Bees and the Hidden Miracles of Honey

by Dr. Monzur Ahmed

The honey bee exhibits a combination of individual traits and social co-
operation which is unparalleled in the animal kingdom. A glimpse into the
nest makes it apparent why honey bees have fascinated us from the
earliest days of scientific observations. The infrastructure of the nest, the
perfectly uniform and functional comb, is composed of beeswax and is
constructed into a repeating series of almost perfect hexagonal cells. The
comb is the stage for the activity of the colony and is used for almost
everything imaginable, from larval nursery to pantry to message centre.

At the individual level, honey bees have not one but three types of colony
members: queens, drones and workers, each with their own
specialisations and place in honey bee society. The queen reigns over the
nest, surrounded by attendants and fed the rich food she requires to
perform her few but crucial tasks in the colony. The queen produces
powerful pheromones, chemical signals to recipient workers which control
many of their behaviours and provide part of the 'social glue' which holds
honey bee life together. A highly organised social structure exists within
the colony and elaborate 'dances' are used to communicate the location
of food sources.

The products of the hive are important to the modern agricultural system.
Not only do honey bees provide us with honey, wax, propolis, royal jelly
and pollen but they also pollinate a good portion of our crops, including
such diverse agricultural plants as fruit trees, oilseeds, small berries and
forage crops.

Honey is a remarkable viscous liquid, prepared by the bees from the

nectars of various plants. It has occupied a prominent place in traditional
medicines throughout world history. The ancient Egyptians, Assyrians,
Chinese, Greeks and Romans employed honey for wounds and diseases of
the gut. When the Children of Israel were in Egypt or journeying through
the desert, their promised goal was a 'land flowing with milk and honey'.

Both the holy Qur'an and Hadith refer to honey as a healer of disease.

'And thy Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees and in
(men's) habitations..... there issues from within their bodies a drink of
varying colours, wherein is healing for mankind. Verily in this is a Sign for
those who give thought'.
(Translation of Quran 16:68-69)

In addition, the Prophet (PBUH) said:

'Honey is a remedy for every illness and the Qur'an is a remedy for all
illness of the mind, therefore I recommend to you both remedies, the
Qur'an and honey.'
(Bukhari)

The reader may be surprised to learn that the above quotation from the
Qur'an is mentioned in a well known encyclopedia on honey (reference
3).

In recent years, scientific support is beginning to emerge confirming the

beneficial effects of honey on certain medical and surgical conditions.
These effects may be summarised as follows:

Antibacterial and antifungal properties

These properties of honey are well established. Undiluted honey inhibits

the growth of bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, certain gut
pathogens and fungi such as Candida albicans. At a concentration of 30-
50%, honey has been shown to be superior to certain conventional
antibiotics in treating urinary tract infections. The exact mechanism of the
anti-microbial effect of honey remains obscure. Low pH, osmotic
disruption of pathogens and the
presence of bactericidal substances, collectively called inhibine may all
play a part.

Anti-diarrhoeal properties

At a concentration of 40%, honey has a bactericidal effect on various gut

bacteria known to cause diarrhoea and dysentery such as Salmonella,
Shigella, enteropathogenic E. coli and Vibrio cholera. In one study, honey
given with oral rehydration fluid was shown to reduce the duration of
bacterial diarrhoea in infants and children.

Wound-healing and anti-inflammatory properties

Honey is of value in treating burns, infected surgical wounds and

decubitus ulcers. Honey is very viscous, enabling it to absorb water from
surrounding inflamed tissue. For example, a study in West Africa showed
that skin grafting, surgical debridement and even amputation were
avoided when local application of honey to wound promoted healing,
whereas conventional treatment failed.

In another study, wound healing was accelerated by application of honey

in women who had undergone radical vulvectomy for vulval cancer. Also,
it has been suggested that honey may be useful in the treatment of
chronic, foul smelling ulcers seen in leprosy.

Anti-tussive and expectorant properties

These anti-cough properties of honey are related to its capacity to dilute

bronchial secretions and improve the function of the bronchial epithelium.
Nutritional properties

Uncontaminated honey is a healthy, easily digestible, natural and energy

rich food. It contains carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, enzymes and
vitamins. One tablespoon of honey provides 60 calories and contains 11g
of carbohydrates, 1mg of calcium, 0.2mg of iron, 0.lmg of vitamin B and
1mg of vitamin C.

Honey is widely available in most communities but its medical potential

remains grossly underutilised. Its mode of action remains incompletely
understood and the healing properties of honey in other clinical and
laboratory situations requires further evaluation. The miraculous
beneficial properties of honey, so beautifully ex-pressed in the holy
Qur'an and Sunnah 14 centuries ago expose the reluctance of modern
science to accept and exploit this 'traditional remedy'.

Selected References:

1. Ali A.T.M.M. (1989) The Pharmacological Characterization and the

Scientific Basis of the Hidden Miracles of Honey; Saudi Medical
Journal 10(3):177-179
2. Zumla A. and Lulat A. (1989) Honey- a remedy rediscovered; J
Royal Soc Med 82:384-385
3. Crane E. (1975) Honey: a comprehensive survey;London,
Heineman

4. Winston M.L. (1987) The Biology of the Honey Bee;London,

Harvard University Press
 An Ecological Reading of the Qur’anic
Understanding of Creation
by: José Abraham

Mr. Jose Abraham is Lecturer in the Department of Religion and Culture

at the United Theological College, Bangalore, India. This article is from
the book Bangalore Theological Forum, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, published by
the Untied Theological College, 2001. This material was prepared for
Religion Online by Ted and Winnie Brock.

Introduction

We are on the brink of a frightening ecological disaster. The earth is

being destroyed at an alarming speed. It can no longer sustain the rate
of our use of its resources. So our relationship with the rest of creation is
seriously out of balance. The manifestations of this situation include air,
water and soil pollution through toxic, chemical and radioactive waste,
soil erosion and salinizaton, desertification, deforestation, extinction of
plant and animal species, global warming, exorbitant energy
consumption and nuclear obliteration. If this process is not controlled
effectively, the next generation of living beings will have no livable earth
to inherit. Also, as there is an organic link between destruction of
environment and socio-economic and political injustice, even though all
are affected by the ecological crisis, the life of the poor and marginalized
is further impoverished by it. Thus there has been a growing concern,
expressed globally, to address the issues of environmental degradation.
There are various responses to the growing ecological crisis. Scientists,
sociologists, philosophers and anthropologists made various responses
from different perspectives. The ecological crisis as a complex issue
includes various problems such as poor technology, economic and
developmental model. So any response to the ecological crisis depends
on the problem, which is being addressed. For instance, for a scientist, if
poor technology is the reason for the ecological crisis, then it can be
solved with the right use of technology. The various responses to
ecological crisis are important because it address various dimensions of
the crisis.
The perception of creation is a major factor, which decides the attitude of
people towards nature. So perception of creation is an important issue in
the ecological discussions. On the one hand, if nature is understood as
created only to serve human beings, then it may justify exploitation of
nature without any limitation. On the other hand, if the nature is
understood as having its own value, then it may be respected and used
properly. Since I am a student of comparative religion and of Islam, the
intention of this work is to formulate an Islamic response to the growing
ecological crisis, by taking the issue of perception of creation seriously.

Doctrine of Creation in the Qur’an

The Qur’an uses a number of words for ‘creation’ such as khalq, bara,
sawwara, ja ‘ala, bada ‘a and farara. Khalq is the noun form of the verb
khalaqa2 and it is used 249 times in the Qur’an3. According to Lane’s
Arabic-English Lexicon, the word khalq indicates the act of measuring;
determining, estimating and calculating.4 This word is used in the Qur’an
to denote the act of creation and creation in its entirety. In the classical
language of Arabs, khalq is considered as an act of God and Al-khaliq,
the Creator, is one of the names of God in the Qur’an5. The word khalq
also carries the meaning of making smooth and polishing without cracks
and fracture6. Thus the act of creation, according to the Qur’an, is a
process and not a momentary activity. God is always active and continue
the act of creation by developing all beings from one stage to another7.

Bara is another word used in the Qur’an for creation and it means, "to
form, to fashion or to shape."8 Arabs generally use this word to denote
the act of shaping of a reed for writing, or of an arrow, or of a stick or of a
piece of wood.9 Al-ban, one who shapes, is one of the names of God in
the Qur’an10. This word has similar meanings as that of khalaqa, such as
fashioning and shaping. Sawwara is used in the Qur’an11 to denote
creation and it means "to form, to shape, to fashion, to sculpture, to
picture" etc.12 Al-musawwir, ‘the Fashioner’, is one of the names of God
in the Qur’an. He fashions the creation by giving it form and colour and
bestows each creature with "every details of its complicated spiritual and
physical existence"13. Everything is being fashioned uniquely so that
each fits perfectly into the rest of creation.
The word Ja‘ala is used 345 times14 in the Qur’an to denote creation and
its meaning is "to make, to render, to form, to create, to prepare" etc.15 It
is used in the Qur’an with the sense of giving new shapes, forms,
dispositions etc. So according to the Qur’an, the act of creation also
includes the process of giving colours, form, physical stature, assigning
specific roles and conditions to fulfil these roles16. The word Bada’a
occurs fourteen times in the Qur’an17 and it means "to originate a thing,
or to bring in to being or existence, or to make or to produce for the first
time"18. Thus this is used in the Qur’an to designate the creation of a
thing after no pre-existing similitude. Al-badi’, which means the
Originator, is another name of God in the Qur’an19. The word fatara is
used twenty places in the Qur’an.20 Like bada‘a, it also means to bring or
to produce something for the first time.21
According to the Qur’an, all things have their origin by the command of
God, "Be" (kun) 22. God’s commands are the expression of His will, plan
and intention and so it is part of His being. It implies that creation is
originated not in accidence but by the definite purpose of God. He never
created anything in vain or in "play"23 but with a serious purpose (haqq)
24
. It brings value and importance to creation.
In the Qur’anic perspective there is a definite relationship between God
and His creation. The doctrine of tawhid, the belief in the oneness of
God, is a cardinal principal in the Qur’an.25 Tawhid affirms and
acknowledges that God is one and the only Reality. Then creation is part
of the Essence of God and it manifests Him. It "teaches that all life is
essentially a unity as the creation which proceeds from the Divine
oneness".26 This affirms the wholeness and holiness of the creation and
thus it brings value to creation. It also rejects all forms of dualism, which
separates human beings from nature, so nature is considered as evil
and to be subjugated, that have contributed to the ecological crisis27.
God is described in the Qur’an as muhit, which means all encompassing,
all pervading, and that which surrounds all.28 This term also used in
Arabic to denote ‘environment’.29 So as muhit "God Himself is the
ultimate environment which surrounds and encompasses man."30 So
Nasr believes that since the environment is not an ontologically
independent order of reality, which is divorced from the Divine
Environment, the environmental crisis "has been caused by man’s
refusal to see God as the real Environment."31
According to the Qur’an, God made provisions for the sustenance and
growth of countless varieties of creatures from microorganisms to the
largest animals. These provisions are made available to meet their
needs in every situation and stages of life. As we have seen earlier, God
created everything for a specific purpose. So there is nothing that exists
which does not serve some purpose or other. It means that everything
fits into one supreme scheme of life32. Everything is put together in
wisdom and unity. It emphasizes that everything has its value to life.33
Existence of each and every thing, whether it is small or big, is important
for the continuation of life. So each species is unique and makes its own
specific contribution to the totality of life. This negates the superiority or
importance of one species over against the other. Thus in the holistic
perspective human being is "not a supreme being but a part of the web
of nature coexisting with other denizens of the cosmos"34

Dignity of Non-Human Creation

According to the Qur’an the world is tilled with signs (ayah) of God35. The
Arabic word ayah means "a sign, token, or mark, by which a person or
thing is known or can be perceived."36 The word ayah is used almost four
hundred times in the Qur’an37 and every creature is referred as ayah of
God (ayat allah).38 The above meaning of ayah is relevant for our
discussion because if nature is ayah of God, then those who perceives it
perceives God39.

According to the Qur’an everything -- inhabitants of the heavens (sun,

moon, stars) and the earth (animal, trees, hills) -- praise Allah40. "There is
nothing, but celebrates His praises"41. Everything that is created by God
prostrates before Him and recognise their submission to His will and
commands. Thus the whole creation is regarded in the Qur’an as
‘muslim’42. It perfectly obeys the will of God and behaves in accordance
with the laws established by Him. But today nature is perceived as
created only to serve human beings. This attitude justifies exploitation
and domination of creation.
The spiritual life of a Muslim is in tune with nature. To perform ritual
worship (salat) 43, a Muslim must have a special relationship with his/her
outer environment since the specific times of the ritual prayers are based
on the position of the sun 44. Also, Islamic calendar follows the moon and
it is utilised to determine the proper time for fasting and performing the
pilgrimage to Makkah (Hajj). Thus a Muslim is forced to follow the
movements of the sun and the moon as part of his/her religious practice.
Nature is the sanctuary of God for the performance of salat and a
mosque does not create a "super natural" space for prayer 45. Thus
nature is an ally of human beings in their quest for God, not an
adversary.
In the Qur’anic perspective, all things that God created are ‘communities’
(ummah) like (mithal) that of human community (6:38). Thus God is
concerned about all communities and he preserves and provides for all
creatures 46. As Yusuf Ali explains while commenting upon this verse
(6:38), "In our pride we exclude animals from our purview, but they live a
life, social and individual, like ourselves, and all life is subject to the plan
and will of Allah" 47. So creation has value in itself without reference to
human beings.

