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Scientific Miracles of the Quran
The “scientific miracles” of the Quran is a topic that many
people are talking about nowadays, as the research in many fields
continues. The source for this is probably the fact that there are
literally hundreds of verses of the Quran in which God points to different
aspects of this creation and encourages humans to reflect and learn from what
they are seeing.
Shortly after I became Muslim, I became aware of Maurice Bucaille’sThe
Bible, the Quran and Science. For the sake of brevity, I wish to share
with you the important conclusions that he reached:
The Quran follows on from the two Revelations that
preceded it and is not only free from contradictions in its narrations,
the sign of the various human manipulations to be found in the Gospels,
but provides a quality all of its own for those who examine it objectively
and in the light of science i.e. its complete agreement with modern scientific
data. What is more, statements are to be found in it (as has
been shown) that are connected with science: and yet it is unthinkable
that a man of Muhammad's time could have been the author of them.
Modern scientific knowledge therefore allows us to understand certain
verses of the Quran which, until now, it has been impossible to interpret.
In view of the level of knowledge in Muhammad's day, it
is inconceivable that many of the statements in the Quran which are
connected with science could have been the work of a man. It is, moreover,
perfectly legitimate, not only to regard the Quran as the expression of a
Revelation, but also to award it a very special place, on account of the
guarantee of authenticity it provides and the presence in it of scientific
statements which, when studied today, appear as a challenge to explanation
in human terms.[1]
In his discussion of the Quran, Bucaille emphasizes three
important points:
a) First, there is nothing in
the Quran that contradicts modern science;
b) second, there is no mention
of some of the false beliefs that people had at that time of the Prophet
Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, concerning the
creation, the universe and science in general; and,
c) three, there is no way that
the Prophet Muhammad could have known at his time many of the facts alluded to
in the Quran.
For the sake of brevity, though, it will be possible to
discuss only one verse in some detail here demonstrating the “scientific miracles”
of the Quran.[2]
Upon reading the Quran, one topic that catches many a
reader’s eye is the discussion of the creation of the human within the womb of
the mother. God says in the Quran:
“We created man from an extract of clay. Then We made
him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the
drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended thing, and blood clot), then We
made the alaqah into mudghah(chewed-like substance)…” (Quran
23:12-14)
This brief passage is outstanding in its precise description
of the actual process as well as its freedom from all of the incorrect theories
and views that were prevalent at the time of Muhammad. As noted in the
translation, the Arabic word alaqah can imply leech, suspended thing
or blood clot. In reality, all of these terms are descriptive of the
embryo. In fact, in its earliest stage, the embryo not only actually
physically looks like a leech[3] but
it “obtains nourishment from the blood of the mother, similar to the leech,
which feeds on the blood of others.”[4] Alaqah,
again, can also mean, “suspended thing,” which is also true of the embryo in
this stage as it sits hanging in the womb of the mother.[5] Finally,alaqah can
also mean blood clot. Again, the relationship to the actual physical
process is miraculous. Ibrahim writes:
We find that the external appearance of the embryo and its
sacs during thealaqah stage is similar to that of a blood clot. This
is due to the presence of relatively large amounts of blood present in the
embryo during this stage… Also, during this stage, the blood in the embryo does
not circulate until the end of the third week. Thus, the embryo as this
stage is like a blood clot.[6]
The verse states that the next stage is that of a mudghah or
“chewed-like substance.” This is also an amazingly accurate description
of the next embryonic stage. At this stage, the embryo develops somites
at its back and these “somewhat resemble teeth marks in a chewed substance.”[7]
The kind of information described above has only been
“discovered” and seen by humans since the development of powerful
microscopes. Ibrahim notes that Hamm
and Leeuwenhoek were the first to observe human sperm cells, in 1677 due to the
help of an improved microscope.[8] This
took place some 1000 years after the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
In fact, the details and the analysis of the Quranic verses
related to embryology are so great that Keith Moore, Professor Emeritus of
Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Toronto, has included them in a
special edition of his textbook The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented
Embryology.[9] This is an interesting work that
is comprised of Moore ’s
complete textbook with insertions describing some of the same topics from the
point of view of the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet. After
discussing advanced topics in embryology—most of which are the result of
research in the past few decades—this textbook would then have pages inserted
describing what the Quran has stated concerning the same issues. Can you
imagine taking the best medical book from even just 200 years ago and doing
something of this nature? It would be absurd and ludicrous as the material of
the old textbook would be completely irrelevant. However, they could do
this with the Quran, a book that does not even claim to be a medical textbook.
Of course, it has a much stronger claim: it claims it is from God.
