HOME PAGE
IDENTITY ON FINGER TIPS
3- Does the human being think that We cannot assemble his bones?
4- Surely, We are able to reconstruct even his fingertips.
75-The Resurrection, 3-4
Fingerprints did not mean much to the people at the Prophet?s time. An
Englishman by the name of Genn Ginsen, in 1856, found out that the pattern of
lines at the tip of a person?s finger was something unique to the individual.
Until 1856, men knew nothing about this characteristic of fingertips. The
discovery of the fact that the pattern of lines on fingertips was a sort of
identity card is often used by the police to help find criminals. The pattern
lines of the fingertips differ even in identical twins. This identity card
cannot be forged; it affixes a unique signature to whatever it touches. One
cannot imitate or deny it. We carry it about us till the end of our days.
Epidermal burns or injuries or aging distort our bodies in one way or another,
yet cannot change this fact.
These patterns of lines are traced within the womb when the fetus completes its
three months? period. Research is currently being carried out to see whether
these lines may be used to detect genetic defects in our body. To the best of
our knowledge so far, nothing positive has been discovered on this issue. It is,
however, likely that something new may emerge any day.
At the time of the descent of the Quran, fingertips had nothing special about
them. God, who will cause man to come back to life on the Day of Judgment,
stresses the importance of fingertips.
DATA CONCEALED ON FINGERTIPS
One of the basic indications of this verse may refer to the patterns of lines on
man?s fingertips. There may be other indications, according to which all the
characteristics of our body are encoded on our fingertips. It could be implied
that during our re-creation all the particularities and features of our body
will be restored, so it may be that what lies on our fingertips, apparently of
little significance, will be sufficient for this process. The reason why
fingertips are given as example is the general acceptance that they are simple
things of not much worth. Nevertheless, even the seemingly insignificant tip of
a finger is a data bank, thanks to which the entire body may be re-fashioned.
DNA is one of the most important discoveries in human history. The discovery of
DNA put an end to the idea that the human cell had a simple structure with its
contents. As the cell came to be analyzed more and more, the complexity of its
makeup was better understood. Even one piece of DNA includes a cipher formed of
a series of more than three billion codes. From the color of our hair to our
little finger, everything is contained in this code. A printout of data related
to DNA would form the contents of about 1000 volumes of one million pages. What
is more, DNA has the capacity to duplicate all these data within 20 to 80
minutes. In the lore contained in the 1000 volumes of one single DNA, one can
find all the characteristics of the body. The DNA of a simple cell on the
fingertip will give one all the necessary information. Our Creator can easily
have recourse to this lore to re-create man. It would be as easy for Him to do
so as if He were creating him for the first time.
78- And he makes comparisons for Us and forgets his own creation. He says ?Who
can resurrect the bones after they are rotten??
79- Say ?He who created them the first time. He has knowledge of every creation.?
36-Ya-Seen, 78-79
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
Kamis, Desember 18, 2008
LAYERS OF HEAVENS
HOME PAGE
LAYERS OF HEAVENS
3- He created the seven heavens (skies) in layers. You do not see any
imperfection in the creation by the Gracious. Turn your eyes again. Do you see
any flaw?
67-The Kingdom, 3
The statement in the Quran about seven heavens may be interpreted as seven
different strata, seven different dimensions or seven different fields of
attraction. A closer analysis of the atmosphere, which, to the naked eye may
present uniformity, makes it clear that it is not actually so.
The different layers of our atmosphere could not have been known at the time of
the Prophet. This fact cannot have been established fortuitously. The Quran
refers to different layers in the atmosphere in perfect accord with each other.
One can also conjecture that such layers can exist in space. The creation of
these harmonious layers is a phenomenon visible from the microcosm of the atom
to the macrocosm of the universe. Let us remember the layers and orbits of the
electron around the nucleus of the atom. The fact that the maximum number of
orbits in the atom is seven may also be significant.
The number seven has special connotations in the Quran. As a matter of fact, ?seven?
in Arabic, also expresses a plurality; the expression ?seven heavens,? may
either mean the number seven as the actual number of heavens, or a plurality of
heavens. This usage of ?seven? in the Arabic has been commented upon throughout
history by many exegetics. In the sura Luqmaan, 27th verse, the expression ?seven
seas? is used and in the sura Repentance, verse 80 states that: ?Even if you ask
forgiveness for them seventy times, God will not forgive them.? So, it is said
that both ?seven? and ?seventy? express a plurality. A similar usage of the
number ?seven? expressing a plurality may also be seen in ancient Greek and
Roman.
LAYERS OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE OBJECTIVES THEY SERVE
We know now that atmosphere is made of layers that make life on earth possible.
The absence of any one of these layers would be the end of life on earth. God,
whose flawless art is conspicuous everywhere, displays once again His design by
drawing attention - in the Quran - to atmospheric layers. Each of these layers
dutifully performs its function contributing to the perfect performance of the
whole. The fact that the lifeless atoms of the atmosphere are in the service of
man, as if forming a conscious entity, is a consequence of God?s compassion.
The atmosphere is divided into layers, of which the (1) Troposphere is the
lowest layer, closest to the surface of the earth. The Troposphere, which is as
low as six km, extends to a height of 12 km at the equator. Atmospheric
phenomena take place within the portion of three to four kilometers from the
surface. 75% of atmospheric gases are in this layer. Above the Troposphere is
the (2) Stratosphere extending about 50 km up. The third is (3) the Ozonosphere,
the ozone layer in other words, which is the protector from ultraviolet rays
having lethal effects on living beings. Above lies the (4) Mesosphere which in
turn, is topped by the (5) Thermosphere followed by the (6) Ionosphere, the
upper layer reaching to a height of 500 km from the earth. Radio waves are
reflected from this layer, rendering communication possible. Above 500 km lies
the fringe region known as the (7) Exosphere, extending up to 10,000 km. The
proportion of gases in this layer is very low and divided into ions. We can thus
divide the atmosphere into 7 layers. The number 7 may change of course, if
researchers prefer examining these layers by different groupings.
However it is interesting to find that the commonly agreed classification of
atmospheric layers supports the Quranic information and it is beyond mere
interest when we evaluate it together with all other scientific remarks in the
Quran. Even if the reader does not find this classification persuasive, then he
or she may subscribe to the alternative understanding that the figure seven
expresses a plurality, without bringing any change in the miraculous
significance of the verse. This double meaning of ?seven layers? thus leaves no
loopholes. Separating the atmosphere into harmonious layers is a modern
discovery. The level of scientific knowledge at the time of the descent of the
Quran did not permit making differentiation between the layers of atmosphere.
Verse 12 of sura 41 reads: ?So He ordained them seven heavens (skies) in two
days (periods) and revealed in every heaven its affair...? making it clear that
every layer served a different purpose, thanks to which life on earth was
possible.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
LAYERS OF HEAVENS
3- He created the seven heavens (skies) in layers. You do not see any
imperfection in the creation by the Gracious. Turn your eyes again. Do you see
any flaw?
67-The Kingdom, 3
The statement in the Quran about seven heavens may be interpreted as seven
different strata, seven different dimensions or seven different fields of
attraction. A closer analysis of the atmosphere, which, to the naked eye may
present uniformity, makes it clear that it is not actually so.
The different layers of our atmosphere could not have been known at the time of
the Prophet. This fact cannot have been established fortuitously. The Quran
refers to different layers in the atmosphere in perfect accord with each other.
One can also conjecture that such layers can exist in space. The creation of
these harmonious layers is a phenomenon visible from the microcosm of the atom
to the macrocosm of the universe. Let us remember the layers and orbits of the
electron around the nucleus of the atom. The fact that the maximum number of
orbits in the atom is seven may also be significant.
The number seven has special connotations in the Quran. As a matter of fact, ?seven?
in Arabic, also expresses a plurality; the expression ?seven heavens,? may
either mean the number seven as the actual number of heavens, or a plurality of
heavens. This usage of ?seven? in the Arabic has been commented upon throughout
history by many exegetics. In the sura Luqmaan, 27th verse, the expression ?seven
seas? is used and in the sura Repentance, verse 80 states that: ?Even if you ask
forgiveness for them seventy times, God will not forgive them.? So, it is said
that both ?seven? and ?seventy? express a plurality. A similar usage of the
number ?seven? expressing a plurality may also be seen in ancient Greek and
Roman.
LAYERS OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE OBJECTIVES THEY SERVE
We know now that atmosphere is made of layers that make life on earth possible.
The absence of any one of these layers would be the end of life on earth. God,
whose flawless art is conspicuous everywhere, displays once again His design by
drawing attention - in the Quran - to atmospheric layers. Each of these layers
dutifully performs its function contributing to the perfect performance of the
whole. The fact that the lifeless atoms of the atmosphere are in the service of
man, as if forming a conscious entity, is a consequence of God?s compassion.
The atmosphere is divided into layers, of which the (1) Troposphere is the
lowest layer, closest to the surface of the earth. The Troposphere, which is as
low as six km, extends to a height of 12 km at the equator. Atmospheric
phenomena take place within the portion of three to four kilometers from the
surface. 75% of atmospheric gases are in this layer. Above the Troposphere is
the (2) Stratosphere extending about 50 km up. The third is (3) the Ozonosphere,
the ozone layer in other words, which is the protector from ultraviolet rays
having lethal effects on living beings. Above lies the (4) Mesosphere which in
turn, is topped by the (5) Thermosphere followed by the (6) Ionosphere, the
upper layer reaching to a height of 500 km from the earth. Radio waves are
reflected from this layer, rendering communication possible. Above 500 km lies
the fringe region known as the (7) Exosphere, extending up to 10,000 km. The
proportion of gases in this layer is very low and divided into ions. We can thus
divide the atmosphere into 7 layers. The number 7 may change of course, if
researchers prefer examining these layers by different groupings.
However it is interesting to find that the commonly agreed classification of
atmospheric layers supports the Quranic information and it is beyond mere
interest when we evaluate it together with all other scientific remarks in the
Quran. Even if the reader does not find this classification persuasive, then he
or she may subscribe to the alternative understanding that the figure seven
expresses a plurality, without bringing any change in the miraculous
significance of the verse. This double meaning of ?seven layers? thus leaves no
loopholes. Separating the atmosphere into harmonious layers is a modern
discovery. The level of scientific knowledge at the time of the descent of the
Quran did not permit making differentiation between the layers of atmosphere.
Verse 12 of sura 41 reads: ?So He ordained them seven heavens (skies) in two
days (periods) and revealed in every heaven its affair...? making it clear that
every layer served a different purpose, thanks to which life on earth was
possible.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
SEMEN IS A COMPOUND
HOME PAGE
SEMEN IS A COMPOUND
Our odyssey, that began with the creation of this liquid compound, led us to
acquire such skills as seeing, hearing and other processes of extreme complexity.
No man within his senses can attribute his or her perfect creation to the skills
of a drop of a mixture and coincidences. The Creator who is Omniscient,
Omnipotent, who is exalted and beyond all praise, is the Author of these things
as stated in the Quran.
CREATION FROM A DROP
36- Does man think that he will be left uncontrolled?
37- Was he not a drop of semen emitted?
75-The Resurrection, 36-37
The Quran says that God who created man watches over him. In verse 37 it is
stated that he is created from ?a drop of semen.? Here again we are in the
presence of a scientific fact inaccessible at the time of the Prophet. In this
verse, the Arabic words ?maney? (semen) and ?nutfah? (drop) are differentiated.
?Nutfah? means what is left of a liquid in a bucket whose contents have been
emptied. Thus the expression refers to a portion and not to all the semen. The
semen contains in a single ejaculation, along with its other constituents, sperm
numbering between
100 million and 200 million. One out of hundreds of millions of sperm fertilizes
the egg. In other words, the zygote, product of the union of two gametes, is but
the result of a small part of the semen. The sperm or the spermatozoon, the male
gamete, typically consisting of a head containing the nucleus, a middle piece
containing a mitochondrion and a
comparatively long tail whose structure is similar to that of a lagellum.
Hundreds of millions of sperm, leaving the male?s organ, head for the ovum
waving their tails. The distance they cover in the woman?s organ of reproduction
involves a considerably long journey, if measured in microns the length of a
sperm (a micron is equal to one millionth of a meter). To cover such a distance
means to swim long distances, kilometers in fact. Many of the sperm die on the
way and only a few succeed in reaching the target. Of the multitude of sperm
surrounding the egg, only one is allowed to penetrate, barring the way to all
others. Half of the genetic data of this sperm is contained in a head of 5
microns. The other genetic code is waiting in the mother?s womb. All these are
the result of many concurring details. God displays his artistry in every
instance.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
SEMEN IS A COMPOUND
Our odyssey, that began with the creation of this liquid compound, led us to
acquire such skills as seeing, hearing and other processes of extreme complexity.
No man within his senses can attribute his or her perfect creation to the skills
of a drop of a mixture and coincidences. The Creator who is Omniscient,
Omnipotent, who is exalted and beyond all praise, is the Author of these things
as stated in the Quran.
CREATION FROM A DROP
36- Does man think that he will be left uncontrolled?
37- Was he not a drop of semen emitted?
75-The Resurrection, 36-37
The Quran says that God who created man watches over him. In verse 37 it is
stated that he is created from ?a drop of semen.? Here again we are in the
presence of a scientific fact inaccessible at the time of the Prophet. In this
verse, the Arabic words ?maney? (semen) and ?nutfah? (drop) are differentiated.
?Nutfah? means what is left of a liquid in a bucket whose contents have been
emptied. Thus the expression refers to a portion and not to all the semen. The
semen contains in a single ejaculation, along with its other constituents, sperm
numbering between
100 million and 200 million. One out of hundreds of millions of sperm fertilizes
the egg. In other words, the zygote, product of the union of two gametes, is but
the result of a small part of the semen. The sperm or the spermatozoon, the male
gamete, typically consisting of a head containing the nucleus, a middle piece
containing a mitochondrion and a
comparatively long tail whose structure is similar to that of a lagellum.
Hundreds of millions of sperm, leaving the male?s organ, head for the ovum
waving their tails. The distance they cover in the woman?s organ of reproduction
involves a considerably long journey, if measured in microns the length of a
sperm (a micron is equal to one millionth of a meter). To cover such a distance
means to swim long distances, kilometers in fact. Many of the sperm die on the
way and only a few succeed in reaching the target. Of the multitude of sperm
surrounding the egg, only one is allowed to penetrate, barring the way to all
others. Half of the genetic data of this sperm is contained in a head of 5
microns. The other genetic code is waiting in the mother?s womb. All these are
the result of many concurring details. God displays his artistry in every
instance.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BIRDS
HOME PAGE
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BIRDS
16- And Solomon was David?s heir. He said: ?O my people! We have been taught the
speech of birds...?
