

with the development of science [9, p. 126-138].

“Every scientist must base his reasoning on

practice, work continuously in his research, be

precise, look for and correct all kinds of fabrications

for the sake of truth in science, and fight

superficiality,” he said. He fought for peoples to live

as a union, and strongly condemned wars that destroy

humanity, the science and culture it created. In his

work “India,” he wrote with regret that “there is a lot

of friction and quarrels between peoples.” His

extensive research work in India focused on issues of

friendship and strengthening mutual cooperation and

cultural ties between peoples. It can be seen that

Beruni paid great attention to the wide dissemination

of cultural knowledge and cooperation.

Beruni places particular emphasis on emotional

cognition. He writes: “When the fields of knowledge

develop more and more, they will increase as the

intellect of people joins them, and a sign of this is the

desire of people for science, respect for it, respect for

scientists.” Regarding the knowledge of the unknown

principles of reality, he says: “All phenomena that

need to be known have a path through which

knowledge can be obtained.”

The encyclopedic book by Abu Rayhan Beruni

entitled “Relics of Ancient Peoples” (Abu Beruni,

1968) can be considered a classic encyclopedic work

devoted to the analysis and synthesis of the events of

the last 5 thousand years of human history. In this

book, the great thinker spoke about the methods that

he used in the process of writing the work, and wrote

about his scientific and philosophical research:

“During the writing of this work, I became convinced

that it is impossible to obtain real information by

citing evidence from intellectual things and

comparing them with observable things. This is

determined by following only the “people of the

book” and various religious figures, people of various

professions and beliefs who follow these (beliefs) and

their concepts are always justified. Then this is known

by comparing the words and the beliefs that they

bring for proof” (Abu Beruni, 1968; p. 406).

The ways and methods of understanding the

world are developed in philosophy and this is

expressed in methodology (the study of methods).

The social philosophy of Abu Rayhan Beruni is based

on a discussion about the ways and methods of

studying man and society (Karimov et al., 2008; p.5).

Abu Rayhan Beruni notes that the landscape of the

world was formed as a result of an evolutionary

process. “This supports the idea that the source

governing the Universe is a conflict consisting of

“structure and destruction” (Abu Beruni, 1968; p. 26).

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At the same time, Beruni says that the force that

leads the world to social development is not conflicts

and contradictions, but reconciliation and harmony at

different social levels. “How can you believe in

something that clearly contradicts?” (Abu Beruni,

1968; p.44), - the thinker points to the growing need

to change processes free from contradictions.

Throughout his entire creative activity, Alloma was

interested in issues of social life, and expressed his

philosophical views in the works “India” and “Relics

of Ancient Peoples”. Abu Rayhan Beruni developed

the philosophical ideas of thinkers of Central Asia

and the East. In particular, in his work “Memorials of

Ancient Peoples,” he tried to solve the issue of human

life on a scientific basis. He showed the importance

of the geographical factor in the life of society and

people, its influence on social events. He attributed

differences in Muslim and Hindu traditions to

geographical conditions and even attributed

differences between languages to geographical

factors. In his opinion, the path to philosophy lies

through the natural sciences, which allow us to deeply

understand existence. In general, Beruni agrees with

the definition of philosophy as a science that cognizes

the essence of existence. He also agreed with the

point of view of Abu Mashar al-Balkhi that “Nature

is the strongest” (Abu Beruni, 1968; p. 99). Scientists

of the East and West made a significant contribution

to the creation and development of world socio-

philosophical teaching. During certain periods of

social development, the countries of the East

occupied a leading position. Theoretically, it is wrong

to one- sidedly exaggerate or underestimate the role

of the peoples of Asia and Europe in the development

of world philosophy. Any science is inherently

universal. Every nation on earth, regardless of its size,

contributes to its development.

As the spirituality of mankind grew, views on

society also improved; more complex and reliable

scientific and philosophical views on society arose in

comparison with very simple religious and

mythological views on society. Great scholars such as

Farobi, Abu Rayhan Beruni and Ibn Sina made

significant contributions to the development of

consistent scientific and philosophical views on

society. For many centuries, their progressive views

played an important role in improving social relations

and the formation of a perfect human personality and

are still relevant today.