Subservience of Non-Human Creation

According to the Qur’an, all things in heaven and on earth have been
created for use of human beings. 48 The Arabic word Sakhkhara is used
in the Qur’an to define the relationship between human and non-
human.49 Sakhkhara means to constrain or compel a servant or a beast
to do what it does not desire. Thus it also means to bring into
subjugation, or to make manageable and tractable, or to make
something unable to free from constraint. 50 The Qur’an considers
Sakhkhara as an activity of God (14:33). As we have seen earlier, non-
human beings have value in itself and there is no evidence in the Qur’an
to prove that it is created only to serve human beings. So scholars
reinterpreted the word Sakhkhara differently from its literal meaning, i.e.,
subservience.
According to Iris Safwat, the Arabic word Sakhkhara does not mean ‘to
51
subject’ rather it means ‘to turn to profitable account’ or ‘to utilise’ Abd-
al-Hamid affirms this meaning and says that, the relationship between
human and non-human is not of domination or exploitation but that of the
trust (amanah) placed with human beings by God. If ‘subservience’ of
everything to human is taken as a right to dominate and exploitation,
52
then it is mockery to Allah. Nasr explains the meaning of the term by
seriously taking into consideration the responsibility of human beings as
God’s vicegerents.
So according to him, Sakhkhara does not mean the conquest or
exploitation of nature rather it should be a kind of relationship in
accordance with God’s laws and responsibility of the human beings as
vicegerents of God. 53
These insights imply that we cannot treat nature just as an object of
human activity. So a subject-object relationship with nature is
unjustifiable. 54 If nature is treated just as an Object, then it is likely to be
appreciated "not for its intrinsic value, but for its instrumental value for
humans."55 So a just relationship between human beings and other
creatures is a subject-subject relationship. A subject-subject relationship
with nature implies that we have to respect the nature, which will finally
lead to protection and proper use of natural resources.

Freedom and Responsibility of Human Beings

According to the Qur’an, human beings are the highest form of all living
creatures. "We have indeed created man in the best of mould (‘ahsani
taqwim)."56 Taqwim is the Arabic word used to designate ‘estimation’ or
‘erection’ or ‘setting up’ 57. By using the superlative form ahsan, the
Qur’an suggests that the estimation or stature of human being is the
best. It includes both the internal and external composition of the human
being.
In the Qur’an, three words such as Adam, bashar and insan are used to
denote the human beings. According to Muhammad Iqbal, the Qur’an
uses the word bashar or insan to denote the origin of human beings as
living beings or social animals. The word Adam is used more as a
concept than as the name of a concrete human individual and is
reserved for the human beings in their capacity of God’s vicegerent on
earth 58. Riffat Hassan, a Muslim feminist, used this insight to prove that
in the Qur’an, the word Adam "is used as a symbol of self-conscious
humanity" 59
According to the Qur’an, after fashioning Adam in the proper proportions
God blew (nafakha) of His Spirit (ruh) into the human being 60 The
breathing of the spirit made them so unique, with their faculty of
knowledge and freedom of choice, that even angels are ordered to
prostrate before them. It is the breathing of the spirit, which differentiates
human beings from other creatures 61. This act gave them their ability to
distinguish right from wrong, their power of reasoning and their faculty of
speech 62. The gift of knowledge makes human beings more responsible
towards other creatures. We have to use our knowledge in such a way
that it is causing only a minimum damage to the environment. This is
possible only when we develop science and technology, which accepts
the value of creation and responsibility of human beings.
In order to get guidance, the Qur’an advises human beings to turn to the
nature in which they are created (30:30). It implies that only the original
nature of human beings (fitrah) can lead them to the straight path.
According to Yusuf Ali. "just as the nature of a lamb is to be gentle and
of a horse is to be swift", in true nature (fitrah), "man is innocent, pure,
true, free, inclined to right and virtue, and educated with true
understanding about his own position in the universe and about Allah’s
goodness, wisdom, and power".63 In other words, God has created in
human beings a natural bias towards good, and a bias against evil. A
natural bias toward good and against evil demands promotion of good
(ma’ruf) and elimination of evil (munkar) in all aspects of life. So
according to Wyn Davies fitra implies a moral and ethical sense. Thus if
it is exercised in full consciousness, human beings can organise different
facets of life in to a harmonious balance. 64 Such a harmonious state also
includes the right relationship with nature. The doctrine of fitra is
important in relation to challenge posed by ecologists that we should live
with an understanding of the interconnectedness of everything in the
creation. 65

Qur'anic Understanding of Khalifah

The word khalifa and its plurals occur nine times in the Qur’an. 66 Khalifa
is derived from the verb khalafa meaning, "he came after, followed,
succeeded or remained after, another, or another that had perished or
dead" 67 So khalifa is some one who succeeds another or who takes the
place of another after him/her in some matter. Thus a ruler is called
khalifa when "he replaces the one who was before him, and takes his
place in the affair, and is his successor (khalaf)".68 There are many
contemporary thinkers who opine that human beings are the vicegerents
(khalifa) of God on earth. Abd-al-Hamid, 69 Muhammad Iqbal, 70
Mustansir Mir 71 , George Koovackal 72 Safia Anbir 73. Seyyed Hossien
Nasr 74, Al-Birnni 75 and Soumaya Pernilla Ouis 76 are few who translated
khalifa as God’s vicegerent or steward.
Human beings are vicegerents of God not in the sense that they succeed
and replace God. They are vicegerents because God subjected
(sakhkhara) everything to us and gifted us with free will, knowledge and
a bias towards doing good. These gifts made human beings responsible
towards other creatures. This power and responsibility of human beings
is termed vicegerency on behalf of God and implies the prudent use of
things but not their exploitation.
As khalifa, human beings are not proprietors or owners of creation, God
is the owner and everything belongs to Him. Human beings are God’s
vicegerents (khalifa’ Allah) and God’s servants (abd ‘Allah). Human
beings should use their authority as khalifa within the limit of the servants
of God. "Nothing is more dangerous for the natural environment than the
practice of the power of vice-gerency by a humanity which no longer
accepts to be God’s servant, obedient to His commands and laws." 77 So
human vicegerency needs to be interpreted in relation to the sovereignty
of God, not independently.

Conclusion

As God created everything by accurate measurement, there is a purpose

behind every act of creation. Each species is having its own role to play
in the over all plan of creation. Thus everything is interrelated and
contributes to the whole life of universe. If one species is eliminated, it
affects the whole creation and disturbs its balance. It implies that every
creature should be protected. We have seen that non-human creation is
part of the beings of God and continuously praises Him. As signs of God,
they manifest God and as being in the state of By assisting human
beings in their spiritual journey, they become part of a sacred activity.
Also by creating them as communities, God is equally concerned about
their providence and life as of human community. Thus non-human
creation is having its own value and it implies that the Qur’an rejects an
anthropocentric view of creation.
We have also noted that it is God who made everything subservient to
the use and benefit of human beings. Thus the subservience of non-
human creatures is part of the purpose of creation. So subservience
cannot be interpreted as the right to exploit creation by dominating it.
Domination goes against the purpose of creation. We have also noted
that in their natural state (fitra), human beings have a bias towards good
and against evil. Harmonious living with the rest of creation is the best
thing human beings can do amidst the ecological crisis. Since God is the
Creator, as one of the creatures, human beings do not have authority
over creation except through God. Given that God, continues the
process of creation by recreation, there is no possibility to think that God
has granted authority to human beings to misuse it and thus to destroy it.
Vicegerency does not make human beings owners or proprietors of
creation. As vicegerents of God our responsibility is to protect creation
and to be part of God’s recreation process. We cannot be idle while the
creation is being destroyed. We have to eliminate all kinds of evil, which
causes destruction of creation.
As a student of Religions, I want to note that various responses to the
ecological crisis are already given from the perspective of different
religious traditions. Even though the theological and philosophical bases
of these responses are different, one can discern a common growing
concern for our own home (universe) and brothers and sisters (non-
human creation). This concern can lead us to have further dialogue
between various religious traditions to see various theological and
philosophical foundations for ecological concerns. To respond to the
ecological crisis it may help us to go deeper into our own religious
tradition to see different bases other than what we already found. The
dialogue between religious traditions not only helps us to live peacefully
with the rest of creation but also helps us to live peacefully with people of
other faiths. Thus ecological discussions can lead us to new way of life.
I also want to notice that the ecological insights can lead us to a new
spirituality. Since there is continuity between God and the creation, this
spirituality will see the presence of God in creation. So it seriously takes
into consideration the intrinsic value of creation. This spirituality is holistic
and committed to protect and preserve creation. It is the result of
gratitude and thankfulness to God for the strong felt presence and power
of God in creation. It tries to understand creation as a blessing of God
entrusted to human beings to take care of it. So it is less anthropocentric
and does not justify domination over creation. Thus this spirituality
resists any ideology, value or life style that distorts and destroys God’s
creation. It is a spirituality that actively participates in upholding justice,
freedom and life inherent in the created order.

End Notes
1. The author in his Master of Theology thesis, submitted to the Senate
of Serampore College in March 1999, debates most of the things
discussed in this article and it is available for reference at the libraries of
the United Theological College, Bangalore and Henry Martyn Institute,
Hyderabad.
2. R. Amaldez, "Kitalk," Encyclopedia of Islam, edited by Evan Dounzel,
B Lewis and Ch.Pellet, Vol. 4(1978): 980.
3. Muhammad Fawad Abdul Baqi, ed., Al-Muajam-al-Mufahir’s Li-Alfazil
Quranil Kareem (Shabb Press, 1945), 241-244.
4. E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, Vol. 2 (Beirut-Lebanon:
librairie du liban, 1968; Reprinted, Cambridge Islamic Text society,
1984). 799.
5. Ibid. p. 802.
6. R. Arnaldez op.cit.980, Halok is the corresponding Hebrew word.
7. See the Holy Qur’an 29:19; 10:4; 30:11.27.
8. E.W.Lane, VoL 1, op. cit., 197; See also 59:24; 57:22; 6:94,98: bara is
its Hebrew equivalent.
9. Ibid
10. 2:54; 59:24.
11. 40:64 (two times); 64:3 (two times); 7:11; 3:6; 82:8; 59:24.
12. E. W. Lane, Vol. 4, op. cit., 1744.
13. Yunus Negus, "Science Within Islam: Learning How to Care for Our
World," in Islam and Ecology, edited by Fazlun M Khalid and Joanne
O’Brien (New York: Cassell Publishers Limited, 1992), 40.
14. Muhammad Fawad Abdul Baqi, ed., op. cit. 170-175 .
15. E. W. Lane, Vol. 2. op. cit., 430.
16. For details, see Abul Kalam Azad. The Tarjuman Al-Quran. Edited
and translated by Syed Abdul Latif, Vol. 3. (Hyderabad: Syed Abdul
Latif’s Trust for Quranic and Other Cultural Studies, 1981), 27f.
17. 12:76; 29:20; 32:7; 7:29; 9:63; 21:104;90:4;10:34 (two times); 27:64;
30:11; 30:27; 29:19; 34:49; 80:13.
18. E. W. Lane, Vol. 1, op. cit., 163
19. E. W. Lane, Vol. 1, op. cit., 166.
20. Muhammad Fawad Abdul Baqi, ed., op. cit., 522-523.
21. Ibid., 2415.
22. The creative command of God is explained eight places in the
Qur’an. 36:82; 2:117; 16:40; 6:73; 19:35; 3:47, 59; 40:68.
23. 44:38; 21:16; 23:115; 38:27; 3:191; 45:22; 15:85: 44:39; 46:3; 10:5;
14:19; 16:3; 29:44; 6:73; 30:8; 64:3.
24. In Arabic, the word haqq is used primarily to explain the idea of
permanence or fixity. Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1974 ed. s.v.
"Hakk", 126; Abul Kalam Azad. Op.cit. 66-68.
25. 112:1-4; 2:163; 6:19;16:22; 23:91-92; 37:1-5; 38:65-68.
26. Soumaya Perrilla Ouis. "Islamic Ecotheology Based on the Qur’an"
Islamic Studies 37 (Summer, 1998): 153.
27. In the West, during the Age of Enlightenment, Cartesian (philosophy
of R. Descartes, who was a 17th century French philosopher) dualism
contributed to the development of ecological crisis. See. Soumaya
Pernilla Ouis, op. cit., 152. In 1967 Lynn white Jr., a professor of History,
University of California, argued that by destroying animism (the belief in
supernatural power that organises and animates the material universe.)
Christianity made it possible to exploit nature. And in 1989 Alastair M.
Taylor and Duncan M. Taylor tried to prove that dualistic nature of
Semitic religions paved the way for ecological crisis. See. A. R. Agwan.
"Introduction," in Islam and the Environment, edited by A. R. Agwan.
(Delhi: Institute of Objective Studies, 1997), IX, X.
28. 4:108, 126; Soumaya Pernilla Ouis, op. cit., 163.
29. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "Islam and the Environmental Crisis," in Islam
and the Environment, op. cit., 18.
30. Ibid.
31. ibid.
32. Azad termed this as Takhliq-bil-Haq. See Abul Kalam Azad. Op.cit.
33.
33 Ibid.
34. A.R.Agwan, "Introduction," Islam and the Environment, op. cit., XII.
35. 2:164: 3:190; 13:2-4; 16:10-13; 27:86; 29:44; 30:20-25; 41:37; 45:3-
6.
36. E.W. Lane, Vol. 1, op. cit., 135.
37. Sachiko Murata and William C Chittick. The Vision of Islam. (New
York- Daragon Home, 1994) ,52.
38. Ibid., 54.
39. Fazlur Rahman, Major Themes of the Qur’an. (Minneapolis:
Bibliotheca Islamica, 1994), 68-69; A.R. Agwan, "Toward an Ecological
Consciousness;" in Islam and the Environment, op. cit.. 3; Roger. E.
Timm, "The Ecological Fallout of Islamic Creation Theology," in
Worldviews and Ecology: Religion. Philosophy, and the Environment.
Ecology and Justice Series, edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A
Grim (Maryknoll. New York: Orbis Books, 1994), 86.
40. 22:18; 21:79; 55:6; 57:1; 59:1; 61:1; 62:1; 64:1:59:24; 24:41;
38:18,19; 13:13.
41. 17:44.
42. 3: 83
43. Ritual worship (salat) is one of the pillars of Islam and a Muslim has
to pray five times a day.
44. Soumaya Pernilla Ouis, op. cit., 170.
45. S. H. Nasr. ‘The Cosmos and the Natural Order" in Islamic
Spirituality: Foundations. Edited by seyyed Hossein Nasr. (London: SCM
Press Ltd, 1989), 349
46. Baidawi.Anwaral-tanzil-wa-asraral-Ta’wil. (Egypt: Maimaniya Press,
1340 AH) on 6:38: Zamakhshari, Al. Kashashaf (Mohd. Efendi Press.
Nd.) on 6:38.
47. The Holy Qur'an: English Translation of the Meaning and
Commentary. Revised and edited by The Presidency of Islamic
Researches, IPTA, 348.
48. 14:32-33; 16:5-8.
49. 45:12-13; 14:33-34.
50. E.W.Lane, Vol. 4. op. cit., 1324.
51. Iris Safwat, "Islam and Environmental Protection," Islam Today 12
(1994):80.
52. Abd-al-Hamid, "Exploring the Islamic
Environmental Ethics" in Islam and the Environment. Op.cit. 47-48.
53. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "Islam and the Environmental Crisis," in Islam
and the Environment. op. cit., 22.
54. Soumaya Pernilla Ouis.,op.cit.. 162-163.
55. Roger E Timm, "The Ecological Fallout of Islamic Creation
Theology," in World Views and Ecoolgy: Religion, Philosophy and the
Environment. op. cit.. 85. 56. 95:4.
57. J.Milton Cowan, ed., A Dictionary of Modem Written Arabic, 3rd ed.
(New York: Spoken Language Services, Inc. 1976), 801.
58. Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconsturction of Religious Thought in Islam.
(Lahore: Javid Iqbal. 1960), 83.
59. Riffat Hassan, "Are women and Men equal Before Allah? The issue
of gender justice is Islam." In Look at the World Through Women’s Eyes.
Edited by Eva Friedlander. (NGO Forum on Women, Beijing ‘95 Inc.,
1996.), 150.
60. 15:29, 32:9, 38:72. A similar action can be seen in 21:91 and 66:12
when God blew (nafaka) of His spirit (ruh) in to Maryam for the
conception of ‘Isa.
61. Qur’an. op. cit., 1227, 979.
62. Soumaya Pernilla Ouis, op. cit., 157.
63. The Holy Qur‘an: English Translation of the Meaning and
Commentary. Revised and edited by The Presidency of Islamic
Researches, IFTA. 1186.
64. Soumaya Pernilla Ouis, op. cit., 158, cites M. Wyn Davies, Knowing
One Another: Shaping an Islamic Anthropology (New York : Mansell
Publishing, 1988), 89.
65. Soumaya Pernilla Ouis, op. cit., 158.
66. 38:26:10:14; 2:30; 7:69:7:74; 6:165; 2:255; 7:169
67.E.W. Lane, Vol. 2, op. cit., 792.
68. Abu Jafar Muhammad B Jarir Al-Tabari, The Commentary on the
Qur‘an, edited by J Cooper and A Jones, Vol. 1 (Oxford : OUP, 1987),
208.
69. Abd-al-Hamid, op. cit., 41
70. Muhammad Iqbal, op. cit., 83.
71. Mustansir Mir, "Adam in the Qur’an." Islamic Culture 62(January,
1988): 4-5.
72. George Koovackal, "The Human Person According to Islam." Journal
of Dharma 21(January-March. 1996): 62.
73. Safia Amir, "Man’s Place in God’s Universe." Islam and the Modem
Age 26 (February, 1995): 42.
74. Seyyed Hossein Naser, Islamic Life and Thought (London: George
Allen Y Unwin, 1981), 16.
75. Seyyed Hossein Naser, An introduction to the Islamic Cosmological
Doctrines, (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1964), 150.
76. Soumaya Pernilla Ouis, op. cit., 154.
77. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "Islam and the environmental crisis." op. cit..
22.
 Amazing Qur'an
by: Daim Hussain

