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The Holy Qur'an and Modern Science
In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate,
the Most Merciful
Dr. Maurice Bucaille is an eminent French surgeon, scientist, scholar and
author of "THE BIBLE, THE QUR'AN AND SCIENCE" which contains the result of his
research into the Judeo-Christian Revelation and the Qur'an. It is a unique
contribution in the field of religion and science.
Being an outstanding Scientist, he was selected to treat the mummy of
Merneptah (Pharaoh) which he did. During his visit to Saudi Arabia he was shown
the verses of the Holy Qur'an in which Allah says that the dead body of the
Pharaoh will be preserved as a "Sign" for posterity. An impartial scientist like
Dr. Bucaille, who (being also a Christian) was conversant with the Biblical
version of Pharaoh's story as being drowned in pursuit of Prophet Moses. He was
pleasantly surprised to learn that unknown to the world till only of late, the
Holy Qur'an made definite prediction about the preservation of the body of that
same Pharaoh of Moses' time. This led Dr. Bucaille to study the Holy Qur'an
thoroughly after learning the Arabic language. The final conclusion of his
comparative study of Qur'an and the Bible is that the statements about
scientific phenomena in the Holy Qur'an are perfectly in conformity with the
modern sciences whereas the Biblical narration's on the same subjects are
scientifically entirely unacceptable.
FROM THE ORIGIN OF MAN
As most people in the West have been
brought up on misconceptions concerning Islam and the Qur'an; for a large part
of my life, I myself was one such person. Let me cite one or two specific
examples to indicate the kind of inaccurate ideas generally current.
MISCONCEPTIONS
As I grew up, I was always taught that 'Mahomet'
was the author of the Qur'an; I remember seeing French translations bearing this
information. I was invariably told that the 'author' of the Qur'an simply
compiled, in a slightly different form, stories of sacred history taken from the
Bible; the 'author' was said to have added or removed certain passages, while
setting forth the principles and rules of the religion he himself had founded.
There are moreover Islamic scholars today in France whose duties include
teaching and who express exactly these views, although perhaps in a more subtle
form.
This description of the origins of the Qur'anic text, which is so out of
touch with reality, might lead one immediately to assume that if there are
scientific errors in the Bible, there must also be errors of this kind in the
Qur'an! This is the natural conclusion to be drawn in such circumstances, but it
is based on a misconception. We are well aware that at the time of Muhammad -
the Qur'anic Revelation took place between 610 and 632 A.D - scientific
obscurantism prevailed, both in the Orient as well as in the West.
In France, for example, this period corresponded roughly to the reign of King
Dagobert, the last of the Mrovingians. This approach to what was supposedly the
Qur'anic text may on first sight seem logical, but when one examines the text
with an informed and impartial eye, it becomes clear that this approach is not
at all in keeping with reality. We shall see in a moment the truth of this
statement, which is obvious from the texts.
Whenever there is textual proof of the existence in the Qur'an of statements
that are in agreement with modern knowledge, but which in the Bible are related
in a manner that is scientifically unacceptable, the stock response is that,
during the period separating the two Scriptures, Arab scientists made
discoveries in various disciplines which enabled them to arrive at these
supposed adaptations. This approach takes no account whatsoever of the history
of the sciences. The latter indicates that the great period of Islamic
civilisations, during which, as we know, science made considerable progress,
came several centuries after the communication of the Qur'an to the
communication of the Qur'an to man.
Furthermore, scientific history informs us that, as far as the subjects dealt
with in this present book are concerned, no discoveries were made during, the
period separating the Bible from the Qur'an.
When this aspect of the Qur'an is mentioned in the West, however, we are
likely to hear it said that while this may indeed be so, nowhere is this fact
referred to in the translations of the Qur'an which we possess today, or in the
prefaces and commentaries that accompany them.
This is a very judicious remark. Muslim - and indeed non-Muslim -
translators who have produced a French version of the Qur'an are basically
men of letters. More often than not, they mistranslate a passage because they do
not possess the scientific knowledge required to understand its true meaning.
The fact is, however, that in order to translate correctly, one must first
understand what one is reading. A further point is that translators - especially
those mentioned above - - may have been influenced by notes provided by ancient
commentators often came to be regarded as highly authoritative, even though they
had no scientific knowledge - nor indeed had anybody else at that time. They
were incapable of imagining that the texts might contain allusions to secular
knowledge, and thus they could not devote attention to a specific passage by
comparing it to other verses in the Qur'an dealing with the same subject - a
process that often provides the key to the meaning of a word or expression. From
this results the fact that any passage in the Qur'an that gives rise to a
comparison with modern secular knowledge is likely to be unreliably translated.
Very often, the translations are peppered with inaccurate - if not totally
nonsensical - statements. The only way to avoid such errors is to possess a
scientific background and to study the Qur'anic text in the original language.