Commenting on the miraculous consistency between statements
in the Quran and the historical development of Embryology, Dr. Moore stated in
1981, “It has been a great pleasure for me to help clarify statements in the
Quran about human development. It is clear to me that these statements
must have come to Muhammad from God, because almost all of this knowledge was
not discovered until many centuries later. This proves to me that Muhammad
must have been a messenger of God.”[10]
In fact, the Quran touches upon many sciences other than
embryology, such as astronomy, physics, geography, geology, oceanography,
biology, botany, zoology, medicine and physiology.[11] Thus, numerous other
scientists from various fields have made similar conclusions concerning the
Quran.[12]
How could it be that this illiterate man of some fourteen
hundred years ago, the Prophet Muhammad, produced a book of this nature having
so many scientific facts and details with perfect accuracy in it? Could it have
been the case that this was all a coincidence and that the Prophet was an
imposter? At least in my opinion, the answers to questions like these were very
clear. Indeed, the claim that the Quran is not a revelation from God
becomes more and more difficult to hold once one learns more about the Quran
itself.
Incidentally, there are other historically related
miraculous aspects of the Quran. For example, as opposed to the Bible,
the Quran refers to the ruler at the time of Joseph as a “king” and never
refers to him as a Pharaoh, although that term is used in the Bible in the
story of Joseph, and the Quran uses that term in the story of Moses. It
seems, from the best of what can be determined now, that Joseph lived among the
Semitic Hyksos kings of Egypt
and that his ruler was indeed not a Pharaoh.[13] The Quran also makes it
clear that the body of the Pharaoh of the Exodus would be recovered and
preserved.[14] Now, it is considered that
all of the Pharaohs of that time have actually been preserved as mummies,
something the Prophet also could not have known at that time. This has
led two researchers to state:
If the Holy Quran was derived from the Bible [as some people
falsely claim, then] those many Biblical errors would have passed into
it. Why, for instance, would the Holy Quran describe the Israelites as a
small nation when the Bible claims that they were 2-3 million, an enormously
inflated number that no scholar would accept?... Why did the Holy Quran not go
along the Biblical, and indeed logical belief that Pharaoh was swallowed by the
sea, to state instead that Pharaoh’s “body” was rescued? And why would the Holy
Quran say this about Pharaoh in particular but not about other people who were
also destroyed by God?...[15]
Finally, Muslim scholars have noted that the particular
miracle given to each prophet was related to issues that their people were most
fascinated with. Thus, for example, during the time of Moses, sorcery was
very popular, and one of his signs was directly related to outdoing the weak
tricks of humans. During Jesus time, medicine was a popular issue and
some of Jesus’ signs included healing the sick, raising the dead and so
on. The Arabs at the time were very proud of their literary skills and,
as shall be noted shortly, the Quran is an Arabic masterpiece beyond what they
could match. However, the Prophet Muhammad was not sent only to the Arabs
or only to the people of his century. In this day and age, science has
practically become a “god” to replace the traditional God of the Judeo-Christian
tradition. The Prophet Muhammad’s miracle is actually completely relevant
to the field of science that captivates so many people today, once again
indicating that the Prophet Muhammad was truly a prophet for all of humanity
until the Day of Judgment.
Footnotes:
[1] Maurice
Bucaille, The Bible, the Quran and Science (Indianapolis, IN:
American Trust Publications, 1978), pp. 251-252.
[2] For
more details concerning the different stages of human development, the
interested reader may also consult Keith L. Moore, Abdul-Majeed A. Zindani and
Mustafa A. Ahmed,Quran and Modern Science: Correlation Studies (Bridgeview,
IL: Islamic Academy for Scientific Research, 1990), pp. 15-47.
[6] Ibrahim,
p. 8.
[7] Quoted
by Ibrahim, p. 8, from Moore and Persaud, The Developing Human, 5th ed.,
p. 8. Also see Ibrahim’s figures on page 9.
[8] Ibrahim,
pp. 8-10.
[9] See
Keith L. Moore [along with Abdul-Majeed Azzindani], The Developing Human:
Clinically Oriented Embryology [with Islamic Additions: Correlation Studies
with Quran and Hadith] Jeddah ,
Saudi Arabia
[10] Quoted
in I. A. Ibrahim, A Brief Illustrated
Guide to Understanding Islam (Houston: Darussalam, 1997), p. 10.
[11] For
examples concerning these different fields, see Zakir Naik, “The Quran and
Modern Science: Compatible or Incompatible?” www.ahya.org.
[12] See
I. A. Ibrahim, A Brief Illustrated Guide
to Understanding Islam (Houston: Darussalam, 1997), pp. 10ff. This work,
in its entirety, is available at www.islam-guide.com.
Ibrahim reviews and summarizes the conclusions of Moore and a number of others.
[13] For
more details on this point, see Louay Fatoohi and Shetha al-Dargazelli, History
Testifies to the Infallibility of the Quran: Early History of the Children of
Israel (Delhi, India: Adam Publishers & Distributors, 1999), pp.
81-93.
[14] God
says, “So this day We shall deliver your (dead) body (out from the sea) that
you may be a sign to those who come after you! And verily, many among
mankind are heedless of signs” (Yoonus 10:92). For more on this point, see
Fatoohi and al-Dargazelli, pp. 141-145.
[15] Fatoohi
and al-Dargazelli, pp. 247-248.
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