27-The Ant, 16
In the above verse, it is said that the Prophet Solomon was taught the speech of
birds in addition to the endowments that God?s grace had adorned him with. The
Quran refers to the communication between birds and to the fact that the
twittering and singing of birds has particular meanings. Birds, like human
beings, do communicate. This undeniable communication is certainly not as
developed as it is in man.
Research conducted by zoologists has established that sounds emitted by animals
are meaningful and not haphazard. Birds, ants, dolphins, etc., have systems of
communication.
MEANINGS IN SOUNDS EMITTED BY BIRDS
As the Quran speaks of the language of birds, let us take a look at research
conducted on birds. Brazilian and American ornithologists have studied the
hummingbird (one of the tiniest birds in the world) and published their findings
in the British journal Nature. The author of the article, Maria Luisa Da Silva,
says that the vocabulary of the hummingbird is not innate but develops afterward.
In other words, the hummingbird learns to speak as human beings do.
Studies on crows have demonstrated that they emit a variety of sounds, namely,
to call the colony of crows to come together, to express alarm, and to
communicate a state of distress. Ornithologists, who have recorded these sounds
using a sonograph, are still engaged in deciphering the meanings behind them.
Bernd Heinrich, among these scientists who speak of the difficulty in decoding
the sonograms, associates this research work with the work of the inhabitants of
other planets visiting our earth and trying to decipher eating, playing, making
love and activities like catching fish using a sonograph. What we are trying to
do is to imagine ourselves in their place. Bernd Heinrich speaks of the
difficulty encountered in deciphering the language of animals in general, as
different species have different ways of communication, each calling for a
different approach.
There is a body language, expressed by the changes in your body position and
movements, that show what you are feeling or thinking. Nodding means ?yes,?
hailing is a sign of calling to someone in order to greet him or try to attract
his attention. Although the sounds emitted by birds are a means of communication,
they also have, in general, a body language. Their body language is easier to
decipher. For instance, a bird that emits a sound by touching its beak with his
tongue means ?I am a friend, I have no intention to harm you.? Theresa Jordan
gives a whole list of signs, demonstrating thereby that even the body language
necessitates a glossary.
The physiology of birds is as interesting as their language, the long distances
they cover without swerving from their destination are something to marvel at.
Ornithologists studying birds will see God?s perfect artistry revealed in these
creatures too.
38- All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings are
communities like you. We did not leave anything out of this Book. Then they will
all be gathered before their Lord.
6-The Cattle, 38
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BIRDS
16- And Solomon was David?s heir. He said: ?O my people! We have been taught the
speech of birds...?
27-The Ant, 16
In the above verse, it is said that the Prophet Solomon was taught the speech of
birds in addition to the endowments that God?s grace had adorned him with. The
Quran refers to the communication between birds and to the fact that the
twittering and singing of birds has particular meanings. Birds, like human
beings, do communicate. This undeniable communication is certainly not as
developed as it is in man.
Research conducted by zoologists has established that sounds emitted by animals
are meaningful and not haphazard. Birds, ants, dolphins, etc., have systems of
communication.
MEANINGS IN SOUNDS EMITTED BY BIRDS
As the Quran speaks of the language of birds, let us take a look at research
conducted on birds. Brazilian and American ornithologists have studied the
hummingbird (one of the tiniest birds in the world) and published their findings
in the British journal Nature. The author of the article, Maria Luisa Da Silva,
says that the vocabulary of the hummingbird is not innate but develops afterward.
In other words, the hummingbird learns to speak as human beings do.
Studies on crows have demonstrated that they emit a variety of sounds, namely,
to call the colony of crows to come together, to express alarm, and to
communicate a state of distress. Ornithologists, who have recorded these sounds
using a sonograph, are still engaged in deciphering the meanings behind them.
Bernd Heinrich, among these scientists who speak of the difficulty in decoding
the sonograms, associates this research work with the work of the inhabitants of
other planets visiting our earth and trying to decipher eating, playing, making
love and activities like catching fish using a sonograph. What we are trying to
do is to imagine ourselves in their place. Bernd Heinrich speaks of the
difficulty encountered in deciphering the language of animals in general, as
different species have different ways of communication, each calling for a
different approach.
There is a body language, expressed by the changes in your body position and
movements, that show what you are feeling or thinking. Nodding means ?yes,?
hailing is a sign of calling to someone in order to greet him or try to attract
his attention. Although the sounds emitted by birds are a means of communication,
they also have, in general, a body language. Their body language is easier to
decipher. For instance, a bird that emits a sound by touching its beak with his
tongue means ?I am a friend, I have no intention to harm you.? Theresa Jordan
gives a whole list of signs, demonstrating thereby that even the body language
necessitates a glossary.
The physiology of birds is as interesting as their language, the long distances
they cover without swerving from their destination are something to marvel at.
Ornithologists studying birds will see God?s perfect artistry revealed in these
creatures too.
38- All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings are
communities like you. We did not leave anything out of this Book. Then they will
all be gathered before their Lord.
6-The Cattle, 38
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
THE SUN ALSO MOVES ALONG
HOME PAGE
THE SUN ALSO MOVES ALONG
38- And the Sun moves on to its destination. That is the ordinance of the Mighty,
the Knower.
36-Ya-Seen, 38
For a long time in the past men thought that the earth was stationary and that
the sun revolved around the earth. Later Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo
postulated the theory that the sun was stationary and that the earth revolved
about the sun. It was even later, thanks to sophisticated telescopes and the
accumulation of cosmological data, that it was concluded that the sun was moving
as well and the earth revolved about the sun in motion. Despite the fact that it
took science this long, this motion of the sun had already been told 1400 years
ago in the Quran. Contrary to the assertion that the sun traced a vicious circle
about the earth or that it was stationary, the 38th verse of the sura Ya-Seen
stated correctly that it moved on to its destination. As in other subjects, in
this one also the Quran is the source that gave a correct account of the sun?s
motion.
THE METHOD OF THE QURAN AND THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
A book of science purports to demonstrate the theses it advances and the points
of reference. The Quran is the message from the Creator of the Universe and
describes the Universe in the word of its Creator, in a style different from
that of a book on science. The fact that basic statements about the universe in
the Quran were destined to come to light after the lapse of more than a
millennium, that none of its statements referring to various scientific issues
contained errors, shows that the Quran is the book of the Creator of the
Universe. Unlike a scientific treatise that tries to find answers to such
inquiries into the whys, wherefores and hows and seeks corroborative proofs to
theories advanced, the Quran makes final statements. The scientific method has
to follow a well-known path before it formulates the postulates toward which the
Quran draws a beeline.
We see that the methodological ways of science differ from the direct
communications of the Quran. Regardless of statements made, science must follow
its own path consisting of stages. This is a consequence of the structure of
scientific knowledge. As a matter of fact, the Quran promotes scientific
research both upon the earth and in space. On the other hand, I am not trying to
create a contest between science and the Quran by juxtaposing the Quranic
statements and the secular scientific conclusions. What I have been trying to do
is to draw attention to the fact that the straightforward statements made in the
Quran tally with the conclusions of science arrived at by following
predetermined stages of research, thus proving the realization of what has been
predicted in the Quran. The Quran?s origin is the Creator, who is the Knower of
Everything. The information directly communicated by the Quran was inaccessible
through scientific methods which would have recourse to the accumulation of data,
formulas, observations and technical findings. The Creator of both the universe
and the rules governing it had already communicated the findings of science in
the Quran.
THE SPEED OF THE SUN
The sun moves at a speed of 700,000 km/h in the direction of the star Vega,
following its orbital path referred to as the Solar Apex. The Earth rotates
around its own axis while revolving about the sun, moving along with the Solar
System.
The sun rises every morning and sets every night. However, the points where it
rises and sets are never the same. The earth travels around the sun, which moves
in the universe without ever passing through the same point. To imagine that in
the course of time elapsed from the time at which we started reading our book
until now that we are reading this very page, the sun, along with our world,
have traveled a few million kilometers, and that we have not been adversely
affected by this motion in any way whatsoever, may give use a clue of God?s
system.
RISING POINTS OF THE SUN
5- The Lord of the heavens, and the earth, and all that lies between them, and
the Lord of the easts (places where the sun rise).
37-Who Stand in Row, 5
Because the earth has a spherical shape, the sun that rises somewhere sets
simultaneously somewhere else. Night and day chase each other. Therefore we
cannot speak of a given point from which the sun rises, but rather of different
points. The hour of dawn is different at every single point of our sphere. Every
spot on the earth expects the rise of the sun while it is ?rising? at different
spots in space. The sun we behold every morning is a giant nuclear reactor. This
reactor, generated by the conversion of hydrogen atoms into helium, performs its
task marvelously. We continue our journey in space unaware of the immense speed
of our source of life toward our predestined point. God?s omnipotence and the
Quran?s miracles will unfold to those who take heed, who have an inquiring mind
and are truthful in their approach to the Quranic verses.
43- And such are the parables we set forth for the people, but only those
understand them who have knowledge.
29-The Spider, 43 80
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
THE SUN ALSO MOVES ALONG
38- And the Sun moves on to its destination. That is the ordinance of the Mighty,
the Knower.
36-Ya-Seen, 38
For a long time in the past men thought that the earth was stationary and that
the sun revolved around the earth. Later Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo
postulated the theory that the sun was stationary and that the earth revolved
about the sun. It was even later, thanks to sophisticated telescopes and the
accumulation of cosmological data, that it was concluded that the sun was moving
as well and the earth revolved about the sun in motion. Despite the fact that it
took science this long, this motion of the sun had already been told 1400 years
ago in the Quran. Contrary to the assertion that the sun traced a vicious circle
about the earth or that it was stationary, the 38th verse of the sura Ya-Seen
stated correctly that it moved on to its destination. As in other subjects, in
this one also the Quran is the source that gave a correct account of the sun?s
motion.
THE METHOD OF THE QURAN AND THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
A book of science purports to demonstrate the theses it advances and the points
of reference. The Quran is the message from the Creator of the Universe and
describes the Universe in the word of its Creator, in a style different from
that of a book on science. The fact that basic statements about the universe in
the Quran were destined to come to light after the lapse of more than a
millennium, that none of its statements referring to various scientific issues
contained errors, shows that the Quran is the book of the Creator of the
Universe. Unlike a scientific treatise that tries to find answers to such
inquiries into the whys, wherefores and hows and seeks corroborative proofs to
theories advanced, the Quran makes final statements. The scientific method has
to follow a well-known path before it formulates the postulates toward which the
Quran draws a beeline.
We see that the methodological ways of science differ from the direct
communications of the Quran. Regardless of statements made, science must follow
its own path consisting of stages. This is a consequence of the structure of
scientific knowledge. As a matter of fact, the Quran promotes scientific
research both upon the earth and in space. On the other hand, I am not trying to
create a contest between science and the Quran by juxtaposing the Quranic
statements and the secular scientific conclusions. What I have been trying to do
is to draw attention to the fact that the straightforward statements made in the
Quran tally with the conclusions of science arrived at by following
predetermined stages of research, thus proving the realization of what has been
predicted in the Quran. The Quran?s origin is the Creator, who is the Knower of
Everything. The information directly communicated by the Quran was inaccessible
through scientific methods which would have recourse to the accumulation of data,
formulas, observations and technical findings. The Creator of both the universe
and the rules governing it had already communicated the findings of science in
the Quran.
THE SPEED OF THE SUN
The sun moves at a speed of 700,000 km/h in the direction of the star Vega,
following its orbital path referred to as the Solar Apex. The Earth rotates
around its own axis while revolving about the sun, moving along with the Solar
System.
The sun rises every morning and sets every night. However, the points where it
rises and sets are never the same. The earth travels around the sun, which moves
in the universe without ever passing through the same point. To imagine that in
the course of time elapsed from the time at which we started reading our book
until now that we are reading this very page, the sun, along with our world,
have traveled a few million kilometers, and that we have not been adversely
affected by this motion in any way whatsoever, may give use a clue of God?s
system.
RISING POINTS OF THE SUN
5- The Lord of the heavens, and the earth, and all that lies between them, and
the Lord of the easts (places where the sun rise).
37-Who Stand in Row, 5
Because the earth has a spherical shape, the sun that rises somewhere sets
simultaneously somewhere else. Night and day chase each other. Therefore we
cannot speak of a given point from which the sun rises, but rather of different
points. The hour of dawn is different at every single point of our sphere. Every
spot on the earth expects the rise of the sun while it is ?rising? at different
spots in space. The sun we behold every morning is a giant nuclear reactor. This
reactor, generated by the conversion of hydrogen atoms into helium, performs its
task marvelously. We continue our journey in space unaware of the immense speed
of our source of life toward our predestined point. God?s omnipotence and the
Quran?s miracles will unfold to those who take heed, who have an inquiring mind
and are truthful in their approach to the Quranic verses.
43- And such are the parables we set forth for the people, but only those
understand them who have knowledge.
29-The Spider, 43 80
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
BLACK HOLES:MIGHTY OATH
HOME PAGE
BLACK HOLES:MIGHTY OATH
75- So, I swear by the place where the stars fall.
76- And that is indeed a mighty oath, if you but knew.
56-The Inevitable, 75-76
The expression ?place where... fall? (mawqi) also mentioned in the sura, The
Cave (Kehf), verse 53, means the place where the sinners fall, i.e., hell. The
root of this word is ?WaQa?Aa? and it means the action of falling, a happening
and an incidence. Stars perpetuate their existence with hydrogen bombs exploding
in them. During these explosions a portion of matter is transferred into energy,
emitting heat of immeasurably high temperature. Conversion of one gram of matter
into energy may be obtained by burning two million kilograms of coal. For
instance, in our sun-which is but a star of medium size-four billion kilograms
of matter are converted into energy every second. A star uses but a small
portion of its matter as fuel, and when this fuel is exhausted, it dies off. The
lifetime that God designed for the living had also been apportioned for the
stars. As new stars are born somewhere in the universe, the old ones bid
farewell, as if saying: ?We pass away, but our Creator is for ever abiding and
his Creation is perpetual.?
