3,479
edits
Scientific Miracles in the Quran: Difference between revisions
Scientific Miracles in the Quran (view source)
Revision as of 02:15, 8 December 2025
, Monday at 02:15no edit summary
| [checked revision] | [checked revision] |
Lightyears (talk | contribs) (Lead had grown long and repetitive, so shortened by moving elements to and re-organised the methodology sections. Simplified language and made more concise and better arranged in many places..) |
Lightyears (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| Line 15: | Line 15: | ||
==Methodology of Islamic theologians== | ==Methodology of Islamic theologians== | ||
A variety of theological methods are employed by modern Islamic scholars in making the case for any given scientific miracle in the Quran. These methods include what can be described and categorized as dehistoricization, pseudo-correlation, reinterpretation, disambiguation, elective literalism, elective esotericism, and data mining. While there exist any number of alternative approaches and combinations thereof to making the case for any given scientific miracle, the aforementioned methods are, in roughly descending order, the most common. These methods are not mutually exclusive and tend to employed in conjunction with one another in order to strengthen the case being made. | A variety of theological methods are employed by modern Islamic scholars in making the case for any given scientific miracle in the Quran. These methods include what can be described and categorized as mistranslation, dehistoricization, pseudo-correlation, reinterpretation, disambiguation, elective literalism, elective esotericism, and data mining. While there exist any number of alternative approaches and combinations thereof to making the case for any given scientific miracle, the aforementioned methods are, in roughly descending order, the most common. These methods are not mutually exclusive and tend to employed in conjunction with one another in order to strengthen the case being made. | ||
===General criticisms=== | ===General criticisms=== | ||
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. Critics | 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. Critics often note this as a weakness and generally hold these so-called scientific miracles to be the product of crude pattern-matching sophistry whereby science is ''read back into'' the Quran upon discovery. | ||
Even when the Islamic empires led the world in science in parts of the middle ages,<ref>''[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/30/science/how-islam-won-and-lost-the-lead-in-science.html How Islam Won, and Lost, the Lead in Science.]'' Dennis Overbye. 2001. New York Times. | Even when the Islamic empires led the world in science in parts of the middle ages,<ref>''[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/30/science/how-islam-won-and-lost-the-lead-in-science.html How Islam Won, and Lost, the Lead in Science.]'' Dennis Overbye. 2001. New York Times. | ||
| Line 41: | Line 41: | ||
===Specific methods and criticisms thereof=== | ===Specific methods and criticisms thereof=== | ||
==== Mistranslations ==== | ==== Mistranslations ==== | ||
Many purported scientific miracles simply involve mistranslations from Arabic to English, or from Classical Arabic to Modern Arabic. For example, it is claimed that daḥāhā دَحَاهَا means "He made it ostrich-egg-shaped" such that the Earth's roundness is described. This verb actually means "He spread it out", and while it can be used for an ostrich spreading out flat the ground where it lays its eggs, neither the verb nor words from the same root have the meaning of an egg nor making such a shape<ref>Lane's Lexicon dictionary on [https://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=h328,ll=900,ls=h5,la=h1338,sg=h375,ha=h210,br=h325,pr=h55,aan=h185,mgf=h296,vi=h142,kz=h686,mr=h221,mn=h391,uqw=h509,umr=h357,ums=h289,umj=h236,ulq=h696,uqa=h130,uqq=h102,bdw=h298,amr=h220,asb=h280,auh=h558,dhq=h175,mht=h276,msb=h79,tla=h48,amj=h229,ens=h1,mis=h633 daḥā دَحَا]</ref> (the shape of an ostrich egg is in any case not an oblate spheroid like the earth - see: [[Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth]]). Or that yasbaḥoona / يَسْبَحُونَ means 'rotating on it's own axis' (applied to the sun in e.g. verse 21:33), of which there is no such meaning (it simply means 'swimming').<ref>[https://quranx.com/Dictionary/Lane/%D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%AD Yasbahoona / سبح] Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary (quranx.com)</ref> Or that sulb / ﺻُﻠﺐ (which means backbone)<ref>[https://quranx.com/Dictionary/Lane/%D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%AD sulb ' ﺻُﻠﺐ] - Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary</ref> or tara'ib / تَّرَآئِب (rib or other chest bones)<ref>[https://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume1/00000338.pdf Tara'ib تَّرَآئِب] - Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary</ref> mean sexual areas of a man or woman so as to not contradict facts about reproduction (''see: [[Semen Production in the Quran]]''). | |||
====Dehistoricization==== | ====Dehistoricization==== | ||
