Scientific Miracles in the Quran: Difference between revisions

{{QualityScore|Lead=4|Structure=3|Content=3|Language=4|References=3}}In recent times, many Muslim scholars have interpreted certain [[Qur'an|Quranic]] verses as being miraculously predictive of modern scientific discoveries and have presented these interpretations as evidence of the Quran's divine origin. In the 19 Interestingly, no verse contained in the Quran has ever prompted a scientific discovery, and modern Muslim scholars have also generally not tried to argue that this has ever been the case. As such, all the purported instances of miraculous scientific foreknowledge in the Quran have been identified as such ''only'' ''after'' the science they are alleged to describe has been discovered by independent and unrelated means. Critics have pointed out this weakness and generally hold these so-called scientific miracles to be the product of theological sophistry whereby science is ''read back into'' the Quran upon discovery. Critics also maintain that there is no instance in the Quran where a scientific subject has been described with sufficient clarity, specificity, and accuracy as to qualify as anything Miraculous.

During the 1980's and 1990's a Muslim scholar named [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Majeed_al-Zindani Abdul Majeed al-Zindani] organized various events to which scientists from around the world (mainly the west) were invited to talk. The ultimate result of these events was a documentary by Zindani, This is the Truth, in which some of these scientists were shown to be confirming the miraculous nature of the Quran, or were quoted as making statements off camera. This documentary was followed up in 1998 by a book of the same name, authored by Abdullah M al-Rehaili, which is now in its 3rd edition.

Many modern Islamic scholars have argued that {{Quran|21|30}} too 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.

1) The Earth is described as being created first in the preceeding verses ({{Quran-range|41|9|10}}), along with all that is present on its surface, and only thereafter is the starry sky created.  

{{Main|Science and the Seven Earths}}Some modern Islamic scholars have argued that {{Quran|65|12}} contains a scientifically-sound insight in its statement that there exist seven heavens and seven entities 'like' the Earth. Various interpretations to this effect include the reading of the 'seven heavens' as descriptive of atmospheric layers and the reading of the 'seven earths' as descriptive of the layers of the Earth's surface or the number of continents. Critics have pointed out that no classification of the layers of the Earth's atmosphere holds there to be seven layers, that no classification of the Earth's layers holds there to be seven layers, that the seven-count of continents is moreso a cultural/historical artifact than anything grounded in geographical or geological fact (with Eurasia, for instance, being a more geologically-sound candidate for a continent) , and that the 'seven earths' spoken of in the Quran in all likelihood reference the seven stacked disks of which Earth is the top-most that are described extensively in many places scattered throughout hadith literature and the sayings of Muhammad's companions.{{Quote|{{quran|65|12}}|Allah (is) He Who created seven heavens and of the earth, (the) like of them. Descends the command between them that you may know that Allah (is) on every thing All-Powerful. And that, Allah indeed, encompasses all things (in) knowledge.}}