ISLAM

Scientists’ comments on the Qur’an

Keith L. Moore

Professor Emeritus, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Toronto.

“For the past three years, I have worked with the Embryology Committee of King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, helping them to interpret the many statements in the Qur’an and Sunnah referring to human reproduction and prenatal development. At first I was astonished by the accuracy of the statements that were recorded in the 7th century AD, before the science of embryology was established. Although I was aware of the glorious history of Muslim scientists in the 10th century AD, and some of their contributions to Medicine, I knew nothing about the religious facts and beliefs contained in the Qur’an and Sunnah”.

A paper presented at a conference in Cairo Prof Keith L Moore stated that “it is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God because most of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later. This proves to me that Muhammad must have been a messenger of G Allah.” Professor Moore also stated that:”...because the staging of human embryos is complex, owing to the continuous process of change during development, it is proposed that a new system of classification could be developed using the terms mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah. The proposed system is simple, comprehensive, and conforms with present embryological knowledge.

“The intensive studies of the Qur’an and Hadith in the last four years have revealed a system of classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was recorded in the seventh century A.D... the descriptions in the Qur’an cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the seventh century.

“Prof. Marshall Johnson Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, and Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

“...in summary, the Qur’an describes not only the development of external form, but also emphasizes the internal stages, the stages inside the embryo, of its creation and development, emphasizing major events recognized by contemporary science.”

“As a scientist, I can only deal with things which I can specifically see. I can understand embryology and developmental biology. I can understand the words that are translated to me from the Qur’an. As I gave the example before, if I were to transpose myself into that era, knowing what I do today and describing things, I could not describe the things that were described...

I see no evidence to refute the concept that this individual Muhammad had to be developing this information from some place... so I see nothing here in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was involved in what he was able to T.V.N. Persaud Professor of Anatomy, and Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It seems to me that Muhammad was a very ordinary man, he couldn’t read, didn’t know how to write, in fact he was an illiterate...We’re talking about 1400 years ago, you have some illiterate person making profound statements that are amazingly accurate, of a scientific nature...

I personally can’t see how this could be mere chance, there are too many accuracies and like Dr. Moore, I have no difficulty in my mind reconciling that this is a divine inspiration or revelation which lead him to these Joe Leigh Simpson Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.

...These sayings of Muhammad could not have been obtained on the basis of the scientific knowledge that was available at the time of the ‘writer’... It follows that not only is there no conflict between genetics and religion (Islam) but in fact religion (Islam) may guide science by adding revelation to some of the traditional scientific approaches... There exist statements in the Qur’an shown centuries later to be valid which support knowledge in the Qur’an having been derived from God.”

Gerald C. Goeringer Professor and Co-coordinator of Medical Embryology in the Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Georgetown University, and Washington DC, USA.

“...In a relatively few Qur’anic verses is contained a rather comprehensive description of human development from the time of commingling of the gametes through organogenesis. No such distinct and complete record of human development such as classification, terminology, and description existed previously. In most, if not all instances, this description antedates by many centuries the recording of the various stages of human embryonic and fetal development recorded in the traditional scientific literature.” Alfred KronerProfessor of the Department of Geosciences, University of Mainz, Germany.

“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.”

“Somebody who did not know something about nuclear physics 1400 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, or many others of the questions that we have discussed here...

If you combine all these and you combine all these statements that are being made in the Qur’an in terms that relate to the earth and the formation of the earth and science in general, you can basically say that statements made there in many ways are true, they can now be confirmed by scientific methods, and in a way, you can say that the Qur’an is a simple science text book for the simple man. And that many of the statements made in there at that time could not be proven, but that modern scientific methods are now in a position to prove what Muhammad said 1400 years ago. “Yushidi Kusan Director of the Tokyo Observatory, Tokyo, Japan I say, I am very much impressed by finding true astronomical facts in Qur’an, and for us modern astronomers have been studying very small piece of the universe.