Abu Rayhan Beruni founded real scientific

natural science in the conditions of the Middle

Eastern Renaissance; he put forward scientific and

hypothetical ideas that were amazing for his time in

various fields of natural science, which were proven

in European science several centuries later. It should

be noted that Beruni’s works express deep socio-

scientific and philosophical considerations and

generalizations related to his natural science views.

Based on the scientific and philosophical teachings of

Farabi, he believes that Allah is the root cause of

everything. He understands that God is recognized as

the creator of all things. But Beruni gives nature the

right to develop and change everything that comes

from the root cause. According to his teachings,

everything in nature is created on the basis of natural

laws, nature has its own natural force, and under the

influence of this force, processes of non-stop

movement, change, growth, development,

emergence, decay, and destruction occur in nature.

We can conclude that Beruni was close to deism in

his scientific and philosophical views. He talks about

the literature of the material world (Masharipova,

2019; p. 177).

The socio-political views of Abu Rayhan Beruni

are imbued with humanitarian ideas. He explains man

as the most noble creature. He emphasizes that people

should not live only for themselves, people should

help each other. In his opinion, the differences

between people exist rather externally, and they have

commonality in terms of internal structure and

organization.

Historiography includes the article “The Works of

Abu Rayhan Beruni in Oxford,” published by

A. Khabibullaev in the eighth issue of the

collection, which provides information about

the works of Abu Rayhan Beruni, stored in

the Bodleian Library of the University of

Oxford, Great Britain; Nine manuscripts of

seven of his works are reported to exist, and

a brief description of them is appended.

5 CONCLUSION

1. Abu Rayhan Beruni believes that scientific truth

should be a certain criterion. He knew that the

complex and difficult task of proving the

unfoundedness of untrue, unexamined,

heartbreaking, deafening and stunning myths and

unfounded claims could be solved through experience

and practice. At the same time, we have every right to

say that he is a great scientist who understood the

importance of logical conclusions and taught us to see

the concepts of “intuitive knowledge” and “mental

knowledge” together.

2. Studying the scientific heritage of Abu

Rayhan Beruni makes it clear that the scientist

recognizes observation as the first stage of scientific

knowledge, and also raises observation to the level of

conducting active experiments, which he widely used

in his scientific and creative activities.

3. In his astronomical table, Beruni put

forward the heliocentric hypothesis that the center of

Exploring Abu Raykhan Beruni’s Scientiﬁc Paradigm and Ontological Dialectics

103

the Universe is not the Earth, but the Sun, and that all

planets, including the Earth, revolve around the Sun.

Alloma's scientific conclusion was scientifically

confirmed 500 years later in the heliocentric system

of the great astronomer Copernicus. In a conversation

with Abu Ali ibn Sina, Beruni comes to the

conclusion that the planets in the Universe, including

the Earth, have mutual attraction. His scientific

assumption was scientifically substantiated by the

law of universal gravitation, discovered by the

English scientist Newton at the beginning of the 18th

century. With his socio- political views, Abu Rayhan

Beruni developed the advanced traditions of not only

Central Asian, but also ancient Indian, Greek and

Iranian thinkers, and became known to the world as a

historical sociologist.

4. The philosophical views of Abu Rayhan

Beruni study the national and religious views of the

Central Asian region. In Beruni's philosophical

views, along with religious knowledge, his views on

worldly natural science were confirmed in European

science.

5. Beruni emphasizes that the force that leads

the world to social development is not conflicts and

contradictions, but compromise and consensus at

different social levels.

6. Abu Rayhan Beruni saw the development

of the country and the well-being of the nation as

inextricably linked with the development of science.

Emphasizing the need for every scientist to be

practical in his discussions, to have a clear goal in his

research, to work tirelessly to find and correct errors,

to fight superficiality for the sake of truth in science

and to live as a union in the land of various

fabrications, emphasizing the need to fight

superficiality by fighting for that , in order to live as

one union, the peoples are united, united, strongly

condemned wars that bring destruction to humanity,

called on people for peace. He also highly valued the

practical application of experience and creative

activity as observation in scientific knowledge.

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