Sciences and religions in the late modern period

Editorials would normally take up a page sometimes a little more and project the founders' purpose, developing their strategy, informing on contents and helping to form a chronological overview. The review's management specified that before undertaking this project, they had built substantial documentary holdings . Al Muqtataf essentially promoted science as understood in Europe and America, by publishing data, research or findings yielded by Western scientific societies and reporting on their activities. Through a wholly unconventional approach they purported to offer some kind of synthesis of the knowledge made available in specialised publications as well as to disseminate it. So that, according to its founders the review's frame of reference is unlike any other.

The editorial team firmly believed that the presentation of scientific facts and their dissemination were as important and necessary as their discovery and verification. They frequently referred to the numerous reviews they perused but did not expressly quote them. They addressed all science and technology fields, everything pertaining to farming, manufacturing and trading. Matters relating to heritage and civilisation were secondary, even though they were not neglected. From the beginning of the 20th century, medicine took pride of place and a physician was put in charge of the new feature entitled “health and healthcare” . Practical features were many and subject to on-going change. Aimed at those of their readers whose education was basic, they proposed to stimulate them and modify their behaviour. Accordingly the review made room for a correspondence that mostly took the form of questions and answers touching on housekeeping, women's concerns, wars and conflicts. This diversification sought to meet a full range of tastes; and the review printed pictures, photographs, sketches to further entice readers. The illustrations accompanied the profiles of personalities, archaeological sites or, say, new technological equipment.

The editorial team repeatedly stated their wish to stir clear off any potentially controversial issue, loftily maintaining their objective neutrality. They further insisted on their intention to shun strictly religious questions. However they afforded significant space to Darwin's theory over the two first decades of publication. On that particular matter, al-Muqtataf clashed with the review al-Maqrish and the periodical al-Bachir under Jesuit editorship, as well as with Muslim intellectuals. Accused of “impiety” on the basis of their benevolent interest in the theory of evolution, Al Muqtataf's editors contended that it behoved to discriminate between scientific and religious realms. Actual unbelief, they added was to be found in the believer who accused another of impiety.

The late twenties and early thirties' questioning around the relations between religion and science was addressed through the translation of an article by Albert Einstein entitled Religion and science published in the New York Times Magazine of 9 November 1930. The editors had aired some aspects of their faith. In an article published in 1928, Yaqub Sarruf noted the vastness of the cosmos, concluding that « “the universe is large and the creator must be even larger, his might absolute and his eye watching all creatures [...] we are all naked before him, within and without” ». One year later, pondering life's mystery, he stated that « “life is at the very core of the movement of the universe and the world's spirit proclaims the existence of a life-giving, mighty and wise God according to the well established principle that for every effect there is a cause and for every action an agent” ». He went on to introduce the principle of Providence: « “The wise creator did not merely create beings to abandon them: He is mindful of them all the time and in all the cycles of their lives. Should he neglect them but for a day the order of the universe would be upset, living things would die and its components vanish.” » Farris Nimr fully shared these views.