We have concentrated our efforts for understanding of very small part. Because by using telescopes, we can see only very few parts of the sky without thinking about the whole universe, so by reading Qur’an and by answering to the questions, I think I can find my future way for investigation of the Universe.” Professor Armstrong works for NASA and is also Professor of Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA “That is a difficult question which I have been thinking about since our discussion here. I am impressed at how remarkably some of the ancient writings seem to correspond to modern and recent Astronomy. I am not a sufficient scholar of human history to project myself completely and reliably into the circumstances that 1400 years ago would have prevailed. Certainly,

I would like to leave it at that, that what we have seen is remarkable, it may or may not admit of scientific explanation, there may well have to be something beyond what we understand as ordinary human experience to account for the writings that we have seen.” William Hay Professor of Oceanography, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA. “I find it very interesting that this sort of information is in the ancient scriptures of the Holy Qur’an, and I have no way of knowing where they would have come from. But I think it is extremely interesting that they are there and this work is going on to discover it, the meaning of some of the passages.”

And when he was asked about the source of the Qur’an, he replied, “Well, Iwould think it must be the divine being.”Durja Rao Professor of Marine Geology teaching at King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. “It is difficult to imagine that this type of knowledge was existing at that time, around 1400 years back. May be some of the things they have simple idea about, but to describe those things in great detail is very difficult. So this is definitely not simple human knowledge. A normal human being cannot explain this phenomenon in that much detail. So, I thought the information must have come from a supernatural source.”

Tejatat Tejasen Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and is the former Dean of the faculty of Medicine, University of Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, Thailand.”In the last three years, I became interested in the Qur’an... From my studies and what I have learned, I believe that everything that has been recorded in the Qur’an fourteen hundred years ago must be the truth that can be proved by the scientific means. Since the Prophet Muhammad could neither read nor write, Muhammad must be a messenger who relayed this truth which was revealed to him as enlightenment by the one who is eligible creator.

Dr. Maurice Bucaille Born in 1920, former chief of the Surgical Clinic,University of Paris, has for a long time deeply interested in the correspondences between the teachings of the Holy Scriptures and modern secular knowledge After a study which lasted ten years, Dr. Maurice Bucaille addressed the French Academy of Medicine in 1976 concerning the existence in the Qur’an of certain statements concerning physiology and reproduction. His reason for doing that was that:”...our knowledge of these disciplines is such, that it is impossible to explain how a text produced at the time of the Qur’an could have contained ideas that have only been discovered in modern times.” “The above observation makes the hypothesis advanced by those who see Muhammad as the author of the Qur’an 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?”

“...in summary, the Qur’an describes not only the development of external form, but emphasizes also the internal stages, the stages inside the embryo, of its creation and development, emphasizing major events recognized by contemporary science.”

“As a scientist, I can only deal with things which I can specifically see. I can understand embryology and developmental biology. I can understand the words that are translated to me from the Qur’an. As I gave the example before, if I were to transpose myself into that era, knowing what I do today and describing things, I could not describe the things that were described...

I see no evidence to refute the concept that this individual Muhammad had to be developing this information from some place... so I see nothing here in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was involved in what he was able to state.

“...In a relatively few Qur’anic verses is contained a rather comprehensive description of human development from the time of commingling of the gametes through organogenesis. No such distinct and complete record of human development such as classification, terminology, and description existed previously. In most, if not all instances, this description antedates by many centuries the recording of the various stages of human embryonic and fetal development recorded in the traditional scientific literature.”

Prepared by Shrieen M Woileed

Distorted image of Muslim women

Naasira Bint Ellison

Since the height of the feminist movement in the late 70’s there has been a magnifying glass placed over the status of Muslim women. Unfortunately, the magnifying glass that has been used is an unusual one. Unusual in the sense that it is very selective about which items it will magnify; other items it will distort to such a degree that they will no longer look familiar.

I remember once reading in an “in depth” article about the lives of Muslim women. This article “explained” that at any time a man can divorce his wife by simply stating “I divorce you, I divorce you, and I divorce you”. This article can lead anyone ignorant of the Islamic ruling regarding divorce to believe that in less than five seconds the woman is left with no husband and is left to care for her (and possibly children) by any means necessary.

The question that immediately popped up in my mind was, “Did the author innocently write that out of sincere ignorance or was it another of the many attempts to degrade the religion of Islam and its followers (Muslims)?” It may be my own paranoia, but I tend to believe it was the latter of the two.

The truth of the matter is that Islam has the most humane and most just system of divorce that exists. Firstly, many options are taken and tried before coming to the decision of the divorce. If the man and woman decide that they can no longer live together successfully as a husband and wife, the husband (in most cases, not always) pronounces the divorce by saying “I divorce you”. At this point the waiting period begins. The waiting period lasts for three menstrual cycles to assure the woman is not pregnant. This period allows the couple time to think about what they are doing and if this is what they really want to do.

