Scientific Miracles in the Quran: Difference between revisions

[[Category:Miracles]]

[[Category:Islam and Science]]

In the eyes of historians, the Quran's author(s) almost certainly made no pretensions about predicting modern science. In support of this perspective, there is no Islamic scripture that actually claims that the Quran (or Islamic scripture in general) contain allusions to future scientific discoveries. Consequently, where the Quran makes mention of what are today perceived as topics of scientific interest (such as the wonders of the day and night sky, fauna and flora, or the human spirit), historians suggest that these passages were originally intended to simply inspire awe in their audience by orienting that audience's attention towards the world's many marvels and especially those marvels accessible to individuals living in the harsh, arid, and rocky environment of early 7th century Arabia.

===Mountains stabilize the Earth===

{{Main|The Quran and Mountains}}Many modern Islamic scholars have argued that the Quran's description of mountains as 'pegs' that have been 'cast down' into the Earth's surface in order to 'stabilize' it contains a scientifically-sound insight related to the phenomenon of isostasy. Relevant verses include {{Quran|31|10}}, {{Quran-range|78|6|7}}, and {{Quran|15|19}}. Isostasy is the phenomenon where some mountain exist atop a similar accumulation of crust underground. Both the mountain and the underground accumulation of crust form when tectonic plates collide, with some crust matter being propelled upward (becoming the visible mountain) and, sometimes, a similar quantity of crust matter being propelled downward.

Critics have pointed out that while there is at times an underground accumulation of crust-matter below mountains, scientists have pointed out that this phenomenon does not in any way stabilize the Earth's surface. Indeed, modern science has discovered that mountains (and their underground underbellies) are in fact a direct product of the instability of the Earth's surface, which form when tectonic plates collide and generate destructive earthquakes. Critics also point out that there is no sense to the idea that mountains have been 'cast down' into the Earth as 'pegs', for mountains have not descended from the sky. However, they continue, this formulation does make sense in the context of [[Cosmology|Islamic cosmology]], which holds that the Earth is just the top-most of seven terrestrial disks stacked atop the back of what is known as [[The Islamic Whale|the Islamic Whale]]. The instability of the non-stationary whale, it is said, causes the terrestrial disks to be unstable, which must then be fastened to the back of the whale using mountain-pegs.{{Quote|{{quran|31|10}}|He created the heavens without pillars that you see and has cast in the earth firm mountains lest it (might) shake with you, and He dispersed in it from every creature. And We sent down from the sky water then We caused to grow therein of every kind noble.}}{{Quote|{{quran-range|78|6|7}}|'''Corpus:''' Have not We made the earth a resting place? And the mountains (as) pegs,<br>'''Daryabadi:''' Have We not made the earth an expanse. And the mountains as stakes?<br>'''Yusuf Ali:''' Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse, And the mountains as pegs?}}{{Quote|{{quran|15|19}}|'''Corpus:''' And the earth, We have spread it and [We] cast therein firm mountains and [We] caused to grow therein of every thing well-balanced.<br>'''Daryabadi:''' And the earth! We have stretched it out and have cast thereon mountains firm, and We have caused to spring up thereon everything weighed.<br>'''Yusuf Ali:''' And the earth We have spread out (like a carpet); set thereon mountains firm and immovable; and produced therein all kinds of things in due balance.}}

===Diminishing land===

===Embryology===

{{Main|Embryology in the Quran|l1=Embryology in the Qur'an}}Many modern Islamic scholars have argued that the presentation of Embryology found in the Quran is both scientifically-sound and predictive of modern science. In this domain, Islamic scholars and authorities, including Dr. Al Zeiny, Dr. Zakir Naik, Dr. Ibrahim Syed, Dr. Sharif Kaf Al-Ghazal, Hamza Tzortzis, and Harun Yahya, have all drawn on the works of the Western doctors, particularly [[Dr. Keith Moore]] (lecturer and researcher at King Abdulaziz University; alongside his co-author Abdul Majeed al-Zindani) and [[Bucailleism|Dr. Maurice Bucaille]] (personal physician to the family of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia), who were collectively sponsored with millions of dollars by the Saudi government and who produced science publications which purported that Islamic scriptures contained scientifically sound information. Relevant verses include {{Quran|22|5}}, {{Quran-range|23|12|14}}, and {{Quran|40|67}}.

Critics have time and again responded to the various attempts made by Islamic scholars and doctors sponsored by the Saudi government to reconcile modern science with Islamic scriptures. ''The Daily Telegraph'' reported in 2010 that Bucaille's "assertions have been ridiculed by scientists".<ref>Sameer Rahim (8 October 2010). [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8048372/Pathfinders-The-Golden-Age-of-Arabic-Science-by-Jim-al-Khalili-review.html "Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science by Jim al-Khalili: review"]. ''The Telegraph''.</ref> Beyond the plenty, plain, and irrenciliable, divergences between Islamic scriptures and modern science that critics have pointed out, historians have generally accepted that the embryological ideas present in the Quran largely derive from ancient sources including, most prominently, the works of Galen, a 2nd century Greek physician whose ideas had widespread and lasting influence.{{Quote|{{quran|22|5}}|O Mankind! if ye be in doubt respecting the Resurrection, then We have created you of the dust, then of a drop, then of clot, then of a piece of flesh, formed and unformed, that We might manifest unto you Our power. And We settle in the wombs that which We will until a term determined. Then We bring you forth as babes, then We let you reach your maturity. And of you is he who dieth, and of you is he who is brought back to the most abject age, so that after knowing he knoweth not aught. And thou beholdest the earth withered up, and when We send down thereon water, it stirreth and swelleth, and it groweth every luxuriant kind of growth.}}{{Quote|{{quran-range|23|12|14}}|And certainly did We create man from an extract of clay. Then We placed him as a sperm-drop in a firm lodging. Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the best of creators.}}{{Quote|{{quran|40|67}}|He it is Who created you of dust, and thereafter of a drop, and thereafter of a clot, and thereafter He bringeth you forth as an infant, and thereafter He ordaineth that ye attain your full strength and thereafter that ye become old men-though some of you die before-and that ye attain the appointed term, and that haply ye may reflect.}}

===All things in pairs===