In the Noble Quran, there are many noble verses that shed light over scientific advancements and discoveries. These verses can also be viewed as informing us of the future. The principal goal of Islam is to establish the oneness of God in the hearts of people and be a guide to them to the true path. Indeed, it presents all the topics it considers with reference to this principal goal. However, the information it gives in the realm of the physical sciences serves as a lesson to humanity and is also completely in compliance with known truths as the following examples show.
The Noble Quran presents some original pieces of information on the issues of reproduction and the formation of the embryo, which modern science was only recently able to discover.[1] In his book on embryology, after explaining the stages of the human embryo in the womb, Prof. Dr. Keith L. Moore compares them in his book on embryology with the noble verses in the Quran. He concludes that science is in agreement with the Noble Quran, even more, that Quran is ahead of the science of medicine with the examples and descriptions it gives. After his research, Moore felt great admiration for the Quran and HE Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him), and he acknowledged this miracle of the Quran from 1,400 years ago with a state of great belief. He added the information he learned from the Quran to the second edition of his book Before We are Born. When he was asked:
“How can you explain the existence of this information in the Quran?” He responded:
“That Quran is nothing but revelation from Allah.”[2]
a
In recent years, it was discovered that the universe was expanding and the galaxies moving away from each other with tremendous speed. According to this law, which shows that the universe is in possession of an infinite power, these grand galaxies are moving away from each other in proportion with their distance from each other. For example, a galaxy which is 10 million light years away from us is moving away from us with a speed of 250 kilometers a second, whereas a galaxy which is 10 billion light years away from us is moving away with a speed of 250,000 kilometers a second.[3] This situation is pointed out in the Noble Quran as follows:
“With power and skill did We construct the Firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of pace.” (Adh-Dhariyat (The Scatterers), 51:47)
a
The Exalted Creator protects the earth from the pieces of stars (meteors) that completed their life and exploded. Jupiter and, with its huge gravity, Saturn are in a position of gatekeepers that do not allow many heavenly bodies which can endanger the earth to pass. Sometimes, there may be some meteors who pass over these two planets and approach our world. Then, another guard awaits them, that is, the Moon. Since it has no atmosphere, all the meteors that fall on the Moon impact its surface. We can see the craters that these impacts have formed even with a small pair of binoculars. The meteors that bypass the Moon start burning when they enter the atmosphere, unless they are too big. As a result of this phenomenon, which we also call the “shooting star,” the meteors break up into little particles of dust in the Mesosphere layer before they can reach Earth’s surface. Then, each of these dust particles becomes a seed comparable in size to one drop of rain.[4] The atmosphere also protects the Earth from the harmful rays that come from space. These truths are pointed out in the Quran as follows:
“And We have made the heavens a canopy well guarded: yet do they turn away from the Signs which these things point to!” (Al-Anbiya` (The Prophets), 21:32)
Thus the Noble Quran, on the one hand, states the truths that order the acts and behavior of human beings, while on the other hand, it points out the secrets of the universe and asks that the universe be read like a book wherein secrets can be researched and revealed.
a
Fourteen centuries ago, the Noble Quran said:
“And We send the fecundating winds, then cause the rain to descend from the sky, therewith providing you with water (in abundance)…” (Al-Hijr, 15:22)
Centuries after the revelation of this verse it was discovered that the winds fecundated the plants and clouds.
a
In the 19th and 20th verses of Surah Ar-Rahman (The All-Merciful) it is said that “He has let free the two bodies of flowing water, meeting together: Between them is a Barrier which they do not transgress.” There are similar expressions in the 53rd verse of Surah Furqan.
In the latest discoveries in the strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Ocean meets, it was found that there was an unknown barrier, and unseen curtain that prevented the waters to mix. Thus, the two waters of the two seas do not mix with each other and both parties preserve their original character. Captain Jacques Cousteau later on discovered that the same water curtain exists in the meeting points of all the seas with different structures.[5]
The Noble Quran is an even greater miracle in the fact that the rulings it contains satisfy the needs of all eras. There is no deficiency or irrelevancy in it that could be criticized by any person of conscience. It keeps presenting solutions to issues that boggle other legal systems. The rulings it establishes contain great wisdom, and instilled a magnificent social and political order which it carried to its peak in a very short time, unlike any other civilization. In a nation devoid of science and culture, through a Prophet who was illiterate and unschooled, there appeared suddenly a perfect order, and in a very short period of 23 years it changed the whole Arabian peninsula’s morality and mentality.
[1]. Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage), 22: 5; Al Mu’minûn (The Believers), 23: 11-13.
[2]. Gary Miller, The Amazing Qur’an, pp. 34-39.
[3]. Prof. Dr. Osman Çakmak, Bir Çekirdekti Kâinat (The Universe was a Seed), p.28.
[4]. Prof. Dr. Osman Çakmak, Bir Çekirdekti Kâinat (The Universe was a Seed), pp. 94, 127.
[5]. For details on the subject of Quran and science see Dr. Maurice Bucaille, La Bible le Coran et la science: les ecritures saintes examinees a la lumiere des connaissances modernes, Paris: Seghers, 1980 (The Bible, the Qur’an and science, trc. Alastair D. Pannell, Karaçi, t.y.); Afzalurrahman, Quranic Sciences, London 1981; http://www.islamiyayinlar.net/content/view/106/8/.