Did The Quran Come From A Human?
This means that the mountains which appear solid and inert really 'float' in space.
I resumed talking to my well-educated friend:
Today's discussion of the scientific hints in the Quran may be more stimulating to your 'scientific' mind than our previous exchange. Modern astronomy, biology, anatomy, and atomic research were non-existent when some Quranic verses were revealed more than one thousand four hundred years ago to touch upon natural phenomena (or signs - Ayat- as they are called in the Holy Book). These verses deal with the sky, the earth, the stars, the planets, the development of the embryo, and the creation of man in a manner that corresponds to the latest discoveries of the sciences of our time.
The Quran did not tackle these subjects in the detailed approach of a specialized scientific text. It was primarily revealed as a Book of creed, way of life, and legislation. Had it dealt elaborately and expressly with such topics, it would have shocked the Arabs of its time with things they could not comprehend. It resorted, therefore, to suggestions, hints, and intimations, leaving them to be explained hundreds of years later by the sciences and discoveries of the future and to manifest their real nature one generation after the other as miracles and signs which prove that the Quran is indeed from the True God.
God says in His Book:
“We will show them Our signs in all the regions of the earth and in their own selves until they clearly see that this is the truth.” Fussilat, 53
Since those addressed were not satisfied with God's own testimony to the truth of the Quran, it became necessary that He proves it to them with manifest signs. The Quran continues day after day to uncover more of these great signs before our astonished eyes.
It mentioned in unequivocal terms the roundness of the earth employing, in the following verse, the verb Yokawwer (to round) twice to describe how the night and day' slide upon' each other as two halves of a ball:
“He causes the night to succeed (Yokawwer) the day and the day to succeed (Yokawwer) the night.” The Troops, 5
Consider also in the same connection the verse which speaks about the 'spreading' of the earth where the verb dahaha is used to express this fact: 'After that, He spread the earth (dahaha)' (The Soul-Snatchers, 20).
Daha is the only word in Arabic that means to spread something and make it oval simultaneously. The earth, as is well-known, appears to those who live on it spread flat, but it is, in reality, round or, to be exact, oval.
We read, in the Quran, another clear hint to the effect that the mountains ‘swim’ in space which, consequently, implies that the earth moves in space since both it and the mountains are one mass:
“You see the mountains deeming them firm while they pass away like clouds.” The Ant, 88
This means that the mountains which appear solid and inert really 'float' in space. Likening mountains to clouds, moreover, contains another crucial suggestion about the 'fragile' structure of matter which, as we know today, is composed of atoms just as the clouds are composed of droplets.
One of the striking things in the Quran is the frequent mention of the 'simultaneity' of night and day, which co-exist in time from the beginning of creation to its end without each of them preceding the other:
“The sun is not allowed to overtake the moon, nor does the night outpace the day.” Ya Sin, 40
This hints at the roundness of the earth. Night and day started simultaneously since the beginning of creation as 'hemispheres'; if the earth had been flat, day and night would have succeeded each other by necessity. This suggestion is emphasized by another verse which speaks of the occurrence of Doomsday while the earth is, as it ever has been since its creation, passing through night and day at the same time:
“When the earth has taken on its ornaments and was embellished, and its people deem they are masters of it, Our commandment comes by night or by day and We make it waste as if it had not flourished yesterday.”
The phrase 'by night or by day' brings out that the simultaneity of the two can only be explained by the fact that one half of the planet is hidden from the sun and is, therefore, dark while the other half faces the sun and is lighted by its rays. If the earth had been flat, it would have been in one condition only at a time, and it would have been incorrect to say, in the words of the Quran, 'nor does the night outpace the day.'
Linked to this observation is the mention, in the Quran, of the multiplicity of ‘rising’ and ‘setting’ points. God is described as the ‘Lord of the rising-places and the setting-places’ (The Ascending-Stairways, 40) and the ‘Lord of the two Easts and Lord of the two Wests’ (The Merciful, 17).
If the earth had been flat, there would have been only one rising-point or 'east' and one setting-point or 'west.' On Judgment Day, the man says to the devil who accompanied him throughout his life :
“Would we were as far apart as the two horizons (literally, the two Easts).” Ornament, 38
The Arabic text can be interpreted to indicate that the sun's setting in one area or horizon (west) can be the point of it rising in another area (east). This is only possible if the earth is round.
