MIRACLES OF THE HOLY QURAN
THE FUSING AND
SEPARATING OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH :
How do modern scientists explain the formation of the universe? Dr. Maurice
Bucaille explains it in his book, The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, as follows:
"The basic process in the formation of the universe . . . Lay in the
condensing of material in the primary nebula followed by its division into
fragments that originally constituted galactic masses. The latter in their turn
split up into stars that provided the subproduct of the process, i.e. the
planets" (p. 149). Does the Qur'an say anything about this condensing and
separation of the primary material to result in the formation of our universe?
Let's have a look. The creator, Allah, says in his final
book: "Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were fused
together, then we separated them . . ." (Qur'an 21:30).
Dr. Bucaille sees this as "the reference to a separation process of a
primary single mass whose elements were initially fused together" (p.143).
Thus the Qur'an gives an accurate account of the formation of the universe to
call upon humankind to recognize the power of their creator.
This raises an interesting question: How could a man living in the seventh
century invent these ideas which could not be confirmed until modern times? And
how could he in so doing avoid the mythical and fanciful ideas prevalent in
human history? Dr. Bucaille mentions some of these myths for contrast:
"When, as in Japan, the image of the egg plus an expression of chaos is
attached to the above with the idea of a seed inside an egg (as for all eggs),
the imaginative addition makes the concept lose all semblance of seriousness. In
other countries, the idea of a plant is associated with it; the plant grows and
in so doing raises up the sky and separates the heavens from the earth. Here
again, the imaginative quality of the added detail lends the myth its very
distinctive character" (p. 152).
In contrast to those myths, the Qur'anic statements are "free from any of
the whimsical details accompanying such beliefs; on the contrary, they are
distinguished by the sober quality of the words in which they are made, and
their agreement with scientific data" (p. 152).
It must be that the Qur'an is not the product of any human or humans, but a
revelation from Allah. The Qur'an says: "The revelation of the scripture
whereof there is no doubt is from the Lord of the Worlds" (Qur'an 32:2).
The Sun is a star that is roughly 4.5 billion years old, according to experts in
astrophysics. It is possible to (distinguish a stage in its evolution, as one
can for all the stars. At present, the Sun is at an early stage, characterized
by the transformation of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. Theoretically, this
present stage should last another 5.5 billion years according to calculations
that allow a total of 10 billion years for the duration of the primary stage in
a star of this kind. It has already been shown, in the case of these other
stars, that this stage gives way to a second period characterized by the
completion of the transformation of hydrogen into helium, with the resulting
expansion of its external layers and the cooling of the Sun. In the final stage,
its light is greatly diminished and density considerably increased; this is to
be observed in the type of star known as a 'white dwarf'.
The above dates are only of interest in as far as they give a rough estimate of
the time factor involved, what is worth remembering and is really the main point
of the above, is the notion of an evolution. Modern data allow us to predict
that, in a few billion years, the conditions prevailing in the solar system will
not be the same as they are today. Like other stars whose transformations have
been recorded until they reached their final stage, it is possible to predict an
end to the Sun. The second verse quoted above (sura 36, verse 38) referred to
the Sun running its course towards a place of its own. Modern astronomy has been
able to locate it exactly and has even given it a name, the Solar Apex: the
solar system is indeed evolving in space towards a point situated in the
Constellation of Hercules (alpha lyrae) whose exact location is firmly
established; it is moving at a speed already ascertained at something in the
region of 12 miles per second. All these astronomical data deserve to be
mentioned in rel
ation to the two verses from the Qur'an. Since it is possible to state that they
appear to agree perfectly with modern scientific data.
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FROM A GASEOUS MASS TO THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH
Concerning the creation of the heavens and the earth, the Qur'an says that prior
to the creation, the Heaven was smoke. God then commanded it and the earth to
come into being and they came willingly (see surah 41:1 1). How does that
compare with modern scientific explanations? Let us hear a scientific
explanation and then judge for ourselves.
The French scientist Dr. Maurice Bucaille in his book called The Bible, the
Qur'an and Science explains: "At the earliest time it can provide us with,
modern science has every reason to maintain that the universe was formed from a
gaseous mass principally composed of hydrogen and a certain amount of helium
that was slowly rotating" (p.147). (Big Bang Theory)
Didn't the Qur'an say that the Heaven was smoke before its creation? Dr.
Bucaille explains the connection between his description and that of the Qur'an
as follows: "Smoke is generally made up of a gaseous substratum, plus, in
more or less stable suspension, fine particles that may belong to solid and even
liquid states of matter at high or low temperature" (p. 143).
He therefore sees no contradiction of the Quranic use of the Arabic word dukhan
(translated smoke) and a modern interpretation of that word as a gaseous mass
with fine particles when speaking of the formation of the universe.
We notice here two remarkable features of the Qur'an. The first feature is that
it expresses scientific truths that will be verified many centuries later. The
second feature is that the Qur'an expresses those truths using terms and
expressions that would avoid confusing its first readers in the seventh century.
The seventh century reader of the Qur'an can easily relate to the image of
smoke, and the twentieth century scientist can easily interpret the word as a
gaseous mass.
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AVOIDING THE
MISTAKES OF GENESIS
As we saw in chapter 2, both the Quran and modern science confirm that the
heavens and the earth were created simultaneously, having been separated from a
primary nebula. It is important to understand that the Bible, the most famous
record of the creation prior to the Quran gives a sequence for the creation of
the heavens and the earth that is today found unacceptable from a scientific
standpoint. If the Quran was the work of human beings it is difficult to imagine
how they could have avoided the human errors so firmly fixed in the minds of
people from the previous records.
