His Prophet Muhammad _ through the Angel Gabriel. It was
memorized by Muhammad
_, who then
dictated it to his
Companions. They, in
turn, memorized it,
wrote it down, and
reviewed it with the
Prophet Muhammad
_.
Moreover, the Prophet Muhammad
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the Angel Gabriel once each year and
twice in the last year of his life. From
the time the Qur’an was revealed, until
this day, there has always been a
huge number of Muslims who have
memorized all of the Qur’an, letter by letter. Some of them have
even been able to memorize all of the Qur’an by the age of ten.
Not one letter of the Qur’an has been changed over the centuries.
The Qur’an, which was revealed fourteen centuries ago, mentioned
facts only recently discovered or proven by scientists. This
proves without doubt that the Qur’an must be the literal word ofGod, revealed by Him to the Prophet Muhammad _, and that the
Qur’an was not authored by Muhammad _ or by any other human
being. This also proves that Muhammad _ is truly a prophet sent
by God. It is beyond reason that anyone fourteen hundred years
ago would have known these facts discovered or proven only
recently with advanced equipment and sophisticated scientific
methods. Some examples follow.
A) The Qur’an on Human Embryonic
Development:
In the Holy Qur’an, God speaks about the stages of man’s
embryonic development:
_ We created man from an extract of clay.
Then We made him as a drop in a place of
settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the
drop into an alaqah(leech, suspended thing,
and blood clot), thenWemade the alaqahinto
amudghah(chewed substance)... _1 (Qur’an,
23:12-14)
Literally, the Arabic word alaqahhas three meanings:
(1) leech, (2) suspended thing, and (3) blood clot.
In comparing a leech to an embryo in the alaqahstage, we find
similarity between the two,2 as we can see in figure 1. Also, the
embryo at this stage obtains nourishment from the blood of the
mother, similar to the leech, which feeds on the blood of others.3
The second meaning of the word alaqahis “suspended thing.”
the suspension of the
embryo, during the alaqahstage, in the womb of the mother.
The third meaning of
the word alaqahis “blood clot.” We
find that the
external appearance of the embryo and its sacs during
thealaqahstage
is similar to that of a blood clot. This is due to
the presence of
relatively large amounts of blood present in the
embryo during this
stage1. Also during this stage,
the blood in the
embryo does not circulate until the end of the third
week.2Thus,
the embryo at this stage is like a clot of blood.
So the three meanings
of the word alaqahcorrespond accurately
to the descriptions
of the embryo at the alaqahstage.
The next stage
mentioned in the verse is the mudghahstage.
The Arabic word mudghahmeans
“chewed substance.” If one
were to take a piece
of gum and chew it in his or her mouth and
then compare it with
an embryo at the mudghahstage, we would
conclude that the
embryo at the mudghahstage is similar in
appearance to a
chewed substance. This is because of the somites
at the back of the
embryo that “somewhat resemble teethmarks in
a chewed substance.” .
How could Muhammad _ have possibly known all this about
fourteen hundred
years ago, when scientists have only recently
discovered this using
advanced equipment and powerful
microscopes which did
not exist at that time? Hamm and
Leeuwenhoek were the first
scientists to observe human sperm
cells (spermatozoa) using an
improved microscope in 1677 (more
than 1000 years after Muhammad _). They
mistakenly thought
that the sperm cell contained a
miniature preformed human being
that grew when it was deposited
in the female genital tract.
Professor Emeritus Keith L. Moore
is one of the world’s most
prominent scientists in the
fields of anatomy and embryology and
is the author of the book
entitled The Developing Human, which
has been translated into eight
languages. This book is a scientific
reference work and was chosen by
a special committee in the
United States as the best book
authored by one person. Dr. Keith
Moore is Professor Emeritus of
Anatomy and Cell Biology at the
University of Toronto, Toronto,
Canada. There, he was Associate
Dean of Basic Sciences at the
Faculty of Medicine and for 8 years
was the Chairman of the
Department of Anatomy. In 1984, he
received the most distinguished
award presented in the field of
anatomy in Canada, the J.C.B.
Grant Award from the Canadian
Association of Anatomists. He has
directed many international
associations, such as the
Canadian and American Association of
Anatomists and the Council of the
Union of Biological Sciences.