We find in the Quran references to paths or ways in the heavens:
"By the heaven full of paths." The Winds, 7
We also find significant allusions:
"By the sky with its returning of (rain)." The Morning Star, 11
The sky, that is, returns all that rises to it from the surface of the earth back again to that surface: it sends back the water vapor in the shape of rain, it holds rising bodies back by the force of gravity, it bounces back radio signals by deflecting them in the ionosphere, and it similarly deflects infra-red rays back to the earth's surface warming it at night.
Just as the sky returns and deflects back all that rises to it from below, it also deflects, absorbs, or scatters away all that is directed to it from space, thus protecting the earth's surface from bombardments of the deadly infra-red or 'cosmic' rays.
It acts precisely as a 'roof:
"We spread the sky like a canopy and provided it with strong support,"
"We have built the heaven with Our might, and We expand its vastness."
The last words describe what is now known as the theory of the progressive expansion of the universe.
When the Quran revealed, the smallest known unit of matter was the atom, described as an individual, indivisible entity. The Holy Book came to speak of even more minute units into which the atom can divide. It was, indeed, the first Book ever to mention something smaller than the atom:
"Not an atom's weight in heaven or earth escapes Him; nor is there anything smaller or greater but recorded in a Book Glorious." Sheba, 3
All these Quranic hints and suggestions are clear-cut references to such facts as the earth's roundness, the nature of the sky, and the atom — points that could not have been thought of by a sane or even madman in that age in which the Quran descended to the earth.
Consider, for instance, the insight given by the Quran into the embryo's evolution and its indication that the male sperm alone is responsible for the determination of the baby's sex:
"He created the sexes, the male and the female, from a drop of ejected semen," The Star, 45
This is a biological fact that has become known only in our own time. Nowadays, we say that it is the upper tip or 'head' of the sperm that solely carries the sex determination factors.
One of the phenomena that God brings forward as a challenge to those who deny the resurrection is the shaping of the human finger with the formation of the fingerprints:
"Does man think We shall never put his bones together again? Indeed, We can remould his very finger-tips". The Resurrection, 3–4
God stresses that He will even re-constitute the human finger, restoring its original shape as part of the resurrection. This is a reference to the miraculousness observed in the peculiar make-up of fingerprints so that no two of them are alike.
The Quran describes the spider's web or 'dwelling' as the frailest of 'houses.' It did not say the spider's filament but 'dwelling.' It is now known that the filaments of the spider's web are four times stronger than similar filaments of steel.
According to the Quran, the weakness is in the 'dwelling,' not the material made. The spider's dwelling is the worst possible place for anyone seeking residence or protection. It is a trap for all outsiders. It is a slaughterhouse for its inhabitants: the female spider swallows its mate after fertilization. It also gobbles up its offspring after they are hatched. The young spiders themselves devour each other.
The spider's dwelling is undoubtedly the most vivid and eloquent example that can be employed to illustrate the worst kind of shelter or fate. Those who resort for help or protection to others than God will be opting for a type of succor identical to that one may receive in a spider's dwelling. Hence, the expressiveness of the verse:
"Surely the spider's is the frailest of all dwellings if they but know it."
The last words- 'if they but know it'- are significant, for they indicate that such knowledge about the frailty of the spider's dwelling will come to light only ages later, just as the other biological mysteries referred to by the Quran.
In the sura called 'The Cave,' we read this verse:
“They stayed in their cave three hundred years and nine more.”
We now know that three hundred years in the solar calendar exactly equal three hundred and nine in the lunar- to the day, minute, and second, as mentioned in the above verse.
In the sura of 'Mary,' God — Exalted He be — narrates how Mary when in labor, took shelter beside the trunk of a palm tree wishing that she were dead:
"And when the throes of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree, she said: 'Would that I had died ere this and become a thing of naught, forgotten!' Then a voice cried out to her from below her:
‘Grieve not. Your Lord has placed a brook running at your feet. And shake the trunk of the palm tree toward you. It will drop fresh ripe dates in your lap.” Mary, 23–25
Why, one wonders, was she called upon to eat of the ripe dates of the palm tree? The latest scientific study provides the answer: mature dates contain a styptic substance, oxytocin, which facilitates delivery by astringing the uterus and which helps to prevent hemorrhage after it. Ripe dates include a laxative material, and it is well-known that asperients of plant origin are useful in easing childbirth and making it safe by cleansing the colon. The prescription of ripe dates and the timing of their consumption with the 'throes of childbirth' reveal a remarkable scientific accuracy that is not strange to the Quran.
