We
have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it
(from corruption). Noble Qur’an Ch. 15 V. 7
1A. Ungrudging
Tributes - Past & Present
During
the time of Prophethood – Abu Jahal, Abu Sufyan & Ahnak ibn Surak; these
three individuals used to approach the house of Prophet Muhammad at night fall
to listen to the recitation of the Qur’an until they bumped into each other the
3 nights.
Ahnak
was queries about the reality of the revelation hence he asked Abu Sufyan who
affirm the authenticity of the Qur’an; both these individuals approached Abu
Jahal who said “Of course it is the truth from God”.
Source: Biography of Muhammad
“A
Miracle of Purity of Style, of Wisdom and of Truth”
Rev. R. Bosworth-Smith “Mohammed &
Mohammedanism”
“Whenever
I hear the Qur’an chanted, it is as though I am listening to Music, underneath
the flowing melody, there is sounding all the time the insistent beat of a
drum, it is like the beating of my heart”
A.J. Arberry in his English translation of the
Qur’an
"Everything
made so much sense. This is the beauty of the Qur'an; it asks you to reflect
and reason....When I read the Qur'an further, it talked about prayer, kindness
and charity. I was not a Muslim yet, but I felt the only answer for me was the
Qur'an and God had sent it to me."
Cat
Stevens (Yusuf Islam), former British pop star
"However often
we turn to it [the Qur'an] at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon
attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence... Its style, in
accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible - ever and anon
truly sublime -- Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most
potent influence."
T.P. Hughes' DICTIONARY OF ISLAM
1B. What is a Miracle?
Definition of Miracle according to Oxford
dictionary:
1.
an extraordinary & welcome
event believed to be the work of God
2.
an outstanding example or
achievement
Definition of Miracle according to Webster
dictionary:
1.
an extraordinary event manifesting divine
intervention in human affairs
1C. Analogy of a
Miracle
If one is certified
“dead” by medical practitioners but if a man comes along and wakes the dead up
now that is a “miracle”. Likewise, if one is death and kept in a mortuary for
days and a man comes and wakes him up now that is a greater MIRACLE.
·
Greater The IMPOSSIBILITY, Greater the MIRACLE **
At the age of Qur’anic
revelation Arabs excelled in POETRY, PHILOLOGY and PROSE, so Muhammad’s main
miracle (Qur’an) challenged them by its eloquence.
So that just as it
offered convincing proof to people of the past, it may do the same to people of
today & for the people of the future.
The miraculous
features of the Qur’an are not confined to its linguistic inimitability. One of
the miraculous features of the Qur’an lies in the ever-expending nature of the
meanings contained in its verses & their inexhaustible capacity to
accommodate even the most recent scientific discoveries.
1D. Miracle One
Pharaoh said: "O Haman! Build me a lofty palace,
that I may attain the ways and means-
"The ways and
means of (reaching) the heavens, and that I may mount up to the god of Moses:
But as far as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!" Thus was made
alluring, in Pharaoh's eyes, the evil of his deeds, and he was hindered from
the Path; and the plot of Pharaoh led to nothing but perdition (for him).
Noble Qur’an Ch. 40 V.36-37
Criticisms
by Western Scholars
Controversy has prevailed since the late 17th
century CE about the historicity of a certain Haman. Prominent Orientalists
have not been able to correctly identify the Haman of the Qur'an, and have thus
questioned his historicity.
They have suggested that the appearance of Haman
in the Qur'anic story of Moses and Pharaoh has resulted from a misreading of
the Bible, leading the author of the Qur'an to move Haman from the Persian
court of King Ahasuerus to the Egyptian court of the Pharaoh.
The first writer to enter the list of critics
was Ludovico Marraccio, confessor to Pope Innocent XI. Published in 1698 CE,
the English rendering of critical Note 1 on page 526 of Marraccio's Latin
translation of the Qur'an read:
Mahumet has mixed up
sacred stories. He took Haman as the adviser of Pharaoh whereas in reality he
was an adviser of Ahaseures, King of Persia. He also thought that the Pharaoh
ordered construction for him of a lofty tower from the story of the Tower of
Babel. It is certain that in the Sacred Scriptures there is no such story of
the Pharaoh. Be that as it may, he [Mahumet] has related a most
incredible story.
George Sale in his translation of the Qur'an
said:
This name is given to
Pharaoh's Chief Minister, from which it is generally inferred that Muhammad has
here made Haman, the favourite of Ahasueres, King of Persia, and who
indisputably lived many ages after Moses, to be that Prophet's contemporary.
But how-probable-so-ever this mistake may seem to us, it will be hard, if not
impossible to convince a Muhammadan of it.
In what has been hailed as a "classic"
article by Theodor Nöldeke that was published in Encyclopædia Britannica in 1891 CE and reprinted several times since,
the author says:
The most ignorant Jew
could never have mistaken Haman (the minister of Ahasuerus) for the minister of
the Pharaoh...