In the Bible, in Genesis, chapter 1, we read that God created light which He
called day, and separated it from the darkness which He called night (see v. 3).
Today we know that the alternation of day and night is caused by the earth's
movement in relation to the sun. But, according to Genesis, the sun was not
created until the fourth day (see v. 16). So how could day and night alternate
before that?
A related problem is that vegetation is created on the third day (see vv. 11-12)
whereas the sun which is necessary for sustaining vegetation does not appear
until the fourth day.
"What is totally untenable" says Dr. Bucaille, "is that a highly
organized vegetable kingdom with reproduction by seed could have appeared before
the existence of the sun" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 42).
We have already seen that the Quran states, and modern science confirms, that
the heavens and the earth were formed together. Dr. Bucaille explains as
follows: "Earth and moon emanated, as we know, from their original star,
the sun. To place the creation of the sun and moon after the creation of the
earth is contrary to the most firmly established ideas on the formation of the
elements of the solar system" (p. 42). By giving a sequence in which the
sun and moon are created after the creation of the earth, the Genesis account
proves erroneous. On the other hand, the Quran, by speaking of the simultaneous
creation of the heavens and the earth, has judiciously avoided the errors of the
Genesis account.
Could the Quran have been authored by a human? No! Dr. Bucaille asks: "How
could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have made corrections to the
existing description to such an extent that he eliminated scientifically
inaccurate material and, on his own initiative, made statements that science has
only in the present day been able to verify?" (p.151). (Dr. Bucaille was
not born a muslim, but after reading the Quran and seeing how the Quran goes in
such details into Science he converted to Islam.)
SIX DAYS OF CREATION OR SIX PERIODS?
Today we know that the creation process can be measured in billions of years.
The priestly editors or the Bible could not have known this. In their eagerness
to enjoin Sabbath observance on others they wrote that God rested on the very
first Sabbath day after finishing up his work of creating the heavens and the
earth.
The six days of creation in the book of Genesis, then, are clearly like six days
of any seven-day week. The Priestly editors have made it clear that a day is
meant a period from one sunset to another. Six days meant from Sunday to Friday.
They believed that the reason the Sabbath day became holy is that God Himself
had rested on that day. Thus the editors tell us: "By the seventh day God
had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from
all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he
rested from all the work of creating that he had done" (Genesis 2:2).
If that is not far enough, the editors took the idea that God rested farther
still when they wrote as follows: "In six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed" (The Holy
Bible, King James Version, Exodus 31: 17).
The idea that God rests like humans and gets refreshed like humans had to be
corrected by Jesus, on whom be peace, when, according to John, he declared that
God never stops working, even on the Sabbath day (see John 5:16). God clarified
the matter in His own words when he declared: "And verily we created the
heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, and naught of
weariness touched us" (Quran 50:38 see also v. 15).
The above quranic verses clearly refute the idea that God rested. God, according
to the Quran does not get tired. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes him (Quran
2:255).
But how about the period of creation? Was that six days in the Quran too? In the
above quotation from the Quran the term translated 'days' could mean, according
to Dr. Maurice Bucaille, "not just 'days', but also 'long periods of time',
an indefinite period of time (but always long)" (The Bible, the Quran and
Science, p. 139).
Dr. Bucaille notes that the Quran also speaks of "a day whereof the measure
is a thousand years of your reckoning" (Quran 32:5). The Quran also speaks
of a day whereof the measure is 50,000 years" (Quran 70:4).
Dr. Bucaille also points out that long before our modern ideas of the length of
time involved in the creation, commentators of the Quran understood that when
the Quran speaks of six days of creation, it does not mean six days like ours,
but rather six periods. Abu al Su'ud, for example, writing in the sixteenth
century, understood it as six events (see The Bible, the Quran and Science,
p.l39).
Again, we see that the Quran has avoided repeating an error which was
established in a previous book an error that will not be discovered until modern
times. In view of this, can anyone insist that the Quran is the work of a man?
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HOW OLD IS THE EARTH?
The Bible provides a chronology of history that extends back to the creation of
Adam and Eve and to the creation of the earth. From this chronology it is
possible to determine the date of the creation and hence the age of the earth.
Archbishop Ussher of Armagh (1581-1657) had calculated the year of creation to
be 4004 BC If that was not precise enough, Dr. Lightfoot of Cambridge worked out
that the exact time when God completed His creation was 9 a.m. on Friday,
October 23, 4004 BC (see the book 7whinking about God by Sr. R. W. Maqsood, p.
63).
Many religious groups and sects have used this date in predicting precise dates
for the end of the world, but all such predictions have so far proved erroneous.
The one fact against them is that the world is still intact and we are very much
alive.One reason al1 of those predictions failed is that they are calculated
from a false date of creation. If 4004 BC was the year of creation, that would
make the earth less than six thousand years old. No scientist can accept this
today.
Modern scientists estimate that the earth is 4.5 billion years old with a
maximum error of 2.2 % (see The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 148). Knowing
this, many educated people lost faith in religion. (Judaism & Christianity)
They naturally felt that the Word of God should not contain errors of this kind.