A common practice in making the case for a scientific miracle in the Quran is dehistoricization. Dehistoricization is the process whereby a historical event (in this case a verse of the Quran) is removed from its historical context. Since no Islamic scripture nor Muhammad himself claimed to predict modern discoveries about the natural world or ancient history, the great majority of scientific and historical miracle claims require a degree of dehistoricization. | |||
The purported miracles could not have been intended for Muhammad's contemporaries who would not have been able to verify the scientific or historical accuracy thereof. As a result, verses have to be dehistoricized and reframed as forecasts of future scientific (or archaeological) discoveries for the benefit of today's audience. From a historian's perspective, however, when for instance the Quran states the Earth has been 'spread out' as a 'bed' and that mountains have been cast down upon the Earth as stabilizing 'stakes', it intends to inspire its contemporary audience's awe by directing their attention to a common mythological notion that this audience held to be true. | The purported miracles could not have been intended for Muhammad's contemporaries who would not have been able to verify the scientific or historical accuracy thereof. As a result, verses have to be dehistoricized and reframed as forecasts of future scientific (or archaeological) discoveries for the benefit of today's audience. From a historian's perspective, however, when for instance the Quran states the Earth has been 'spread out' as a 'bed' and that mountains have been cast down upon the Earth as stabilizing 'stakes', it intends to inspire its contemporary audience's awe by directing their attention to a common mythological notion that this audience held to be true. | ||
| Line 121: | Line 121: | ||
{{Quote|{{quran-range|41|11|12}}|Then He directed (Himself) towards the heaven while it (was) smoke, and He said to it and to the earth, "Come both of you willingly or unwillingly." They both said, "We come willingly." So He completed them as seven firmaments in two Days, and He assigned to each heaven its duty and command. And We adorned the lower heaven with lights, and (provided it) with guard. Such is the Decree of (Him) the Exalted in Might, Full of Knowledge.}} | {{Quote|{{quran-range|41|11|12}}|Then He directed (Himself) towards the heaven while it (was) smoke, and He said to it and to the earth, "Come both of you willingly or unwillingly." They both said, "We come willingly." So He completed them as seven firmaments in two Days, and He assigned to each heaven its duty and command. And We adorned the lower heaven with lights, and (provided it) with guard. Such is the Decree of (Him) the Exalted in Might, Full of Knowledge.}} | ||
Academic scholarship has identified a late antique Christian homilitic precedent for these enigmatic verses. Basil the Great of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia (d. 379 CE) understood Isaiah 51:6 in the Bible to mean that the heaven was initially made from a smoke-like substance (the Greek translation says the heaven as smoke [ὡς καπνός] was made firm [ἐστερεώθη], whereas the Hebrew verse says vanished like smoke).<ref>[https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/32011.htm Hexaemeron, Homily 1:8] - New Advent church fathers website</ref><ref>Julien Decharneux (2023), Creation and Contemplation: The Cosmology of the Qur’ān and Its Late Antique Background, Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 128-9</ref> | Academic scholarship has identified a late antique Christian homilitic precedent for these enigmatic verses. Basil the Great of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia (d. 379 CE) understood Isaiah 51:6 in the Bible to mean that the heaven was initially made from a smoke-like substance (he used the Septuagint Greek translation which says the heaven as smoke [ὡς καπνός] was made firm [ἐστερεώθη], whereas the Hebrew verse says vanished like smoke).<ref>[https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/32011.htm Hexaemeron, Homily 1:8] - New Advent church fathers website</ref><ref>Julien Decharneux (2023), Creation and Contemplation: The Cosmology of the Qur’ān and Its Late Antique Background, Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 128-9</ref> | ||
===The universe is steadily expanding=== | ===The universe is steadily expanding=== | ||
| Line 217: | Line 217: | ||
===Seven heavens, seven earths=== | ===Seven heavens, seven earths=== | ||
{{Main|Science and the Seven Earths|Cosmology of the Quran}}Some modern Islamic scholars have argued that {{Quran|65|12}} is scientifically | {{Main|Science and the Seven Earths|Cosmology of the Quran}}Some modern Islamic scholars have argued that {{Quran|65|12}} is scientifically correct in stating that there are seven heavens and seven entities 'like' the Earth. Various interpretations to this effect include reading the 'seven heavens' as atmospheric layers and reading the seven earths as layers of the Earth's surface or the number of continents. Critics have pointed out that the lowest of the seven heavens is said to contain the stars (see {{Quran|41|12}} and {{Quran|37|6}}); 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 seven earths in the Quran in all likelihood would refer to seven stacked disks, the top-most of which is the Earth on which humans reside. Mentions of these are scattered throughout hadith literature and the sayings of Muhammad's companions (see main article).{{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.}} | ||
===The descent of Iron=== | ===The descent of Iron=== | ||