In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful
Science & Islam
Science scrutinized in light of the Quran
Albert Einstein once stated that 'Science without Religion is Lame, and Religion
without Science is Blind' [ref].
In other words, he asserted that an intrinsic relationship must exist between these two
entities. This is exactly what Islam teaches us and what the early Muslim
scholars strongly espoused. For centuries, the world of Islamic scholarship
produced the best scientists and
physicians in the world. They followed
Allah's (i.e. God's) instructions in the Holy Quran, Revealed to Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH), in order to explore and study His Creation.
For instance, in Surah Ale Imran, 3:191,
we are told not to have blind faith; rather, we must use our intellect to ponder upon
the Creation of the Universe and the Earth. And in doing so, we are expexted
to come to the absolute and
undeniable realization that
there is no God, but Allah. To that effect, the Quran offers numerous Ayats (i.e.
Signs) that touch upon a wide variety of scientific principles and disciplines,
as well as ancient historic events. Interestingly, the majority of this
knowledge had either been unknown or forgotten until modern scientific and
archeological advances were made in the twentieth century (i.e. roughly thirteen
to fourteen centuries since the Revelation of the Quran). And what is even more amazing is that
these Ayats were Revealed to a man who not only lived in the desolate desert of
seventh century Arabia, but who could
not read or write. To us, this is indisputable evidence of the truth of the
message of Islam.
Here, we will try to analyze
some of these Ayats in light of modern scientific discoveries and recent historical findings. In doing so, we will
find that many a times a topic is discussed in various places in the Quran. As
such, we must study the Book as a whole and gather all the relevant Ayats in order to
obtain a comprehensive understanding of the subject. We will also use the Hadith (i.e. the sayings of our
beloved prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) to help us in this quest. We will discuss a wide array of topics
such as Astronomy/Astrophysics, which
includes the Creation and Evolution of the Universe, Earth Sciences, Medicine
and Zoology among others.
We will also study other
amazing aspects of Islam that we believe simply cannot be explained by
mere coincidence.
One must note however that while a thorough understanding of the Quran
from a scientific and historic point-of-view is not necessary in order to appreciate the validity of the
Book, or the truth of Islam's message for
that matter, it certainly adds another
dimension to it. One that is objective and verifiable. The analysis we are about
to present is what we find amazing about this unique
Book. Others may find something else more appealing. We believe that the miracle
of the Quran is simply not limited to its scientific and historic merits, but
is also apparent in its literary wonder, its unparalleled succinctness and its numerical
precision among other things. In this work, we will attempt to highlight some
of these aspects that we believe
set the Quran apart from any other book in history.
Although it may seem at times that science is serving to
validate the message of the Quran, in reality, it is the exact opposite. In other
words, the Quran is the answer-key against which human knowledge has to be
examined. If our understanding conforms with the Quran, then we are on the right
track. If however, our findings contradict the Book, then we have either
misunderstood the Quran or our findings are simply erroneous. Our
ultimate endeavor in this work is to show that we cannot and should not use our scientific understandings to defend the Quran, but
rather use the Quran to defend our scientific understandings.
One might wonder why a religious textbook such as the
Quran would discuss scientific notions.
While there are many reasons for this, the following are some of the important ones we could
think of: 1. It teaches Muslims various Laws
governing Creation. 2. It reaffirms and strengthens a Muslim's belief in
the Oneness of God and everything that is in the Quran. 3. It inspires Muslims
to further study the Creation through the various disciplines of sciences in
order to advance not just the Islamic, but the entire human civilization. It
thus helps Muslims realize that religion and science are intricately linked to
each other. 4. It also allows the non-Muslim readers to ponder upon the validity
of the message of Islam by providing them with an opportunity to objectively
scrutinize the Quran knowing full-well that even a single inaccuracy would
nullify its claim as the Word of God. After all, if God indeed Created the Universe
and the Earth,
then He should be able to accurately describe its most fundamental Laws and
Principles. 5. It also allows the reader to better understand the Quran itself.
We believe that ultimately all true knowledge is with God, and any errors in
our analysis of the Quran categorically stems from our own shortcomings. In
account of it, we sincerely seek forgiveness from our Creator and apologize in
advance to our readers. We also acknowledge that if our understanding of the
Quran is indeed accurate, it may still not be the only correct one. There most certainly are other proper
interpretations. No matter the case, with regards to the
unshakable and universal validity of the Quran, God Makes a profound
statement:
Then
do they not reflect upon the Quran? If it had been from [any] other than Allah ,
they would have found within it much contradiction.
Surah An-Nisa, 4:82
While as Muslims our efforts here are to primarily obtain a better, more
comprehensive understanding of God's Words, we will also try our very best to
demonstrate to our non-Muslim readers how accurate the Quran is from a
scientific and historic perspective. We therefore pray to our Creator for Help
and Guidance in this quest (Amin).
We do hope that after examining the contents of what we are presenting, at least
some will God Willing come to the firm conclusion that the Quran is undoubtedly
the most accurate scientific work in existence even though it is not a Book of
Science but one of Signs.
Table of Contents
A. The Holy Quran
I. Science
1. Astronomy/Astrophysics
a. Cosmology
b. The Galaxy
c. The Solar System
d. The Earth
e. Physics
f. The Various Motions in Space
g. Fate of our Universe
2. Earth Science
a. Atmospheric Science
b. Geology/Geophysics
ii. Mountains
iii. Petrology
c. Hydrology/Oceanography
3. Medicine
a. Embryology
b. Psychology
4. Botanical Science
5. Zoology
6. Chemistry
II. Historical Facts
1. Archeology
2. Egyptology
3. Predictions
4. Miscellaneous
III. Numerical and Mathematical Precision
1. Attributes of the Holy Quran
2. Science
a. Astronomy/Astrophysics
b. Chemistry
c. Geology/Geophysics
d. Medicine
B. The Hadith (i.e. the Sayings of Prophet Muhammad (SA))
I. Astronomy/Astrophysics
II. Climatology
III. Economy
IV. Geography
V. Geology/Geophysics
VI. History
VII. Medicine
VIII. Technology
C. Prophet Muhammad (SA) in Other Religious Scriptures
I. Hinduism
II. Judaism
III. Christianity
D. Miscellaneous
E. Observations Science has Yet to Make
Allahu Alim (Allah Knows Best)