Others maintain that the Word of God was meant to teach only that truth which
God wanted put into the scriptures for our salvation It if therefore immaterial
if the book contains historical or scientific errors. As the scientist Galileo
put it, the Bible is there to teach people how to go to heaven; it is not there
to teach people how the heavens go. Some maintain, therefore, that it is
understandable that the book will contain some historical and scientific errors
since it was written by human beings who lived a long time ago and did not share
our modern knowledge. (The Quran completely refutes this idea. The Quran does
not contain any Scientifical mistakes like the Bible does. Did man write the
Bible or
God. If not God than why do they say the Holy Bible is the Word of God) The
Quran, on the other hand, does not contain any historical or scientific or any
kind of error. God challenges us to test this claim by examining the book for
ourselves (see Quran 4:82).The Quran does not repeat the incorrect biblical
chronology we have seen above. The Quran does not give a chronology since its
purpose is not to provide us with the details of history, but only to teach us
the lessons arising from specific events in history.
The Quran does, however tell us that God measured the sustenance of the earth in
four periods (Quran 41 :10). As to what could be the significance of these four
periods, Dr. Bucaille comments as follows: "One could perhaps see in them
the four geological periods described by modern science, with man's appearance,
as we already know, taking place in the quaternary era. This is purely a
hypothesis since nobody has an answer to this question" (The Bible, the
Quran and Science, p. 150).
How did the author of the Quran avoid the mistake in chronology committed by so
many others, and believed in by so many others even up to our present day? Could
a man in the seventh century have known that the earth was much more than six
thousand years old? How could he come by this modern knowledge unless God was
revealing knowledge to him?
God tells us that the Quran is His book and not the work of any man (see Quran
10:37).
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INTERSTELLAR
GALACTIC MATERIAL
The Quran mentions a rather curious category of created things, namely things
between the heavens and the earth. Dr. Bucaille observes that this mention in
the Quran "may surprise the twentieth century reader of the Quran"
(The Bible, tl1e Quran and Science, p. 144). For example, one verse says as
follows: "To Him (God) belongs what is in the heavens, on earth, between
them and beneath the soil" (Quran 20:6; other verses include 25:59, 32:4
and 50:38).
What is that between the heavens and the earth? Dr. Bucaille explains as
follows: "The creation outside the heavens and outside the earth is a
priori difficult to imagine. To understand these verses, reference must be made
to the most recent observations on the existence of cosmic extragalactic
material, and one must indeed go back to ideas established by contemporary
science on the formation of the universe . . ." (p. 145).
Scientists tell us that a primary nebula condensed, then divided up into
fragments. These fragments, these galactic masses, further split up into stars
and their sub-products, the planets. Each time such a division or split
occurred, there remained extra material apart from the principal elements newly
formed. The scientific name for these extra materials is 'interstellar galactic
material'.
Is this extra material significant? Yes. Experts in astrophysics are quite aware
of such material which have "a tendency to interfere with photometric
measurements" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 149). The extra
material is so rarefied that they may be referred to as dusts or smokes or
gases. Yet they altogether occupy so much total space that they may correspond
to "a mass possibly greater than the total mass of the galaxies" (p.
149).
Again, we must face up to the implication of all this. How could a man living
fourteen hundred years ago have known about interstellar galactic material? Was
Muhammad, on whom be peace, well versed in modern astrophysics? Or is the Quran
nothing but the Word of God? Allah, the only true God, declares in His book:
"The revelation of the scripture is from Allah, the Mighty, the Wise.
Surely We [Allah] have revealed the scripture unto you [Muhammad] with truth; so
worship Allah, making religion pure for Him (only)" (Quran 39:1-2).
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FORMATION OF IRON!
This is no less than a reminder to (all) the worlds. And you shall certainly
know the truth of it (all) after a while. (Qur?aan 38:87-88).
Thus, the Qur?aan is a reminder for all of mankind until the Last Hour. It
contains information that man discovers in due time. Because this Qur?aan was
revealed from Allah?s knowledge and every single verse in it was revealed with
Allah?s knowledge, as He Himself said:
Professor Armstrong works at NASA, otherwise known as the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, where he is a well-known scientist there. We met with
him and asked a number of questions about Qur?aanic verses dealing with the
expertise in Astronomy. We asked him about Iron and how it was formed. He
explained how all the elements in the earth were formed. He stated that the
scientists have come only recently to discover the relevant facts about that
formation process. He said that the energy of the early solar system was not
sufficient to produce elemental Iron.
In calculating the energy required to form one atom of iron, it was found to be
about four times as much as the energy of the entire solar system. In other
words, the entire energy of the earth or the moon or the planet Mars or any
other planet is not sufficient to form one new atom of iron, even the energy of
the entire solar system is not sufficient for that. That is why Professor
Armstrong said that the scientists believe that iron is an extraterrestrial that
was sent to earth and not formed therein.
We read to him the Qur?aanic verse saying: And we sent down Iron, in which is
Great might, as well as many benefits for mankind (Qur?aan 57-25).
Then we asked him about the sky and whether it had any gaps or rifts in it. He
disproved this and replied that what we are talking about is a branch of
Astronomy called the "Integrated Cosmos" which we scientists have only
come to know recently. For example, if you have a body in outer space which
travels a certain distance in any direction and then travel the same distance in
a different direction, you will find that the mass weight is the same in all
directions. Because this body has its own equilibrium, the pressures from all
directions are the same. Without this equilibrium, the whole universe would
collapse. I recalled Allah?s verse in the
Qur?aan: " Do they not look at the sky above them? How we have made it and
adorned it, and there are no flaws in it?" (Qur?aan 50:6).