FALLING OF STARS AND MIGHTY OATH
The place where the stars fall is stressed by an oath coupled with the epithet ?mighty.?
We shall see incommensurately great mathematical figures in connection with the
death of stars whose fuel is exhausted. The great numerical values in the
universe come about at the death of stars to which reference is made with the
following words in the Quran, ?And that is indeed a mighty oath, if you but knew.?
Everybody versed in physics knows that one of the most interesting phenomena in
the universe is the black hole that comes about in the wake of the death of
massive stars whose magnitudes are greater than three times the size of our sun.
Having depleted their fuel, these cosmic bodies die, collapsing inward upon
themselves. The giant stars that contract possess a great gravitational force.
This force is so immense that even light, with its velocity of approximately 300,000
km/sec, cannot escape it; these black holes absorb even the light that passes by.
Later on, a great many planets and stars are attracted by this gravitational
force. Black holes also constitute ?the place where the stars fall.? The
existence of black holes is deduced from the fact that they attract as
whirlpools the matter of other nearby stars and emit Xrays, swallowing all the
lights and stars around. The most interesting studies of Stephen Hawking are on
black holes. Stephen Hawking discovered the radiation that came to be called the
Hawking Radiation by establishing the fact that a black hole could emit
radiation while conforming to the physical laws of energy.
The black holes formed by the collapse of stars by their gravitational force are
in perfect conformity with verses 75-76 of the sura, The Inevitable. At the time
of the descent of the Quran, the end of a star by being transformed into a black
hole was something unknown. A star turning into a black hole and the stages it
goes through are very interesting phenomena.
Stars that run out of fuel do not immediately collapse. They grow in size at
first, as if inflated. Their temperature, around 15 million degrees, rises up to
100 million degrees. They are first transformed into red giants or super giants.
The area covered by a super giant is so vast that it can easily contain more
than sixty million suns. The immensity of these numerical values is reminiscent
of the magnitudes indicated in 76th verse of the sura.
Some of the supernovas contract and turn into white dwarf stars whose mass equal
the size of a human being but weigh 10 million kilograms. Still greater stars
become neutron stars (pulsars), stars supposed to form in the final stage of the
stellar evolution; these consist of a super dense mass mainly of neutrons having
a strong attractive force. The matter in the neutron stars is extremely dense.
Just to give you an idea, a teaspoonful of this matter would weigh one billion
tons.While all these spectacular events are taking place, we, on our planet,
continue to sleep, run and talk, quite unaware of them. So is our life: rendered
possible by forces beyond our ken.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
BLACK HOLES:MIGHTY OATH
75- So, I swear by the place where the stars fall.
76- And that is indeed a mighty oath, if you but knew.
56-The Inevitable, 75-76
The expression ?place where... fall? (mawqi) also mentioned in the sura, The
Cave (Kehf), verse 53, means the place where the sinners fall, i.e., hell. The
root of this word is ?WaQa?Aa? and it means the action of falling, a happening
and an incidence. Stars perpetuate their existence with hydrogen bombs exploding
in them. During these explosions a portion of matter is transferred into energy,
emitting heat of immeasurably high temperature. Conversion of one gram of matter
into energy may be obtained by burning two million kilograms of coal. For
instance, in our sun-which is but a star of medium size-four billion kilograms
of matter are converted into energy every second. A star uses but a small
portion of its matter as fuel, and when this fuel is exhausted, it dies off. The
lifetime that God designed for the living had also been apportioned for the
stars. As new stars are born somewhere in the universe, the old ones bid
farewell, as if saying: ?We pass away, but our Creator is for ever abiding and
his Creation is perpetual.?
FALLING OF STARS AND MIGHTY OATH
The place where the stars fall is stressed by an oath coupled with the epithet ?mighty.?
We shall see incommensurately great mathematical figures in connection with the
death of stars whose fuel is exhausted. The great numerical values in the
universe come about at the death of stars to which reference is made with the
following words in the Quran, ?And that is indeed a mighty oath, if you but knew.?
Everybody versed in physics knows that one of the most interesting phenomena in
the universe is the black hole that comes about in the wake of the death of
massive stars whose magnitudes are greater than three times the size of our sun.
Having depleted their fuel, these cosmic bodies die, collapsing inward upon
themselves. The giant stars that contract possess a great gravitational force.
This force is so immense that even light, with its velocity of approximately 300,000
km/sec, cannot escape it; these black holes absorb even the light that passes by.
Later on, a great many planets and stars are attracted by this gravitational
force. Black holes also constitute ?the place where the stars fall.? The
existence of black holes is deduced from the fact that they attract as
whirlpools the matter of other nearby stars and emit Xrays, swallowing all the
lights and stars around. The most interesting studies of Stephen Hawking are on
black holes. Stephen Hawking discovered the radiation that came to be called the
Hawking Radiation by establishing the fact that a black hole could emit
radiation while conforming to the physical laws of energy.
The black holes formed by the collapse of stars by their gravitational force are
in perfect conformity with verses 75-76 of the sura, The Inevitable. At the time
of the descent of the Quran, the end of a star by being transformed into a black
hole was something unknown. A star turning into a black hole and the stages it
goes through are very interesting phenomena.
Stars that run out of fuel do not immediately collapse. They grow in size at
first, as if inflated. Their temperature, around 15 million degrees, rises up to
100 million degrees. They are first transformed into red giants or super giants.
The area covered by a super giant is so vast that it can easily contain more
than sixty million suns. The immensity of these numerical values is reminiscent
of the magnitudes indicated in 76th verse of the sura.
Some of the supernovas contract and turn into white dwarf stars whose mass equal
the size of a human being but weigh 10 million kilograms. Still greater stars
become neutron stars (pulsars), stars supposed to form in the final stage of the
stellar evolution; these consist of a super dense mass mainly of neutrons having
a strong attractive force. The matter in the neutron stars is extremely dense.
Just to give you an idea, a teaspoonful of this matter would weigh one billion
tons.While all these spectacular events are taking place, we, on our planet,
continue to sleep, run and talk, quite unaware of them. So is our life: rendered
possible by forces beyond our ken.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
DRAPER ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION
The Unseen World and Other Essays
By John Fiske
Presented by
Authorama
Public Domain Books
VI. DRAPER ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION.[27]
[27] History of the Conflict between Religion and Science. by John William
Draper, M. D., LL. D. Fourth edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1875. 12mo, pp.
xxii., 373. (International Scientific Series, XII.)
Some twelve years ago, Dr. Draper published a bulky volume entitled ?A History
of the Intellectual Development of Europe," in which his professed purpose was
to show that nations or races pass through certain definable epochs of
development, analogous to the periods of infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, and
old age in individuals. But while announced with due formality, the carrying out
of the argument was left for the most part to the headings and running-titles of
the several chapters, while in the text the author peacefully meandered along
down the stream of time, giving us a succession of pleasant though somewhat
threadbare anecdotes, as well as a superabundance of detached and fragmentary
opinions on divers historical events, having apparently quite forgotten that he
had started with a thesis to prove. In the arrangement of his ?running heads,?
some points were sufficiently curious to require a word of explanation, as, for
example, when the early ages of Christianity were at one time labelled as an
epoch of progress and at another time as an epoch of decrepitude. But the
argument and the contents never got so far en rapport with each other as to
clear up such points as this. On the contrary, each kept on the even tenour of
its way without much regard to the other. From the titles of the chapters one
was led to expect some comprehensive theory of European civilization
continuously expounded. But the text merely showed a great quantity of
superficial and second-hand information, serving to illustrate the mental
idiosyncrasies of the author. Among these idiosyncrasies might be noted a very
inadequate understanding of the part played by Rome in the work of civilization,
a singular lack of appreciation of the political and philosophical achievements
of Greece under Athenian leadership, a strong hostility to the Catholic Church,
a curious disposition to overrate semi-barbarous. or abortive civilizations,
such as those of the old Asiatic and native American communities, at the expense
of Europe, and, above all, an undiscriminating admiration for everything, great
or small, that has ever worn the garb of Islam or been associated with the
career of the Saracens. The discovery that in some respects the Mussulmans of
the Middle Ages were more highly cultivated than their Christian contemporaries,
has made such an impression on Dr. Draper?s mind that it seems to be as hard for
him to get rid of it as it was for Mr. Dick to keep the execution of Charles I.
out of his ?Memorial.? Even in an essay on the ?Civil Policy of America,? the
turbaned sage figures quite prominently; and it is needless to add that he
reappears, as large as life, when the subject of discussion is the attitude of
science toward religion.
Speaking briefly with regard to this matter, we may freely admit that the work
done by the Arabs, in scientific inquiry as well as in the making of events, was
very considerable. It was a work, too, the value of which is not commonly
appreciated in the accounts of European history written for the general reader,
and we have no disposition to find fault with Dr. Draper for describing it with
enthusiasm. The philosophers of Bagdad and Cordova did excellent service in
keeping alive the traditions of Greek physical inquiry at a time when Christian
thinkers were too exclusively occupied with transcendental speculations in
theology and logic. In some departments, as in chemistry and astronomy, they
made original discoveries of considerable value; and if we turn from abstract
knowledge to the arts of life, it cannot be denied that the mediaeval Mussulmans
had reached a higher plane of material comfort than their Christian
contemporaries. In short, the work of all kinds done by these people would
furnish the judicious advocate of the claims of the Semitic race with materials
for a pleasing and instructive picture. Dr. Draper, however, errs, though no
doubt unintentionally, by so presenting the case as to leave upon the reader?s
mind the impression that all this scientific and practical achievement was the
work of Islamism, and that the Mohammedan civilization was of a higher type than
the Christian. It is with an apparent feeling of regret that he looks upon the
ousting of the Moors from dominion in Spain; but this is a mistaken view. As
regards the first point, it is a patent fact that scientific inquiry was
conducted at the cost of as much theological obloquy in the Mohammedan as in the
Christian world. It is true there was more actual tolerance of heresy on the
part of Moslem governments than was customary in Europe in those days; but this
is a superficial fact, which does not indicate any superiority in Moslem popular
sentiment. The caliphate or emirate was a truly absolute despotism, such as the
Papacy has never been, and the conduct of a sceptical emir in encouraging
scientific inquiry goes but little way toward proving anything like a general
prevalence of tolerance or of free-thinking. And this brings us to the second
point,?that Mohammedan civilization was, on the whole, rather a skin-deep affair.
It was superficial because of that extreme severance between government and
people which has never existed in European nations within historic times, but
which has always existed among the principal races that have professed Moslemism.
Nowhere in the Mohammedan world has there ever been what we call a national life,
and nowhere do we find in its records any trace of such an intellectual impulse,
thrilling through every fibre of the people and begetting prodigious
achievements in art, poetry, and philosophy, as was awakened in Europe in the
thirteenth century and again in the fifteenth. Under the peculiar form of
unlimited material and spiritual despotism exemplified in the caliphate, a few
men may discover gases or comment on Aristotle, but no general movement toward
political progress or philosophical inquiry is possible. Such a society is rigid
and inorganic at bottom, whatever scanty signs of flexibility and life it may
show at the surface. There is no better illustration of this, when well
considered, than the fact that Moorish civilization remained, politically and
intellectually, a mere excrescence in Spain, after having been fastened down
over half the country for nearly eight centuries.
But we are in danger of forgetting our main theme, as Dr. Draper seems to do,
while we linger with him over these interesting wayside topics. We may perhaps
be excused, however, if we have not yet made any very explicit allusion to the ?Conflict
between Religion and Science,? because this work seems to be in the main a
repetition en petit of the ?Intellectual Development of Europe,? and what we
have said will apply as well to one as to the other. In the little book, as in
the big one, we hear a great deal about the Arabs, and something about Columbus
and Galileo, who made men accept sundry truths in the teeth of clerical
opposition; and, as before, we float gently down the current of history without
being over well-informed as to the precise didactic purpose of our voyage. Here,
indeed, even our headings and running-titles do not materially help us, for
though we are supposed to be witnessing, or mayhap assisting in, a perennial
conflict between ?science? and ?religion,? we are nowhere enlightened as to what
the cause or character of this conflict is, nor are we enabled to get a good
look at either of the parties to the strife. With regard to it ?religion?
especially are we left in the dark. What this dreadful thing is towards which ?science?
is always playing the part of Herakles towards the Lernaean Hydra, we are left
to gather from the course of the narrative. Yet, in a book with any valid claim
to clearsightedness, one would think such a point as this ought to receive very
explicit preliminary treatment.
The course of the narrative, however, leaves us in little doubt as to what Dr.
Draper means by a conflict between science and religion. When he enlarges on the
trite story of Galileo, and alludes to the more modern quarrel between the
Church and the geologists, and does this in the belief that he is thereby
illustrating an antagonism between religion and science, it is obvious that he
identifies the cause of the anti-geologists and the persecutors of Galileo with
the cause of religion. The word "religion? is to him a symbol which stands for
unenlightened bigotry or narrow-minded unwillingness to look facts in the face.
Such a conception of religion is common enough, and unhappily a great deal has
been done to strengthen it by the very persons to whom the interests of religion
are presumed to be a professional care. It is nevertheless a very superficial
conception, and no book which is vitiated by it can have much philosophic value.
It is simply the crude impression which, in minds unaccustomed to analysis, is
left by the fact that theologians and other persons interested in religion are
usually alarmed at new scientific truths, and resist them with emotions so
highly wrought that they are not only incapable of estimating evidence, but
often also have their moral sense impaired, and fight with foul means when fair
ones fail. If we reflect carefully on this class of phenomena, we shall see that
something besides mere pride of opinion is involved in the struggle. At the
bottom of changing theological beliefs there lies something which men
perennially value, and for the sake of which they cling to the beliefs as long
as possible. That which they value is not itself a matter of belief, but it is a
matter of conduct; it is the searching after goodness,?after a higher life than
the mere satisfaction of individual desires. All animals seek for fulness of
life; but in civilized man this craving has acquired a moral significance, and
has become a spiritual aspiration; and this emotional tendency, more or less
strong in the human race, we call religious feeling or religion. Viewed in this
light, religion is not only something that mankind is never likely to get rid of,
but it is incomparably the most noble as well as the most useful attribute of
humanity.