SCIENTIFIC ERRORS
On the subject of man, as well as the other
topics mentioned earlier, it is not possible to find any corresponding data in
the Bible. Furthermore the scientific errors contained in the Bible - such as
those describing man's first appearance on earth, which, as we have seen, may be
deduced from the Genealogies that figure in Genesis are not to be found in the
Qur'an. It is crucial to understand that such errors could not have been 'edited
out' of the Qur'an since the time they first became apparent: well over a
thousand years have elapsed since the most ancient manuscripts and today's texts
of the Qur'an, but these texts are still absolutely identical. Thus, if Muhammad
were the author of the Qur'an (a theory upheld by some people), it is difficult
to see how he could have spotted the scientific errors in the Bible dealing with
such a wide variety of subjects and have proceeded to eliminate every single one
of them when he came to compose his own text on the same themes. Let us state
once again, that no new scientific facts had been discovered since the time the
Bible was written that might have helped eliminate such errors.
In view of the above, it is imperative to know the history of the texts, just
as it is essential to our understanding of certain aspects of the Bible for us
to be aware, of the conditions in which it was written.
As we have noted earlier, experts in Biblical exegesis consider the books of
Old and New Testaments to be divinely inspired works. Let us now examine,
however, the teachings of Muslim exegetes, who present the Qur'an in quite a
different fashion.
When Muhammad was roughly forty years old, it was his custom to retire to a
retreat just outside Mecca in order to meditate. It was here that he received a
first message from God via the Angel Gabriel, at a date that corresponds to 610
A.D. After a long period of silence, this first message was followed by
successive revelations spread over some twenty years. During the Prophet's
lifetime, they were both written down and recited by heart among his first
followers. Similarly, the revelations were divided into suras(chapters) and
collected together after the Prophet' death (in 632 A.D.) in a book: the Qur'an.
The Book contains the Word of God, to the exclusion of any human additions.
Manuscripts dating from the first century of Islam authenticate today's text,
the other form of authentication being the recitation by heart of the Qur'an, a
practice that has continued unbroken from the time of the Prophet down to the
present day.
UNCORRUPTED NATURE OF THE QUR'AN
In contrast to the Bible,
therefore, we are presented with a text that is none other than the transcript
of the Revelation itself; the only way it can be received and interpreted is
literally. The purity of the revealed text has been greatly emphasized, and the
uncorrupted nature of the Qur'an stems from the following factors:
First, as stated above, fragments of the text were written down during the
Prophet's lifetime; inscribed on tablets, parchments and other materials current
at the time. The Qur'an itself refers to the fact that the text was set down in
writing. We find this in several suras dating from before and after the Hejira
(Muhammad's departure from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D.) In addition to the
transcription of the text, however, there was also the fact that it was learned
by heart. The text of the Qur'an is much shorter than the Old Testament and
slightly longer than the New Testament. Since it took twenty years for the
Qur'an to be revealed, however, it was easy for the Prophet's followers to
recite it by heart, sura by sura. This process of recitation afforded a
considerable advantage as far as an uncorrupted text was concerned, for it
provided a system of double-checking at the time the definitive text was written
down. This took place several years after the Prophet's death; first under the
caliphate of Abu Bakr, his first successor, and later under the caliphate of
Omar and in particular that of Uthman (644 to 655 A.D.) The latter ordered an
extremely strict recension of the text, which involved checking it against the
recited versions.
TEXT OF QUR'AN UNCORRUPTED
After Muhammad's death, Islam
rapidly expanded far beyond the limits of the area in which it was born. Soon,
it included many peoples whose native language was not Arabic. Very strict steps
were taken to ensure that the text of the Qur'an did not suffer from this
expansion of Islam: Uthman sent copies of his entire recension to the principal
centers of the vast Islamic empire. Some copies still exist today, in more or
less complete form, in such places as Tashkent (U.S.S.R) and Istanbul. Copies
have also been discovered that date from the very first centuries after the
Hejira; they are all identical, and all of them correspond to the earliest
manuscripts.
Today's editions of the Qur'an are all faithful reproductions of the original
copies. In the case of the Qur'an, there are no instances of rewriting or
corruption of the text over the course of time.
If the origin of the Qur'an had been similar to those of the Bible, it would
not be unreasonable to suppose that the subjects it raised would be presented in
the light of the ideas influenced by certain
opinions of the time, often derived from myth and superstition. If this were
the case, one might argue that there were untold opportunities for inaccurate
assertions, based on such sources, to find their way into the many and varied
subjects briefly summarised above. In actual fact, however, we find nothing of
the kind in the Qur'an.
But having said this, we should note that the Qur'an is a religious book par
excellence. We should not use statements that have a bearing on secular
knowledge as a pretext to go hunting after any expression of scientific laws. As
stated earlier, all we should seek are reflections on natural phenomena, phrases
occasioned by references to divine omnipotence and designed to emphasise that
omnipotence in the eyes of mankind throughout the ages. The presence of such
reflections in the Qur'an has become particularly significant in modern times,
for their meaning is clearly explained by the data of contemporary knowledge.
This characteristic is specific to the Qur'an.