Then we talked to Professor Armstrong about the attempts of scientists to reach
the edge of the universe, and we asked him whether they were successful in this.
He replied that they are fighting an uphill battle to the edge of the universe,
we construct more powerful equipment to observe the universe only to discover
that the new stars we see are still within our galaxy and that we have not yet
reached the edge of the universe. He is aware of the Qur?aanic verse which says:
And we adorned the lowest heaven with lamps and we made such (lamps) missiles to
drive away satans. (Qur?aan 67:5).
Indeed, all these stars are adornments for the lowest heaven. He says that
scientists have not reached the end of the universe. Professor Armstrong added
that because of this, they are thinking of stationing more telescopes in outer
space so that their observations will not be obstructed by dust and other
atmospheric impediments. Vision telescopes using light are unable to travel long
distances, so we replaced them with radio operated ones enabling us to see
further, but we nevertheless are still within the boundaries. I mentioned to him
this verse: So turn thy vision again: Do you see any flaw? Again turn your
vision a second time: (your) vision will come back to you dull and discomfited,
in a state worn out (Qur?aan 67:3-4).
Each time Professor Armstrong told us some scientific fact, we mentioned to him
the relevant verse which he agreed with. Then said to him: ?You have seen and
discovered for yourself the true nature of modern Astronomy by means of modern
equipment, rockets, and space ships, developed by man. You have also seen how
the same facts were mentioned by the Qur?aan 14 centuries ago, so what is your
opinion about these?
He replied: That is a difficult question which I have been thinking about since
our discussions here. I am impressed that how remarkably some of the ancient
writings seem to correspond to modern and recent Astronomy.
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HOW MANY EARTHS ARE
THERE?
If you open the Quran to the first surah, you will notice it begins as follows:
"In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah,
Lord of the Worlds." Worlds? Not just one? Yes . . . worlds! There is the
physical world, the spiritual world, the world of bacteria, and so forth. That,
obviously, is one sense in which we can understand 'worlds'.
Another verse of the Quran, however, makes it clear that there are many earths
(see Quran 65:12). Is it possible that there may be other earths out there?
No one expects to find another earth within our solar system. But scientists say
it is likely that in our galaxy there are many earths outside the solar system.
They say that approximately 50 billion stars in the Milky Way rotate slowly, as
does the sun. This characteristic indicates that those stars are surrounded by
planets that are their satellites. The Bernard Star, for example, is believed to
have at least one planetary companion. (see The Bible, the Quran and Science, p.
148). Dr. Bucaille quotes P. Guerin as follows: "All the evidence points to
the fact that planetary systems are scattered in profusion all over the
universe. The solar system and the earth are not unique" (p. 148-9).
In a recent article published in the Toronto Star, two scientists advanced
evidence that there may indeed be many earths waiting to be discovered. The
headline read: "Earths may be dime a dozen out there."
The Quran also uses the symbolic plural number 7 to indicate the existence of a
plurality of heavens (see Quran 2:29, for example). Dr. Bucaille comments that
this is "confirmed by modern science due to the observations experts in
astrophysics have made on galactic systems and their very large number" (p.
150).
Once again we find that the Quran says something and scientists later discover
it to be true. Can we resist believing in this book of God? God says:
"Those who disbelieve in the Reminder when it comes unto them (are guilty),
for indeed it is an unassailable Scripture. Falsehood cannot come at it from
before it or behind it. (It is) a revelation from the Wise, the Owner of
Praise" (Quran 41 :41-42).
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ORGANIZATION OF THE
UNIVERSE
What the Quran mentions about the organization of the Universe is important
because "these references constitute a new fact of divine Revelation"
(The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 153). The Quran deals with this matter in
depth although this is not dealt with in the previous scriptures.
Dr. Maurice Bucaille also points out the important fact that the Quran does not
contain "the theories prevalent at the time of the Revelation that deal
with the organization of the celestial world" (p. 153). If the Quran was
authored by any human being, he or she would have naturally included the ideas
prevalent at the time. But many of those ideas were later shown to be
inaccurate. How did the author of the Quran know enough to exclude those ideas,
unless the author is God himself.
Those who say that Muhammad authored the Quran think that the Arabs were very
knowledgeable in the field of Science, and Muhammad was or course one of them.
But this explanation is based on the incorrect assumption that the Arabs knew
Science before the Quran was revealed. As pointed out by Dr. Bucaille, the fact
is that Science in Islamic countries came after the Quran, not before. "In
any case", writes Dr. Bucaille, "the scientific knowledge of that
great period would not have been sufficient for a human being to write some of
the verses to be found in the Quran" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p.
1 53-1 54)
Modern astronomers are aware that the stars and planets are kept within ranges
of precise distances from each other. Had it not been for this fact, collision
between them would be inevitable. The author of the Quran was also aware of
this. In the Quran we read "the sun and the moon (are subjected) to
calculations (Quran 55:5).
Again, we read: "For you (God) subjected the sun and the moon, both
diligently pursuing their courses" (Quran 14:33). The phrase 'diligently
pursuing their courses' is a translation of the Arabic term daa'ib which here
means 'to apply oneself to something with care in a perseverant, invariable
manner, in accordance with set habits' (The Bible, the Quran and Science,
p.l55). And that indeed is how the sun and moon behave.
Another verse in the Quran says, "the stars are in subjection to His
command" (Quran 16:12). Order in the universe is essential for its
preservation. God, who subjected them to that order knew about it before any
scientist.