There are no lawyers involved to antagonize an already delicate situation. In the case that it is realized, that the woman is pregnant, the waiting period lasts the entire time she is pregnant. During the waiting period (whether the woman is pregnant or not) the man is obligated to provide food, clothing and shelter to the woman as he did before the divorce pronouncement. If the couple carries the divorce through to the birth of the child and the woman suckles the baby, the man is obligated to feed and clothe both his ex-wife for the time the woman suckles (the maximum being two years). After this weaning, the child will be provided for by the father until he/she is no longer in need of support.

It is quite ironic that in such an “advanced society” as the West, there are divorce cases in which women are being forced to pay alimony to their ex-husbands. Can this and many other things we know about the Western system of divorce compare to the Islamic system of divorce?

I have also read stories wherein it is stated that women are forced to marry men without their consent. This in no way resembles the mrriage system in Islam. In Islam the woman marries the man of her choice. She may even marry someone that her mother and/or father objects to. The point is that it is the woman who makes the final decision as to whom she will marry. Once the man and the woman decide that they are interested in one another for marriage, a dowry is decided upon. A dowry is not a bride’s price but, it is a gift from the groom to the bride. They agree upon a gift that is affordable by the groom. In the time of the Prophet (PBUH), often things such as livestock and money were given. This is a wise decision in the event that a woman becomes divorced or widowed; she has some financial security to fall back on even if it is for a limited amount of time. Once the man and woman are married, the man is required to clothe, feed, shelter and educate her (or allow her to be educated) in the same manner as he does himself.

The last distorted image that I will cover is that of the Muslim women’s dress. The western influenced media portrays our dress to be outdated and oppressive. Needless to say however, I differ with these adjectives. Our dress code does not hinder us from doing anything productive in our lives. Muslim women maintain a variety of jobs, none of which are devalued nor hampered due to their dress code. And as for the timing of Muslim women’s dress during these contemporary times, it seems most appropriate due to decreasing morals in the world today.

For those who say that Islamic dress is outdated, they speak from great ignorance. The decreasing morality and trials of this time makes Hijaab even more in need. More than ever before sex crimes are rampant. Although this society tells women they can wear what they want to wear, anytime a rape occurs the woman is the one put on trial and one of the first questions is, “What were you wearing?” This concept seems as though it is a set up directed against the so called contemporary woman. Also there is a direct correlation between the respect a man has for a woman and the amount of her body she displays flauntingly. In conclusion, I hope this article helped to clear up some distorted/misunderstood aspects of Islam and women. Women in Islam are respected and held in high regard. We will never find success and/or solutions to our problems until we realize that Allah knows best and that this disbelieving society will ruin itself.

Courtesy- Hudaa magazine, Jamaica

The calamity of debt

The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said “The Martyr is forgiven all his sins, but debt.” In terms of the Shariah’s legal law, the Qaadhi (the Islamic Court) can imprison a debtor and strip him of all his assets to settle the debt.

Debt is one of the worst calamities. There is no absolution from debt in Islam. There is no escape from debt. While the satanic laws of the capitalist system, such as the limited liability and the legal donkey (legal entity) concepts absolve debtors, scoundrels, crooks and robbers of their debts, the debtor will have to pay every cent of his debt in hell by roasting in the Fire, if he had wilfully or even carelessly abstained from settling his liabilities here on earth.

The virtues of Qard Hasan and the Qur’an’s emphasis on generosity, kindness and leniency apply to creditors.

It is forbidden for debtors to misconstrue this oncept and interpret it as a licence for dodging and frustrating their creditors by withholding or delaying payment.

The punishment for such dishonesty and injustice is severe.

There is absolutely no permission in the Qur’anic Qardh Hasan concept for debtors to take advantage, and to become lax in their efforts to swiftly settle their debts.

Debtors should also remember that it is HARAAM for them to indulge in luxuries while they have even one creditor demanding payment.

When a debtor has not met his commitment on due date, then it is forbidden for him to spend money on any luxury and unnecessary commodity.

Lack of fear for Allah and totally oblivious of the accountability in the Divine Court, most debtors have money for luxuries and for even Umrah and holiday trips while they are ‘unable’ to pay their debts.

This action or inaction relative to paying debts is morally in the same category as theft and usurpation. The latitude of Qard Hasan is strictly confined to creditors.