Scientific Truths in The Holy Qur’an
The Yaqeen Center - Quran & Science
“And it was not [possible] for this Qur’ān to be produced by other than God....there is no doubt [it is] from the Lord of the worlds.”
Qur’ān 10:37
The miraculous nature of the Qur’ān lies in the knowledge it contains and this is an everlasting, renewable and a living proof. The Qur’ān was given to mankind more than fourteen centuries ago. Recent advancements in various sciences have revealed innumerable facts. None of these discoveries contradict a single verse of the Qur’ān. In fact, each time the world makes a breakthrough in unravelling the universe, we increase in certainty that the One who created this universe is the One who revealed the Qur’ān. It is filled with important facts which were revealed at a point in human history when no man could possibly have known them. The Qur’ān speaks about the origins of the universe, workings of celestial bodies, stages of embryonic human development, behavioral patterns of species, historical and archaeological truths, etc.
A miracle is a divine act which defies and transcends universal laws which God grants to the Prophets in order to convince people of the truth of their message. The Qur’ān uses the word ‘Ayat’ [literally meaning ‘sign’] to describe this phenomenon. These Divine miracles are designed to provide people with the capacity to perceive them as signs of God’s power, knowledge and will over all things in the universe. For a miracle to have full impact it should relate to an area of knowledge in which its intended audience are well versed; in this way can a miracle fulfil its purpose. Historically, every Prophet was given miracles and these were witnessed by their respective contemporaries. The Prophet Muhammad is unique in the chain of Prophethood, for unlike all previous Prophets, He was sent as God’s final Prophet and Messenger for all mankind. Reason demands, therefore, that he should have a universal miracle that is not bound by time or geographical considerations. Every individual at every stage of human history, no matter where he lived in the world, is hence justified in saying, “If Muhammad is a Prophet for me today. I would like to behold a miracle today.”
Unlike the tangible miracles [an example being the splitting of the sea] of the previous Prophets, the main miracle of the Prophet Muhammad, although he was given other miracles, was an intellectual miracle. The effectiveness of the tangible miracles would have their greatest impact on eye witnesses and their full impact would end with the death of these witnesses. If we ask a Jew or Christian to show us the miracles of the Prophet Moses or Jesus – they both would submit that it is not within human power to demonstrate any of those miracles now. Moses cannot be asked to split the sea again and the Prophet Jesus cannot be called to raise people from the dead. For us today, these miracles are nothing more than historical reports. But if a Muslim is asked about the greatest miracle of the Prophet Muhammad, he can readily show His Book, the Qur’ān – for the Qur’ān is a miracle which remains in our hands. It is a Book for all people to examine its contents. Non-believers will naturally seek an explanation as to the source of knowledge of the Qur’ān. Atheists would argue that the Qur’ān was the product of intellectual ramblings of the Prophet Muhammad and the Jews and Christians would say that it was plagiarized from the Old and New Testament. The fact is that such statements do not belong to the period when the Qur’ān was revealed and no such statements exist in the Old and New Testament. It is obvious that no one man could possess the diversity of the knowledge that is contained in the Qur’ān. One could conceivably be lucky with a few guesses, but the variety and quality of accurate knowledge in the Qur’ān shows, without doubt, these are not the words of a mere mortal.
No human being has ever written a comprehensive book with such absolute perfection and certainty of knowledge. Every book represents the knowledge available to a writer at a certain time and place, and human knowledge keeps advancing. As a result, every book written by a human being becomes obsolete after some time because the information is found to be either false or incomplete, raising the need for books to be revised or re-written. The writings of every physicist, scientist, biologist or philosopher have proved this to be the case.
The Qur’ān contains over 6,000 Ayat [verses] with over 70,000 words, yet it is a fact that not a single word, phrase, sentence or topic needs to be revised. It is also the case that a writer usually has knowledge of a specific subject or a few related subjects. For example, one can write about history or economics or philosophy or physics etc. But it is not possible for a human being to write simultaneously on a great variety of different subjects with such in-depth and accurate information. Even a casual reader finds that the Qur’ān discusses an array of subjects with the accuracy and precision to make them appear to be the observations of an eye witness expert.
Can the Qur’ān contain scientific errors?
It must be clearly understood that the Qur’ān is not a book of science, philosophy, geology or history - it is a revelation from God for the purpose of guiding Mankind. Nonetheless, if any expert from the various fields of knowledge analysed what the Qur’ān states; they would conclude that the Qur’ān, beyond doubt, is not authored by a man in the 7th century. If what the Qur’ān imparted was unfounded, science would, in time, have proved its falsehood and the whole religion would have been destroyed. Every scientific theory, from the historic past, that contradicted the Qur’ān has been proven to be unfounded and lacking empirical evidence. On the contrary, every established scientific fact has consistently been in complete agreement with the Qur’ān - as true science is as Divine as the Qur’ān. It is impossible that there exist a contradiction between an action of God and His word.
There exists a plethora of online literature written by people, many with vested interests, attempting to refute the the facts that exist in the Qur’ān. Some of these writings are based on misconceptions, or are academically dishonest and in some cases contain blatant lies. It was for this reason that the corresponding Arabic text was also included for the verses of the Qur’ān quoted. Therefore, everyone is welcome to analyse and study the exact words spoken by God and assess and judge for themselves if the Qur’ān is, indeed from Him [The Creator] or is authored by someone who lived over fourteen hundred years ago. There are now a number of authoritative Arabic dictionaries that have been translated into the English language, should you wish to research the words used in the Qur’ān.
Final Note
We all have a monumental task of trying to understand who we really are as individuals and what is the purpose of our existence. The journey to ascertain the Truth can only be achieved by those who take their ‘lives’ seriously. God tells us in the Qur’ān that the majority of people follow mere conjecture and assumptions and not facts. One of the regrets of the people of Hell will be that they did not adequately use their intellects. We ask you to look at the contents of this book with a critical eye. One should investigate the points being made with the fundamental intention of determining its accuracy and being prepared for the consequences it presents. If what God describes of the world we can physically observe to be 100% true – then what He describes of what we cannot physically see, like the approaching judgement of every human on the Day of Resurrection, the punishments of Hell and the eternal bless of Paradise, is just as true.
Finally, for each successive generation, the Qur’ān offers new and relevant meanings, proportionate to the development of knowledge and growth of that generation’s intellectual aptitude. In other words, they are applicable to the constantly developing perceptions of the human race, expanding in meaning as man’s exploration of the universe and his search for knowledge about his life and existence increases. From this we see that the Qur’ān was not intended solely for one people or nation, but came for the benefit and guidance of all; a complete and comprehensive religion, providing knowledge for all the generations. If these teachings were limited to one century or generation, the everlasting objective of the Qur’ān would have long since diminished. Yet the Qur’ān is constantly regenerating new meaning, providing a continual source of guidance.