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WHAT HOLDS UP THE
SKY?
Today scientists speak of gravitational forces that hold the heavenly bodies
apart from each other and prevent them from colliding with each other. How was
this to be conveyed to the first readers of the Quran? God tells us in the Quran
that He is the One Who raised the sky (Quran 55:7) and that he holds it back
from falling on the earth (Quran 22:65). But how exactly does God do this?
If the author of the Quran was a human being, it would have been very easy for
the author to copy the answer to this question from the Bible. But today no one
will believe that answer.
In the New American Bible, a picture is drawn to show how the authors of the
Bible imagined the world to look like. In that picture, the sky "resembles
an overturned bowl and is supported by columns" (The New American Bible,
St. Joseph's Medium Size Edition, pp. 4-5). The earth in that picture is flat,
and is also supported by pillars. After describing the picture at length, the
editors of that Bible conclude by calling that idea of the world a "prescientific
concept of the universe."
At the time when the Quran was being revealed, anyone could have easily believed
this description which was already found in the Bible. It is only in modern
times that people would know better. How did the author of the Quran avoid this
mistake?
God says in the Quran that He created the heavens "without any pillars that
you can see" (Quran 31:10). Again, the Quran says: "God is the One Who
raised the heavens without any pillars that you can see" (Quran 13:2). Dr.
Maurice Bucaille comments: "These two verses refute the belief that the
vault of the heavens was held up by pillars, the only things preventing the
former from crushing the earth" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 154).
To be able to avoid that prescientific error, the author of the Quran must have
been either a modern scientist, or God Himself.
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COMPARING APPLES AND
ORANGES
The sun and the moon are different from each other not only in terms of size,
but also in terms of function. The sun generates light, but the moon does not.
The moon merely reflects the light coming from the sun. Every high school
student today knows this.
A man or woman in the seventh century, however, would not have known about this
fine distinction between the sun and the moon. To such a person, the two would
appear as a greater light and a lesser light. Such a person would observe that
the greater light lights up the day and the lesser light lights up the night.
And this indeed is how the sun and the moon were described in previous books.
The Bible, describing the creation, says: "God made two great lights the
greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night"
(Genesis 1: 16). The author of the Qur'an however, was aware that this
comparison between the sun and the moon is not adequate. Therefore the Qur'an
does not refer to them as being a greater and a lesser light.
The Qur'an says: "God is the One who made the sun a shine and the moon a
light" (Qur'an 10:5).
Commenting on this, Dr. Bucaille says: "Whereas the Bible calls the sun and
moon 'lights', and merely adds to one the adjective 'greater' and to the other
'lesser', the Qur'an ascribes differences other than that of dimension to each
respectively" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 156).
Similarly, the Qur'an says: "Blessed is the One Who placed the
constellations in heaven and placed therein a lamp and a moon giving light"
(Qur'an 25:61).
Here again, the difference between the sun and the moon is noted. The sun is
called a lamp, and the moon is called an object giving light.
Again in the Qur'an God says that He "made the moon a light" and
"made the sun a lamp" (Qur'an 71:15-16).
Furthermore, God calls the sun a "blazing lamp" (Qur'an 78:12-13).
This term which is used for the sun is never used for the moon in the Qur'an.
In all of these verses, God expresses the notion that the sun and the moon are
"not absolutely identical lights" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science,
p. 156).
Dr. Bucaille draws his conclusions from what he found in the Qur'an about the
sun and the moon: "What is interesting to note here is the sober quality of
the comparisons, and the absence in the text of the Qur'an of any elements of
comparison that might have prevailed at the time and which in our day would
appear as phantasmagorial" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p 157). In
short, "There is nothing in the text of the Qur'an that contradicts what we
know today about these two celestial bodies." (The Bible, the Qur'an and
Science, p. 157).
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THE SUN & MOON
AND THEIR ORBITS
Today we know that the Moon revolves around the earth in approximately 29.5
days. The sun also revolves in its own orbit. To understand the sun's orbit, Dr.
Bucaille says that the position of the sun in our galaxy must be considered, and
we must therefore call on modern scientific ideas (The Bible, the Qur'an and
Science, p. 162).
Our galaxy, the milky way galaxy, includes one hundred billion stars situated in
such a formation that the galaxy is shaped like a disc. This disc turns around
its center like a gramophone record. Now, it is obvious that when a gramophone
record turns, any point on the disc would move around and come back to its
original position. Similarly, every star in the galaxy moves as the galaxy
rotates on its axis. Therefore the stars that are away from the center of the
galaxy orbit around the axis. The sun is one of those stars.
Dr. Bucaille explains that modern science has worked out the details of the
sun's orbit as follows: "To complete one revolution on its own axis, the
galaxy and the sun take roughly 250 million years. The sun travels roughly 150
miles per second in the completion of this" (The Bible, the Qur'an and
Science, p. 162).
After describing this, Dr. Bucaille comments: "The above is the orbital
movement of the sun that was already referred to in the Qur'an fourteen
centuries ago." (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 162)
And yet this is a new finding. As Dr. Bucaille says, the knowledge of the sun's
orbit is an acquisition of modern astronomy (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science,
p. 162).
Two verses in the Qur'an refer to the orbits of the sun and moon. After
mentioning the sun and the moon, God says: "Each one is travelling in an
orbit with its own motion" (Qur'an 21:33; 36:40). How did the author of the
Qur'an know of this? Even after the Qur'an was revealed, early commentators
could not conceive of the orbits of the sun and moon. The tenth century
commentator Tabari could not explain this so he said, "It is our duty to
keep silent when we do not know" (XVII, 15 quoted in The Bible, the Qur'an
and Science, p. 161).
