Scientific Miracles in the Quran: Difference between revisions

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==Purported scientific miracles==
==Purported scientific miracles==
Below are the most-often discussed of the many so-called scientific miracles of the Quran
Below are the most-often discussed of the many so-called scientific miracles of the Quran
===Quranic Miracle: Universe is steadily expanding===
Modern Muslims Scholars are of opinion that Quran had already told that universe has been constantly expanding even before the advent of modern science. . 
They present the following verse as their proof:
{{Quote|[https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/51/47/default.htm Quran 51:47]|وَالسَّمَاءَ بَنَيْنَاهَا بِأَيْدٍ وَإِنَّا لَمُوسِعُون </br>
'''Muhammad Assad:''' AND IT IS We who have built the universe with [Our creative] power; ''and, verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it''.}}
[[Zakir Naik]] writes regarding this verse:
{{Quote|[http://web.archive.org/save/https://sunnahonline.com/ilm/quran/qms.pdf The Quran and Modern Science by Zakir Naik]|The Arabic word mûsi‘ûn (in verse 51:47) is correctly translated as ‘expanding it’, and it refers to the creation of the expanding vastness of the universe. Stephen Hawking, in his book, ‘A Brief History of Time’, says, “The discovery that the universe is expanding was one of the great intellectual revolutions of the
20th century.” The Qur’aan mentioned the expansion of the universe, before man even learnt to build a telescope!}}
====Criticism====
But the critics point out that the term “lamūsi‘ūn لَمُوسِعُونَ ” in this verse is a "'''NOUN'''"  and not a "'''Verb'''", and it '''describes''' "God" and not the "heaven" (i.e. the term “wa-innā lamūsi‘ūn وَإِنَّا لَمُوسِعُونَ” means "God is the Expander", and not "the Universe is Expanding").
Thus the earlier Quran Translators translated it as under:
{{Quote|[https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/51/47/default.htm Quran 51:47]|'''Yusuf Ali:''' With power and skill did We construct the Firmament: '''''for it is We Who create the vastness of space'''''. </br>
'''Sahih International:''' And the heaven We constructed with strength, and indeed, '''We are [its] expander.'''</br>
'''Muhammad Taqi Uthmani:''' And the sky was built by Us with might; and indeed We are the expanders.}}
Moreover, the root word of لَمُوسِعُونَ (lamūsiʿūna) is و س ع . However in Quran, this word and it's derivatives have been used in the meanings of "'''Encompassing"'''.
Look at the following verses:
{{Quote|[http://quranx.com/6.80 Quran 6:80]|'''وَسِعَ''' رَبِّى كُلَّ شَىْءٍ عِلْمًا </br>'''Sahih Intl:''' My Lord '''encompasses''' all things in knowledge}}
Also see verses [https://quranx.com/7.89 7:89] and [https://quranx.com/20.98 20:98].
Also see verse 65:12, where directly the word of "'''احاط'''" (encompass) has been used instead of "wasi'a"
{{Quote|[http://quranx.com/65.12 Quran 65:12]|وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَدْ '''أَحَاطَ''' بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عِلْمًۢا</br>'''Sahih Intl:''' and that Allah has '''encompassed''' all things in knowledge.}}
ٖThus few translator used this figurative meaning:
{{Quote|[https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/51/47/default.htm Quran 51:47]|'''Maududi:''' And heaven – We made it with Our Own Power ''and We have the Power to do so''.</br>
'''Abdul Majid Daryabadi:''' And the heaven! We have built it with might, and verily We are powerful.}}
Critics also point out that exactly the same grammar has been used in the next verse 51:48.
{{Quote|[http://quranx.com/51.48 Quran 51:48]|'''Yousuf Ali:''' And We have spread out the (spacious) earth: ''How excellently We do spread out!''}}
In this verse, the word الْمَاهِدُونَ (spreader/smoother) has exactly the same grammar <ref>Active Participle Form I [https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=51&verse=48] Verse 51:48</ref> as the word لَمُوسِعُونَ (i.e. expander) in the previous verse, but no one translated it as "earth is steadily spreading out".