Daim Hussain is 22 years old and lives in Holland

Calling the Qur'an amazing is not something done only by Muslims, who
have an appreciation for the book and who are pleased with it; it has been
labeled amazing by non-Muslims as well. In fact, even people who hate
Islam very much have still called it amazing.

One thing which surprises non-Muslims who are examining the book very
closely is that the Qur'an does not appear to them to be what they
expected. What they assume is that they have an old book which came
fourteen centuries ago from the Arabian desert; and they expect that the
book should look something like that - an old book from the desert. And
then they find out that it does not resemble what they expected at all.
Additionally, one of the first things that some people assume is that
because it is an old book which comes from the desert, it should talk
about the desert. Well the Qur'an does talk about the desert - some of its
imagery describes the desert; but it also talks about the sea - what it's
like to be in a storm on the sea.

Some years ago, the story came to us in Toronto about a man who was in
the merchant marine and made his living on the sea. A Muslim gave him a
translation of the Qur'an to read. The merchant marine knew nothing
about the history of Islam but was interested in reading the Qur'an. When
he finished reading it, he brought it back to the Muslim and asked, "This
Muhammed, was he a sailor?" He was impressed at how accurately the
Qur'an describes a storm on a sea. When he was told, "No as a matter of
fact, Muhammed lived in the desert," that was enough for him. He
embraced Islam on the spot. He was so impressed with the Qur'an's
description because he had been in a storm on the sea, and he knew that
whoever had written that description had also been in a storm on the sea.
The description of "a wave, over it a wave, over it clouds" was not what
someone imagining a storm on a sea to be like would have written;
rather, it was written by someone who knew what a storm on the sea was
like. This is one example of how the Qur'an is not tied to a certain place
and time. Certainly, the scientific ideas expressed in it also do not seem to
originate from the desert fourteen centuries ago.

Many centuries before the onset of Muhammed's prophethood, there was

a well-known theory of atomism advanced by the Greek philosopher,
Democritus. He and the people who came after him assumed that matter
consists of tiny, indestructible, indivisible particles called atoms. The
Arabs too, used to deal in the same concept; in fact, the Arabic word
dharrah commonly referred to the smallest particle known to man. Now,
modern science has discovered that this smallest unit of matter (i.e., the
atom, which has all of the same properties as its element) can be split
into its component parts. This is a new idea, a development of the last
century; yet, interestingly enough, this information had already been
documented in the Qur'an which states:

" He [i.e., Allah] is aware of an atom's weight in the heavens and on the
earth and even anything smaller than that..."

Undoubtedly, fourteen centuries ago that statement would have looked

unusual, even to an Arab. For him, the dharrah was the smallest thing
there was. Indeed, this is proof, that the Qur'an is not outdated.

Another example of what one might expect to find in an "old book" that
touches upon the subject of health or medicine is outdated remedies or
cures. Various historical sources state that the Prophet gave some advice
about health and hygiene, yet most of these pieces of advice are not
contained in the Qur'an. At first glance, to the non-Muslims this appears
to be a negligent omission. They cannot understand why Allah would not
"include" such helpful information in the Qur'an. Some Muslims attempt to
explain this absence with the following argument: "Although the Prophet's
advice was sound and applicable to the time in which he lived, Allah, in
His infinite wisdom, knew that there would come later medical and
scientific advances which would make the Prophet's advice appear
outdated. When later discoveries occurred, people might say that such
information contradicted that which the Prophet had given. Thus, since
Allah would never allow any opportunity for the non-Muslims to claim that
the Qur'an contradicts itself or the teachings of the Prophet, He only
included in the Qur'an information and examples which could stand the
test of time."

However, when one examines the true realities of the Qur'an in terms of
its existence as a divine revelation, the entire matter is quickly brought
into its proper perspective, and the error in such argumentation becomes
clear and understandable. It must be understood that the Qur'an is a
divine revelation, and as such, all information in it is of divine origin. Allah
revealed the Qur'an from Himself. It is the words of Allah, which existed
before creation, and thus nothing can be added, subtracted or altered. In
essence, the Qur'an existed and was complete before the creation of
Prophet Muhammed, so it could not possibly contain any of the Prophet's
own words or advice. An inclusion of such information would clearly
contradict the purpose for which the Qur'an exists, compromise its
authority and render it inauthentic as a divine revelation.

Consequently, there was no "home remedies" in the Qur'an which one

could claim to be outdated; nor does it contain any man's view about
what is beneficial to health, what food is best to eat, or what will cure this
or that disease. In fact, the Qur'an only mentions one item dealing with
medical treatment, and it is not in dispute by anyone. It states that in
honey there is healing. And certainly, I do not think that there is anyone
who will argue with that!

If one assumes that the Qur'an is the product of a man's mind, then one
would expect it to reflect some of what was going on in the mind of the
man who "composed" it. In fact, certain encyclopedias and various books
clam that the Qur'an was the product of hallucinations that Muhammed
underwent. If these claims are true - if it indeed originated from some
psychological problems in Muhammed's mind - then evidence of this
would be apparent in the Qur'an. Is there such evidence? In order to
determine whether or not there is, one must first identify what things
would have been going on in his mind at that time and then search for
these thoughts and reflections in the Qur'an.

It is common knowledge that Muhammed had a very difficult life. All of his
daughters died before him except one, and he had a wife of several years
who was dear and important to him, who not only proceeded him in death
at a very critical period of his life. As a matter of fact, she must have been
quite a woman because when the first revelation came to him, he ran
home to her afraid. Certainly, even today one would have a hard time
trying to find an Arab who would tell you, "I was so afraid that I ran home
to my wife." They just aren't that way. Yet Muhammed felt comfortable
enough with his wife to be able to do that. That's how influential and
strong woman she was. Although these examples are only a few of the
subjects that would have been on Muhammed's mind, they are sufficient
in intensity to prove my point. The Qur'an does not mention any of these
things - not the death of his children, not the death of his beloved
companion and wife, not his fear of the initial revelations, which he so
beautifully shared with his wife - nothing; yet, these topics must have
hurt him, bothered him, and caused him pain and grief during periods of
his psychological reflections, then these subjects, as well as others, would
be prevalent or at least mentioned throughout.

A truly scientific approach to the Qur'an is possible because the Qur'an

offers something that is not offered by other religious scriptures, in
particular, and other religions, in general. It is what scientists demand.
Today there are many people who have ideas and theories about how the
universe works. These people are all over the place, but the scientific
community does not even bother to listen to them. This is because within
the last century the scientific community has demanded a test of
falsification. They say, "If you have theory, do not bother us with it unless
you bring with that theory a way for us to prove whether you are wrong or
not."

Such a test was exactly why the scientific community listened to Einstein
towards the beginning of the century. He came with a new theory and
said, "I believe the universe works like this; and here are three ways to
prove whether I am wrong!". So the scientific community subjected his
theory to the tests, and within six years it passed all three. Of course, this
does not prove that he was great, but it proves that he deserved to be
listened to because he said, "This is my idea; and if you want to try to
prove me wrong, do this or try that." This is exactly what the Qur'an has -
falsification tests. Some are old (in that they have already been proven
true), and some still exist today. Basically it states, "If this book is not
what it claims to be, then all you have to do is this or this or this to prove
that it is false." Of course, in 1400 years no one has been able to do "This
or this or this, " and thus it is still considered true and authentic. I suggest
to you that the next time you get into dispute with someone about Islam
and he claims that he has the truth and that you are in darkness, you
leave all other arguments at first and make this suggestion. Ask him, "Is
there any falsification test in your religion? Is there anything in your
religion that would prove you are wrong if I could prove to you that it
exists - anything?" Well, I can promise right now that people will not have
anything - no test, no proof, nothing! This is because they do not carry
around the idea that they should not only present what they believe but
should also offer others a chance to prove they're wrong. However, Islam
does that. A perfect example of how Islam provides man with a chance to
verify it authenticity and "prove it wrong" occurs in the 4th chapter. And
quiet honestly, I was surprised when I first discovered this challenge. It
states:

"Do they not consider the Qur'an? Had it been from any other than Allah,
they would surely have found therein much discrepancy."

This is a clear challenge to the non-Muslim. Basically, it invites him to find

a mistake. As a matter of fact, the seriousness and difficulty of the
challenge aside, the actual presentation of such a challenge in the first
place is not even in human nature and is inconsistent with man's
personality. One doesn't take an exam in school after finishing the exam,
write a note to the instructor at the end saying, "This exam is perfect.
There are no mistakes in it. Find one if you can!". One just doesn't do
that. The teacher would not sleep until he found a mistake! And yet this is
the way the Qur'an approaches people. Another interesting attitude that
exists in the Qur'an repeatedly deals with its advice to the reader. The
Qur'an informs that reader about different facts and then gives the
advice: "If you want to know more about this or that, or if you doubt what
is said, then you should ask those who have knowledge." This too is a
surprising attitude. It is not usual to have a book that comes from
someone without training in geography, botany, biology, etc., who
discusses these subjects and then advises the reader to ask men of
knowledge if he doubts anything.