Now, this emotional prompting toward completeness of life requires, of course,
that conduct should be guided, as far as possible, in accordance with a true
theory of the relations of man to the world in which he lives. Hence, at any
given era the religious feeling will always be found enlisted in behalf of some
theory of the universe. At any time, whatever may be their shortcomings in
practice, religious men will aim at doing right according to their conceptions
of the order of the world. If men?s conceptions of the order of nature remained
constant, no apparent conflict between their religious feelings and their
knowledge need ever arise. But with the first advance in our knowledge of nature
the case is altered. New and strange theories are naturally regarded with fear
and dislike by persons who have always been accustomed to find the sanction and
justification of their emotional prompting toward righteousness in old familiar
theories which the new ones are seeking to supplant. Such persons oppose the new
doctrine because their engrained mental habits compel them to believe that its
establishment will in some way lower men?s standard of life, and make them less
careful of their spiritual welfare. This is the case, at all events, when
theologians oppose scientific conclusions on religious grounds, and not simply
from mental dulness or rigidity. And, in so far as it is religious feeling which
thus prompts resistance to scientific innovation, it may be said, with some
appearance of truth, that there is a conflict between religion and science.
But there must always be two parties to a quarrel, and our statement has to be
modified as soon as we consider what the scientific innovator impugns. It is not
the emotional prompting toward righteousness, it is not the yearning to live im
Guten, Ganzen, Wahren, that he seeks to weaken; quite likely he has all this as
much at heart as the theologian who vituperates him. Nor is it true that his
discoveries, in spite of him, tend to destroy this all-important mental attitude.
It would be ridiculous to say that the fate of religious feeling is really
involved in the fate of grotesque cosmogonies and theosophies framed in the
infancy of men?s knowledge of nature; for history shows us quite the contrary.
Religious feeling has survived the heliocentric theory and the discoveries of
geologists; and it will be none the worse for the establishment of Darwinism. It
is the merest truism to say that religion strikes its roots deeper down into
human nature than speculative opinion, and is accordingly independent of any
particular set of beliefs. Since, then, the scientific innovator does not,
either voluntarily or involuntarily, attack religion, it follows that there can
be no such ?conflict? as that of which Dr. Draper has undertaken to write the
history. The real contest is between one phase of science and another; between
the more-crude knowledge of yesterday and the less-crude knowledge of to-day.
The contest, indeed, as presented in history, is simply the measure of the
difficulty which men find in exchanging old views for new ones. All along, the
practical question has been, whether we should passively acquiesce in the crude
generalizations of our ancestors or venture actively to revise them. But as for
the religious sentiment, the perennial struggle in which it has been engaged has
not been with scientific inquiry, but with the selfish propensities whose
tendency is to make men lead the lives of brutes.
The time is at hand when the interests of religion can no longer be supposed to
be subserved by obstinate adherence to crude speculations bequeathed to us from
pre-scientific antiquity. One good result of the doctrine of evolution, which is
now gaining sway in all departments of thought, is the lesson that all our
opinions must be held subject to continual revision, and that with none of them
can our religious interests be regarded as irretrievably implicated. To any one
who has once learned this lesson, a book like Dr. Draper?s can be neither
interesting nor useful. He who has not learned it can derive little benefit from
a work which in its very title keeps open an old and baneful source of error and
confusion.
November. 1875.
Continue...
Preface ? PART SECOND. ? II. "THE TO-MORROW OF DEATH." ? III. THE JESUS OF
HISTORY.[15] ? IV. THE CHRIST OF DOGMA.[22] ? V. A WORD ABOUT MIRACLES.[24] ? VI.
DRAPER ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION.[27] ? VII. NATHAN THE WISE.[28] ? VIII.
HISTORICAL DIFFICULTIES.[29] ? IX. THE FAMINE OF 1770 IN BENGAL.[30] ? X. SPAIN
AND THE NETHERLANDS.[31] ? XI. LONGFELLOW'S DANTE.[33] ? XII. PAINE'S "ST. PETER."
? XIII. A PHILOSOPHY OF ART.[65] ? XIV. ATHENIAN AND AMERICAN LIFE. ?
This complete text of The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske is in the
public domain.
This title at Amazon.com.
This page has been created by Philipp Lenssen.
Page last updated on April 2003. RSS. Complete book.
Authorama - Classic Literature, free of copyright. About...
The unseen world, and other essays, by John Fiske.
By Michigan Historical Reprint Series
At Amazon
By John Fiske
Presented by
Authorama
Public Domain Books
VI. DRAPER ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION.[27]
[27] History of the Conflict between Religion and Science. by John William
Draper, M. D., LL. D. Fourth edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1875. 12mo, pp.
xxii., 373. (International Scientific Series, XII.)
Some twelve years ago, Dr. Draper published a bulky volume entitled ?A History
of the Intellectual Development of Europe," in which his professed purpose was
to show that nations or races pass through certain definable epochs of
development, analogous to the periods of infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, and
old age in individuals. But while announced with due formality, the carrying out
of the argument was left for the most part to the headings and running-titles of
the several chapters, while in the text the author peacefully meandered along
down the stream of time, giving us a succession of pleasant though somewhat
threadbare anecdotes, as well as a superabundance of detached and fragmentary
opinions on divers historical events, having apparently quite forgotten that he
had started with a thesis to prove. In the arrangement of his ?running heads,?
some points were sufficiently curious to require a word of explanation, as, for
example, when the early ages of Christianity were at one time labelled as an
epoch of progress and at another time as an epoch of decrepitude. But the
argument and the contents never got so far en rapport with each other as to
clear up such points as this. On the contrary, each kept on the even tenour of
its way without much regard to the other. From the titles of the chapters one
was led to expect some comprehensive theory of European civilization
continuously expounded. But the text merely showed a great quantity of
superficial and second-hand information, serving to illustrate the mental
idiosyncrasies of the author. Among these idiosyncrasies might be noted a very
inadequate understanding of the part played by Rome in the work of civilization,
a singular lack of appreciation of the political and philosophical achievements
of Greece under Athenian leadership, a strong hostility to the Catholic Church,
a curious disposition to overrate semi-barbarous. or abortive civilizations,
such as those of the old Asiatic and native American communities, at the expense
of Europe, and, above all, an undiscriminating admiration for everything, great
or small, that has ever worn the garb of Islam or been associated with the
career of the Saracens. The discovery that in some respects the Mussulmans of
the Middle Ages were more highly cultivated than their Christian contemporaries,
has made such an impression on Dr. Draper?s mind that it seems to be as hard for
him to get rid of it as it was for Mr. Dick to keep the execution of Charles I.
out of his ?Memorial.? Even in an essay on the ?Civil Policy of America,? the
turbaned sage figures quite prominently; and it is needless to add that he
reappears, as large as life, when the subject of discussion is the attitude of
science toward religion.
Speaking briefly with regard to this matter, we may freely admit that the work
done by the Arabs, in scientific inquiry as well as in the making of events, was
very considerable. It was a work, too, the value of which is not commonly
appreciated in the accounts of European history written for the general reader,
and we have no disposition to find fault with Dr. Draper for describing it with
enthusiasm. The philosophers of Bagdad and Cordova did excellent service in
keeping alive the traditions of Greek physical inquiry at a time when Christian
thinkers were too exclusively occupied with transcendental speculations in
theology and logic. In some departments, as in chemistry and astronomy, they
made original discoveries of considerable value; and if we turn from abstract
knowledge to the arts of life, it cannot be denied that the mediaeval Mussulmans
had reached a higher plane of material comfort than their Christian
contemporaries. In short, the work of all kinds done by these people would
furnish the judicious advocate of the claims of the Semitic race with materials
for a pleasing and instructive picture. Dr. Draper, however, errs, though no
doubt unintentionally, by so presenting the case as to leave upon the reader?s
mind the impression that all this scientific and practical achievement was the
work of Islamism, and that the Mohammedan civilization was of a higher type than
the Christian. It is with an apparent feeling of regret that he looks upon the
ousting of the Moors from dominion in Spain; but this is a mistaken view. As
regards the first point, it is a patent fact that scientific inquiry was
conducted at the cost of as much theological obloquy in the Mohammedan as in the
Christian world. It is true there was more actual tolerance of heresy on the
part of Moslem governments than was customary in Europe in those days; but this
is a superficial fact, which does not indicate any superiority in Moslem popular
sentiment. The caliphate or emirate was a truly absolute despotism, such as the
Papacy has never been, and the conduct of a sceptical emir in encouraging
scientific inquiry goes but little way toward proving anything like a general
prevalence of tolerance or of free-thinking. And this brings us to the second
point,?that Mohammedan civilization was, on the whole, rather a skin-deep affair.
It was superficial because of that extreme severance between government and
people which has never existed in European nations within historic times, but
which has always existed among the principal races that have professed Moslemism.
Nowhere in the Mohammedan world has there ever been what we call a national life,
and nowhere do we find in its records any trace of such an intellectual impulse,
thrilling through every fibre of the people and begetting prodigious
achievements in art, poetry, and philosophy, as was awakened in Europe in the
thirteenth century and again in the fifteenth. Under the peculiar form of
unlimited material and spiritual despotism exemplified in the caliphate, a few
men may discover gases or comment on Aristotle, but no general movement toward
political progress or philosophical inquiry is possible. Such a society is rigid
and inorganic at bottom, whatever scanty signs of flexibility and life it may
show at the surface. There is no better illustration of this, when well
considered, than the fact that Moorish civilization remained, politically and
intellectually, a mere excrescence in Spain, after having been fastened down
over half the country for nearly eight centuries.
But we are in danger of forgetting our main theme, as Dr. Draper seems to do,
while we linger with him over these interesting wayside topics. We may perhaps
be excused, however, if we have not yet made any very explicit allusion to the ?Conflict
between Religion and Science,? because this work seems to be in the main a
repetition en petit of the ?Intellectual Development of Europe,? and what we
have said will apply as well to one as to the other. In the little book, as in
the big one, we hear a great deal about the Arabs, and something about Columbus
and Galileo, who made men accept sundry truths in the teeth of clerical
opposition; and, as before, we float gently down the current of history without
being over well-informed as to the precise didactic purpose of our voyage. Here,
indeed, even our headings and running-titles do not materially help us, for
though we are supposed to be witnessing, or mayhap assisting in, a perennial
conflict between ?science? and ?religion,? we are nowhere enlightened as to what
the cause or character of this conflict is, nor are we enabled to get a good
look at either of the parties to the strife. With regard to it ?religion?
especially are we left in the dark. What this dreadful thing is towards which ?science?
is always playing the part of Herakles towards the Lernaean Hydra, we are left
to gather from the course of the narrative. Yet, in a book with any valid claim
to clearsightedness, one would think such a point as this ought to receive very
explicit preliminary treatment.
The course of the narrative, however, leaves us in little doubt as to what Dr.
Draper means by a conflict between science and religion. When he enlarges on the
trite story of Galileo, and alludes to the more modern quarrel between the
Church and the geologists, and does this in the belief that he is thereby
illustrating an antagonism between religion and science, it is obvious that he
identifies the cause of the anti-geologists and the persecutors of Galileo with
the cause of religion. The word "religion? is to him a symbol which stands for
unenlightened bigotry or narrow-minded unwillingness to look facts in the face.
Such a conception of religion is common enough, and unhappily a great deal has
been done to strengthen it by the very persons to whom the interests of religion
are presumed to be a professional care. It is nevertheless a very superficial
conception, and no book which is vitiated by it can have much philosophic value.
It is simply the crude impression which, in minds unaccustomed to analysis, is
left by the fact that theologians and other persons interested in religion are
usually alarmed at new scientific truths, and resist them with emotions so
highly wrought that they are not only incapable of estimating evidence, but
often also have their moral sense impaired, and fight with foul means when fair
ones fail. If we reflect carefully on this class of phenomena, we shall see that
something besides mere pride of opinion is involved in the struggle. At the
bottom of changing theological beliefs there lies something which men
perennially value, and for the sake of which they cling to the beliefs as long
as possible. That which they value is not itself a matter of belief, but it is a
matter of conduct; it is the searching after goodness,?after a higher life than
the mere satisfaction of individual desires. All animals seek for fulness of
life; but in civilized man this craving has acquired a moral significance, and
has become a spiritual aspiration; and this emotional tendency, more or less
strong in the human race, we call religious feeling or religion. Viewed in this
light, religion is not only something that mankind is never likely to get rid of,
but it is incomparably the most noble as well as the most useful attribute of
humanity.
Now, this emotional prompting toward completeness of life requires, of course,
that conduct should be guided, as far as possible, in accordance with a true
theory of the relations of man to the world in which he lives. Hence, at any
given era the religious feeling will always be found enlisted in behalf of some
theory of the universe. At any time, whatever may be their shortcomings in
practice, religious men will aim at doing right according to their conceptions
of the order of the world. If men?s conceptions of the order of nature remained
constant, no apparent conflict between their religious feelings and their
knowledge need ever arise. But with the first advance in our knowledge of nature
the case is altered. New and strange theories are naturally regarded with fear
and dislike by persons who have always been accustomed to find the sanction and
justification of their emotional prompting toward righteousness in old familiar
theories which the new ones are seeking to supplant. Such persons oppose the new
doctrine because their engrained mental habits compel them to believe that its
establishment will in some way lower men?s standard of life, and make them less
careful of their spiritual welfare. This is the case, at all events, when
theologians oppose scientific conclusions on religious grounds, and not simply
from mental dulness or rigidity. And, in so far as it is religious feeling which
thus prompts resistance to scientific innovation, it may be said, with some
appearance of truth, that there is a conflict between religion and science.
But there must always be two parties to a quarrel, and our statement has to be
modified as soon as we consider what the scientific innovator impugns. It is not
the emotional prompting toward righteousness, it is not the yearning to live im
Guten, Ganzen, Wahren, that he seeks to weaken; quite likely he has all this as
much at heart as the theologian who vituperates him. Nor is it true that his
discoveries, in spite of him, tend to destroy this all-important mental attitude.
It would be ridiculous to say that the fate of religious feeling is really
involved in the fate of grotesque cosmogonies and theosophies framed in the
infancy of men?s knowledge of nature; for history shows us quite the contrary.
Religious feeling has survived the heliocentric theory and the discoveries of
geologists; and it will be none the worse for the establishment of Darwinism. It
is the merest truism to say that religion strikes its roots deeper down into
human nature than speculative opinion, and is accordingly independent of any
particular set of beliefs. Since, then, the scientific innovator does not,
either voluntarily or involuntarily, attack religion, it follows that there can
be no such ?conflict? as that of which Dr. Draper has undertaken to write the
history. The real contest is between one phase of science and another; between
the more-crude knowledge of yesterday and the less-crude knowledge of to-day.