Dr. Bucaille comments: "This shows just how incapable men were of
understanding this concept of the sun's and moon's orbit." (The Bible, the
Qur'an and Science, p. 161).
From this it is clear that if the Qur'an was here expressing an idea already
known to the people, the commentators would have easily understood it. But this,
as Dr. Bucaille explains was "a new concept that was not to be explained
until centuries later" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 161)
This confirms what God said to his prophet, on whom be peace: "This is of
the tidings of the Unseen which we inspire in you (Muhammad). Neither you nor
your people knew it before this" (Qur'an 11:49).
THE SUN & MOON MOVE WITH THEIR OWN MOTION
The Qur'an makes the following statement about the sun and the moon: "Each
one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion" (Qur'an 21:33; 36:40).
Why did the Qur'an say that the sun and moon move with their own motion? And, if
that is true, where did the author of the Qur'an get this information?
The fact is that the sun and moon rotate on their axes and are in part animated
by this rotating motion. The phrase "travelling with its own motion"
in the verses quoted above is a translation of the Arabic verb 'yasbahoon'. This
could also be translated 'they swim.' In that case, the verse would read that
the sun and the moon, "Each swim in its own orbit." Those who
translate the verse this way explain that the term swim refers to movement with
one's own internally generated force. Furthermore the movement of a swimmer is
graceful, measured, and smooth. This is a very fitting description for the
movement of the stars and planets including the sun and the moon.
After describing the scientific data concerning the rotation of the sun and the
moon, Dr. Bucaille says: "These motions of the two celestial bodies are
confirmed by the data of modern science, and it is inconceivable that a man
living in the seventh century A.D.... could have imagined them" (The Bible,
the Qur'an and Science, p. 163).
It is also amazing that the Qur'an uses a different term for the movement of the
clouds and the mountains (see Qur'an 27:88). Obviously, the clouds and mountains
are driven by external forces. The cloud is driven by the wind and the mountains
move with the rotation of the earth. The sun and moon, however, move with their
own motion, and therefore the Qur'an uses a peculiar term "they swim"
to refer to their smooth, graceful, self-propelled movement.
How did the author of the Qur'an know enough to make this choice of words that
will reflect a modern scientific truth? The Qur'an is no less than a revelation
from God.
sura 36, verse 40:
"The sun must not catch up the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day.
Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion."
Here an essential fact is clearly stated: the existence of the Sun's and Moon's
orbits, plus a reference is made to the traveling
of these bodies in space with their own motion. A negative fact also emerges
from a reading of these verses: it is shown that the Sun moves in an orbit, but
no indication is given as to what this orbit might be in relation to the Earth.
At the time of the Qur'anic Revelation, it was thought that the Sun moved while
the Earth stood still. This was the system of
geocentrism that had held away since the time of Ptolemy, Sec-ond century B.C.,
and was to continue to do so until Copernicus in the Sixteenth century A.D.
Although people supported this concept at the time of Muhammad, it does not
appear anywhere
in the Qur'an, either here or elsewhere.
1. The Moon's Orbit.
Today, the concept is widely spread that the Moon is a satellite of the Earth
around which it revolves in periods of twenty-nine days. A correction must
however be made to the absolutely circular form of its orbit, since modern
astronomy ascribes a certain eccentricity to this, so that the distance between
the Earth and the Moon (240,000 miles) is only the average distance.
We have seen above how the Qur'an underlined the usefulness of observing the
Moon's movements in calculating time (sura 10, verse 5, quoted at the beginning
of this chapter.) This system has often been criticized for being archaic, im-
practical and unscientific in comparison to our system based on the Earth's
rotation around the Sun, expressed today in the Julian calendar.
This criticism calls for the following two remarks:
a) Nearly fourteen centuries ago, the Qur'an was directed at the inhabitants of
the Arabian Peninsula who were used to the lunar calculation of time. It was
advisable to address them in the only language they could understand and not to
upset the habits they had of locating spatial and temporal reference-marks which
were nevertheless quite efficient. It is known how well-versed men living in the
desert are in the observation of the sky; they navigated according to the stars
and told the time according to the phases of the Moon. Those were the simplest
and most reliable means available to them.
b) Apart from the specialists in this, most people are unaware of the perfect
correlation between the Julian and the lunar calendar: 235 lunar months
correspond exactly to 19 Julian years of 365.25 days. Then length of our year of
365 days is not perfect because it has to be rectified every four years (with a
leap year): With the lunar calendar, the same phenomena occur every 19 years
(Julian). This is the Metonic cycle, named after the Greek astronomer Meton, who
discovered this exact correlation between solar and lunar time in the Fifth
century B.C.
2. The Sun.
It is more difficult to conceive of the Sun's orbit because we are so used to
seeing our solar system organized around it. To understand the verse from the
Qur'an, the position of the Sun in our galaxy must be considered. and we must
therefore call on modern scientific ideas. Our galaxy includes a very large
number of stars spaced so as to form a disc that is denser at the centre than at
the rim. The Sun occupies a position in it which is far removed from the centre
of the disc. The galaxy revolves on its own axis which is its centre with the
result that the Sun revolves around the same centre in a circular orbit. Modern
astronomy has worked out the details of this. In 1917, Shapley estimated the
distance between the Sun and the centre of our galaxy at 10 kiloparsecs i.e., in
miles, circa the figure 2 followed by 17 zeros. To complete one revolution on
its own axis, the galaxy and Sun take roughly 250 million years. The Sun travels
at roughly 150 miles per second in the completion of this. The above is the o
rbital movement of the Sun that was already referred to by the Qur'an fourteen
centuries ago. The demonstration of the existence and details of this is one of
the achievements of modern astronomy.