Yet in every age there have been Muslims who have followed the advice of
the Qur'an and made surprising discoveries. If one looks to the works of
Muslim scientists if many centuries ago, one will find them full of
quotations from the Qur'an. These works state that they did research in
such a place, looking for something. And they affirm that the reason they
looked in such and such a place was that the Qur'an pointed them in that
direction. For example, the Qur'an mentions man's origin and then tells
the reader, "Research it!" It gives the reader a hint where to look and
then states that one should find out more about it. This is the kind of
thing that Muslims today largely seem to overlook - but not always, as
illustrated in the following example. A few years ago, a group of men in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia collected all if the verses in the Qur'an which discuss
embryology - the growth of the human being in the womb. They said,
"Here is what the Qur'an says. Is it the truth?" In essence, they took the
advice of the Qur'an: "Ask the men who know." They chose, as it
happened, a non-Muslim who is a professor of embryology at the
University of Toronto. His name is Keith Moore, and he is the author of
textbooks on embryology - a world expert on the subject. They invited
him to Riyadh and said, "This is what the Qur'an says about your subject.
Is it true? What can you tell us?" While he was in Riyadh, they gave him
all of the help that he needed in translation and all of the cooperation for
which he asked. And he was so surprised at what he found that he
changed his textbooks. In fact, in the second edition of one of his books,
called Before we are born... in the second edition about the history of
embryology, he included some material that was not in the first edition
because of what he found in the Qur'an. Truly this illustrates that the
Qur'an was ahead of its time and that those who believe in the Qur'an
know what other people do not know.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Keith Moore for a television

presentation, and we talked a great deal about this - it was illustrated by
slides and so on. He mentioned that some of the things that the Qur'an
states about the growth of the human being were not known until thirty
years ago. In fact, he said that one item in particular - the Qur'an's
description of the human being as a "leech-like clot" ('alaqah) at one
stage - was new to him; but when he checked on it, he found that it was
true, and so he added it to his book. He said, "I never thought of that
before," and he went to the zoology department and asked for a picture of
a leech. When he found that it looked just like the human embryo, he
decided to include both pictures in one of his textbooks. Dr. Moore also
wrote a book on clinical embryology, and when he presented this
information in Toronto, it caused quite a stir throughout Canada. It was on
the front pages of some of the newspapers across Canada, and some of
the headlines were quite funny. For instance, one headline read:
"SURPRISING THING FOUND IN ANCIENT BOOK!"! It seems obvious from
this example that people do not clearly understand what it is all about. As
a matter of fact, one newspaper reporter asked Professor Moore, "Don't
you think That maybe the Arabs might have known about these things -
the description of the embryo, its appearance and how it changes and
grows? Maybe there were not scientists, but maybe they did something
crude dissections on their own - carved up people and examined these
things."

The professor immediately pointed out to him that he [i.e., the reporter]
had missed a very important point - all of the slides of the embryo that
had been shown and had been projected in the film had come from
pictures taken through a microscope. He said, "It does not matter if
someone had tried to discover embryology fourteen centuries ago, they
could not have seen it!". All of the descriptions in the Qur'an of the
appearance of the embryo are of the item when it is still too small to see
with the eye; therefore, one needs a microscope to see it. Since such a
device had only been around for little more than two hundred years, Dr.
Moore taunted, "Maybe fourteen centuries ago someone secretly had a
microscope and did this research, making no mistakes anywhere. Then he
somehow taught Muhammad and convinced him to put this information in
his book. Then he destroyed his equipment and kept it a secret forever.
Do you believe that? You really should not unless you bring some proof
because it is such a ridiculous theory." In fact, when he was asked "How
do you explain this information in the Qur'an?" Dr. Moore's reply was, "It
could only have been divinely revealed."!

Although the aforementioned example of man researching information

contained in the Qur'an deals with a non-Muslim, it is still valid because
he is one of those who is knowledgeable in the subject being researched.
Had some layman claimed that what the Qur'an says about embryology is
true, then one would not necessarily have to accept his word. However,
because of the high position, respect, and esteem man gives scholars, one
naturally assumes that if they research a subject and arrive at a
conclusion based on that research, then the conclusion is valid. One of
Professor Moore's colleagues, Marshall Johnson, deals extensively with
geology at the University of Toronto.

He became very interested in the fact that the Qur'an's statements about
embryology are accurate, and so he asked Muslims to collect everything
contained in the Qur'an which deals with his specialty. Again people were
very surprised at the findings. Since there are a vast number subjects
discussed in the Qur'an, it would certainly require a large amount of time
to exhaust each subject. It suffices for the purpose of this discussion to
state that the Qur'an makes very clear and concise statements about
various subjects while simultaneously advising the reader to verify the
authenticity of these statements with research by scholars in those
subjects. And as illustrated by the Qur'an has clearly emerged authentic.
Undoubtedly, there is an attitude in the Qur'an which is not found
anywhere else. It is interesting how when the Qur'an provides
information, it often tells the reader, "You did not know this before."
Indeed, there is no scripture that exists which makes that claim. All of the
other ancient writings and scriptures that people have, do give a lot of
information, but they always state where the information came from.

For example, when the Bible discusses ancient history, it states that this
king lived here, this one fought in a certain battle, another one had so
may sons, etc. Yet it always stipulates that if you want more information,
then you should read the book of so and so because that is where the
information came from. In contrast to this concept, the Qur'an provides
the reader with information and states that this information is something
new. Of course, there always exists the advice to research the information
provided and verify its authenticity. It is interesting that such a concept
was never challenged by non-Muslims fourteen centuries ago. Indeed, the
Makkans who hated the Muslims, and time and time again they heard
such revelations claiming to bring new information; yet, they never spoke
up and said, "This is not new. We know where Muhammad got this
information. We learned this at school."

They could never challenge its authenticity because it really was new! In
concurrence with the advice given in the Qur'an to research information
(even if it is new), when 'Umar was caliph, he chose a group of men and
sent them to find the wall of Dhul-Qarnayn. Before the Qur'anic
revelation, the Arabs had never heard of such a wall, but because the
Qur'an described it, they were able to discover it. As a matter of fact, it is
now located in what is called Durbend in the Soviet Union. It must be
stressed here that the Qur'an is accurate about many, many things, but
accuracy does not necessarily mean that a book is a divine revelation. In
fact, accuracy is only one of the criteria for divine revelations.

For instance, the telephone book is accurate, but that does not mean that
it is divinely revealed. The real problem lies in that one must establish
some proof of the source the Qur'an's information. The emphasis is on the
reader. One cannot simply deny the Qur'an's authenticity without
sufficient proof. If, indeed, one finds a mistake, then he has the right to
disqualify it. This is exactly what the Qur'an encourages. Once a man
came up to me after a lecture I delivered in South Africa. He was very
angry about what I had said, and so he claimed, "I am going to go home
tonight and find a mistake in the Qur'an." Of course, I said,
"Congratulations. That is the most intelligent thing that you have said."
Certainly, this is the approach Muslims need to take with those who doubt
the Qur'an's authenticity, because the Qur'an itself offers the same
challenge. An inevitably, after accepting it's challenge and discovering that
it is true, these people will come to believe it because they could not
disqualify it. In essence, the Qur'an earns their respect because they
themselves have had to verify its authenticity. An essential fact that
cannot be reiterated enough concerning the authenticity of the Qur'an is
that one's inability to explain a phenomenon himself does not require his
acceptance of the phenomenon's existence or another person's
explanation of it.

Specifically, just because one cannot explain something does not mean
that one has to accept someone else's explanation. However, the person's
refusal of other explanations reverts the burden of proof back on himself
to find a feasible answer. This general theory applies to numerous
concepts in life, but fits most wonderfully with the Qur'anic challenge, for
it creates a difficulty for one who says, "I do not believe it." At the onset
of refusal one immediately has an obligation to find an explanation himself
if he feels others' answers are inadequate. In fact, in one particular
Qur'anic verse which I have always seen mistranslated into English, Allah
mentions a man who heard the truth explained to him. It states that he
was derelict in his duty because after he heard the information, he left
without checking the verity of what he had heard. In other words, one is
guilty if he hears something and does not research it and check to see
whether it is true. One is supposed to process all information and decide
what is garbage to be thrown out and what is worthwhile information to
be kept and benefited from at a later date. One cannot just let it rattle
around in his head. It must be put in the proper categories and
approached from that point of view. For example, if the information is still
speculatory, then one must discern whether it's closer to being true or
false. But if all of the facts have been presented, then one must decide
absolutely between these two options. And even if one is not positive
about the authenticity of the information, he is still required to process all
of the information and make the admission that he just does not know for
sure. Although this last point appears to be futile, in actuality, it is
beneficial to the arrival at a positive conclusion at a later time in that it
forces the person to at least recognize, research and review the facts. This
familiarity with the information will give the person "the edge" when
future discoveries are made and additional information is presented. The
important thing is that one deals with the facts and does not simply
discard them out of empathy and disinterest.

The real certainty about the truthfulness of the Qur'an is evident in the
confidence which is prevalent throughout it; and this confidence comes
from a different approach - "Exhausting the Alternatives." In essence, the
Qur'an states, "This book is a divine revelation; if you do not believe that,
then what is it?" In other words, the reader is challenged to come up with
some other explanation. Here is a book made of paper and ink. Where did
it come from? It says it is a divine revelation; if it is not, then what is its
source? The interesting fact is that no one has with an explanation that
works. In fact, all alternatives have bee exhausted. As has been well
established by non-Muslims, these alternatives basically are reduces to
two mutually exclusive schools of thought, insisting on one or the other.
On one hand, there exists a large group of people who have researched
the Qur'an for hundreds of years and who claim, "One thing we know for
sure - that man, Muhammad, thought he was a prophet. He was crazy!"
They are convinced that Muhammad (SAW) was fooled somehow. Then on
the other hand, there is another group which alleges, "Because of this
evidence, one thing we know for sure is that that man, Muhammad, was a
liar!" Ironically, these two groups never seem to get together without
contradicting. In fact, many references on Islam usually claim both
theories. They start out by saying that Muhammad (SAW) was crazy and
then end by saying that he was a liar. They never seem to realize that he
could not have been both!

For example, if one is deluded and really thinks that he is a prophet, then
he does not sit up late at night planning, "How will I fool the people
tomorrow so that they think I am a prophet?" He truly believes that he is
a prophet, and he trusts that the answer will be given to him by
revelation. As a matter of fact, a great deal of the Qur'an came in answer
to questions. Someone would ask Muhammad (SAW) a question, and the
revelation would come with the answer to it. Certainly, if one is crazy and
believes that an angel put words in his ear, then when someone asks him
a question, he thinks that the angel will give him the answer. Because he
is crazy, he really thinks that. He does not tell someone to wait a short
while and then run to his friends and ask them, "Does anyone know the
answer?" This type of behavior is characteristic of one who does not
believe that he is a prophet. What the non-Muslims refuse to accept is
that you cannot have it both ways. One can be deluded, or he can be a
liar. He can be either one or neither, but he certainly cannot be both! The
emphasis is on the fact that they are unquestionably mutually exclusive
personal traits.

The following scenario is a good example of the kind of circle that non-
Muslims go around in constantly. If you ask one of them, "What is the
origin of the Qur'an?" He tells you that it originated from the mind of a
man who was crazy. Then you ask him, "If it came from his head, then
where did he get the information contained in it? Certainly the Qur'an
mentions many things with which the Arabs were not familiar." So in order
to explain the fact which you bring him, he changes his position and says,
"Well, maybe he was not crazy. Maybe some foreigner brought him the
information. So he lied and told people that he was a prophet." At this
point then you have to ask him, "If Muhammad was a liar, then where did
he get his confidence? Why did he behave as though he really thought he
was a prophet?" Finally backed into a corner, like a cat he quickly lashes
out with the first response that comes to his mind. Forgetting that he has
already exhausted that possibility, he claims, "Well, maybe he wasn't a
liar. He was probably crazy and really thought that he was a prophet."
And thus he begins the futile circle again.

As has already been mentioned, there is much information contained in

the Qur'an whose source cannot be attributed to anyone other than Allah.
For example, who told Muhammad about the wall of Dhul-Qarnayn - a
place hundreds of miles to the north? Who told him about embryology?
When people assemble facts such as these, if they are not willing to
attribute their existence to a divine source, they automatically resort to
the assumption someone brought Muhammad the information and that he
used it to fool the people. However, this theory can easily be disproved
with one simple question: "If Muhammad was a liar, where did he get his
confidence? Why did he tell some people out right to their face what
others could never say?" Such confidence depends completely upon being
convinced that one has a true divine revelation. For example, the Prophet
(SAW) had an uncle by the name of Abu Lahab. This man hated Islam to
such an extent that he used to follow the Prophet around in order to
discredit him. If Abu Lahab saw the Prophet (SAW) speaking to a
stranger, he would wait until they parted and then would go to the
stranger and ask him, "What did he tell you? Did he say, 'Black.'? Well, it's
white. Did he say, 'Morning.'? Well, it's night." He faithfully said the exact
opposite of whatever he heard Muhammad (SAW) and the Muslims say.
However, about ten years before Abu Lahab died, a little chapter in the
Qur'an was revealed to him. It distinctly stated that he would go to the
Fire (i.e., Hell). In other words, it affirmed that he would never become a
Muslim and would therefore be condemned forever. For ten years all Abu
Lahab had to do was say, "I heard that it has been revealed to
Muhammad that I will never change - that I will never become a Muslim
and will enter the Hellfire. Well I want to become a Muslim now. How do
you like that? What do you think of your divine revelation now?" But he
never did that. And yet, that is exactly the kind of behavior one would
have expected from him since he always sought to contradict Islam. In
essence, Muhammad (SAW) said, "You hate me and you want to finish
me? Here, say these words, and I am finished. Come on, say them!" But
Abu Lahab never said them. Ten years! And in all that time he never
accepted Islam or even became sympathetic to the Islamic cause. How
could Muhammad possibly have known for sure that Abu Lahab would
fulfill the Qur'anic revelation if he (i.e., Muhammad) was not truly the
messenger of Allah? How could he possibly have been so confident as to
give someone 10 years to discredit his claim of prophethood? The only
answer is that he was Allah's messenger; for in order to put forth suck a
risky challenge, one has to be entirely convinced that he has a divine
revelation.