The contest, indeed, as presented in history, is simply the measure of the
difficulty which men find in exchanging old views for new ones. All along, the
practical question has been, whether we should passively acquiesce in the crude
generalizations of our ancestors or venture actively to revise them. But as for
the religious sentiment, the perennial struggle in which it has been engaged has
not been with scientific inquiry, but with the selfish propensities whose
tendency is to make men lead the lives of brutes.
The time is at hand when the interests of religion can no longer be supposed to
be subserved by obstinate adherence to crude speculations bequeathed to us from
pre-scientific antiquity. One good result of the doctrine of evolution, which is
now gaining sway in all departments of thought, is the lesson that all our
opinions must be held subject to continual revision, and that with none of them
can our religious interests be regarded as irretrievably implicated. To any one
who has once learned this lesson, a book like Dr. Draper?s can be neither
interesting nor useful. He who has not learned it can derive little benefit from
a work which in its very title keeps open an old and baneful source of error and
confusion.
November. 1875.
Continue...
Preface ? PART SECOND. ? II. "THE TO-MORROW OF DEATH." ? III. THE JESUS OF
HISTORY.[15] ? IV. THE CHRIST OF DOGMA.[22] ? V. A WORD ABOUT MIRACLES.[24] ? VI.
DRAPER ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION.[27] ? VII. NATHAN THE WISE.[28] ? VIII.
HISTORICAL DIFFICULTIES.[29] ? IX. THE FAMINE OF 1770 IN BENGAL.[30] ? X. SPAIN
AND THE NETHERLANDS.[31] ? XI. LONGFELLOW'S DANTE.[33] ? XII. PAINE'S "ST. PETER."
? XIII. A PHILOSOPHY OF ART.[65] ? XIV. ATHENIAN AND AMERICAN LIFE. ?
This complete text of The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske is in the
public domain.
This title at Amazon.com.
This page has been created by Philipp Lenssen.
Page last updated on April 2003. RSS. Complete book.
Authorama - Classic Literature, free of copyright. About...
The unseen world, and other essays, by John Fiske.
By Michigan Historical Reprint Series
At Amazon
RELATIVITY OF TIME ANNOUNCED 1400 YEARS AGO
HOME PAGE
RELATIVITY OF TIME ANNOUNCED 1400 YEARS AGO
4- To Him ascend the angels and the spirit in a day the measure of which is
fifty thousand years.
70-The Heights, 4
5- He regulates all affairs from the heaven to the earth. Then they ascend to
Him in a day, the measure of which is a thousand years as you count.
32-The Prostration, 5
Throughout history, ?time? was assumed to apply equally in every imaginable spot
in the universe and in every medium. If we consider this conception, we can see
the radical change that the above verses brought. The Quran said that, according
to circumstances, the ?day? concept might equal even up to fifty thousand years.
These verses which must have encountered objections have been elucidated in the
twentieth century and shed light on important truths.
The theory of relativity is Einstein?s best known discovery. However, many
people whose interests are not in any way related to physics are at a loss to
understand what this theory signifies. The Quran had already touched on these
facts 1400 years ago. Einstein?s theory of relativity has two main divisions,
namely the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity.
According to Einstein, time would pass more slowly for somebody driving a
vehicle at a speed close to the velocity of light. In a medium in which an
inhabitant of the earth passes one hundred days, it may take a person fifty days
to displace at a speed nearing the propagation speed of light. This finding is
the most interesting fact of the relativity theory. Time slows down in direct
proportion with speed. Time is therefore a relative conception, as indicated in
the Quran. Hours differ and days are conceived differently according to the
medium, place and speed involved.
The general theory of relativity deals with gravitational fields and tries to
demonstrate that time is slower in the fields of greater gravitation. A man
walking on the surface of the sun will see that his clock runs more slowly, as
do the biological and anatomical functions and all the motions in terms of his
atoms. Recent experiments have corroborated this fact. One of these experiments
was conducted in the
British National Institute of Physics. John Laverty, researcher, synchronized
two clocks indicating the exact time (two clocks of optimum
perfection; error of precision in the course of a space of time of 300,000 years
would be not more than 1 second). One of these clocks was kept at a laboratory
in London; the other was taken aboard an airplane shuttling between London and
China. The high altitude at which the aircraft flies is subject to a lower
gravitational force. In other words, time was expected to pass at a faster rate
aboard a plane in conformity with the general relativity theory. There is not so
great a difference in terms of gravity between someone treading upon the earth
and someone flying in the air. This difference could only be established by a
precision instrument. It was established that the clock aboard the aircraft had
a greater speed, one per fifty five billion seconds. This experiment is one of
the proofs of the relativity of time. According to the prevailing prejudice,
there should not be any difference between the two clocks. This supports the
dispelling of prejudices as foreseen in the Quran. Had it been possible to make
this experiment on a planet with greater gravitational force, there would be no
need for precision instruments to measure the difference, since normal watches
could do the job.
THE USE OF THE WORD ?DAY? IN THE QURAN
Verse 5 of the sura The Prostration and Verse 4 of the sura The Heights not only
point to the relativity of time, but give also a clear meaning of the Arabic
word ?yawm? that denotes not only the space of time of one day - which comprises
24 hours - but also a certain period of time. This makes it easier to understand
the six ?yawm?s mentioned in the Quran (See: 7-The Purgatory, 54; 11-Hud, 7; 10-
Jonah, 3; 25-The Distinguisher, 59; 32-The Prostration, 4; 57-Iron, 4.) Before
the creation of the universe and the world there was no notion of ?day,? a
period of 24 hours. Therefore, the six ?yawm?s must be understood as six ?periods.?
This gives a clue to the Jews and Christians for the interpretation of the
Biblical account according to which the world was created in six days. Findings
in the domain of space physics show that the universe and our world passed
through many stages, from a gaseous state to galaxies, to the formation of the
atmosphere surrounding the Earth, and of waters and metals. The fact that the
Quran refers to the stages that the process of creation went through is also
better understood by modern cosmology.
If we remember the stories of creation of ancient Egypt, China and India, we
encounter wild fancies such as a universe standing on a tortoise or as an
eternally existing entity. None of the past civilizations had made any reference
to the stages of this evolution. This message of the Quran contributes to a
correct interpretation of Biblical exegeses of the concept of day. The message
in the Bible that reads: ?And on the seventh day God finished His work that He
had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.?
(Genesis 2, 2) was thus corrected, as fatigue was certainly out of the question
for God.
38- We created the heavens and the earth, and all that lies between them in six
days, and no fatigue touched us.
50-Qaf, 38
CONTRIBUTION OF THE RELATIVITY THEORY
Einstein postulated that the concept of time was relative. For Kant time was an
innate function of reason. He contended that the perception of time was an a
priori category. Einstein?s physics was henceforth the science that integrated
time and space, so that, instead of space we had now space-time.
There is something that must not escape attention, however: the perception of
time is achieved by the intellect. Since according to our estimation, just as
the special relativity theory establishes that velocity makes time relative and
the general relativity theory postulates that gravity makes time relative, one
should elaborate on ?the intellect?s relativity? which posits that the intellect?s
perception manner would render the relative perception of time. Like a key that
fits the lock, our intellect also has the capacity of perceiving time and the
universe. That is (1) time exists in the universe, (2) and the intellect is
created with a priori abilities to perceive time and the universe. The two
processes are coexistent, just like the coexistence of the world seen by us and
the eyes.
It seems to us only fair to add the intellect?s perception factor to Einstein?s
concepts relating velocity and gravity and time. Comprehension of time?s
relativity will contribute to a better understanding of the Quran. For instance,
it is said in the Quran that the dead will think when resurrected that their
span on the earth had been very brief. Once time?s relativity has been conceived,
the puzzling
question of the time to elapse from one?s death till the Day of Judgment will be
clear. Such questions for the inquisitive mind that sees the time upon the earth
as the only valid time regardless of the attending circumstances will find their
answer, once time?s relativity is understood. Given the fact that a deceased
person is outside the confines of the temporal dimensions of the earth, the time
to elapse after his death, regardless of its actual duration, would be of no
consequence.
45- On the day when He gathers them, it will appear to them as if they had
tarried an hour of a day...
10-Jonah, 45
112- He said: ?How many years did you stay on earth??
113- They said: ?We stayed a day or part of a day, ask those
who account.?
23-The Believers, 112-113
ANYONE AMONG US TIRED OF WAITING FOR EONS?
The reason why the fifteen billion years that elapsed from the moment the
universe was created until the creation of man was made clear by time?s
relativity. In a different context, fifteen billion years may be conceived as
one minute or even less. The length of its duration depends on our perception
and standpoint.
RELATIVITY OF TIME ANNOUNCED 1400 YEARS AGO
4- To Him ascend the angels and the spirit in a day the measure of which is
fifty thousand years.
70-The Heights, 4
5- He regulates all affairs from the heaven to the earth. Then they ascend to
Him in a day, the measure of which is a thousand years as you count.
32-The Prostration, 5
Throughout history, ?time? was assumed to apply equally in every imaginable spot
in the universe and in every medium. If we consider this conception, we can see
the radical change that the above verses brought. The Quran said that, according
to circumstances, the ?day? concept might equal even up to fifty thousand years.
These verses which must have encountered objections have been elucidated in the
twentieth century and shed light on important truths.
The theory of relativity is Einstein?s best known discovery. However, many
people whose interests are not in any way related to physics are at a loss to
understand what this theory signifies. The Quran had already touched on these
facts 1400 years ago. Einstein?s theory of relativity has two main divisions,
namely the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity.
According to Einstein, time would pass more slowly for somebody driving a
vehicle at a speed close to the velocity of light. In a medium in which an
inhabitant of the earth passes one hundred days, it may take a person fifty days
to displace at a speed nearing the propagation speed of light. This finding is
the most interesting fact of the relativity theory. Time slows down in direct
proportion with speed. Time is therefore a relative conception, as indicated in
the Quran. Hours differ and days are conceived differently according to the
medium, place and speed involved.
The general theory of relativity deals with gravitational fields and tries to
demonstrate that time is slower in the fields of greater gravitation. A man
walking on the surface of the sun will see that his clock runs more slowly, as
do the biological and anatomical functions and all the motions in terms of his
atoms. Recent experiments have corroborated this fact. One of these experiments
was conducted in the
British National Institute of Physics. John Laverty, researcher, synchronized
two clocks indicating the exact time (two clocks of optimum
perfection; error of precision in the course of a space of time of 300,000 years
would be not more than 1 second). One of these clocks was kept at a laboratory
in London; the other was taken aboard an airplane shuttling between London and
China. The high altitude at which the aircraft flies is subject to a lower
gravitational force. In other words, time was expected to pass at a faster rate
aboard a plane in conformity with the general relativity theory. There is not so
great a difference in terms of gravity between someone treading upon the earth
and someone flying in the air. This difference could only be established by a
precision instrument. It was established that the clock aboard the aircraft had
a greater speed, one per fifty five billion seconds. This experiment is one of
the proofs of the relativity of time. According to the prevailing prejudice,
there should not be any difference between the two clocks. This supports the
dispelling of prejudices as foreseen in the Quran. Had it been possible to make
this experiment on a planet with greater gravitational force, there would be no
need for precision instruments to measure the difference, since normal watches
could do the job.
THE USE OF THE WORD ?DAY? IN THE QURAN
Verse 5 of the sura The Prostration and Verse 4 of the sura The Heights not only
point to the relativity of time, but give also a clear meaning of the Arabic
word ?yawm? that denotes not only the space of time of one day - which comprises
24 hours - but also a certain period of time. This makes it easier to understand
the six ?yawm?s mentioned in the Quran (See: 7-The Purgatory, 54; 11-Hud, 7; 10-
Jonah, 3; 25-The Distinguisher, 59; 32-The Prostration, 4; 57-Iron, 4.) Before
the creation of the universe and the world there was no notion of ?day,? a
period of 24 hours. Therefore, the six ?yawm?s must be understood as six ?periods.?
This gives a clue to the Jews and Christians for the interpretation of the
Biblical account according to which the world was created in six days. Findings
in the domain of space physics show that the universe and our world passed
through many stages, from a gaseous state to galaxies, to the formation of the
atmosphere surrounding the Earth, and of waters and metals. The fact that the
Quran refers to the stages that the process of creation went through is also
better understood by modern cosmology.
If we remember the stories of creation of ancient Egypt, China and India, we
encounter wild fancies such as a universe standing on a tortoise or as an
eternally existing entity. None of the past civilizations had made any reference
to the stages of this evolution. This message of the Quran contributes to a
correct interpretation of Biblical exegeses of the concept of day. The message
in the Bible that reads: ?And on the seventh day God finished His work that He
had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.?
(Genesis 2, 2) was thus corrected, as fatigue was certainly out of the question
for God.
38- We created the heavens and the earth, and all that lies between them in six
days, and no fatigue touched us.
50-Qaf, 38
CONTRIBUTION OF THE RELATIVITY THEORY
Einstein postulated that the concept of time was relative. For Kant time was an
innate function of reason. He contended that the perception of time was an a
priori category. Einstein?s physics was henceforth the science that integrated
time and space, so that, instead of space we had now space-time.
There is something that must not escape attention, however: the perception of
time is achieved by the intellect. Since according to our estimation, just as
the special relativity theory establishes that velocity makes time relative and
the general relativity theory postulates that gravity makes time relative, one
should elaborate on ?the intellect?s relativity? which posits that the intellect?s
perception manner would render the relative perception of time. Like a key that
fits the lock, our intellect also has the capacity of perceiving time and the
universe. That is (1) time exists in the universe, (2) and the intellect is
created with a priori abilities to perceive time and the universe. The two
processes are coexistent, just like the coexistence of the world seen by us and
the eyes.
It seems to us only fair to add the intellect?s perception factor to Einstein?s
concepts relating velocity and gravity and time. Comprehension of time?s
relativity will contribute to a better understanding of the Quran. For instance,
it is said in the Quran that the dead will think when resurrected that their
span on the earth had been very brief. Once time?s relativity has been conceived,
the puzzling
question of the time to elapse from one?s death till the Day of Judgment will be
clear. Such questions for the inquisitive mind that sees the time upon the earth
as the only valid time regardless of the attending circumstances will find their
answer, once time?s relativity is understood. Given the fact that a deceased
person is outside the confines of the temporal dimensions of the earth, the time
to elapse after his death, regardless of its actual duration, would be of no
consequence.