--The Moon completes its rotating motionn on its own axis at the same time as it
revolves around the Earth, i.e. 29.5 days (approx.), so that it always has the
same side facing us. --The Sun takes roughly 25 days to revolve on its own axis.
There are certain differences in its rotation at its equator and poles, (we
shall not go into them here) but as a whole, the Sun is animated by a rotating
motion. It appears therefore that a verbal nuance in the Qur'an refers to the
Sun and Moon's own motion. These motions of the two celestial bodies are
confirmed by the data of modern science, and it is inconceivable that a man
living in the Seventh century A.D.--however knowledgeable he might have been in
his day (and this was certainly not true in Muhammad's case)--could have
imagined them. This view is sometimes contested by examples from great thinkers
of antiquity who indisputably predicted certain data that modern science has
verified. They could hardly have relied on scientific deduction however; their
method of procedure was more one of philosophical reasoning. Thus the case of
the Pythagoreans is often advanced. In the Sixth century B.C., they defended the
theory of the rotation of the Earth on its own axis and the movement of the
planets around
the Sun. This theory was to be confirmed by modern sciece. By comparing it with
the case of the Pythagoreans,it easy to put forward the hypothesis of Muhammad
as being a brilliant thinker, who was supposed to have imagined all on his on
his own what modern science was to discover centuries later. In so doing
however, people quite simply forget to mention the other aspect of what these
geniuses of philosophical reasoning produced, i.e. the colossal blunders that
litter their work. it must be remembered for example, that the pythagoreans also
defended the theory whereby the Sun was fixed in space; they made it the centre
of the world and only conceived of a celestial order that was centered on it. It
is quite common in the works of the great philosophers of antiquity to find a
mixture of valid and invalid ideas about the Universe. The brilliance of these
human works comes from the advanced ideas they contain, but they should not make
us over look the mistaken concepts which have also been left to us. From a
strictly scientific point of view, this is what distinguished them from the
Qur'an. In the latter, many subjects are referred to that have a bearing on
modern knowledge without one of them containing a statement that contradicts
what has been established by present-day science.
TOP
THE CONQUEST OF SPACE
From this point of view, three verses of the Qur'an should command our full
attention. One expresses, without any trace of ambiguity, what man should and
will achieve in this field. In the other two, God refers for the sake of the
unbelievers in Makka to the surprise they would have if they were able to raise
themselves up to the Heavens; He alludes to a hypothesis which will not be
realized for the latter.
1) The first of these verses is sura 55, verse 33: "O assembly of Jinns and
Men, if you can penetrate regions of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate
them! You will not penetrate them save with a Power."
The translation given here needs some explanatory comment:
a) The word 'if' expresses in English a condition that is dependent upon a
possibility and either an achievable or an unachievable hypothesis. Arabic is a
language which is able to introduce a nuance into the condition which is much
more explicit. There is one word to express the possibility (ida), another for
the achievable hypothesis (in) and a third for the unachievable hypothesis
expressed by the word (lau). The verse in question has it as an achievable
hypothesis expressed by the word (in). The Qur'an therefore suggests the
material possibility of a concrete realization. This subtle linguistic
distinction formally rules out the purely mystic interpretation that some people
have (quite wrongly) put on this verse.
b) God is addressing the spirits (jinn) and human beings (ins), and not
essentially allegorical figures.
c) 'To penetrate' is the translation of the verb nafada followed by the
preposition min. According to Kazimirski's dictionary, the phrase means 'to pass
right through and come out on the other side of a body' (e.g. an arrow that
comes out on the other side).
It therefore suggests a deep penetration and emergence at the other end into the
regions in question.
d) The Power (sultan) these men will have to achieve this enterprise would seem
to come from the All-Mighty. 'There can be no doubt that this verse indicates
the possibility men will one day achieve what we today call (perhaps rather
improperly) 'the conquest of space'. One must note that the text of the Qur'an
predicts not only penetration through the regions of the Heavens, but also the
Earth, i.e. the exploration of its depths.
2) The other two verses are taken from sura 15, (verses 14 and 15). God is
speaking of the unbelievers in Makka, as the context of this passage in the sura
shows: 'Even if We opened unto them a gate to Heaven and they were to continue
ascending therein, they would say: our sight is confused as in drunkenness. Nay,
we are people bewitched." The above expresses astonishment at a remarkable
spectacle, different from anything man could imagine.
The conditional sentence is introduced here by the word lau which expresses a
hypothesis that could never be realized as far as it concerned the people
mentioned in these verses.
When talking of the conquest of space therefore, we have two passages in the
text of the Qur'an: one of them refers to what will one day become a reality
thanks to the powers of intelligence and ingenuity God will give to man, and the
other describes an event that the unbelievers in Makka will never witness, hence
its character of a condition never to be realized. The event will however be
seen by others, as intimated in the first verse quoted above. It describes the
human reactions to the unexpected spectacle that travelers in space will see:
their confused sight, as in drunkenness, the feeling of being bewitched... This
is exactly how astronauts have experienced this remarkable adventure since the
first human space flight around the world in 1961. It is known in actual fact
how once one is above the Earth's atmosphere, the Heavens no longer have the
azure appearance we see from Earth, which results from phenomena of absorption
of the Sun's light into the layers of the atmosphere.