UNEXPECTED DISCOVERIES
It was not until I had learnt Arabic and
read the Qur'an in the original that I realised the precise meaning of certain
verses. Only then did I make certain discoveries that were astounding. With my
basic ideas on the Qur'an - which to begin with were inaccurate, just as those
of most people in the West - I certainly did not expect to find in the text the
statements that I in fact uncovered. With each new discovery, I was beset with
doubt lest I might be mistaken in my translation or perhaps have provided an
interpretation rather than a true rendering of the Arabic text.
Only after consultations with several specialists in linguistics and
exegesis, both Muslim and non-Muslim, was I convinced that a new concept might
be formed from such a study: the compatibility between the statements in the
Qur'an and firmly established data of modern science with regard to subjects on
which nobody at the time of Muhammad - not even the Prophet himself - could have
had access to the knowledge we possess today. Since then, I have not found in
the Qur'an any support given to the myths or superstitions present at the time
the text was communicated to man. This is not the case for the Bible, whose
authors expressed themselves in the language of their period.
In 'La Bible le Coran et la Science' (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science),
which first appeared in the original French in 1976 and which subsequently
appeared in English in 1978, I set forth the main points of these findings. On
November 9, 1976, I gave a lecture to the Academia de Medecine (French academy
of Medicine) in which I explored the statements of the origins of man contained
in the Qur'an; the title of the lecture was 'Donnees physiologiques et
embryologiques de Coran'(Physiological and Embryological Data in the Qur'an). I
emphasised the fact that these data - which I shall summarise below - formed
part of a much wider study. The following are some of the points which arise
from a reading of the Qur'an:
* a concept of the creation of the world which, while different from the
ideas contained in the Bible, is fully in keeping with today's general theories
on the formations of the universe;
* statements that are in perfect agreement with today's ideas concerning the
movements and evolution of the heavenly bodies;
* a prediction of the conquest of space;
* notions concerning the water cycle in nature and the earth's relief, which
were not proven correct until many centuries later.
All of these data are bound to amaze anyone who approaches them in
an objective spirit. They add a much wider dimension to the problem studied
in the present work. The basic point remains the same , however: we must surely
be in the presence of facts which place a heavy strain on our natural propensity
for explaining everything in materialistic terms, for the existence in the
Qur'an of these scientific statements appears as a challenge to human
explanations.
That does not mean to say, however, that the statements in the Qur'an -
especially those concerning man - may all of them be examined in the light of
the findings of modern science. The creation of man as described in both the
Bible and the Qu'ran totally eludes scientific investigation of the event per
se.
Similarly, when the New Testament or the Qur'an informs us that Jesus was not
born of a father, in the biological sense of the term, we cannot counter this
Scriptural statement by saying that there is no example in the human species of
an individual having been formed without receiving the paternal chromosomes that
make up one half of its genetic inheritance. Science does not explain miracles,
for by definition miracles are inexplicable, thus, when we read in both the
Qur'an and the Bible that man was moulded from the ground, we are in fact
learning a fundamental religious principle: Man returns from where he came, for
from the place he is buried, he will rise again on the judgment.
Side by side with the main religious aspect of such reflections on man, we
find in the Qur'an statements on man that refer to strictly material facts. They
are quite amazing when one approaches them for the first time. For example, the
Qur'an describes the origins of life in general and devotes a great deal of
space to the morphological transformation undergone by man, repeatedly
emphasizing the fact that God fashioned him as He willed. We likewise discover
statements on human reproduction that are expressed in precise terms that lend
themselves to comparison with the secular knowledge we today possess on the
subject.
INTEREST TO MEN OF SCIENCE
The many statements in the Qur'an
that may thus be compared with modern knowledge are by no means easy to find. In
preparing the study published in 1976, I was unable to draw on any previous
works known in the West, for there were none. All I could refer to were a few
works in Arabic dealing with themes treated in the Qur'an that were of interest
to men of science - there was, however, no overall study. Over and above this,
research of this kind requires scientific knowledge covering many different
disciplines. It is not easy, however, for Islamologists to acquire such
knowledge, for they possess a mainly literary background. Indeed, such questions
hardly seem to occupy a place in their field of classic Islamology, at least as
far as the West is concerned. Only a scientist, thoroughly acquainted with
Arabic literature, can draw comparisons between the Qur'anic text - for which he
must be able to read Arabic - and the data supplied by modern knowledge.
There is another reason why such statements are not immediately apparent:
Verses bearing on a single theme are scattered throughout the Qur'an. The book
is indeed a juxtaposition of reflections on a wide variety of subjects referred
to one after the other and taken up again later on, often several times over.
The data on a precise theme must therefore be collected from all over the Book
and brought together under a single heading. This requires many hours' work
tracking down verses, in spite of the existence of thematic indexes provided by
various translators, for such lists may perhaps be incomplete and indeed, in
many cases, they often are.
Taken from "The Origin of Man", by Dr. Maurice
Bucaille.