Haman is mentioned
six times in the Qur'an: Chapter 28, verses 6, 8 and 38; Chapter
29, verse 39; and Chapter 40, verses 24 and 36. The above verses
portray Haman as someone close to Pharaoh, who was also in charge of building projects;
otherwise the Pharaoh would have directed someone else. So, who is Haman?
Solving the puzzle
Dr. Maurice Bucaille. He
surmised that since "Haman" was mentioned in the Qur'an during the
time of Moses in Egypt, the best course of action was to ask an expert in the
old Egyptian language, i.e., hieroglyphs, regarding the name Bucaille narrates an interesting discussion he had with a
prominent French Egyptologist:
In the book Reflections
on the Qur'an (Réflexions sur le Coran), I have related the result
of such a consultation that dates back to a dozen years ago and led me to
question a specialist who, in addition, knew well the classical Arabic
language. One of the most prominent French Egyptologists, fulfilling these
conditions, was kind enough to answer the question.
I showed him the word
"Haman" that I had copied exactly like it is written in the Qur'an,
and told him that it had been extracted from a sentence of a document dating
back to the 7th century AD, the sentence being related to somebody connected
with Egyptian history.
He said to me that, in
such a case, he would see in this word the transliteration of a hieroglyphic
name but, for him, undoubtedly it could not be possible that a written document
of the 7th century had contained a hieroglyphic name - unknown until that time
- since, in that time, the hieroglyphs had been totally forgotten.
In
order to confirm his deduction about the name, he advised me to consult the Dictionary
of Personal Names of the New Kingdom by Ranke, where I might find the name
written in hieroglyphs, as he had written before me, and the transliteration in
German.
I
discovered all that had been presumed by the expert, and, moreover, I was
stupefied to read the profession of Haman: "The Chief of the workers in
the stone-quarries," exactly what could be deduced from the Qur'an, though
the words of the Pharaoh suggest a master of construction.
When
I came again to the expert with a photocopy of the page of the Dictionary
concerning "Haman" and showed him one of the pages of the Qur'an
where he could read the name, he was speechless...
Moreover,
Ranke had noted, as a reference, a book published in 1906 by the Egyptologist
Walter Wreszinski: the latter had mentioned that the name of "Haman"
had been engraved on a stela kept at the Hof-Museum of Vienna (Austria). Several
years later, when I was able to read the profession written in hieroglyphs on
the stela, I observed that the determinative joined to the name had emphasized
the importance of the intimate of Pharaoh.
He went on to say:
Had
the Bible or any other literary work, composed during a period when the
hieroglyphs could still be deciphered, quoted "Haman," the presence
in the Qur'an of this word might have not drawn special attention. But, it is a
fact that the hieroglyphs had been totally forgotten at the time of the
Qur'anic Revelation and that no one could not read them until the 19th century
AD. Since matters stood like that in ancient times, the existence of the word
"Haman" in the Qur'an suggests a special reflection.
1E. Miracle Two
National Geographic reports that:
Huge and tiny, an ant carries in her head multiple sensory organs
to pick up chemical and visual signals vital to colonies that may contain a
million or more workers, all of which are female. The brain contains half a
million nerve cells; eyes are compound; antennae act as nose and fingertips.
Projections below the mouth sense taste; hairs respond to touch.
With
500,000 nerve cells squeezed into their 2-3 mm bodies, they possess a
communications system that astonishes human beings. Ants use a variety of
methods to communicate; they use these organs at all times, from finding prey
to following one another, and from building their nests to waging war.
Ants
sometimes exhibit more flawless communication in areas that human beings often
cannot resolve through speech. Ants mainly communicate on the chemical level.
These semiochemicals, known as pheromones, are chemical compounds that are
perceived by smell and secreted by internal glands.
Until, when they came upon the valley of the ants, an ant
said, "O ants, enter your dwellings that you not be crushed by Solomon and
his soldiers while they perceive not."
Noble
Qur’an Ch. 27 Verse 18
1F. Miracle Three
THE
EXISTENCE OF MICROSCOPIC LIFE
Glory to God, Who created in pairs all things that the
earth produces, as well as their own (human) kind and (other) things of which
they have no knowledge.
Noble
Qur’an Ch. 36 V.36
The above verses indicate the
existence of life forms unknown to people at the time of the revelation of the
Qur'an. Indeed, with the discovery of the microscope, new living things too
small to be seen with the naked eye have also been discovered by man.
People have therefore begun
to learn about the existence of these life forms, indicated in the Qur'an.
Other verses which point to the existence of micro-organisms, which are
invisible to the naked eye and generally, consist of a single cell.
…. from Whom is not hidden the
least little atom in the heavens or on earth: Nor is there anything less than
that, or greater, but is in the Record Perspicuous:
Noble Qur’an Ch. 34 V.3
There are 20 times more
members of this secret world, which is spread all over the planet,
micro-organisms in other words, than there are animals on Earth. These micro-organisms,
invisible to the naked eye, comprise bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae and
Acarina (mites and ticks).