Another example of the confidence which Muhammad (SAW) had in his

own prophethood and consequently in the divine protection of himself and
his message is when he left Makkah and hid in a cave with Abu Bakr
during their emigration to Madeenah. The two clearly saw people coming
to kill them, and Abu Bakr was afraid. Certainly, if Muhammad (SAW) was
a liar, a forger and one who was trying to fool the people into believing
that he was a prophet, one would have expected him to say in such a
circumstance to his friend, "Hey, Abu Bakr, see if you can find a back way
out of this cave." Or "Squat down in that corner over there and keep
quiet." Yet, in fact, what he said to Abu Bakr clearly illustrated his
confidence. He told him, "Relax! Allah is with us, and Allah will save us!"

Now, if one knows that he is fooling the people, where does one get this
kind of attitude? In fact, such a frame of mind is not characteristic of a liar
or a forger at all. So, as has been previously mentioned, the non-Muslims
go around and around in a circle, searching for a way out - some way to
explain the findings in the Qur'an without attributing them to their proper
source. On one hand, they tell you on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
"The man was a liar," and on the other hand, on Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday they tell you, "He was crazy." What they refuse to accept is that
one cannot have it both ways; yet they refuse to accept is that one cannot
have it both ways; yet they need both excuses to explain the information
in the Qur'an.

About seven years ago, I had a minister over to my home. In the

particular room which we were sitting there was a Qur'an on the table,
face down, and so the minister was not aware of which book it was. In the
midst of a discussion, I pointed to the Qur'an and said, "I have confidence
in that book." Looking at the Qur'an but not knowing which book it was ,
he replied, "Well, I tell you, if that book is not the Bible, it was written by
a man!" In response to his statement, I said, "Let me tell you something
about what is in that book." And in just three to four minutes I related to
him a few things contained in the Qur'an. After just those three or four
minutes, he completely changed his position and declared, "You are right.
A man did not write that book. The Devil wrote it!" Indeed, possessing
such an attitude is very unfortunate - for many reasons. For one thing, it
is a very quick and cheap excuse. It is an instant exit out of an
uncomfortable situation. As a matter of fact, there is a famous story in the
Bible that mentions how one day some of the Jews were witnesses when
Jesus raised a man from the dead. The man had been dead for four days,
and when Jesus arrived, he simply said, "Get up!" and the man arose and
walked away. At such a sight, some of the Jews who were watching said
disbelievingly, "This is the Devil. The Devil helped him!" Now this story is
rehearsed often in churches all over the world, and people cry big tears
over it, saying, "Oh, if I had been there, I would not have been as stupid
as the Jews!" Yet ironically, these people do exactly what the Jews did
when in just three minutes you show them only a small part of the Qur'an
and all they can say is, "Oh, the Devil did it. The devil wrote that book!".
Because they are truly backed into a corner and have no other viable
answer, they resort to the quickest and cheapest excuse available.
Another Example of people's use of this weak stance can be found in the
Makkans' explanation of the source of Muhammad's message. They used
to say, "The devils bring Muhammad that Qur'an!" But just as with every
other suggestion made, the Qur'an gives the answer. One verse in
particular states:

"And they say, 'Surely he is possessed [by jinn], 'but it [i.e., the Qur'an]
is not except a reminder to the worlds."

Thus it gives an argument in reply to such a theory. In fact, there are

many arguments in the Qur'an in reply to the suggestion that devils
brought Muhammad (SAW) his message. For example, in the 26th chapter
Allah clearly affirms:

"No evil ones have brought it [i.e., this revelation] down. It would neither
be fitting for them, nor would they be able. Indeed they have been
removed far from hearing."

And in another place in the Qur'an, Allah instructs us:

"So when you recite the Qur'an seek refuge in Allah from Shaytaan, the
rejected."

Now is this how Satan writes a book? He tells one, "Before you read my
book, ask God to save you from me."? This is very, very tricky. Indeed, a
man could write something like this, but would Satan do this? Many
people clearly illustrate that they cannot come to one conclusion on this
subject. On one hand, they claim that Satan would not do such a thing
and that even if he could, God would not allow him to; yet, on the other
hand, they also believe that Satan is only that much less than God. In
essence they allege that the Devil can probably do whatever God can do.
And as a result, when they look at the Qur'an, even as surprised as they
are as to how amazing it is, they still insist, "The Devil did this!" Thanks
be to Allah, Muslims do not have that attitude. Although Satan may have
some abilities, they are a long way separated from the abilities of Allah.
And no Muslim is a Muslim unless he believes that. It is common
knowledge even among non-Muslims that the Devil can easily make
mistakes, and it would be expected that he would contradict himself if and
when he wrote a book. For indeed, the Qur'an states:
"Do they not consider the Qur'an? Had it been from any other than Allah,
they would surely have found therein much discrepancy."

In conjunction with the excuses that non-Muslims advance in futile

attempts to justify unexplainable verses in the Qur'an, there is another
attack often rendered which seems to be a combination of the theories
that Muhammad (SAW) was crazy and a liar. Basically, these people
propose that Muhammad was insane, and as a result of his delusion, he
lied to and misled people. There is a name for this in psychology. It is
referred to as mythomania. It means simply that one tells lies and then
believes them. This is what the non-Muslims say Muhammad (SAW)
suffered from. But the only problem with this proposal is that one
suffering from mythomania absolutely cannot deal with facts, and yet the
whole Qur'an is based entirely upon facts. Everything contained in it can
be researched and established as true. Since facts are such a problem for
a mythomaniac, when a psychologist tries to treat one suffering from that
condition, he continually confronts him with facts. For example, if one is
mentally ill and claims, "I am the king of England," a psychologist does
not say to him "No you aren't. You are crazy!" He just does not do that.
Rather, he confronts him with facts and says, "O.K., you say you are the
king of England. So tell me where the queen is today. And where is your
prime minister? And where are your guards?" Now, when the man has
trouble trying to deal with these questions, he tries to make excuses,
saying Uh... the queen... she has gone to her mother's. Uh... the prime
minister... well he died." And eventually he is cured because he cannot
deal with the facts. If the psychologist continues confronting him with
enough facts, finally he faces the reality and says, "I guess I am not the
king of England." The Qur'an approaches everyone who reads it in very
much the same way a psychologist treats his mythomania patient. There
is a verse in the Qur'an which states:

"Oh mankind, there has come to you an admonition [i.e., the Qur'an]
from your Lord and a healing for what is in the hearts - and guidance and
mercy for the believers."

At first glance, this statement appears vague, but the meaning of this
verse is clear when one views it in light of the aforementioned example.
Basically, one is healed of his delusions by reading the Qur'an. In essence,
it is therapy. It literally cures deluded people by confronting them with
facts. A prevalent attitude throughout the Qur'an is one which says, "Oh
mankind, you say such and such about this; but what about such and
such? How can you say this when you know that?" And so forth. It forces
one to consider what is relevant and what matters while simultaneously
healing one of the delusions that the facts presented to mankind by Allah
can easily be explained away with flimsy theories and excuses. It is this
very sort of thing - confronting people with facts - that had captured the
attention of many non-Muslims. In fact, there exists a very interesting
reference concerning this subject in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.

In an article under the subject of the Qur'an, the Catholic Church states,
"Over the centuries, many theories have been offered as to the origin of
the Qur'an... Today no sensible man accepts any of these theories."!! Now
here is the age-old Catholic Church, which has been around for so many
centuries, denying these futile attempts to explain away the Qur'an.
Indeed, the Qur'an is a problem for the Catholic Church. It states that it is
revelation, so they study it. Certainly, they would love to find proof that it
is not, but they cannot. They cannot find a viable explanation. But at least
they are honest in their research and do not accept the first
unsubstantiated interpretation which comes along. The Church states that
in fourteen centuries it has not yet been presented a sensible explanation.
At least it admits that the Qur'an is not an easy subject to dismiss.
Certainly, other people are much less honest. They quickly say, "Oh, the
Qur'an came from here. The Qur'an came from there." And they do not
even examine the credibility of what they are stating most of the time. Of
course, such a statement by the Catholic Church leaves the everyday
Christian in some difficulty. It just may be that he has his own ideas as to
the origin of the Qur'an, but as a single member of the Church, he cannot
really act upon his own theory. Such an action would be contrary to the
obedience, allegiance and loyalty which the Church demands. By virtue of
his membership, he must accept what the Catholic Church declares
without question and establish its teachings as part of his everyday
routine. So, in essence, if the Catholic Church as a whole is saying, "Do
not listen to these unconfirmed reports about the Qur'an," then what can
be said about the Islamic point of view? Even non-Muslims are admitting
that there is something to the Qur'an - something that has to be
acknowledged - then why are people so stubborn and defensive and
hostile when Muslims advance the very same theory? This is certainly
something for those with mind a to contemplate - something to ponder for
those of understanding!

Recently, the leading intellectual in the Catholic Church - a man by the

name of Hans - studied the Qur'an and gave his opinion of what he had
read. This man has been around for some time, and he is highly respected
in the Catholic Church, and after careful scrutiny, he reported his findings,
concluding, "God has spoken to man through the man, Muhammad."
Again this is a conclusion arrived at by a non-Muslim source - the very
leading intellectual of the Catholic Church himself! I do not think that the
Pope agrees with him, but nonetheless, the opinion of such a noted,
repute public figure must carry some weight in defense of the Muslim
position. He must be applauded for facing the reality that the Qur'an is not
something which can be easily pushed aside and that, in fact God is the
source of these words. As is evident from the aforementioned information,
all of the possibilities have been exhausted, so the chance of finding
another possibility of dismissing the Qur'an is nonexistent. For if the book
is not a revelation, then it is a deception; and if it is a deception, one
must ask, "What is its origin" And where does it deceive us?" Indeed, the
true answers to these questions shed light on the Qur'an's authenticity
and silence the bitter unsubstantiated claims of the unbelievers. Certainly,
if people are going to insist that the Qur'an is a deception, then they must
bring forth evidence to support such a claim. The burden of proof is on
them, not us! One is never supposed to advance a theory without
sufficient corroborating facts; so I say to them, "Show me one deception!
Show me where the Qur'an deceives me! Show me, otherwise, don't say
that it is a deception!" An interesting characteristic of the Qur'an is how it
deals with surprising phenomena which relate not only to the past but to
modern times as well. In essence, the Qur'an is not and old problem. It is
still a problem even today - a problem to the non-Muslims that is. For
everyday, every week, every year brings more and more evidence that
the Qur'an is a force to be contended with - that its authenticity is no
longer to be challenged! For example, one verse in the Qur'an reads;

"Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined
together, then We clove them asunder, and made from water every living
thing? Will they not then believe?"

Ironically, this very information is exactly what they awarded the 1973
Noble Prize for - to a couple of unbelievers. The Qur'an reveals the origin
of the universe - how it began from one piece - and mankind continues to
verify this revelation, even up to now. Additionally, the fact that all life
originated from water would not have been an easy thing to convince
people of fourteen centuries ago. Indeed, if 1400 years ago you had stood
in the desert and told someone, "All of this, you see (pointing to yourself),
is made up of mostly water," no one would have believed you. Proof of
that was not available until the invention of the microscope. They had to
wait to find out that cytoplasm, the basic substance of the cell, is made-
up of 80% water. Nonetheless, the evidence did come, and once again the
Qur'an stood the test of time. In reference to the falsification tests
mentioned earlier, it is interesting to note that they, too, relate to both
the past and the present. Some of them were used as illustrations of
Allah's omnipotence and knowledge, while others continue to stand as
challenges to the present day. An example of the former is the statement
made in the Qur'an about Abu Lahab. It clearly illustrates that Allah, the
Knower of the Unseen, knew that Abu Lahab would never change his ways
and accept Islam. Thus Allah dictated that he would be condemned to the
Hellfire forever. Such a chapter was both an illustration of Allah's divine
wisdom and a warning to those who were like Abu Lahab.

An interesting example of the latter type of falsification tests contained in

the Qur'an is the verse which mentions the relationship between the
Muslims and the Jews. The verse is careful not to narrow its scope to the
relationship between individual members of each religion, but rather, it
summarizes the relationship between the two groups of people as a
whole. In essence, the Qur'an states that the Christians will always treat
the Muslims better than the Jews will treat the Muslims. Indeed, the full
impact of such a statement can only be felt a~er careful consideration of
the real meaning of such a verse. It is true that many Christians and
many Jews have become Muslims, but as a whole, the Jewish community
is to be viewed as an avid enemy of Islam. Additionally, very few people
realize what such an open declaration in the Qur'an invites. In essence, it
is an easy chance for the Jews to prove that the Qur'an is false - that it is
not a divine revelation. All they have to do is organize themselves, treat
the Muslims nicely for a few years and then say, "Now what does your
holy book say about who are your best friends in the world - the Jews or
the Christians? Look what we Jews have done for you!" That is all they
have to do to disprove the Qur'an's authenticity, yet they have not done it
in 1400 years. But, as always, the offer still stands open!