Critics point out that the modern Quranic Translations have altered the meaning of 51:47 in three ways:
*They have translated the Quranic word “heaven سَّمَاءَ” as “universe”, which is not correct.
*They it was the Arabic Noun “We are the expander”, but they turned it into the Verb “The Universe is expanding,”
*And then they added the entirely superfluous adverb “steadily” in an attempt to insert into the Quran additional ideas that are not actually there.
With these three translational liberties, they have completely changed the meaning of this verse from a simple description of Allah’s creation of the heavens into a scientific statement of Hubble’s expanding universe that is not actually contained in the Quran.
====Universe consists of "Space", while Quranic HEAVEN is a solid canopy which could not expand====
Critics also point out that according to science, universe consists of space and galaxies are travelling away from each other in this space and thus it is considered as an expansion of the universe.
But according to the writer of Quran, : {{Quote|{{Quran|2|22}}| الذي جعل لكم الارض فراشا والسماء بناء وانزل من السماء ماء فاخرج به من الثمرات رزقا لكم فلا تجعلوا لله اندادا وانتم تعلمون </br>Who has made the earth your couch, and the heavens your canopy; and sent down rain from the heavens; and brought forth therewith Fruits for your sustenance; then set not up rivals unto Allah when ye know (the truth). }}The word translated as canopy is binaa or binaan ( بِنَاء ). This word means "building"<ref>بِنَاء binaa - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume1/00000298.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 261</ref>. Here, the heavens are described as a multi-story building over the earth. There are seven layers or stories to this building called the heavens. The heavens are built on a foundation called "the earth". The tafsir of Ibn Kathir, among others, elaborates this<ref>[https://tafsir.app/2/22 Tafsirs 2:22]</ref>:{{quote |[http://tafsir.com/default.asp?sid&#61;2&tid&#61;1494 Tafsir Ibn Kathir]| These Ayat indicate that Allah first created the earth, then He made heaven into seven heavens. This is how building usually starts, with the lower floors first and then the top floors}}
And according to the tradition in [https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3342 Sahih Bukhari], prophets are residing upon these solid heavens along with their nations, and solid things don't expand.
===The Big Bang===
===The Big Bang===
Many modern Islamic scholars have argued that {{Quran|21|30}} and {{Quran|51|47}} describes the Big Bang. Historians, by contrast, have shown that the first verse describes a version of world egg creation myth which was widely believed in earlier times through much of the world. According to the archetype of the myth, the Earth and heavens both existed in an egg-shaped structure which split (or hatched) to become the separate Earth and heaven, ushering in the era of mankind. In many versions, the first man appears as this earth-heaven structure 'hatches' open. The verse states that "We clove them" (dual pronoun 'huma'), not "We clove it", thereby indicating that the Earth and heavens are two distinct entites after the cloving, and the next verse speaks of mountains being placed on Earth. The other verse uses the Arabic word mūsiʿūna, which means makers of ample room or of width.<ref>وسع awsa'a - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000306.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 3052 [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000307.pdf and page] 3053</ref> The identical verb form and grammar is used for the last word in the next verse, the spreaders (al mahidoon الْمَهِدُونَ), which is from the root mahada مهد which means to make plain, even, smooth, spread a bed<ref>مهد mahada - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000267.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 2739</ref>. Also from this root is the noun mahdan, meaning a bed or even expanse, which appears in other verses about the creation of Earth where it was made a bed in the past tense. The tense is clear in those verses to mean a past event rather than an ongoing process ({{Quran|20|53}},{{Quran|43|10}} and {{Quran-range|78|6|7}}).  
