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Page 19
The Islamic Bulletin
Issue 21
Q
uran
: A T
eacher
to
M
odern
S
cientists
Ours is an era of space probes computer chips, laser surger-
ies and cloning. If we were to label any book as a revelation
from God, we couldn’t help but to scrutinize this Scripture
using modern scientific knowledge. It could not be that a
revelation, proclaiming itself from God, could constitute
aspects contradicting established scientific facts. How could
we assume otherwise, when God is the one who created the
universe and the laws operating within it.
The Quran was revealed 1400 years ago to the last Prophet of
God, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a guidance
for all humanity. The entire Quran has been committed to
memory by millions of Muslims around the world and has
been preserved by God from any interpolations, for continu-
ing guidance. Although the Quran is a religious book with
a total of about 6600 plus verses dealing with many aspects
of a person’s life, about 1000 of those verses are of scientific
nature, none contradicting established scientific facts.
Dr. T.V.N. Persaud1, professor of Anatomy, says: “You have
an illiterate person (Prophet Muhammad) making profound
statements that are amazingly accurate, of a scientific nature
... I personally can’t see how this could be mere chance, there
are too many accuracies and like Dr. Moore, I have no diffi-
culty in my mind reconciling that this is a divine inspiration
or revelation which lead him to these statements.”
Besides providing guidelines in personal, social, moral and
spiritual spheres of humanity, the Quran touches upon diverse
scientific topics like astronomy, geology, embryology, genetics,
biology, archeology, etc. Some of these are mentioned below
to prove the Quran’s Divine origin.
T
he
B
ig
B
ang
!
Currently, the Big Bang model of the origin of the universe
is the cosmological paradigm most widely accepted by
astronomers. It holds that about 15 billion years ago the
universe began with the explosive expansion of a single,
extremely dense matter, the primordial mass. Only after the
development of radio telescopes in 1937 that the necessary
observational precision was achieved in order for astronomers
to arrive at the above conclusion. What does the Quran say
about our universe’s origin?
“Do not the unbelievers see that the Heavens and the
earth were joined together, then We split them apart.”
(Quran 21:30)
E
xpanding
U
niverse
In 1925, Edwin Hubble (after whom the Hubble Space tele-
scope is named) provided the observational evidence for the
expansion of the universe. Stephen Hawking (author of ‘A
Brief History of Time’) states: “The universe is not static, as
had previously been thought, it is expanding.” So what did
God reveal in the Quran, 1400 years ago?
“And the firmament, We constructed with power and skill
and verily We are expanding it.” (Quran 51:47)
(‘We’ is the
Arabic plural of respect, not the Christian plural of ‘trinity’.)
T
he
E
xistence of
S
un
’
s
O
rbit
Ancient people used to believe that the Sun revolved around
the earth. Later, Nicholas Copernicus in 1512 laid his Helio-
centric Theory of Planetary motion, which placed the sun
motionless in the center of the solar systemwith all the planets
revolving around it. Modem science tells us now that the sun
too is not still, but is in motion.
The sun traveling at roughly 150 miles per second takes about
200 million years to complete one revolution around the
center of our Milky Way Galaxy and 25 days to make one
complete rotation around its own axis. See how beautifully
and accurately God revealed this phenomenon in the Quran:
“It is He who created the night and the day, and the sun
and the moon, all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each
in its orbit with its own motion.” (Quran 21:33)
C
onquest of
S
pace
by
H
umans
Human exploration and the conquest of space began with the
launching of the Russian Satellite, Sputnik I on Oct. 4, 1957.
Then followed the launching of humans into space, which
eventually led to a manned space flight to the Moon on July
20th, 1967. Thus the dream of humanity since the dawn of
civilization to go beyond the earth to the heavens was realized.
The Quran, 1400 years ago, clearly predicted human’s ad-
vancement and the possibility of space flight.
“O assembly of Jinns and humans, if you can penetrate
the regions of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate
them! You will not penetrate them save with a power (of
God).” (Quran 55:33)
T
he
P
rotective
A
tmosphere
Earth is constantly bombarded by meteoroids that disintegrate
upon the atmosphere and by lethal rays emitted by the suns
UV radiation is absorbed by the Ozone layer forming the outer
fringe of our atmosphere.
Thus our atmosphere along with its Ozone layer is a protective
covering for us. Life possibly could not have existed without
it. How meticulously does our Lord sustain and protect us
against this atmospheric destruction.
“And We have made the atmosphere a protective roof, yet
do they turn away from the Signs which these things point
to.” (Quran 21:32)
E
mbryology
The Dutch naturalist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
produced lenses powerful enough to prove that many tiny
creatures are not spontaneously generated but are produced
from eggs. The science of Embryology as we know it today did
not discover many of the detailed aspects of human embryonic
development until the 1970s, using powerful microscopes,
ultra sound and fiber optics technology. See how the Quran
described the stages of embryonic development.
“God fashioned man from a small quantity (of sperm).”
(Quran 16:4)
Fertilization takes place with only one sperm among several
tens of million produced by man:
“Then We placed him as
a drop in a place of rest.” (Quran 23:13)
Implantation of the blastocyst in the uterus:
“Then We made
the drop into a leech-like structure...” (Quran 23:14)
This resemblance of the human embryo to a leech is an ap-
propriate description of the human embryo from days 7-24,
when it clings to the endometrium of the uterus:
“And He
(God) gave you hearing (ears), sight (eyes), and feeling and
understanding.” (Quran 32:9)
The internal ears appear before the eyes and the brain (the
sight of understanding) differentiates last. Dr. E. Marshall John-
son2 Professor of Anatomy, concluded after studying verses