In his paper titled ‘Muslims and the Scientific Education’ Khan acknowledges the negative perception that Islam discourages Muslims from acquiring scientific education or does nothing to encourage it.
In his paper, Khan argues that innumerable verses from the Quran and many sayings of the Prophet can be quoted which explicitly urge their readers to delve deeper into the mysteries of the earth and the heavens. He ponders,”How then is it possible that with such exhortations enshrined in their most sacred literature, Muslims, for whom Islam was and is a living thing, should not have engaged themselves in the observation of nature? which is what science is.”
For Khan “making a study of nature is to discover the Creator in His creation”. Khan quotes Muslim history to contradict the supposition that Islam is an obstacle to scientific investigation. 
He quotes some achievements of Muslim scientists and doctors in the Middle Ages which he says were indeed surprising because of their tremendous scope: 
Physicians such as Razi (865-932 AD) and Ibn Sina (980-1037 AD) stood head and shoulders above all contemporaries.” Ibn Sina’s book Al-Qanun became a classic and was used in many medical schools at Montpellier, France, as late as 1650. The greatest contribution of Arabian medicine was in Chemistry, and in the knowledge and preparation of medicines; many drugs now in use are of Arab origin, and so also are such processes as distillation and sublimation. But it is difficult to understand how these achievements came about at a time when, in the words of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “often the chemistry of that time was mainly a search for the philosopher’s stone, which would supposedly turn all common metals to gold. Astronomers were astrologers and chemists were alchemists. It is, therefore, surprising that, despite all this, the physicians of the Muslim empire did make a noteworthy contribution to medical progress.
While Khan lists down the achievements of early Muslim scientists, he also takes cognizance of what he calls a “verbal controversy” between religious and secular scholars over those verses of the Quran and sayings of the Prophet which lay stress on the importance of learning (AI-Ilm). 
While religious scholars emphasize the acquisition of learning refer to religious learning, Muslim reformers insist that injunctions on learning refer to both the religious and the secular knowledge, explains Khan.
Khan writes, “So far as the verses which deal with learning are concerned, there is surely room for both interpretations. But no matter whether one group takes them to apply to religious learning while another group relates them to secular learning, the importance of modern science simply cannot be denied. It may be an object of heated controversy, but its final acceptance is just as important to Muslims as it is to other nations and communities. Here is a verse from the Quran which not only approves of the acquisition of modern sciences, but which holds it to be the duty of Muslims to pursue them.
“Muster against them all the force and cavalry at your disposal, so that you may strike terror into the enemies of God (8:60)”.
Khan furthers his argument in favour of a scientific and secular education and writes, “The principal reason for Muslims’ backwardness in the field of science can be summed up in one phrase – lack of consciousness. After a long period of intellectual stagnation, our leaders eventually realised the importance of such education and, rousing themselves from the state of inertia into which they had sunk, they set up universities and colleges. What they failed to do, however, was to establish a network of primary and secondary schools which would provide a solid grounding in elementary education and eventually ‘feed’ the institutions of higher learning. Our predecessors had not neglected establishing religious schools at the elementary level, but their successors completely forgot to perform this all important task.
Khan explains that Muslims, for religious reasons, have always been disinclined to send their children to Hindu, Christian or government schools. In the absence then of Muslim schools of a good standard, these children have, through no fault of their own, been unable to qualify themselves for advanced studies.
Khan concludes his paper by saying, “Just as many of those who came under the domination of the English, failed, in their hatred of the conquerors, to differentiate between English and the English, coming to despise the language along with the people, so Muslims did not make the distinction between the men and their sciences. Hating the conquerors, they rejected their learning. Had they been able to separate the two, the history of their own scientific achievement would have been very different. It is a mistake to think of science as being the private pressure of any particular nation. It is, after all, the study of nature, universal in its scope and applications, and a common asset of humanity. Nor is it purely a matter of tradition, whether ethnic or political.”