Many modern Islamic scholars have argued that {{Quran|21|30}} and {{Quran|51|47}} describes the Big Bang. Historians, by contrast, have shown that the first verse describes a version of world egg creation myth which was widely believed in earlier times through much of the world. According to the archetype of the myth, the Earth and heavens both existed in an egg-shaped structure which split (or hatched) to become the separate Earth and heaven, ushering in the era of mankind. In many versions, the first man appears as this earth-heaven structure 'hatches' open. The verse states that "We clove them" (dual pronoun 'huma'), not "We clove it", thereby indicating that the Earth and heavens are two distinct entites after the cloving, and the next verse speaks of mountains being placed on Earth. The other verse uses the Arabic word mūsiʿūna, which means makers of ample room or of width.<ref>وسع awsa'a - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000306.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 3052 [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume8/00000307.pdf and page] 3053</ref> The identical verb form and grammar is used for the last word in the next verse, the spreaders (al mahidoon الْمَهِدُونَ), which is from the root mahada مهد which means to make plain, even, smooth, spread a bed<ref>مهد mahada - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume7/00000267.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 2739</ref>. Also from this root is the noun mahdan, meaning a bed or even expanse, which appears in other verses about the creation of Earth where it was made a bed in the past tense. The tense is clear in those verses to mean a past event rather than an ongoing process ({{Quran|20|53}},{{Quran|43|10}} and {{Quran-range|78|6|7}}).  
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===Fresh water-salt water barriers===
===Fresh water-salt water barriers===
Many modern Islamic scholars argue that {{Quran|25|53}} contains a scientifically-sound insight regarding the 'separation' of fresh and salt water in estuaries, where fresh water rivers meet the salty ocean. Critics and historians argue that this verse is merely stating what any person viewing the convergence of a river and ocean with their unaided eye would observe - namely, that the two bodies of water maintain distinct coloration. The additional proposition made in the verse regarding the existence of some sort of barrier that causes the maintenance of this difference in coloration, they continue, is simply what a premodern person inclined to believe in metaphysical entities might hypothesize as the cause. Critics point out that there is, in fact, no such 'barrier' present in estuaries and that the persistent distinction between the two bodies of water is due a difference in the density of fresh and salt water - even this distinction, however, can be compromised when other factors, such as wind and stronger tidal forces, are at play which cause the bodies of water to mix with one another at a greater rate.{{Quote|{{quran|25|53}}|'''Corpus:''' And He (is) the One Who (has) released the two seas [this] (one) palatable and sweet and [this] (one) salty (and) bitter, and He has made between them a barrier and a partition forbidden.<br>'''Daryabadi:''' And it is He who hath mixed the two seas: this, sweet ond thirst quenching; that, saltish ond bitter; and hath placed between the twain a barrier and a great partition complete.<br>'''Yusuf Ali:''' It is He Who has let free the two bodies of flowing water: One palatable and sweet, and the other salt and bitter; yet has He made a barrier between them, a partition that is forbidden to be passed.}}
Many modern Islamic scholars argue that {{Quran|25|53}} contains a scientifically-sound insight regarding the 'separation' of fresh and salt water in estuaries, where fresh water rivers meet the salty ocean. Critics and historians argue that this verse is merely stating what any person viewing the convergence of a river and ocean with their unaided eye would observe - namely, that the two bodies of water maintain distinct coloration. The additional proposition made in the verse regarding the existence of some sort of barrier that causes the maintenance of this difference in coloration, they continue, is simply what a premodern person inclined to believe in metaphysical entities might hypothesize as the cause. Critics point out that there is, in fact, no such 'barrier' present in estuaries and that the persistent distinction between the two bodies of water is due a difference in the density of fresh and salt water - even this distinction, however, can be compromised when other factors, such as wind and stronger tidal forces, are at play which cause the bodies of water to mix with one another at a greater rate.{{Quote|{{quran|25|53}}|'''Corpus:''' And He (is) the One Who (has) released the two seas [this] (one) palatable and sweet and [this] (one) salty (and) bitter, and He has made between them a barrier and a partition forbidden.<br>'''Daryabadi:''' And it is He who hath mixed the two seas: this, sweet ond thirst quenching; that, saltish ond bitter; and hath placed between the twain a barrier and a great partition complete.<br>'''Yusuf Ali:''' It is He Who has let free the two bodies of flowing water: One palatable and sweet, and the other salt and bitter; yet has He made a barrier between them, a partition that is forbidden to be passed.}}
==See also==
==See also==


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