All of the examples so far given concerning the various angles from which
one can approach the Qur'an have undoubtedly been subjective in nature;
however there does exist another angle, among others, which is objective
and whose basis is mathematical. It is surprising how authentic the Qur'an
becomes when one assembles what might be referred to as a list of good
guesses. Mathematically, it can be explained using guessing and
prediction examples. For instance, if a person has two choices (i.e., one is
right, and one is wrong), and he closes his eyes and makes a choice, then
half of the time (i.e., one time out of two) he will be right. Basically, he
has a one in two chance, for he could pick the wrong choice, or he could
pick the right choice. Now if the same person has two situations like that
(i.e., he could be right or wrong about situation number one, and he could
be right or wrong about situation number two), and he closes his eyes and
guesses, then he will only be right one fourth of the time (i.e., one time
out of four). He now has a one in four chance because now there are
three ways for him to be wrong and only one way for him to be right. In
simple terms, he could make the wrong choice in situation number one
and then make the wrong choice in situation number two; OR he could
make the wrong choice in situation number one and then make the right
choice in situation number two; OR he could make the right choice in
situation number one and then make the wrong choice in situation
number two; OR he could make the right choice in situation number one
and then make the right choice in situation number two. Of course, the
(only instance in which he could be totally right is the last scenario where
he could guess correctly in both situations. The odds of his guessing
completely correctly have become greater because the number of
situations for him to guess in have increased; and the mathematical
equation representing such a scenario is 1/2 x 1/2 (i.e., one time out of
two for the first situation multiplied by one time out of two for the second
situation).

Continuing on with the example, if the same person now has three
situations in which to make blind guesses, then he will only be right one
eighth of the time (i.e., one time out of eight or 1/2 X 1/2 X 1/2). Again,
the odds of choosing the correct choice in all three situations have
decreased his chances of being completely correct to only one time in
eight. It must be understood that as the number of situations increase,
the chances of being right decrease, for the two phenomena are inversely
proportional.

Now applying this example to the situations in the Qur'an, if one draws up
a list of all of the subjects about which the Qur'an has made correct
statements, it becomes very clear that it is highly unlikely that they were
all just correct blind guesses. Indeed, the subjects discussed in the Qur'an
are numerous, and thus the odds of someone just making lucky guesses
about all of them become practically nil. If there are a million ways for the
Qur'an to be wrong, yet each time it is right, then it is unlikely that
someone was guessing. The following three examples of subjects about
which the Qur'an has made correct statements collectively illustrate how
the Qur'an continues to beat the odds.

In the 16th chapter the Qur'an mentions that the female bee leaves its
home to gather food.l2 Now, a person might guess on that, saying, "The
bee that you see flying around - it could be male, or it could be female. I
think I will guess female." Certainly, he has a one in two chance of being
right. So it happens that the Qur'an is right. But it also happens that that
was not what most people believed at the time when the Qur'an was
revealed. Can you tell the difference between a male and a female bee?
Well, it takes a specialist to do that, but it has been discovered that the
male bee never leaves his home to gather food. However, in
Shakespeare's play, Henry the Fourth, some of the characters discuss
bees and mention that the bees are soldiers and have a king. That is what
people thought in Shakespeare's time - that the bees that one sees flying
around are male bees and that they go home and answer to a king.
However, that is not true at all. The fact is that they are females, and they
answer to a queen. Yet it took modern scientific investigations in the last
300 years to discover that this is the case.

So, back to the list of good guesses, concerning the topic of bees, the
Qur'an had a 50/50 chance of being right, and the odds were one in two.

In addition to the subject of bees, the Qur'an also discusses the sun and
the manner in which it travels through space. Again, a person can guess
on that subject. When the sun moves through space, there are two
options: it can travel just as a stone would travel if one threw it, or it can
move of its own accord. The Qur'an states the latter - that it moves as a
result of its own motion.'3 To do such, the Qur'an uses a form of the word
sabaha to describe the sun's movement through space. In order to
properly provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the
implications of this Arabic verb, the following example is given. If a man is
in water and the verb sabaha is applied in reference to his movement, it
can be understood that he is swimming, moving of his own accord and not
as a result of a direct force applied to him. Thus when this verb is used in
reference to the sun's movement through space, it in no way implies that
the sun is flying uncontrollably through space as a result of being hurled
or the like. It simply means that the sun is turning and rotating as it
travels. Now, this is what the Qur'an affirms, but was it an easy thing to
discover? Can any common man tell that the sun is turning? Only in
modern times was the equipment made available to project the image of
the sun onto a tabletop so that one could look at it without being blinded.
And through this process it was discovered that not only are there three
spots on the sun but that these spots move once every 25 days. This
movement is referred to as the rotation of the sun around its axis and
conclusively proves that, as the Qur'an stated 1400 years ago, the sun
does, indeed turn as it travels through space.

And returning once again to the subject of good guess, the odds of
guessing correctly about both subjects - the sex of bees and the
movement of the sun - are one in four!

Seeing as back fourteen centuries ago people probably did not understand
much about time zones, the Quran's statements about this subject are
considerably surprising. The concept that one family is having breakfast
as the sun comes up while another family is enjoying the brisk night air is
truly something to be marveled at, even in modern time. Indeed, fourteen
centuries ago, a man could not travel more than thirty miles in one day,
and thus it took him literally months to travel from India to Morocco, for
example. And probably , when he was having supper in Morocco, he
thought to himself, "Back home in India they are having supper right
now." This is because he did not realize that, in the process of traveling,
he moved across a time zone. Yet, because it is the words of Allah, the
All-Knowing, the Qur'an recognizes and acknowledges such a
phenomenon. In an interesting verse it states that when history comes to
an end and the Day of Judgment arrives, it will all occurring an instant;
and this very instant will catch some people in the daytime and some
people at night. This clearly illustrates Allah's divine wisdom and His
previous knowledge of the existence of time zones, even though such a
discovery was non-existent back fourteen centuries ago. Certainly, this
phenomenon is not something which is obvious to one's eyes or a result of
one's experience, and this fact, in itself, suffices as proof of the Qur'ans
authenticity.

Returning one final time to the subject of good guesses for the purpose of
the present example, the odds that someone guessed correctly about all
three of the aforementioned subjects - the sex of bees, the movement of
the sun and the existence of time zones - are one in eight!

Certainly, one could continue on and on with this example, drawing up

longer and longer list of good guesses; and of course, the odds would
become higher and higher with each increase of subjects about which one
could guess. But what no one can deny is the following; the odds that
Mohammed an illiterate, guessed correctly about thousands and
thousands of subjects, never once making a mistake, are so high that any
theory of his authorship of the Qur'an must be completely dismissed -
even by the most hostile enemies of Islam!

Indeed, the Qur'an expects this kind of challenge. Undoubtedly, if one said
to someone upon entering a foreign land, "I know your father. I have met
him," probably the man from that land would doubt the newcomer's word,
saying, "You have just come here. How could you know my father?" As a
result, he would question him, "Tell me, is my father tall, short, dark, fair?
What is he like?" Of course, if the visitor continued answering all of the
questions correctly, the skeptic would have no choice but to say, "I guess
you do know my father. I don't know how you know him, but I guess you
do!" The situation is the same with the Qur'an. It states that it originates
from the One who created everything. So everyone has the right to say,
"Convince me! If the author of this book really originated life and
everything in the heavens and on the earth, then He should know about
this, about that, and so on." And inevitably, after researching the Qur'an,
everyone will discover the same truths. Additionally, we all know
something for sure: we do not all have to be experts to verify what the
Qur'an affirms. One's iman (faith) grows as one continues to check and
confirm the truths contained in the Qur'an. And one is supposed to do so
all of his life.

May God (Allah) guide everyone close to the truth.

Supplement

An engineer at the University of Toronto who was interested in psychology

and who had read something on it, conducted researched wrote a thesis
on Efficiency of Group Discussions. The purpose of his research was to
find out how much people accomplish when they get together to talk in
groups of two, three, ten, etc. The graph of his findings: people
accomplish most when they talk in groups of two. Of course, this
discovery was entirely beyond his expectations, but it is very old advice
given in the Qur'an:

Additionally, the 89th chapter of the Qur'an mentions a certain city by the
name of 'Iram (a city of pillars), which was not known in ancient history
and which was non-existent as far as historians were concerned. However,
the December 1978 edition of National Geographic introduced interesting
information which mentioned that in 1973, the city of Elba was excavated
in Syria. The city was discovered to be 43 centuries old, but that is not the
most amazing part. Researchers found in the library of Elba a record of all
of the cities with which Elba had done business. Believe or not, there on
the list was the name of the city of 'Iram. The people of Elba had done
business with the people of 'Iram!

"Say, 'I exhort you to one thing - that you stand for Allah, [assessing the
truth] by twos and singly, and then reflect.....' In conclusion I ask you to
consider with care the following:

"And they say, 'Why are not signs sent down to him from his Lord?' Say,
'Indeed, the signs are with Allah, and I am but a clear warner.' But is
sufficient for them that We have sent down to you the Book [i.e. Qur'an]
which is rehearsed to them? Verily, in that is mercy and a reminder to
people who believe."
 A Special Animal in the Service of Man: Camel
By Harun Yahya

"Do they not look at the Camels; how they are made?..."

Do they not look at the Camels, how they are made? And at the Sky, how it is raised
high? And at the Mountains, how they are fixed firm? And at the Earth, how it
is spread out? Therefore do thou give admonition, for thou art one to
admonish." (Al-Ghashiya - The Overwhelming, The Pall), 17-21)

It's beyond doubt that all beings reflect the endless Power and Knowledge of their
Creator. This fact is expressed in many verses of the Qur'an, constantly
emphasizing that everything created by Allah is actually an evidence of belief
and a lesson for admonition.

The 17th verse of the Chapter Al-Gashiya, which is "Do they not look at the Camels, how
they are made?", mentions an animal that has to be carefully examined and
thought about: This is the 'camel'. In this article, we will study this animal on
which the Qur'an invites us to ponder about.

The exclusively specific characteristic of the camel is its body structure, which is not
effected even in the most severe circumstances. Its body has such features that
for many days, it can survive without water and food and can even travel with
a bulk of hundreds of kilograms on its back. Many characteristics of the camel
constitute evidence that this animal is created particularly for the dry climate
conditions, and put into service for the comfort of man. In the Qurâan, it is
stated; "Verily, in the alternation of the night and the day, and in all that Allah
hath created, in the heavens and the earth, are signs for those who fear Him."
(Yunus (Jonah), 6)
The camel is specially designed for the conditions of the desert. As a matter of fact, each
part of the animalâs body has to be investigated in order to understand how it
is "made" by Allah.

Feet for all types of land; its feet are donated with two toes connected to each other with
a flexible cushion. This structure which enables it to firmly grasp the land is
consisted of four fat-balls. These feet are totally proper for all kinds of land
conditions. Its nails protect the foot against any potential damages that may
occur as a result of blows. Knees are covered with a structure called "callus",
which is composed of skin as hard and thick as horn. When the animal lays
down on the hot sands, this calloused structure protects the animal from being
defected by the extremely hot sand.

The hump as a food stock; the hump of the camel forms is a mass of fats, and provides
nutriment to the animal periodically in times of starvation. With this system,
this animal can live 3 weeks without water, whilst it looses 33% of its weight.
Under the same severe circumstances, a human being would loose 8% of his
weight, but die within 36 hours. Since, he would completely lose the water in
his body.

Heat insulating fur; this fur consists of thick and felted hair that does not only protect
the body of the animal against cold and hot climatic conditions, but also
eliminate the water loss of the body. The Hecin camel can delay the
perspiration of its body by means of increasing its body temperature up to 41
‫آ‬° C, and thus prevents the water loss. With its thick fur, camels in Asia can
survive high temperatures reaching up to +50 ‫آ‬° C in summer and falling down
to -50 ‫آ‬° C in winter.

Head sheltered from the sand; the eye lashes of the camel are designed like two separate
combs clamping together. In case of danger, they are automatically closed.
With this special design, even a single grain of sand is not let into the eye. Nose
and ears are covered with long hairs for protection from sand and dust. Its
long neck enables the animal to reach and feed on the leaves, which are 3
meters high from the ground.

In addition to the above features, the camel also has other specialized systems in its
body. Actually, each one of these qualities of the animal gives it proficiency in
the harsh conditions of the desert. These features may be categorized as below:

RESISTANCE TO THIRST AND HUNGER

Camels can live without food and water for 8 days under temperatures of 50 ‫آ‬° C.
During this period, it looses 22% of its body weight. However, it can survive
even if it looses 40% of the water in its body, whilst loosing just 12% would
cause a man's death. Another reason of its endurance against thirst is a
mechanism which enables the camel to increase its internal temperature up to
41 ‫آ‬° C. Thanks to this, the animal keeps the water loss at the minimum level in
the extereme hot climates of the desert. Camels can also decrease their internal
body temperature down to 30 ‫آ‬° C in the cold nights of the desert.
IMPROVED WATER UTILIZATION UNIT

Camels can consume 130 liters of water almost in 10 minutes. This amount is
approximately one third of their body weight. Besides, camels also have a
mucus structure in their nose, which is 100 times larger in area than the man's.
Every time the animal breathes, air is moisturized by the mucus. When we
breathe, we lose 16 mg of water vapor for every litre of air. However, with the
structure of the mucus, camels can get use of the moisture in the air in a ratio
of 66%.

