The Readable Cosmos: Science, Consciousness, and the Qur'anic Concept of Āyāt

This study examines the relationship between scientific inquiry, consciousness, and the Qurʾānic concept of āyāt (signs). It argues that the perceived conflict between science and religion often stems not from science itself but from scientism—the extension of scientific methodology into a comprehensive metaphysical worldview. The study first distinguishes methodological science from scientism and explores the implications of this distinction for the science–religion debate. It then analyzes the Qurʾānic concept of āyāt, arguing that the Qurʾān presents the cosmos as ordered, intelligible, and open to rational investigation. Finally, the paper engages contemporary debates on consciousness, mathematics, and the limits of reductionism. Drawing on analytic philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and classical Islamic thought, it proposes that the Qurʾānic notion of āyāt provides a framework in which cosmic intelligibility and conscious subjectivity are philosophically interconnected rather than accidental. The study neither treats scientific gaps as proof of theism nor claims that the Qurʾān contains hidden scientific predictions, but argues that the exclusion of metaphysical reflection remains philosophically contested.