They also constitute an
important element in the balance of life on Earth. For example, the nitrogen
cycle, one of the fundamental components of the formation of life on Earth, is
made possible by bacteria. Root fungi are the most important element in plants
being able to take up minerals from the soil.
The bacteria on our tongues
prevent us being poisoned by food containing nitrates, such as salad stuffs and
meat. At the same time, certain bacteria and algae possess the ability to make
photosynthesis, the fundamental element in life on Earth, and share that task
with plants. Some members of the Acarina family decompose organic substances
and turn them into foodstuffs suitable for plants. As we have seen, these tiny
life forms, about which we have only learned with modern technological
equipment, are essential to human life.
2A. Qur’an
& Modern Science
Soon will We show them our Signs in the (furthest)
regions (of the earth), and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to
them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all
things?
Noble Qur’an Ch.41 V.43
Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been
from other Than God, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy.
Noble Qur’an Ch. 4 V.82
Any
scripture claiming to be from God must stand the test of time. Now, let us
examine the information accuracy furnished by the Qur’an a millennium &
half ago.
2B. Conflict or Conciliation
There are billions of stars
and galaxies in the universe move in perfect equilibrium in the paths set out
for them. Stars, planets and satellites rotate not only around their own axes
but also together with the systems of which they are an integral part.
Sometimes, galaxies containing 200-300 billion stars move across each others'
paths. Yet amazingly, no collisions take place that might damage the great
order in the universe.
In the universe, the concept
of speed assumes giant dimensions when compared to earthly measurements.
For example, the Earth
rotates at 1,670 kmph. If we consider that the fastest-moving bullet today
possesses an average speed of 1,800 kmph, we can see how fast the Earth is
moving, despite its enormous size and mass.
The speed of the Earth as it
orbits the Sun is some 60 times faster than a bullet: 108,000 kmph. If we were
able to construct a vehicle capable of moving at that speed, it would be able
to circumnavigate the Earth in 22 minutes. These figures apply only to the
Earth.
Those for the Solar System
are even more fascinating. The speed of that system is such as to exceed the
bounds of reason: The larger the systems in the universe, the greater their
speed. The Solar System's speed of orbit around the centre of the galaxy is
720,000 kmph. The Milky Way, with its 200 billion or so stars, moves through
space at 950,000 kmph.
There is no doubt that there
is a very high risk of collisions in such a complicated and fast-moving system.
Yet nothing of the sort actually happens and we continue with our lives in
complete safety. That is because everything in the universe functions according
to the flawless equilibrium set out by God. It is for this reason that, as
stated in the verse, there is no " inconsistency " in the system.
[And] who created seven heavens in layers. You do not see in the
creation of the Most Merciful any inconsistency. So return [your] vision [to
the sky]; do you see any breaks?
Then return [your] vision twice again. [Your] vision will
return to you humbled while it is fatigued.
Noble Qur’an Ch.67 V.
2C. Conflict or Conciliation
Does man think that We cannot assemble his bones?
Nay, We are able to put together in perfect order the
very tips of his fingers.
Noble Qur’an Ch.75 V.3-4
Finger printings were first discovered
in the late 19thcentury Before then, people regarded
fingerprints as ordinary curves without any specific importance or meaning.
The emphasis
on fingerprints has a very special meaning. This is because shapes and details
on everyone's fingerprint are unique to each individual. Every person who is
alive or who has ever lived in this world has a set of unique fingerprints.
Furthermore, even identical twins having the very same DNA sequence have their
own set of fingerprints.
2D. Conclusion
''The above
observation makes the hypothesis advanced by those who see Muhammad as the
author of the Quran untenable. How could a man, from being illiterate, become
the most important “author”, in terms of literary merits, in the whole of
Arabic literature? How could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature
that no other human being could possibly have developed at that time, and all
this without once making the slightest error in his pronouncement on the
subject? ”
-Maurice Bucaille,
The Bible, the Quran and Science, 1978, p. 125.
''A
totally objective examination of it (the Quran) in the light of modern
knowledge, leads us to recognize the agreement between the two, as has been
already noted on repeated occasions. It makes us deem it quite unthinkable for
a man of Muhammad's time to have been the author of such statements, on account
of the state of knowledge in his day. Such considerations are part of what
gives the Quranic Revelation its unique place, and forces the impartial
scientist to admit his inability to provide an explanation which calls solely
upon materialistic reasoning. ”
-Maurice Bucaille,
The Quran and Modern Science, 1981. p. 18.
“Science
without Religion is lame and Religion without Science is blind”.
Albert Einstein – A Physicist & a Noble Price Winner
Praise
be to God, Who created the heavens and the earth, and made the darkness and the
light. Yet those who reject Faith hold (others) as equal, with their
Guardian-Lord.
Noble Qur’an Ch. 6 V.1
**
**