45- On the day when He gathers them, it will appear to them as if they had
tarried an hour of a day...
10-Jonah, 45
112- He said: ?How many years did you stay on earth??
113- They said: ?We stayed a day or part of a day, ask those
who account.?
23-The Believers, 112-113
ANYONE AMONG US TIRED OF WAITING FOR EONS?
The reason why the fifteen billion years that elapsed from the moment the
universe was created until the creation of man was made clear by time?s
relativity. In a different context, fifteen billion years may be conceived as
one minute or even less. The length of its duration depends on our perception
and standpoint.
FORMATION OF MILK
HOME PAGE
FORMATION OF MILK
66- And surely in the livestock there is a lesson for you, We give you to drink
of that which is in their bellies from the midst of digested food and blood,
pure milk palatable for the drinkers.
16-The Honeybee, 66
We often see goats, sheep and cows eat grass, and yet it rarely occurs to any of
us to establish a link between this process and the milk and the dairy products
we consume. God lets them feed on this grass, its ultimate transformation to be
milk, one of the basic nutriments. William Harvey discovered the circulation of
blood almost a millennium after the Prophet?s decease. At the time of the
Prophet, the fact that the blood carried the nutriments absorbed from digested
food into its constituents to mammary glands for production of milk was not
known. The new material transformed from pasture into assimilated food and blood
becomes a nutritious food.
The Quran not only draws attention to truths unknown at the time, but also
displays facts to derive lessons from. The blood collects and transports the
substances formed by digested food to organs; among others, to mammary glands.
This process is initiated by blood coming into contact with the contents of
intestines, on their walls. Before continuing its journey, carried by blood,
part of the digested food is absorbed by the intestines. This information is the
result of modern research in biology, chemistry and in the physiology of
digestion.
THE RICHEST OF PRODUCTS EASY TO OBTAIN
Milk is the first food of the newborn mammal. It is a fluid secreted by the
mammary glands of mammalians as food for their young in the period immediately
after birth. From the young of whales to human infants, all mammals feed on
their mother?s milk. The young animals and the babies obtain their supply of
excellent nourishment without any toil. Milk is the best product for infants. No
other nourishment can replace what is provided by it. We can identify thousands
of nutritious food items in the world. Had the universe been the outcome of
happy coincidences and had there been no ingeniously designed creation, there
would have been no particular reason for the mother?s milk to be the best and
most carefully selected nutriment. This perfect order designed for every mammal,
including man, is a proof of the Creator?s inimitable forethought. Materials
digested to become blood turn into milk in the mother?s breast and are offered
to the newborn by its Creator. Whether ratiocinated or mathematically calculated,
it is impossible to assert that this is the outcome of fortuitous events which
have nothing to do with a designed purpose. The infant practices sucking its
finger in the womb to be prepared for drinking milk as soon as it is delivered.
The fact that mother?s milk comes exactly in the amount of the baby?s need
without spurting is also carefully planned.
The milk we first taste from our mother?s breast will continue throughout our
lives to be consumed by us to meet the requirements of a healthy constitution.
Milk is a whitish liquid consisting of small globules of fat suspended in a
watery solution containing proteins, lactose sugar and minerals like calcium,
casein and phosphorous, plus vitamins. Cheese, butter and yogurt are all made
with milk, the basic nutriment of man. The benefits that our body derives from
its contents, like minerals and vitamins are more than the present book can
contain. When we consume it, we should remember always its Creator.
18- Then which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?
55-Gracious, 18
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
FORMATION OF MILK
66- And surely in the livestock there is a lesson for you, We give you to drink
of that which is in their bellies from the midst of digested food and blood,
pure milk palatable for the drinkers.
16-The Honeybee, 66
We often see goats, sheep and cows eat grass, and yet it rarely occurs to any of
us to establish a link between this process and the milk and the dairy products
we consume. God lets them feed on this grass, its ultimate transformation to be
milk, one of the basic nutriments. William Harvey discovered the circulation of
blood almost a millennium after the Prophet?s decease. At the time of the
Prophet, the fact that the blood carried the nutriments absorbed from digested
food into its constituents to mammary glands for production of milk was not
known. The new material transformed from pasture into assimilated food and blood
becomes a nutritious food.
The Quran not only draws attention to truths unknown at the time, but also
displays facts to derive lessons from. The blood collects and transports the
substances formed by digested food to organs; among others, to mammary glands.
This process is initiated by blood coming into contact with the contents of
intestines, on their walls. Before continuing its journey, carried by blood,
part of the digested food is absorbed by the intestines. This information is the
result of modern research in biology, chemistry and in the physiology of
digestion.
THE RICHEST OF PRODUCTS EASY TO OBTAIN
Milk is the first food of the newborn mammal. It is a fluid secreted by the
mammary glands of mammalians as food for their young in the period immediately
after birth. From the young of whales to human infants, all mammals feed on
their mother?s milk. The young animals and the babies obtain their supply of
excellent nourishment without any toil. Milk is the best product for infants. No
other nourishment can replace what is provided by it. We can identify thousands
of nutritious food items in the world. Had the universe been the outcome of
happy coincidences and had there been no ingeniously designed creation, there
would have been no particular reason for the mother?s milk to be the best and
most carefully selected nutriment. This perfect order designed for every mammal,
including man, is a proof of the Creator?s inimitable forethought. Materials
digested to become blood turn into milk in the mother?s breast and are offered
to the newborn by its Creator. Whether ratiocinated or mathematically calculated,
it is impossible to assert that this is the outcome of fortuitous events which
have nothing to do with a designed purpose. The infant practices sucking its
finger in the womb to be prepared for drinking milk as soon as it is delivered.
The fact that mother?s milk comes exactly in the amount of the baby?s need
without spurting is also carefully planned.
The milk we first taste from our mother?s breast will continue throughout our
lives to be consumed by us to meet the requirements of a healthy constitution.
Milk is a whitish liquid consisting of small globules of fat suspended in a
watery solution containing proteins, lactose sugar and minerals like calcium,
casein and phosphorous, plus vitamins. Cheese, butter and yogurt are all made
with milk, the basic nutriment of man. The benefits that our body derives from
its contents, like minerals and vitamins are more than the present book can
contain. When we consume it, we should remember always its Creator.
18- Then which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?
55-Gracious, 18
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
THE FEMALE HONEYBEE?S ABDOMEN AND THE HEALING POWER OF HONEY
HOME PAGE
THE FEMALE HONEYBEE?S ABDOMEN AND THE HEALING POWER OF HONEY
69- Then eat from all the fruits and flit about the spacious paths of your Lord.
There issues from within her abdomens a drink of varying colors, wherein is
healing for the people. Verily in this is a sign for those who understand.
16-The Honeybee, 69
The honeybee has a body that varies in length between 1cm and 3cm, and that is
divided into three parts: head, thorax and abdomen. The verse quoted above
stresses that in the individual female bee there are ?abdomens,? which in Arabic
is ?butuniha,? the ?ha? referring to a singular female bee. If the plural of the
word ?abdomen? was meant to refer to the female bees, then the plural female
pronoun ?hunna? would be attached to the verb ?butuniha.? This makes clear the
segmented abdomen of the bee. Inside the abdomen there are two stomachs or crops.
When collecting the nectar from flowers, nectar is stored in this honey stomach
for transport back to the hive. At the rear of the honey stomach is a valve that
prevents stored nectar from passing on into the rear portion of the digestive
system, except for the small amount needed by the bee to sustain life. The hind
portion of the bee?s body is the abdomen that is made up of segments in the form
of rings. The abdomen of the bee functions as a chemistry laboratory to produce
honey.
The colors of honey vary as stated in the Quran. They change according to the
climate, season and weather conditions and the sources where nectar is obtained.
The color of honey ranges from dark brown to green, among which the light yellow
is preferred. In the honey industry, modern countries with developed techniques
use a colorimeter to establish the exact description of honey?s color.
THE HONEY DANCES OF BEES
At the beginning of the verse, reference is made to the collection of nectar.
The female bees not only produce honey, but also assume the duty of collecting
the raw material from flowers to be eventually transformed into honey. During
this process of seeking the nectar, incredible phenomena occur.
The bee that has located the spot where there is nectar to be collected returns
to the hive to inform her sisters about the location of flowers. The scout bees
returning to the hive perform circular dances or tail-wagging movements on the
comb. These dances indicate not only that the scouts have found nectar or pollen
and that the other workers should go out and seek it, but they are actually
performing an amazing charade that conveys precise information to their sisters
about the direction and the distance of the location of a newfound source.
Sometimes a normal adult must attend a dance course for six weeks while a bee,
whose lifetime is but six weeks, is able to perform a dance for communication
purposes. The bee?s calculation on her way back to the hive is also of great
interest. The bee makes her calculation according to the position of the sun.
The sun changes its locality one degree per four minutes. The bee that has
spotted the location of her food also calculates her return journey as directly
and correctly as possible in relation to the sun. She performs this without any
error. All these calculations and harmonious coexistence within the hive cannot
possibly be explained by pure coincidence or after a six-week-long training. So,
all these are innate in her as an endowment of the Creator.
THE HEALING POWER OF HONEY
The verse speaks of the nutritive property of honey, a product of female bees.
The regenerative property of honey is confirmed by medical authorities. In
addition to its rich vitamin content, among its components are also such
minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus as well as
such metals as copper, iodine, iron, zinc, and hormones.
Thanks to the easy convertibility of its sugar content, it is easily assimilated.
Honey facilitates the functioning of the brain, thanks to its other sugars. It
contributes to the production of blood, to its cleansing and proper circulation.
Honey provides for the requirement necessary for proper functioning of our
physiology and also it is used externally in cosmetics and dermatology.
The fact that honey had healing properties was nothing new for communities all
over the world. Therefore, I am not claiming that this was not a generally
acknowledged fact at the time of the descent of the Quran. However there were
also such superstitious beliefs as the healing effect of a camel?s urine, which
was later falsely attributed to the Prophet in hadith books. The Quran never
justifies any of such false ideas offered as elixirs. Had the Quran been a
product of human imagination, it might also have contained at least a residue of
such false beliefs.
The distribution of work of bees in a hive and the multiple tasks performed by
bees is too complicated to explain within the scope of this book. The
ventilation of the hive, regulating humidity and temperature, keeping a perfect
hygienic medium in the hive; guarding the hive, discarding the unwanted foreign
matter, dead bees, etc., secreting wax, propolis, all are amazing tasks. How can
a bee, whose lifetime is but six weeks, know and perform such grandiose artistry?
Without an intelligent Creator the fortuity of all these data is certainly
unimaginable. Every inquirer into the doings of a bee - to whose properties
there are references in the Quran - will observe the sublime artistry of God in
the entity of an insect.
4- Also in your creation and spreading of the animals are signs for people of
assured faith.
45-Kneeling, 4
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
THE FEMALE HONEYBEE?S ABDOMEN AND THE HEALING POWER OF HONEY
69- Then eat from all the fruits and flit about the spacious paths of your Lord.
There issues from within her abdomens a drink of varying colors, wherein is
healing for the people. Verily in this is a sign for those who understand.
16-The Honeybee, 69
The honeybee has a body that varies in length between 1cm and 3cm, and that is
divided into three parts: head, thorax and abdomen. The verse quoted above
stresses that in the individual female bee there are ?abdomens,? which in Arabic
is ?butuniha,? the ?ha? referring to a singular female bee. If the plural of the
word ?abdomen? was meant to refer to the female bees, then the plural female
pronoun ?hunna? would be attached to the verb ?butuniha.? This makes clear the
segmented abdomen of the bee. Inside the abdomen there are two stomachs or crops.
When collecting the nectar from flowers, nectar is stored in this honey stomach
for transport back to the hive. At the rear of the honey stomach is a valve that
prevents stored nectar from passing on into the rear portion of the digestive
system, except for the small amount needed by the bee to sustain life. The hind
portion of the bee?s body is the abdomen that is made up of segments in the form
of rings. The abdomen of the bee functions as a chemistry laboratory to produce
honey.
The colors of honey vary as stated in the Quran. They change according to the
climate, season and weather conditions and the sources where nectar is obtained.
The color of honey ranges from dark brown to green, among which the light yellow
is preferred. In the honey industry, modern countries with developed techniques
use a colorimeter to establish the exact description of honey?s color.
THE HONEY DANCES OF BEES
At the beginning of the verse, reference is made to the collection of nectar.
The female bees not only produce honey, but also assume the duty of collecting
the raw material from flowers to be eventually transformed into honey. During
this process of seeking the nectar, incredible phenomena occur.
The bee that has located the spot where there is nectar to be collected returns
to the hive to inform her sisters about the location of flowers. The scout bees
returning to the hive perform circular dances or tail-wagging movements on the
comb. These dances indicate not only that the scouts have found nectar or pollen
and that the other workers should go out and seek it, but they are actually
performing an amazing charade that conveys precise information to their sisters
about the direction and the distance of the location of a newfound source.
Sometimes a normal adult must attend a dance course for six weeks while a bee,
whose lifetime is but six weeks, is able to perform a dance for communication
purposes. The bee?s calculation on her way back to the hive is also of great
interest. The bee makes her calculation according to the position of the sun.
The sun changes its locality one degree per four minutes. The bee that has
spotted the location of her food also calculates her return journey as directly
and correctly as possible in relation to the sun. She performs this without any
error. All these calculations and harmonious coexistence within the hive cannot
possibly be explained by pure coincidence or after a six-week-long training. So,
all these are innate in her as an endowment of the Creator.
THE HEALING POWER OF HONEY
The verse speaks of the nutritive property of honey, a product of female bees.
The regenerative property of honey is confirmed by medical authorities. In
addition to its rich vitamin content, among its components are also such
minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus as well as
such metals as copper, iodine, iron, zinc, and hormones.
Thanks to the easy convertibility of its sugar content, it is easily assimilated.
Honey facilitates the functioning of the brain, thanks to its other sugars. It
contributes to the production of blood, to its cleansing and proper circulation.
Honey provides for the requirement necessary for proper functioning of our
physiology and also it is used externally in cosmetics and dermatology.
The fact that honey had healing properties was nothing new for communities all
over the world. Therefore, I am not claiming that this was not a generally
acknowledged fact at the time of the descent of the Quran. However there were
also such superstitious beliefs as the healing effect of a camel?s urine, which
was later falsely attributed to the Prophet in hadith books. The Quran never
justifies any of such false ideas offered as elixirs. Had the Quran been a
product of human imagination, it might also have contained at least a residue of
such false beliefs.