It was such scientific, figurative, and literal truth that God referred to when He thus described the Quran:
“Falsehood cannot come at it from before or behind.” Fussilat, 42
“If it had not come from God, they could have surely found in it many contradictions.” Women, 82
The contradictions meant here are both among the verses themselves and between them and the established scientific truths discovered by the sciences. Both kinds of discrepancy invariably plague works of human origin. More often than not, we find the writer anxious to add, omit, or emend every time he produces a new edition of his book. We observe, in science, how theories succeed each other, with the latter one exploding the former. However careful the writer maybe, he is bound to fall into contradictions. This is a defect from which the Quran is free.
Moreover, the Quran is a miracle on another level: it tells of a past that has not been recorded in history and about a future which, at the time of Revelation, has not yet materialized.
Its various prophecies have come true. About the victory of the Eastern Roman Empire after its defeat at the hands of the Persians, the Quran has the following to say:
“The Romans have been defeated in a neighboring land. But in a few years, they shall gain victory.” The Romans, 2–4
'Few' in Arabic indicates a number between three and nine; the Roman victory came seven years after their defeat. The Quran similarly predicted the Muslim victory at Badr:
“Their (the infidel’s) army shall be routed and put to flight.” The Moon, 45
It also prophesized their victorious entry into Mecca:
“God has fulfilled the vision He showed to His messenger in very truth. You shall indeed enter the Sacred Mosque, by God’s will, secure, (having your hair) shaven and cut, not fearing,’’ Victory, 27
Both events actually took place.
The Quran contains prophecies which we still see being realized in our own day; Ibrahim prayed to his God:
“Lord, I have settled some of my offspring in a barren valley near your Sacred House, so that they may observe true worship. Put in the hearts of men kindness towards them, and provide them with the earth’s fruits so that they may be thankful.” Abraham, 37
He was calling for sustenance to be provided for that infertile, dry valley. Later on, God promised prosperity and wealth for the inhabitants of Mecca when they expressed fears that His injunction to prohibit the idolators from visiting the Ka'ba would result in losses and economic stagnation (the Mecca' boom' depended on pilgrims). God answered the Meccans thus:
“If you fear poverty, God, should He please, will enrich you through His bounty.” Repentance, 28
This promise is being fulfilled nowadays before our own eyes in the form of oil that flows almost without end from the depth of the deserts, with its prices shooting up madly sky-high one day after the other. It is equally fulfilled in the treasures of uranium deposits hidden in those deserts and ensuring the prosperity of the Arab countries to the end of time.
The Quran also talks about the mysteriously hidden world of the Unseen, of the secrets of the jinn and the angels, which were only imparted to a few chosen souls among the Sufis. If those blessed spirits see anything, they see only what accords with the words of the Quran. They only read what corresponds to its secrets.
The Quran delivers to us the final word in politics, ethics, systems of government, war and peace, the economy, society, marriage, and human relationships. It laid down perfect laws that anticipated and excelled, in the relevant areas, those included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for instance. All this is presented in a unique style, a sublime phrasing, and a stylistic and aesthetic structure that stands apart in the history of the Arabic language.
When the mystic Ibn ‘Arabi was asked about the secret of the miracle of the Quran, he replied in one phrase: ‘Absolute truthfulness’.
The words of the Quran are absolutely true, whereas the utmost that any writer can achieve is to attain 'relative truth'; the most he can aspire to is to reach truth according to his vision. However, the extent of an individual's vision is always limited, and it changes from one time to another. We all comprehend only one side of truth and miss many: we look at an angle and neglect others. The truth we reach is always relative. Only God possesses omniscience and comprehensive insight. He alone is capable of knowing the absolute, unchanging truth. For this reason, we say that the Quran is from God because it hit on the fundamental truth concerning everything.
Muhammad, peace be upon him, was asked to describe the Quran. He said: 'In it, there is the history of what came before you, the judgment concerning your affairs, and mention of what will come after you. It is the perfect Book and God's strong rope. It is the Straight Path. Any tyrant who deserts it will be broken down by God. Anyone who seeks guidance elsewhere will be led astray by God. It is never indistinct to the tongue, nor are minds misled by it. Its freshness is not staled by repetition. Scholars never have their fill of it. Its wonders are never over."
This is our Book, my friend.
For all these characteristics, it could not have been composed by a human.