Religion and basic cosmology combine at the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began on Wednesday after a curious moon-spotting exercise by the world's one billion Muslims.

Scanning the night sky on Tuesday for the first sign of the new moon is an interdisciplinary endeavor of sorts, two eminent Muslim scholars – one in Paris, one in Canada - told United Press International.

"It is an act of faith," said Muzaffar Iqbal of the Center for Islam and Science in Edmonton, Canada.

At the same time it is an elementary act of science, added Iqbal, a chemist, concurring with Bruno Guiderdoni, a top French astrophysicist, and a Muslim, who asked the rhetorical question: "Is not moon-spotting a cosmological process?"

Behind these jests lies a serious matter. While terrorism, fundamentalism and fanaticism have given this religion a bad name, a different Islam is trying to recover its past glory by being in the vanguard of the swiftly evolving dialogue between theology and science.

Both Guiderdoni and Iqbal pointed out that materialist ideologies are on the wane in their fields. And here other religions could indeed learn from Islam's insistence that God shows his face in the harmony of his creation.

A Hindu scholar once confided in Ted Peters, a Lutheran theologian, why he believed in a personal God.

"When I view the awesome glory of those 50 billion galaxies strewn throughout this magnificent cosmos," he said, "when I look in the cloud chambers at the paths of those unpredictable electrons, and when I see how mathematical laws unite such an otherwise unfathomable array of natural phenomena with such elegance and beauty, I just want to say 'thank you' to someone."

This is precisely what Muslims mean when they say, as Guiderdoni did during a recent Science and Spiritual Quest conference in Japan: "Three qualities seem to be relevant for all those who, as scientists and believers, keep a continuous tension towards Truth:

"These are gratefulness [shukr], fear [taqwa] and perplexity [hayrah]. Gratefulness is for the marvels of the cosmos, fear for the sense of transcendence it inspires, perplexity for the continuous existence of unsolved puzzles that points at more fundamental mysteries."

Iqbal reminded this columnist that the molecular structure of water, for example, kept creatures in the ocean alive even in freezing temperatures. "This is so because only the top layer freezes, ice rises and works like a shield for the water. If the ice were denser than water, the ocean would freeze solid and there would be no life left."

Echoing Guiderdoni, Iqbal added that "the physical world, which is under investigation by chemistry, points to an ontological reality."

This is of course the cantus firmus of all discourse between scientists and theologians, regardless of their religious observance. But as Guiderdoni stated, the Koran's observations in this area are particularly pertinent: "You will not see a flaw in the Merciful's creation. Turn up your eyes: can you detect a single crack?" (Surah 67:3).

What Guiderdoni called "God's endless self-disclosure" should of course trigger curiosity, art and poetry, as it did in the Muslim world a millennium ago, Iqbal declared. And there is indeed an intellectual renewal underway, according to Sayyid M. Sayeed, secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America.

But nobody has any illusions that this renaissance will soon be gripping all the world's one billion Muslims, who – for the 29-30 days of Ramadan, one of the five pillars of their religion - will neither eat nor drink during daylight.

Bassam Tibi and Tariq Ramadan, Muslim scholars teaching in Germany and Switzerland, respectively, estimate that a mere 2 percent of their co-religionists have reform in mind. But the growing awareness that God's world is a purposeful and not a random one requires its mutual exploration by practitioners of many faiths.

This mutual enterprise – not to be confused with any syncretistic attempts to paper over the differences between the religions - is the business of a tiny elite. But then, when in history did one ever see anybody but small vanguards initiate significant developments?

The point of all this is that Muslims all around the world engage in a primary religious-cosmological exercise before Ramadan – moon-spotting. But it is left to a few to pray and dream that, following their example, all will eventually stand thankfully, perplexed and in awe before God's flawless work, and realize that its beauty should preclude any kind of ugly fanaticism.