The distribution of work of bees in a hive and the multiple tasks performed by
bees is too complicated to explain within the scope of this book. The
ventilation of the hive, regulating humidity and temperature, keeping a perfect
hygienic medium in the hive; guarding the hive, discarding the unwanted foreign
matter, dead bees, etc., secreting wax, propolis, all are amazing tasks. How can
a bee, whose lifetime is but six weeks, know and perform such grandiose artistry?
Without an intelligent Creator the fortuity of all these data is certainly
unimaginable. Every inquirer into the doings of a bee - to whose properties
there are references in the Quran - will observe the sublime artistry of God in
the entity of an insect.
4- Also in your creation and spreading of the animals are signs for people of
assured faith.
45-Kneeling, 4
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
FEMALE HONEYBEE, BUILDER OF HER OWN CELL
HOME PAGE
FEMALE HONEYBEE, BUILDER OF HER OWN CELL
68- And your Lord revealed the female honeybee; build homes in mountains, and
trees, and in the hives people built for you.
16-The Honeybee, 68
In narrating the doings of the honeybee, the Quran uses the feminine gender. In
Arabic, verbs are conjugated according to gender. The use in the Quran of the
feminine gender in conjugation shows that the acts were performed by the female
bee. To translate the honeybee in question with the addition of the adjective ?female?
before the honeybee would be natural. (It should be noted however that the
orthography of both the feminine and the masculine is the same for honeybee.)
The working of the female honeybee is described in the Quran as follows:
1- Building of hive (verse 68)
2- Collecting of nectar, new material for honey production (verse 69)
3- Making honey (verse 69)
All the above three functions are performed by female bees. The unique function
of the male, more robust with big eyes, is to fertilize the young queen female
bee. The male bees that fulfill this function are expelled from the hive by
their females at the end of the summer and, as they are used to being looked
after by their females, they then die of starvation.
At the time of the descent of the Quran, men did not know the details of the
distribution of work among the bees living in a hive; they did not know that
those actively working in the hive were females. They did not know that the
function of producing honey and collecting nectar from fruits belonged to female
bees. Therefore, it is interesting, indeed, that in listing the duties of bees,
the Quran used the mode of conjugation in the Arabic intended for the female
gender.
MATHEMATICIAN BEES
The functions performed by the female honeybee leave us in wonder. The design of
the cells in which she will live call for the erudition of a mathematician.
Honeybees produce their honeycombs in the form of hexagons. (Bee fossils show
that this was also the case millions of years ago.) Mathematicians inquiring
into the reason why this hexagon remained constant and why there were no
rectangles, heptagons, octagons, etc. found out that the optimum use of the
entire space of unit could be no other than a hexagon, which also accounted for
the production of cells using the available material in the most economical
fashion. Had the cells been of a different shape, i.e., triangular or
quadrilateral, there would be no vacuum, as well. But less material is required
to build hexagonal cells than that required for triangular or quadrilateral
cells. In many other shapes there would be unutilized space left. Thus the
hexagonal cell is capable of storing the greater amount of honey with less wax.
This structure is the result of the combined work of thousands of bees, each
contributing to the entire geometrical opus. Mathematicians have proven that no
larger space could be arranged with a given amount of wax to fit the geometrical
design. The worker bees show how they can realize it in the most economical
fashion with what they have.
A French entomologist by the name of Antoine Ferchault posited a geometrical
problem referred to as the ?Bee Problem.? He stated that ?a cell of regular
hexagonal cross section is closed by three equal and equally inclined rhombuses.
Calculate the smaller angle of the rhombus when the total surface area of the
cell is least possible.? Three leading mathematicians, a German, a Swiss and a
Brit, tried to solve this problem, and all of them found the following result:
70 degrees 32 minutes. This exactly fits the angle of cells constructed by the
female bees. Even the wisest of men could not suggest an improvement on the
female bees? technique of building.
The worker bees? points of departure in the production process of these cells
differ. As the work proceeds, the cells converge toward a central point. The
angles of cells at the point where they meet are perfect. It is clear that the
construction of this design, the distances between the beginning and the end
points and the precise calculation of the positions of their fellow workers
display unbelievable exactitude.
The most renowned mathematicians demonstrated the bees? unerring calculation
measured as 70 degrees 32 minutes. However, were we to suggest that these men of
science take a ruler in hand and make a hexagon with perfectly fitting angles,
and then add to the instructions given to these three professors, asking that
the calculation used to form the hexagons be regular and flawless, they would
fail in the task. We see that the bees are not only great theoreticians but also
skillful practitioners. In the theoretical field, this calculation is incredibly
exact, while their dexterity in applying it is unbelievable accurate.
How do these bees, whose lifetime is very short, achieve all these calculations
and construction work? To call this ingenuity mere ?instinct? does not explain
anything. The Quran states that the bee received revelations according to which
God?s design and programming were put into execution. Within the span of the
honeybee?s lifetime, the cleverest of men could not learn even to count, let
alone be the author of such a perfect design. We cannot account for the
erudition of bees, certainly not as pure luck. The Creator who created the bee
made her with all her potentialities, having solved for her all these
mathematical problems. The same Creator sees to it that the bee works for ends
that also serve mankind in general. In the second part of this book MMLC 15
where the mathematical miracles will be dealt with, we will examine the
mathematical code of the suras and verses where ?honeybee? is mentioned. God,
who endowed the bee with mathematical characteristics, presented further
mathematical miracles in the suras and verses in which ?honeybee? is mentioned.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
FEMALE HONEYBEE, BUILDER OF HER OWN CELL
68- And your Lord revealed the female honeybee; build homes in mountains, and
trees, and in the hives people built for you.
16-The Honeybee, 68
In narrating the doings of the honeybee, the Quran uses the feminine gender. In
Arabic, verbs are conjugated according to gender. The use in the Quran of the
feminine gender in conjugation shows that the acts were performed by the female
bee. To translate the honeybee in question with the addition of the adjective ?female?
before the honeybee would be natural. (It should be noted however that the
orthography of both the feminine and the masculine is the same for honeybee.)
The working of the female honeybee is described in the Quran as follows:
1- Building of hive (verse 68)
2- Collecting of nectar, new material for honey production (verse 69)
3- Making honey (verse 69)
All the above three functions are performed by female bees. The unique function
of the male, more robust with big eyes, is to fertilize the young queen female
bee. The male bees that fulfill this function are expelled from the hive by
their females at the end of the summer and, as they are used to being looked
after by their females, they then die of starvation.
At the time of the descent of the Quran, men did not know the details of the
distribution of work among the bees living in a hive; they did not know that
those actively working in the hive were females. They did not know that the
function of producing honey and collecting nectar from fruits belonged to female
bees. Therefore, it is interesting, indeed, that in listing the duties of bees,
the Quran used the mode of conjugation in the Arabic intended for the female
gender.
MATHEMATICIAN BEES
The functions performed by the female honeybee leave us in wonder. The design of
the cells in which she will live call for the erudition of a mathematician.
Honeybees produce their honeycombs in the form of hexagons. (Bee fossils show
that this was also the case millions of years ago.) Mathematicians inquiring
into the reason why this hexagon remained constant and why there were no
rectangles, heptagons, octagons, etc. found out that the optimum use of the
entire space of unit could be no other than a hexagon, which also accounted for
the production of cells using the available material in the most economical
fashion. Had the cells been of a different shape, i.e., triangular or
quadrilateral, there would be no vacuum, as well. But less material is required
to build hexagonal cells than that required for triangular or quadrilateral
cells. In many other shapes there would be unutilized space left. Thus the
hexagonal cell is capable of storing the greater amount of honey with less wax.
This structure is the result of the combined work of thousands of bees, each
contributing to the entire geometrical opus. Mathematicians have proven that no
larger space could be arranged with a given amount of wax to fit the geometrical
design. The worker bees show how they can realize it in the most economical
fashion with what they have.
A French entomologist by the name of Antoine Ferchault posited a geometrical
problem referred to as the ?Bee Problem.? He stated that ?a cell of regular
hexagonal cross section is closed by three equal and equally inclined rhombuses.
Calculate the smaller angle of the rhombus when the total surface area of the
cell is least possible.? Three leading mathematicians, a German, a Swiss and a
Brit, tried to solve this problem, and all of them found the following result:
70 degrees 32 minutes. This exactly fits the angle of cells constructed by the
female bees. Even the wisest of men could not suggest an improvement on the
female bees? technique of building.
The worker bees? points of departure in the production process of these cells
differ. As the work proceeds, the cells converge toward a central point. The
angles of cells at the point where they meet are perfect. It is clear that the
construction of this design, the distances between the beginning and the end
points and the precise calculation of the positions of their fellow workers
display unbelievable exactitude.
The most renowned mathematicians demonstrated the bees? unerring calculation
measured as 70 degrees 32 minutes. However, were we to suggest that these men of
science take a ruler in hand and make a hexagon with perfectly fitting angles,
and then add to the instructions given to these three professors, asking that
the calculation used to form the hexagons be regular and flawless, they would
fail in the task. We see that the bees are not only great theoreticians but also
skillful practitioners. In the theoretical field, this calculation is incredibly
exact, while their dexterity in applying it is unbelievable accurate.
How do these bees, whose lifetime is very short, achieve all these calculations
and construction work? To call this ingenuity mere ?instinct? does not explain
anything. The Quran states that the bee received revelations according to which
God?s design and programming were put into execution. Within the span of the
honeybee?s lifetime, the cleverest of men could not learn even to count, let
alone be the author of such a perfect design. We cannot account for the
erudition of bees, certainly not as pure luck. The Creator who created the bee
made her with all her potentialities, having solved for her all these
mathematical problems. The same Creator sees to it that the bee works for ends
that also serve mankind in general. In the second part of this book MMLC 15
where the mathematical miracles will be dealt with, we will examine the
mathematical code of the suras and verses where ?honeybee? is mentioned. God,
who endowed the bee with mathematical characteristics, presented further
mathematical miracles in the suras and verses in which ?honeybee? is mentioned.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
LANGUAGE AND MAN
HOME PAGE
LANGUAGE AND MAN
30- When your Lord said to the angels: ?I will place a successor on earth.? They
said: ?Will you place one there who will commit disorder and shed blood, while
we praise You, and extol Your holiness.? He said: ?I know what you do not know.?
31- And He taught Adam all the names. Then presented them to the angels, saying:
?Tell me the names of these if you are truthful.?
32- They said: ?Glory to you, we have no knowledge except what You have taught
us. You are Knowing, Wise.?
33- ?O Adam, give them their names.? When he told them their names, He said: ?Did
I not tell you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth? I know
whatever you reveal and whatever you conceal.?
2-The Cow, 30-33
So far we have dwelt on subject matters related to such natural sciences as
physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and geology as miraculously developed in
the Quran. In this chapter and in the next three chapters, we will embark on
important philosophical considerations coming within the compass of the Quran.
In the verses quoted above the subjects treated are the creation of man by God
and His placement of him on earth. Angels who fail to conceive the reason for
man?s creation - a potential for committing disorder and shedding blood - bring
up the problem of evil and ask God for a justification. God says that He knows
things that they do not know and that there is wisdom in everything He creates.
Whereupon God emphasizes the superiority of man in that he is taught how to use
language.
In this chapter we are going to tackle the importance of man?s use of language.
The superiority of man as a being depends on his capacity to use a language. The
philosophy of language developed in the 20th century and the vast studies
carried on the issue asserts that without language we could not exist as persons
as such. Once, Bertrand Russell in the 1920s (he was in his 40s then and had
already produced most of the works which had given him prominence) acknowledged
that he considered language as a means at the disposal of man, that he could
handle without giving it special attention. Bryan Maggee claimed that this held
true not only for philosophers, but also for novelists, poets and playwrights.
Self-consciousness in the use of language developed, especially in the twentieth
century, and became one of the philosophical characteristics of the age.
This development is not limited to a superficial interest in words but also
includes in its scope beliefs related to basic issues. The abstract thought made
possible by language has proven to be the most important factor in
conceptualizing all the aspects of reality in which we had not participated
directly, and in handling it as well as in our communication with our
environment. The general consensus is that this is the major characteristic that
differentiates us from animals. Thus, learning a language enables us to become
ourselves. The importance of language had not been conceived as so great, both
as regards mankind in general and the individual in particular.
The Quran, 1400 years ago, stressed this importance. Those who take an interest
in philosophy should know that most of the new ideas are based on the depository
of past acquisitions. Wherever there are hot debates, wherever ideas clash, new
concepts arise, be they correct or irrelevant. During the Prophet?s time, there
seems not to have been significant philosophical discourse. The Quran?s
reference to the relevance of language at such a time - which people would only
realize long afterwards - is an interesting statement indeed. At the time and
place of the descent of the Quran, there were neither concerns about language
nor about its philosophical profundity.
CONTRIBUTION OF WITTGENSTEIN
Using and understanding a language is the distinctive characteristic of man that
separates him from other living beings. This forms the essence of our inner
existence. The questions raised by Ludwig Wittgenstein played a great role in
conceiving the importance of language in the history of philosophy. Wittgenstein
asked questions which at first sight would seem platitudes, just like in the
case of Newton inquiring into the reason of the planets? not changing their
courses and of the falling of stones thrown in the air back on the ground.
Wittgenstein had his precursors, like Locke and Leibniz, as well as Frege and
Russell. However, it was Wittgenstein who first brought the issue of ?language?
into focus in the history of philosophy.
In Tractatus, a work belonging to his first phase, he tried to construct an
ideal definition of language that gave a picture of the world. According to him,
a sentence that said something (a proposition) had to be ?a picture of reality.?
Wittgenstein thinks that if we analyze what is said, we can reduce it to words
that are but names of things and the connection established between the words of
a sentence would represent the connections between things in the world. In this
way, the sentence may draw the picture of the world.
Wittgenstein believed he had solved all the philosophical problems. Nevertheless,
later on as he advanced in years, he began feeling out of step with Tractatus.
In his second period, he began to conceive of language as a kind of tool. In
this period he claimed that language was a social phenomenon and activity. The
commonality between Wittgenstein?s former view and the latter is that the
language skill occupies the center of his concern and that it is transformed
into the philosophy of language. Wittgenstein is one of the rare philosophers
who managed to gather around him a large number of disciples, despite his two
contradictory periods. Wittgenstein saw, during his second period, that language
had more meaning than he had originally thought. In our opinion, the merits of a
language and the targets that it conveys exceed his belief, even at this period.