The human observer in space above the Earth's atmosphere sees a black sky and
the Earth seems to be surrounded by a halo of bluish color due to the same
phenomena of absorption of light by the Earth's atmosphere. The Moon has no
atmosphere, however, and therefore appears in its true colors against the black
background of the sky. It is a completely new spectacle therefore that presents
itself to men in space, and the photographs of this spectacle are well known to
present-day man. Here again, it is difficult not to be impressed, when comparing
the text of the Qur'an to the data of modern science, by statements that simply
cannot be ascribed to the thought of a man who lived more than fourteen
centuries ago.
TOP
THE SEQUENCE OF DAY AND NIGHT.
At a time when it was held that the Earth was the centre of the world and that
the Sun moved in relation to it, how could any one have failed to refer to the
Sun's movement when talking of the sequence of night and day? This is not
however referred to in the Qur'an and the subject is dealt with as follows:
sura 7, verse 54: "(God) covers the day with the night which is in haste to
follow it..."
sura 36, verse 37: "And a sign for them (human beings) is the night. We
strip it of the day and they are in darkness."
sura 31, verse 29: "Hast thou not seen how God merges the night into the
day and merges the day into the night." sura 39, verse 5: "...He coils
the night upon the day and He coils the day upon the night."
The first verse cited requires no comment. The second simply provides an image.
It is mainly the third and fourth verses quoted above that provide interesting
material on the process of interpenetration and especially of winding the night
upon the day and the day upon the night. (sura 39, verse 5) 'To coil' or 'to
wind' seems, as in the French translation by R. Blachere, to be the best way of
translating the Arabic verb kawwara. The original meaning of the verb is to
'coil' a turban around the head; the notion of coiling is preserved in all the
other senses of the word. What actually happens however in space? American
astronauts have seen and photographed what happens from their spaceships,
especially at a great distance from Earth, e.g. from the Moon. They saw how the
Sun permanently lights up (except in the case of an eclipse) the half of the
Earth's surface that is facing it, while the other half of the globe is in
darkness. The Earth turns on its own axis and the lighting remains the same, so
that an are
a in the form of a half-sphere makes one revolution around the Earth in
twenty-four hours while the other half-sphere, that has remained in darkness,
makes the same revolution in the same time. This perpetual rotation of night and
day is quite clearly described in the Qur'an. It is easy for the human
understanding to grasp this notion nowadays because we have the idea of the
Sun's (relative) immobility and the Earth's rotation. This process of perpetual
coiling, including the interpenetration of one sector by another is expressed in
the Qur'an just as if the concept of the Earth's roundness had already been
conceived at the time-which was obviously not the case. Further to the above
reflections on the sequence of day and night, one must also mention, with a
quotation of some verses from the Qur'an, the idea that there is more than one
Orient and one Occident. This is of purely descriptive interest because these
phenomena rely on the most commonplace observations. The idea is mentioned here
with the aim of rep
roducing as faithfully as possible all that the Qur'an has to say on this
subject.
The following are examples:
--In sura 70 verse 40, the expression 'LLord of Orients and Occidents'.
--In sura 55, verse 17, the expression ''Lord of the two Orients and the two
Occidents'.
--In sura 43, verse 38, a reference to tthe 'distance between the two Orients',
an image intended to express the immense size of the distance separating the two
points.
Anyone who carefully watches the sunrise and sunset knows that the Sun rises at
different point of the Orient and sets at different points of the Occident,
according to season. Bearings taken on each of the horizons define the extreme
limits that mark the two Orients and Occidents, and between these there are
points marked off throughout the year. The phenomenon described here is rather
commonplace, but what mainly deserves attention in this chapter are the other
topics dealt with, where the description of astronomical phenomena referred to
in the Qur'an is in keeping with modern data.
TOP
THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
The expansion of the Universe is the most imposing discovery of modern science.
Today it is a firmly established concept and the only debate centres around the
way this is taking place.
It was first suggested by the general theory of relativity and is backed up by
physics in the examination of the galactic spectrum; the regular movement
towards the red section of their spectrum may be explained by the distancing of
one galaxy from another. Thus the size of the Universe is probably constantly
increasing and this increase will become bigger the further away the galaxies
are from us. The speeds at which these celestial bodies are moving may, in the
course of this perpetual expansion, go from fractions of the speed of light to
speeds faster than this.
The following verse of the Qur'an (sura 51, verse 47) where God is speaking, may
perhaps be compared with modern ideas: "The heaven, We have built it with
power. Verily. We are expanding it."
'Heaven' is the translation of the word sama' and this is exactly the
extra-terrestrial world that is meant.
'We are expanding it' is the translation of the plural present participle
musi'una of the verb ausa'a meaning 'to make wider,
more spacious, to extend, to expand'.
Ramidullah in his translation
of the Qur'an talks of the widening of the heavens and space, but he includes a
question mark. There are those who arm themselves with authorized scientific
opinion in their commentaries and give the meaning stated here. This is true in
the case of the Muntakab, a book of commentaries edited by the Supreme Council
for Islamic Affairs, Cairo. It refers to the expansion of the Universe in
totally unambiguous terms.
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