MAXIMUM BENEFIT FROM FOOD AND WATER

Most of the animals die when the accumulated urea in their body gets into the blood
circulatory system. Yet, camels use this urea produced in their body, by
filtering it through the liver continuously. Consequently, they use it as a source
of protein and water. Both the blood and cell structures of the camel are
specialized for enabling this animal to survive for long periods of time.

Hump is the another aide to the camel. One fifth of the camel's body is stored as fat in
its hump. The storage of the body fat in only one part of the camel's body,
prevents it from losing water all through body. This lets its body to use
minimum amount of water. Although a camel with humps can take in 30-50
kilograms of food in a day, it is able to live one month with only 2 kg of grass.

In addition, camels have very strong and rubberlike lips that make it easer for them to
eat thorns sharp enough to pierce leather. Furthermore, it possesses such a
strong digestive system that it can eat everything it comes across with like
plastic plates, copper wire and reeds. The four chambered stomach of this
wonderful animal gets use of everything, even other than food. It is rather
obvious how precious these features of the camels are in such a dry climate.

"Do ye not see that Allah has subjected to your (use) all things in the heavens and on
earth, and has made his bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, (both) seen
and unseen? Yet there are among men those who dispute about Allah, without
knowledge and without guidance, and without a Book to enlighten them!"
(Luqman, 20)

Now, let us think in the light of these information: Has the camel adapted its own body
to the desert conditions on its own? Has it formed its own mucus of the nose or
the hump on its back? Or has it designed its own nose and eye structure with
protection against windwhirls and storms? Has it arranged its own blood and
cell structure based on the principle to prevent waste of water? Has it chosen
itself the type of the hair covering its body? Has it converted itself to a 'desert
ship' on its own?

Just as any other living being, the camel surely cannot execute any of the above listed
features in itself. Moreover, it cannot make itself advantegous or beneficial to
mankind. The verse in the Qur'an stating, "Do not they look at the camel, how
it is created?" explains the creation of this excellent animal in the best way. As
the other beings, camel is too, created with many characteristics and then
placed on earth as a sign of the excellence of the Creator in creation.

While it is created with such superior physical features, it has been given to the service
of mankind. On the other hand, mankind is given the responsibility to see
 similar miracles of creation throughout the whole universe and know the
Creator of all beings, Allah...

A Scientist's Interpretation Of References To

Embryology In The Quran
by Keith L. Moore, PhD., F.I.A.C.
The Department of Anatomy, University of Toronto, Canada

Statements referring to human reproduction and development are scattered throughout the
Quran. It is only recently that the scientific meanings of some of these verses have been
appreciated fully. The long delay in interpreting these correctly resulted mainly from
inaccurate translations and commentaries and from a lack of awareness of scientific
knowledge.

Interest in explanations of the verses of the Quran is not new. People used to ask the prophet
Muhammad all sort of questions about the meaning of verses referring to human
reproduction. The Apostle's answers from the basis of the Hadith literature.

The translations of the verses from the Quran which are interpreted in this paper were
provided by Sheik Abdul Majid Zendani, a professor of Islamic Studies in King Abdulaziz
University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

"He makes you in the wombs of your mothers in stages,

one after another, in three veils of darkness."
 This statement is from Sura 39:6

We do not know when it was realized that human beings underwent development in the uterus
(womb), but the first known illustration of a fetus in the uterus was drawn by Leonardo da
Vinci in the 15th century. In the 2nd century A.D., Galen described the placenta and fetal
membranes in his book "On the Formation of the Foetus."

Consequently, doctors in the 7th century A.D. likely knew that the human embryo developed
in the uterus. It is unlikely that they knew that it developed in stages, even though Aristotle
had described the stages of development of the chick embryo in the 4th century B.C. The
realization that the human embryo develops in stages was not discussed and illustrated until
the 15th century.

After the microscope was discovered in the 17th century by Leeuwenhoek descriptions were
made of the early stages if the chick embryos. The staging of human embryos was not
described until the 20th century: Streeter (1941) developed the first system of staging which
has now been replace by a more accurate system proposed by O'Rahilly (1972)

"The three veils of darkness"

May refer to:

1- The anterior abdominal wall;
2- The uterine wall; and
3- The amniochorionic membrane.

Although there are other interpretations of this statement, the one presented here seems the
most logical from an embryological point of view.

"Then We placed him as a drop in a place of rest"

This statement is from Sura 23:13.

The drop of nutfah has been interpreted as the sperm or spermatozoon, but a more meaningful
interpretation would be the zygote which divides to form a blastocyst which is implanted in
the uterus ("a place of rest"). This interpretation is supported by another verse in the Quran
which states that

"A human being is created from a mixed drop."

The zygote forms by the union of a mixture of the sperm and the ovum ("The mixed drop")

"Then We made the drop into a leech-like structure."

This statement is from Sura 23:14.

The word "alagah" refers to a leech or bloodsucker. This is an appropriate description of the
human embryo from days 7-24 when it clings to the endometrium of the uterus, in the same
way that a leech clings to the skin. Just as the leech derives blood from the host, the human
embryo derives blood from the deciduas or pregnant endometrium.

It is remarkable how much the embryo of 23-24 days resembles a leech. As there were no
microscopes or lenses available in the 7th century, doctors would not have known that the
human embryo had this leech-like appearance. In the early part of the fourth week, the
embryo is just visible to the unaided eye because it is smaller than a kernel of wheat.
 "Then of that leech-like structure, We made a chewed lump."

This statement is also from Sura 23:14.

The Arabic work "mudghah" means "chewed substance or chewed lump."

Toward the end of the fourth week, the human embryo looks somewhat like a chewed lump of
flesh. The chewed appearance results from the somites which resemble teeth marks. The
somites represent the beginnings or primordial of the vertebrae.

"Then we made out of the chewed lump, bones and clothed the bones in flesh."

This continuation of Sura 23:14 indicate that out of the chewed lump stage, bones and
muscles form. This is in accordance with embryological development.
First the bones form as cartilage models and then the muscles (flesh) develop around them
from the somatic mesoderm.

"Then we developed out of it another creature."

This next part of Sura 23:14 implies that the bones and muscles result in the formation of
another creature. This may refer to the Human-like embryo that forms by the end of the eighth
week. At this stage it has distinctive human characteristics and possesses the primordial of all
the internal and external organs and parts. After the eighth week the human embryo is called a
fetus. This may be the new creature to which the verse refers.

"And he gave you hearing and sight and feeling and understanding."

This part of Sura 32:9 indicates that the special senses of hearing, seeing, and feeling develop
in this order, which is true. The primordial of the internal ears appear before the beginning of
the eyes, and the brain (the site of understanding) differentiates last.

"Then out of a piece of chewed flesh, partly formed and partly unformed."

This part of Sura 22:5 seems to indicate that the embryo is composed of both differentiated
and undifferentiated tissues. For example, when the cartilage bones are differentiated, the
embryonic connective tissue or mesenchyme around them is undifferentiated. It later
differentiates into the muscles and ligaments attached to the bones.

"And we cause whom We will to rest in the wombs for an appointed term."

This next part of Sura 22:5 seems to imply that God determines which embryos will remain in
the uterus until full term. It is known that many embryos abort during the first month of
development and that only about 30% of zygotes that form, develop into fetuses that survive
until birth. This verse has also been interpreted to mean that God determines whether the
embryo will develop into a boy or girl.

The interpretation of the verses in the Quran referring to human development would not have
been possible in the 7th century AD, or even a hundred years ago. We can interpret them now
because the science of modern Embryology affords us new understanding. Undoubtedly there
are other verses in the Quran related to human development that will be understood in the
future as our knowledge increases.

From: The Journal of the Islamic Medical Association, Vol. 18, Jan-June 1986, pp. 15-16
 The Qur'an And Modern Science
Taken from: "The Origin of Man", by Dr. Maurice Bucaille.

submitted by: Syed Ifraheem Haidar Karachi

INTRODUCTION
Dr. Maurice Bucaille is an eminent French surgeon, scientist, scholar and author of
"THE BIBLE, THE QUR'AN AND SCIENCE" which contains the result of his
research into the Judeo-Christian Revelation and the Qur'an. It is a unique
contribution in the field of religion and science.

Being an outstanding Scientist, he was selected to treat the mummy of Merneptah

(Pharaoh) which he did. During his visit to Saudi Arabia he was shown the verses of
the Holy Qur'an in which Allah says that the dead body of the Pharaoh will be
preserved as a "Sign" for posterity. An impartial scientist like Dr. Bucaille, who (being
also a Christian) was conversant with the Biblical version of Pharaoh's story as being
drowned in pursuit of Prophet Moses. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that
unknown to the world till only of late, the Holy Qur'an made definite prediction about
the preservation of the body of that same Pharaoh of Moses' time. This led Dr.
Bucaille to study the Holy Qur'an thoroughly after learning the Arabic language. The
final conclusion of his comparative study of Qur'an and the Bible is that the
statements about scientific phenomena in the Holy Qur'an are perfectly in conformity
with the modern sciences whereas the Biblical narration's on the same subjects are
scientifically entirely unacceptable.

FROM THE ORIGIN OF MAN

As most people in the West have been brought up on misconceptions concerning
Islam and the Qur'an; for a large part of my life, I myself was one such person. Let
me cite one or two specific examples to indicate the kind of inaccurate ideas
generally current.

MISCONCEPTIONS
As I grew up, I was always taught that 'Mahomet' was the author of the Qur'an; I
remember seeing French translations bearing this information. I was invariably told
that the 'author' of the Qur'an simply compiled, in a slightly different form, stories of
sacred history taken from the Bible; the 'author' was said to have added or removed
certain passages, while setting forth the principles and rules of the religion he himself
had founded. There are moreover Islamic scholars today in France whose duties
include teaching and who express exactly these views, although perhaps in a more
subtle form.

This description of the origins of the Qur'anic text, which is so out of touch with
reality, might lead one immediately to assume that if there are scientific errors in the
Bible, there must also be errors of this kind in the Qur'an! This is the natural
conclusion to be drawn in such circumstances, but it is based on a misconception.
We are well aware that at the time of Muhammad - the Qur'anic Revelation took
place between 610 and 632 A.D - scientific obscurantism prevailed, both in the
Orient as well as in the West.

In France, for example, this period corresponded roughly to the reign of King
Dagobert, the last of the Mrovingians. This approach to what was supposedly the
Qur'anic text may on first sight seem logical, but when one examines the text with an
informed and impartial eye, it becomes clear that this approach is not at all in
keeping with reality. We shall see in a moment the truth of this statement, which is
obvious from the texts.

Whenever there is textual proof of the existence in the Qur'an of statements that are
in agreement with modern knowledge, but which in the Bible are related in a manner
that is scientifically unacceptable, the stock response is that, during the period
separating the two Scriptures, Arab scientists made discoveries in various disciplines
which enabled them to arrive at these supposed adaptations. This approach takes
no account whatsoever of the history of the sciences. The latter indicates that the
great period of Islamic civilizations, during which, as we know, science made
considerable progress, came several centuries after the communication of the
Qur'an to the communication of the Qur'an to man.

Furthermore, scientific history informs us that, as far as the subjects dealt with in this
present book are concerned, no discoveries were made during, the period
separating the Bible from the Qur'an.

When this aspect of the Qur'an is mentioned in the West, however, we are likely to
hear it said that while this may indeed be so, nowhere is this fact referred to in the
translations of the Qur'an which we possess today, or in the prefaces and
commentaries that accompany them.

This is a very judicious remark. Muslim - and indeed non-Muslim -

translators who have produced a French version of the Qur'an are basically men of
letters. More often than not, they mistranslate a passage because they do not
possess the scientific knowledge required to understand its true meaning. The fact
is, however, that in order to translate correctly, one must first understand what one is
reading. A further point is that translators - especially those mentioned above - - may
have been influenced by notes provided by ancient commentators often came to be
regarded as highly authoritative, even though they had no scientific knowledge - nor
indeed had anybody else at that time. They were incapable of imagining that the
texts might contain allusions to secular knowledge, and thus they could not devote
attention to a specific passage by comparing it to other verses in the Qur'an dealing
with the same subject - a process that often provides the key to the meaning of a
word or expression. From this results the fact that any passage in the Qur'an that
gives rise to a comparison with modern secular knowledge is likely to be unreliably
translated.

Very often, the translations are peppered with inaccurate - if not totally nonsensical -
statements. The only way to avoid such errors is to possess a scientific background
and to study the Qur'anic text in the original language.

SCIENTIFIC ERRORS
On the subject of man, as well as the other topics mentioned earlier, it is not possible
to find any corresponding data in the Bible. Furthermore the scientific errors
contained in the Bible - such as those describing man's first appearance on earth,
which, as we have seen, may be deduced from the Genealogies that figure in
Genesis are not to be found in the Qur'an. It is crucial to understand that such errors
could not have been 'edited out' of the Qur'an since the time they first became
apparent: well over a thousand years have elapsed since the most ancient
manuscripts and today's texts of the Qur'an, but these texts are still absolutely
identical. Thus, if Muhammad were the author of the Qur'an (a theory upheld by
some people), it is difficult to see how he could have spotted the scientific errors in
the Bible dealing with such a wide variety of subjects and have proceeded to
eliminate every single one of them when he came to compose his own text on the
same themes. Let us state once again, that no new scientific facts had been
discovered since the time the Bible was written that might have helped eliminate
such errors.

In view of the above, it is imperative to know the history of the texts, just as it is
essential to our understanding of certain aspects of the Bible for us to be aware, of
the conditions in which it was written.

As we have noted earlier, experts in Biblical exegesis consider the books of Old and
New Testaments to be divinely inspired works. Let us now examine, however, the
teachings of Muslim exegetes, who present the Qur'an in quite a different fashion.