In 1981, during the Seventh
Medical Conference in Dammam,
Saudi Arabia, Professor Moore
said: “It has been a great pleasure
for me to help clarify statements
in the Qur’an about human
development. It is clear to me
that these statements must have
come to Muhammad from God,
because almost all of this knowledge
was not discovered until many
centuries later. This proves
to me that Muhammad must have
been a messenger of God.”
Consequently, Professor Moore was
asked the following question:
“Does this mean that you believe
that the Qur’an is the word
of God?” He replied: “I find no
difficulty in accepting this.”
During one conference, Professor
Moore stated: “....Because
the staging of human embryos is
complex, owing to the continuous
process of change during
development, it is proposed that anew system of
classification could be developed using the terms
mentioned in the
Qur’an and Sunnah(what Muhammad _ said,
did, or approved of).
The proposed system is simple, comprehensive,
and conforms with
present embryological knowledge. The
intensive studies of
the Qur’an and hadeeth(reliably transmitted
reports by the
Prophet Muhammad’s _ companions of what he
said, did, or
approved of) in the last four years have revealed a
system for
classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was
recorded in the
seventh century A.D. Although Aristotle, the
founder of the
science of embryology, realized that chick embryos
developed in stages
from his studies of hen’s eggs in the fourth
century B.C., he did
not give any details about these stages. As
far as it is known
from the history of embryology, little was known
about the staging and
classification of human embryos until the
twentieth century.
For this reason, the descriptions of the human
embryo in the Qur’an
cannot be based on scientific knowledge in
the seventh century.
The only reasonable conclusion is: these
descriptions were
revealed to Muhammad from God. He could not
have known such
details because he was an illiterate man with
absolutely no
scientific training.”
B)
The Qur’an on Mountains:
A book entitled Earth
is a basic reference textbook in many
universities around
the world. One of its two authors is Professor
Emeritus Frank Press.
He was the Science Advisor to former
US President Jimmy
Carter, and for 12 years was the President of
the National Academy
of Sciences, Washington, DC. His book
says that mountains
have underlying roots.These roots are
deeply embedded in
the ground, thus, mountains have a shape
like a peg .
This is how the
Qur’an has described mountains. God has said
in the Qur’an:
_
Have We not made the earth as a bed, and
the
mountains as pegs? _ (Qur’an,
78:6-7)
Modern earth
sciences have proven that mountains have deep
roots under the surface of the
ground and that these
roots can reach several times
their elevations above the surface ofthe ground.So the most suitable word to
describe mountains on
the basis of this information is
the word ‘peg,’ since most of a
properly set peg is hidden under
the surface of the ground.
The history of science tells us
that the theory of mountains
having deep roots was introduced
only in 1865 by the Astronomer
Royal, Sir George Airy.
Mountains also play an important
role in stabilizing the crust
of the earth.They hinder the
shaking of the earth. God has said
in the Qur’an:
_ And He has set
firm mountains in the earth
so that it would
not shake with you... _
(Qur’an, 16:15)
Likewise, the modern theory of
plate tectonics holds that
mountains work as stabilizers for
the earth. This knowledge about
the role of mountains as
stabilizers for the earth has just begun to
be understood in the framework of
plate tectonics since the late 1960.
Could anyone during the time of
the Prophet Muhammad _
have known of the true shape of
mountains?
Could anyone imagine that
the solid massive mountain which
he sees before him actually
extends
deep into the earth and has a
root, as
scientists affirm? Modern geology
has confirmed the truth of the
Qur’anic verses.
C)
The Qur’an on the Origin of the Universe:
The science of modern
cosmology, observational and theoretical,
clearly indicates
that, at one point in time, the whole universe
was nothing but a
cloud of ‘smoke’ (i.e. an opaque highly dense
and hot gaseous
composition).This is one of the undisputed
principles of
standard modern cosmology. Scientists now can
observe new stars
forming out of the remnants of that ‘smoke’ .
The illuminating
stars we see at night were,
just as was the whole
universe, in that ‘smoke’ material. God has
said in the Qur’an:
_
Then He turned to the heaven when it was
smoke...
_ (Qur’an, 41:11)
Because the earth and
the heavens above (the sun, the moon,
stars, planets,
galaxies, etc.) have been formed from this same
‘smoke,’ we conclude
that the earth and the heavens were one
connected entity.