When Muhammad was roughly forty years old, it was his custom to retire to a retreat
just outside Mecca in order to meditate. It was here that he received a first message
from God via the Angel Gabriel, at a date that corresponds to 610 A.D. After a long
period of silence, this first message was followed by successive revelations spread
over some twenty years. During the Prophet's lifetime, they were both written down
and recited by heart among his first followers. Similarly, the revelations were divided
into suras (chapters) and collected together after the Prophet' death (in 632 A.D.) in
a book: the Qur'an. The Book contains the Word of God, to the exclusion of any
human additions. Manuscripts dating from the first century of Islam authenticate
today's text, the other form of authentication being the recitation by heart of the
Qur'an, a practice that has continued unbroken from the time of the Prophet down to
the present day.

UNCORRUPTED NATURE OF THE QUR'AN

In contrast to the Bible, therefore, we are presented with a text that is none other
than the transcript of the Revelation itself; the only way it can be received and
interpreted is literally. The purity of the revealed text has been greatly emphasized,
and the uncorrupted nature of the Qur'an stems from the following factors:

First, as stated above, fragments of the text were written down during the Prophet's
lifetime; inscribed on tablets, parchments and other materials current at the time. The
Qur'an itself refers to the fact that the text was set down in writing. We find this in
several suras dating from before and after the Hejira (Muhammad's departure from
Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D.) In addition to the transcription of the text, however,
there was also the fact that it was learned by heart. The text of the Qur'an is much
shorter than the Old Testament and slightly longer than the New Testament. Since it
took twenty years for the Qur'an to be revealed, however, it was easy for the
Prophet's followers to recite it by heart, sura by sura. This process of recitation
afforded a considerable advantage as far as an uncorrupted text was concerned, for
it provided a system of double-checking at the time the definitive text was written
down. This took place several years after the Prophet's death; first under the
caliphate of Abu Bakr, his first successor, and later under the caliphate of Omar and
in particular that of Uthman (644 to 655 A.D.) The latter ordered an extremely strict
recension of the text, which involved checking it against the recited versions.

TEXT OF QUR'AN UNCORRUPTED

After Muhammad's death, Islam rapidly expanded far beyond the limits of the area in
which it was born. Soon, it included many peoples whose native language was not
Arabic. Very strict steps were taken to ensure that the text of the Qur'an did not
suffer from this expansion of Islam: Uthman sent copies of his entire recension to the
principal centers of the vast Islamic empire. Some copies still exist today, in more or
less complete form, in such places as Tashkent (U.S.S.R) and Istanbul. Copies have
also been discovered that date from the very first centuries after the Hejira; they are
all identical, and all of them correspond to the earliest manuscripts.

Today's editions of the Qur'an are all faithful reproductions of the original copies. In
the case of the Qur'an, there are no instances of rewriting or corruption of the text
over the course of time.

If the origin of the Qur'an had been similar to those of the Bible, it would not be
unreasonable to suppose that the subjects it raised would be presented in the light of
the ideas influenced by certain

opinions of the time, often derived from myth and superstition. If this were the case,
one might argue that there were untold opportunities for inaccurate assertions,
based on such sources, to find their way into the many and varied subjects briefly
summarized above. In actual fact, however, we find nothing of the kind in the Qur'an.

But having said this, we should note that the Qur'an is a religious book par
excellence. We should not use statements that have a bearing on secular knowledge
as a pretext to go hunting after any expression of scientific laws. As stated earlier, all
we should seek are reflections on natural phenomena, phrases occasioned by
references to divine omnipotence and designed to emphasize that omnipotence in
the eyes of mankind throughout the ages. The presence of such reflections in the
Qur'an has become particularly significant in modern times, for their meaning is
clearly explained by the data of contemporary knowledge. This characteristic is
specific to the Qur'an.

UNEXPECTED DISCOVERIES
It was not until I had learnt Arabic and read the Qur'an in the original that I realized
the precise meaning of certain verses. Only then did I make certain discoveries that
were astounding. With my basic ideas on the Qur'an - which to begin with were
inaccurate, just as those of most people in the West - I certainly did not expect to find
in the text the statements that I in fact uncovered. With each new discovery, I was
beset with doubt lest I might be mistaken in my translation or perhaps have provided
an interpretation rather than a true rendering of the Arabic text.

Only after consultations with several specialists in linguistics and exegesis, both
Muslim and non-Muslim, was I convinced that a new concept might be formed from
such a study: the compatibility between the statements in the Qur'an and firmly
established data of modern science with regard to subjects on which nobody at the
time of Muhammad - not even the Prophet himself - could have had access to the
knowledge we possess today. Since then, I have not found in the Qur'an any support
given to the myths or superstitions present at the time the text was communicated to
man. This is not the case for the Bible, whose authors expressed themselves in the
language of their period.

In 'La Bible le Coran et la Science' (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science), which first
appeared in the original French in 1976 and which subsequently appeared in English
in 1978, I set forth the main points of these findings. On November 9, 1976, I gave a
lecture to the Academia de Medecine (French academy of Medicine) in which I
explored the statements of the origins of man contained in the Qur'an; the title of the
lecture was 'Donnees physiologiques et embryologiques de Coran'(Physiological and
Embryological Data in the Qur'an). I emphasised the fact that these data - which I
shall summarize below - formed part of a much wider study. The following are some
of the points which arise from a reading of the Qur'an:

* a concept of the creation of the world which, while different from the ideas
contained in the Bible, is fully in keeping with today's general theories on the
formations of the universe;

* statements that are in perfect agreement with today's ideas concerning the
movements and evolution of the heavenly bodies;

* a prediction of the conquest of space;

* notions concerning the water cycle in nature and the earth's relief, which were not
proven correct until many centuries later.

All of these data are bound to amaze anyone who approaches them in

an objective spirit. They add a much wider dimension to the problem studied in the
present work. The basic point remains the same , however: we must surely be in the
presence of facts which place a heavy strain on our natural propensity for explaining
everything in materialistic terms, for the existence in the Qur'an of these scientific
statements appears as a challenge to human explanations.

That does not mean to say, however, that the statements in the Qur'an - especially
those concerning man - may all of them be examined in the light of the findings of
modern science. The creation of man as described in both the Bible and the Qu'ran
totally eludes scientific investigation of the event per se.

Similarly, when the New Testament or the Qur'an informs us that Jesus was not born
of a father, in the biological sense of the term, we cannot counter this Scriptural
statement by saying that there is no example in the human species of an individual
having been formed without receiving the paternal chromosomes that make up one
half of its genetic inheritance. Science does not explain miracles, for by definition
miracles are inexplicable, thus, when we read in both the Qur'an and the Bible that
man was moulded from the ground, we are in fact learning a fundamental religious
principle: Man returns from where he came, for from the place he is buried, he will
rise again on the judgment.

Side by side with the main religious aspect of such reflections on man, we find in the
Qur'an statements on man that refer to strictly material facts. They are quite amazing
when one approaches them for the first time. For example, the Qur'an describes the
origins of life in general and devotes a great deal of space to the morphological
transformation undergone by man, repeatedly emphasizing the fact that God
fashioned him as He willed. We likewise discover statements on human reproduction
that are expressed in precise terms that lend themselves to comparison with the
secular knowledge we today possess on the subject.

INTEREST TO MEN OF SCIENCE

The many statements in the Qur'an that may thus be compared with modern
knowledge are by no means easy to find. In preparing the study published in 1976, I
was unable to draw on any previous works known in the West, for there were none.
All I could refer to were a few works in Arabic dealing with themes treated in the
Qur'an that were of interest to men of science - there was, however, no overall study.
Over and above this, research of this kind requires scientific knowledge covering
many different disciplines. It is not easy, however, for Islamologists to acquire such
knowledge, for they possess a mainly literary background. Indeed, such questions
hardly seem to occupy a place in their field of classic Islamology, at least as far as
the West is concerned. Only a scientist, thoroughly acquainted with Arabic literature,
can draw comparisons between the Qur'anic text - for which he must be able to read
Arabic - and the data supplied by modern knowledge.

There is another reason why such statements are not immediately apparent: Verses
bearing on a single theme are scattered throughout the Qur'an. The book is indeed a
juxtaposition of reflections on a wide variety of subjects referred to one after the
other and taken up again later on, often several times over. The data on a precise
theme must therefore be collected from all over the Book and brought together under
a single heading. This requires many hours' work tracking down verses, in spite of
the existence of thematic indexes provided by various translators, for such lists may
perhaps be incomplete and indeed, in many cases, they often are.

A Qur'anic Approach to Scientific Investigation

By: Sabah E. Karam, Ph.D.
Professor Of Computer Information Systems & Mathematics,
Strayer University
The following paper based on the Qur'an verse 51:49 which describes the nature of creation.
It's transliteration into English is, "Wa men kulli shayen khalqna zawgyne la'alakum
tadhkaroon." The translation into English is, "And all things have We created in pairs in order
that you may reflect on it."
The word 'zawgyne' is consistently translated into the English language as 'pairs.' In scientific
literature its meaning is extended to incorporate such concepts as 'duality", 'complementarity',
'opposites', 'inverses' and several other concepts reflecting conjugate and/or reciprocal
properties. Terms will be listed below, within their respective disciplines, from the natural,
biological and social sciences. We find mentioned in the Tafsir of Ibn Kathir the following
pairs of creation: the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, light and dark, night and
day, the land and the oceans, life and death, Jannah and Narr. Ibn Kathir elaborates on the
meaning of this verse saying that, "Every aspect of creation has the pair characteristic,
extending even to the animals and plants. This is the case in order that we may reflect and
know that Allah, The Creator, is One and there is nothing that can be associated with Him."
Besides verse 59:41, there are five other Qur'anic verses that have the term zawgyne in it.
They are: 11:40, 13:3, 23:27, 31:10, and 53:45.
Scientists in the 20th century have been on a quest to devise models of the universe which
present accumulated knowledge in an integrated, coherent and unified manner. This paper
will examine the historical attempts to produce unified models for the natural and physical
sciences. It will also look at the contemporary efforts, continuing the Einstein tradition, of
trying to find a model describing all forces in nature. Recalling the words of Mendeleev, in a
lecture to his chemistry class, "It is the function of science to discover the existence of a
general reign of order in nature, and to find the causes governing this order. And this refers in
equal measure to the relations of man, social and political, and to the entire universe as a
whole..."
Finding the causes that govern the general reign of order in the natural sciences has
traditionally been done by observation and experimentation, theorizing about the results of the
experiments, testing the predictive ability of the theory, reporting the findings, rewriting the
theory to accommodate any anomalies, and then further experimentation. This process,
generally referred to as the scientific method, has served the academic and science-based
communities in the past when the traditional disciplines were compartmentalized with well-
defined borders and boundaries. The technological applications of new discoveries have
produced new sub-disciplines, the sub-disciplines further dividing into sub-sub-disciplines.
Neuro-psychology, bio-physics, geo-chemistry, bio-geo-chemistry are a few of the new
research areas. Findings from these fields are published in over 70,000 journals reporting on
25,000 research fields.
On the average, since 1978 over forty new scientific journals per week have been published.
The explosion of information and subsequent 'knowledge' in all disciplines, scientific as well
as non-scientific, has increased dramatically. Students of science are expected to learn a babel
of tongues and theories. Attempts to "integrate" the science disciplines into a coherent whole
have mainly fallen by the wayside and, in some cases, have developed into new scientific
disciplines themselves. A classical example of an interdisciplinary science, created from two
distinct scientific fields, is cybernetics, the comparative study of biological and electro-
mechanical systems includes the study of machines that imitate human behavior and artificial
intelligence. Technological applications, improvements and innovations are have contributed
to the exponential growth in scientific knowledge.
The wealth of information in science has resulted in, not only, the inability to keep up with
the new scientific discoveries but, even worse, the inability to teach science in a coherent
way. Over 200 national reports on the status of science education today describe the present
science curriculum as obsolete. Applying scientific principles to the knowledge-base of
information would, in my estimation, contribute much to the evasive goal of a unified
perspective on science. Let's look at some of the attempts to organize the methods of science
and some of the arguments against the possibility of achieving such a goal.
Unified science, general systems, reductionism, consilience (a consolidation of theory) and
synthesis are some of the key terms used to characterize the efforts of natural and social
scientists to develop a unifying principle of all the sciences. The structure of the atom and
Mendeleev's periodic table of chemical elements are classical examples, in physics and
chemistry, of unifying principles. Newton's adaptation of Kepler's and Galileo's theories into
the law of gravity is another example of a unifying model which, depending on one's
orientation, can be called a theory in unification, reduction, synthesis or general system. The
process of reducing or incorporating one theory into another is also characteristic of the
scientific method.
Theories, to explain or reduce, existing facts into a complete and consistent descriptive model
are used to make predictions about future events and investigate related phenomena. When
new results, from experiments and observations render the existing model obsolete or
anomalies and deviations from the predictive pattern of the model are found, a new model
must be created. The development of new models can happen in many ways. The two most
well known ways of model creation are rearrangement and generalization. At the time of
Copernicus a geocentric model of the universe was in use. His rearrangement of the planets,
which placed the sun at the center of the planetary system, resulted in a more complete and
consistent solar model. The new model incorporated the older model that could no longer
explain the current observations.
Generalization of the Newtonian concept of gravity, which included the notion of space, was
used by Albert Einstein in his generalized principle of gravitation. Replacement, and
reduction, of the principle of inertial mass with gravitational mass led to a more
comprehensive theory. Reordering objects into other accommodating relationships or
expanding a theory, to reflect previously unaccounted for facts, has been part and parcel of
the scientific method since the time of Aristotle.