Then out of this homogeneous ‘smoke,’ they
formed and separated
from each other. God has said in the Qur’an:
_
Have not those who disbelieved known that
the
heavens and the earth were one connected
entity,
then We separated them?... _ (Qur’an,
21:30)
Dr. Alfred Kroner is
one of the world’s renowned geologists.
He is Professor of
Geology and the Chairman of the Department
of Geology at the
Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg
University, Mainz,
Germany. He said: “Thinking where Muhammad
came from . . . I
think it is almost impossible that he could
have known about
things like the common origin of the universe,
because scientists
have only found out within the last few years,
with very complicated
and advanced technological methods, that
this is the
case.”Also he said: “Somebody who did not know
something about
nuclear physics fourteen hundred years ago could
not, I think, be in a
position to find out from his own mind, for
instance, that the
earth and the heavens had the same origin.”
D)
The Qur’an on the Cerebrum:
God has said in the
Qur’an about one of the evil unbelievers
who forbade the
Prophet Muhammad_from praying at the
Kaaba:
_
No! If he does not stop, We will take him
by
the naseyah(front of the head), a lying,
sinfulnaseyah(front
of the head)! _ (Qur’an,
96:15-16)
Why did the Qur’an
describe the front of the head as being
lying and sinful? Why
didn’t the Qur’an say that the person was
lying and sinful?
What is the relationship between the front of the
head and lying and
sinfulness?
If we look into the
skull at the front of the head, we will find
the prefrontal area of
the cerebrum . What does
physiology tell us
about the function of this area? A book entitled
Essentials
of Anatomy & Physiology says about this area: “The
motivation and the
foresight to plan and initiate movements occur
in the anterior
portion of the frontal lobes, the prefrontal area.
This is a region of
association cortex...”Also the book says: “In
relation to its
involvement inmotivation, the prefrontal area is also
thought to be the
functional center for aggression....”
So, this area of the
cerebrum is responsible for planning,
motivating, and
initiating good and sinful behavior and is responsible
for the telling of
lies and the speaking of truth. Thus, it is
proper to describe
the front of the head as lying and sinful when
someone lies or
commits a sin, as the Qur’an has said: “...A lying,sinful naseyah(front
of the head)!”
Scientists have only
discovered these functions of the prefrontal
area in the last
sixty years, according to Professor Keith L.
Moore.
E)
The Qur’an on Seas and Rivers:
Modern Science has
discovered that in the places where two
different seas meet,
there is a barrier between them. This barrier
divides the two seas
so that each sea has its own temperature,
salinity, and
density.For example, Mediterranean sea water is
warm, saline, and
less dense, compared to Atlantic ocean water.
When Mediterranean
sea water enters the Atlantic over the Gibraltar
sill, it moves
several hundred kilometers into the Atlantic at a
depth of about 1000
meters with its own warm, saline, and lessdense characteristics. The
Mediterranean water stabilizes at this depth.
Although there are
large waves, strong currents, and tides in
these seas, they do
not mix or transgress this barrier.
The Holy Qur’an
mentioned that there is a barrier between two
seas that meet and
that they do not transgress. God has said:
_
He has set free the two seas meeting together.
There
is a barrier between them.
They
do not transgress. _ (Qur’an,
55:19-20)
But when the Qur’an
speaks about the divider between fresh
and salt water, it
mentions the existence of “a forbidding partition”
with the barrier. God
has said in the Qur’an:
_
He is the one who has set free the two kinds
of
water, one sweet and palatable, and the
other
salty and bitter. And He has made
between
them a barrier and a forbidding
partition.
_ (Qur’an, 25:53)
One may ask, why did
the Qur’an mention the partition when
speaking about the
divider between fresh and salt water, but did
not mention it when
speaking about the divider between the two
seas?
Modern science has
discovered that in estuaries, where fresh
(sweet) and salt water
meet, the situation is somewhat different
from what is found in
places where two seas meet. It has been
discovered that what
distinguishes fresh water from salt water in
estuaries is a
“pycnocline zone with a marked density discontinuity
separating the two
layers.”This partition (zone of separation) has
a different salinity
from the fresh water and from the salt water
This information has
been discovered only recently, using
advanced equipment to
measure temperature, salinity, density,
oxygen dissolubility,
etc. The human eye cannot see the difference
between the two seas
that meet, rather the two seas appear to us as
one homogeneous sea.
Likewise, the human eye cannot see the
division of water in
estuaries into the three kinds: fresh water, salt
water, and the
partition (zone of separation).