I shall dwell on this point longer in a book devoted to this subject. These
studies are important since they direct our attention to the importance of
language, a special gift of God to mankind.
HOW DOES THE BABY BEGIN TO SPEAK?
Frege?s and Russell?s studies of the philosophy of mathematics led to the
emergence of the philosophy of language. Noam Chomsky?s statements about
language had a considerable impact in the 50s. To be able to handle something as
complex and difficult as language cannot be explained just with the hypothesis
that the baby learns it only after he is born without any a priori tendency.
Formerly, it was believed that a language consisted of a series of habits,
skills and aptitudes and was acquired by exercises, repetitions, generalizations
and associations. The undeniable fact is that the majority of the public receive
no systematic education. In other words, the parents, in general, do not teach
their children about pre-established linguistic principles. This becomes all the
more apparent if one considers that the great majority of the world?s masses
lack a proper education. Yet, this does not rule out the fact that babies do
learn how to speak in their tender age.
I agree with Noam Chomsky. The baby must be fully equipped and ready to learn
how to speak as soon as it wants to communicate with its environment. As our
eyesight is made ready to perceive the world at large, so is our mind prepared
to use its innate capacity to acquire what is being spoken around it. As the eye
begins to see, wherever there is light enough, so are the ear and the mind
exposed to hear the language spoken, in an environment ready to acquire it. As
Humboldt says, we acquire as a baby the skill to use finite means in infinite
ways. Even intellectually restricted children do the same.
The following example demonstrates the innateness of this aptitude: The mind can
be visualized as a function at first, when the empirical data are entered as
input; one has the linguistic output, just like the number 5 is obtained when
the square root of the number 25 is sought. The mind is even ready to learn how
to speak like a calculator. When it meets a language, it acquires it and makes
all sorts of operations.
3- He has created the human beings.
4- He has taught him speech.
55-Gracious, 3-4
Language is an innate gift of God to Adam and his offspring. If we go back to
the days of our babyhood and inquire into the ways by which we acquired the
faculty of speech and built a vocabulary, would we not be in a difficulty to
account for the process? How is it then that we learn how to speak without any
conscious contribution on our part?
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THERE HAD BEEN NO SUCH THING AS LANGUAGE?
To appreciate the value of language, we must look for an answer to the question
?What would happen if there had been no language?? Had there been no such thing
as language, there would have been no states, cities, villages or even families.
In a milieu deprived of all social institutions, no production would ever take
place. Consequently, there would be no textile products, cars, glassware,
pencils, notebooks, etc.
Our mere conception of the importance of language is made possible by linguistic
expression. An article on the importance of language is the result of our use of
it. Language is not an invention of human beings. Language requires as premise a
will and an orientation. Given the fact that the importance of language finds
its expression in language, would man be in a position to create a language when
the very concept of it was absent? Language is a social phenomenon, and where
there is no language, there is no society.
The development of language is certainly possible. But this is possible only
when one has the rudiments of a language. A language can develop just like a
plant that sprouts. The absence of a language would mean the absence of seeds,
the consequence of which would be the absence of vegetation. Just consider (for
a while) the coinage of a word to mean a particular concept. On the assumption
that men were deprived of a ?language,? the fancied word would be doomed to sink
into oblivion. The invention of writing was a subordinate process. Where there
is no concept of a language, accumulation and transmission of information would
be impossible. Given the fact that the importance of language cannot be
conceived without it, the socialization of occasionally uttered unintelligible
words or sounds emitted cannot be made into a coherent common means of
communication. Language is a means calling for consensus of a community. In a
milieu deprived of social consciousness, the invention of a language based on
consensus is unimaginable.
The newborn is the most helpless creature among the creatures of the earth. It
is dependent on its parents for survival. In the absence of a common language
there would be no communication, and, therefore, no family. The paternity of the
child could not be established. Only the mother could be identified. Where
knowledge does not exist, it is difficult to establish any connection between
the sexual act and the birth, notwithstanding the period of nine months that
elapses before the child is born. Even this connection is made possible by the
use of language. The establishing of the family unit and the restriction of
sexual relations to couples in humans require the use of language. In such a
milieu, the child can only recognize its mother. It would not be easy for a
mother to feed her child all by herself. Man cannot be compared with other
living beings. Most of the living creatures begin to walk, to fly and seek food
a very short time after they are born. The majority of the species of animals
are programmed to protect themselves. The long lasting maintenance of the human
baby - the weakest of all living beings - is secured thanks to the culture and
the communication the language provides. The faculty of thinking through the use
of words replaces the innate programming of other living beings.
Had men been deprived of speech from the beginning of their days, they could
hardly have survived. The Quran?s statement that the first human being was
taught to speak is very important in this respect. Man is born equipped with the
mental capacity, with an ear ready to receive what he hears, and a mouth and
tongue to express his intentions. Coincidences cannot account for the perfect
and complex creation of our ear, mouth and tongue. To all these, however, has to
be added the endowment by our Creator of the potential a priori faculty of
speech. A more detailed study of this issue will be tackled in a further work.
37- Then Adam received from his Lord words...
2-The Cow, 37
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
LANGUAGE AND MAN
30- When your Lord said to the angels: ?I will place a successor on earth.? They
said: ?Will you place one there who will commit disorder and shed blood, while
we praise You, and extol Your holiness.? He said: ?I know what you do not know.?
31- And He taught Adam all the names. Then presented them to the angels, saying:
?Tell me the names of these if you are truthful.?
32- They said: ?Glory to you, we have no knowledge except what You have taught
us. You are Knowing, Wise.?
33- ?O Adam, give them their names.? When he told them their names, He said: ?Did
I not tell you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth? I know
whatever you reveal and whatever you conceal.?
2-The Cow, 30-33
So far we have dwelt on subject matters related to such natural sciences as
physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and geology as miraculously developed in
the Quran. In this chapter and in the next three chapters, we will embark on
important philosophical considerations coming within the compass of the Quran.
In the verses quoted above the subjects treated are the creation of man by God
and His placement of him on earth. Angels who fail to conceive the reason for
man?s creation - a potential for committing disorder and shedding blood - bring
up the problem of evil and ask God for a justification. God says that He knows
things that they do not know and that there is wisdom in everything He creates.
Whereupon God emphasizes the superiority of man in that he is taught how to use
language.
In this chapter we are going to tackle the importance of man?s use of language.
The superiority of man as a being depends on his capacity to use a language. The
philosophy of language developed in the 20th century and the vast studies
carried on the issue asserts that without language we could not exist as persons
as such. Once, Bertrand Russell in the 1920s (he was in his 40s then and had
already produced most of the works which had given him prominence) acknowledged
that he considered language as a means at the disposal of man, that he could
handle without giving it special attention. Bryan Maggee claimed that this held
true not only for philosophers, but also for novelists, poets and playwrights.
Self-consciousness in the use of language developed, especially in the twentieth
century, and became one of the philosophical characteristics of the age.
This development is not limited to a superficial interest in words but also
includes in its scope beliefs related to basic issues. The abstract thought made
possible by language has proven to be the most important factor in
conceptualizing all the aspects of reality in which we had not participated
directly, and in handling it as well as in our communication with our
environment. The general consensus is that this is the major characteristic that
differentiates us from animals. Thus, learning a language enables us to become
ourselves. The importance of language had not been conceived as so great, both
as regards mankind in general and the individual in particular.
The Quran, 1400 years ago, stressed this importance. Those who take an interest
in philosophy should know that most of the new ideas are based on the depository
of past acquisitions. Wherever there are hot debates, wherever ideas clash, new
concepts arise, be they correct or irrelevant. During the Prophet?s time, there
seems not to have been significant philosophical discourse. The Quran?s
reference to the relevance of language at such a time - which people would only
realize long afterwards - is an interesting statement indeed. At the time and
place of the descent of the Quran, there were neither concerns about language
nor about its philosophical profundity.
CONTRIBUTION OF WITTGENSTEIN
Using and understanding a language is the distinctive characteristic of man that
separates him from other living beings. This forms the essence of our inner
existence. The questions raised by Ludwig Wittgenstein played a great role in
conceiving the importance of language in the history of philosophy. Wittgenstein
asked questions which at first sight would seem platitudes, just like in the
case of Newton inquiring into the reason of the planets? not changing their
courses and of the falling of stones thrown in the air back on the ground.
Wittgenstein had his precursors, like Locke and Leibniz, as well as Frege and
Russell. However, it was Wittgenstein who first brought the issue of ?language?
into focus in the history of philosophy.
In Tractatus, a work belonging to his first phase, he tried to construct an
ideal definition of language that gave a picture of the world. According to him,
a sentence that said something (a proposition) had to be ?a picture of reality.?
Wittgenstein thinks that if we analyze what is said, we can reduce it to words
that are but names of things and the connection established between the words of
a sentence would represent the connections between things in the world. In this
way, the sentence may draw the picture of the world.
Wittgenstein believed he had solved all the philosophical problems. Nevertheless,
later on as he advanced in years, he began feeling out of step with Tractatus.
In his second period, he began to conceive of language as a kind of tool. In
this period he claimed that language was a social phenomenon and activity. The
commonality between Wittgenstein?s former view and the latter is that the
language skill occupies the center of his concern and that it is transformed
into the philosophy of language. Wittgenstein is one of the rare philosophers
who managed to gather around him a large number of disciples, despite his two
contradictory periods. Wittgenstein saw, during his second period, that language
had more meaning than he had originally thought. In our opinion, the merits of a
language and the targets that it conveys exceed his belief, even at this period.
I shall dwell on this point longer in a book devoted to this subject. These
studies are important since they direct our attention to the importance of
language, a special gift of God to mankind.
HOW DOES THE BABY BEGIN TO SPEAK?
Frege?s and Russell?s studies of the philosophy of mathematics led to the
emergence of the philosophy of language. Noam Chomsky?s statements about
language had a considerable impact in the 50s. To be able to handle something as
complex and difficult as language cannot be explained just with the hypothesis
that the baby learns it only after he is born without any a priori tendency.
Formerly, it was believed that a language consisted of a series of habits,
skills and aptitudes and was acquired by exercises, repetitions, generalizations
and associations. The undeniable fact is that the majority of the public receive
no systematic education. In other words, the parents, in general, do not teach
their children about pre-established linguistic principles. This becomes all the
more apparent if one considers that the great majority of the world?s masses
lack a proper education. Yet, this does not rule out the fact that babies do
learn how to speak in their tender age.
I agree with Noam Chomsky. The baby must be fully equipped and ready to learn
how to speak as soon as it wants to communicate with its environment. As our
eyesight is made ready to perceive the world at large, so is our mind prepared
to use its innate capacity to acquire what is being spoken around it. As the eye
begins to see, wherever there is light enough, so are the ear and the mind
exposed to hear the language spoken, in an environment ready to acquire it. As
Humboldt says, we acquire as a baby the skill to use finite means in infinite
ways. Even intellectually restricted children do the same.
The following example demonstrates the innateness of this aptitude: The mind can
be visualized as a function at first, when the empirical data are entered as
input; one has the linguistic output, just like the number 5 is obtained when
the square root of the number 25 is sought. The mind is even ready to learn how
to speak like a calculator. When it meets a language, it acquires it and makes
all sorts of operations.
3- He has created the human beings.
4- He has taught him speech.
55-Gracious, 3-4
Language is an innate gift of God to Adam and his offspring. If we go back to
the days of our babyhood and inquire into the ways by which we acquired the
faculty of speech and built a vocabulary, would we not be in a difficulty to
account for the process? How is it then that we learn how to speak without any
conscious contribution on our part?
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THERE HAD BEEN NO SUCH THING AS LANGUAGE?
To appreciate the value of language, we must look for an answer to the question
?What would happen if there had been no language?? Had there been no such thing
as language, there would have been no states, cities, villages or even families.
In a milieu deprived of all social institutions, no production would ever take
place. Consequently, there would be no textile products, cars, glassware,
pencils, notebooks, etc.
Our mere conception of the importance of language is made possible by linguistic
expression. An article on the importance of language is the result of our use of
it. Language is not an invention of human beings. Language requires as premise a
will and an orientation. Given the fact that the importance of language finds
its expression in language, would man be in a position to create a language when
the very concept of it was absent? Language is a social phenomenon, and where
there is no language, there is no society.
The development of language is certainly possible. But this is possible only
when one has the rudiments of a language. A language can develop just like a
plant that sprouts. The absence of a language would mean the absence of seeds,
the consequence of which would be the absence of vegetation. Just consider (for
a while) the coinage of a word to mean a particular concept. On the assumption
that men were deprived of a ?language,? the fancied word would be doomed to sink
into oblivion. The invention of writing was a subordinate process. Where there
is no concept of a language, accumulation and transmission of information would
be impossible. Given the fact that the importance of language cannot be
conceived without it, the socialization of occasionally uttered unintelligible
words or sounds emitted cannot be made into a coherent common means of
communication. Language is a means calling for consensus of a community. In a
milieu deprived of social consciousness, the invention of a language based on
consensus is unimaginable.
The newborn is the most helpless creature among the creatures of the earth. It
is dependent on its parents for survival. In the absence of a common language
there would be no communication, and, therefore, no family. The paternity of the
child could not be established. Only the mother could be identified. Where
knowledge does not exist, it is difficult to establish any connection between
the sexual act and the birth, notwithstanding the period of nine months that
elapses before the child is born. Even this connection is made possible by the
use of language. The establishing of the family unit and the restriction of
sexual relations to couples in humans require the use of language. In such a
milieu, the child can only recognize its mother. It would not be easy for a
mother to feed her child all by herself. Man cannot be compared with other
living beings. Most of the living creatures begin to walk, to fly and seek food
a very short time after they are born. The majority of the species of animals
are programmed to protect themselves. The long lasting maintenance of the human
baby - the weakest of all living beings - is secured thanks to the culture and
the communication the language provides. The faculty of thinking through the use
of words replaces the innate programming of other living beings.
Had men been deprived of speech from the beginning of their days, they could
hardly have survived. The Quran?s statement that the first human being was
taught to speak is very important in this respect. Man is born equipped with the
mental capacity, with an ear ready to receive what he hears, and a mouth and
tongue to express his intentions. Coincidences cannot account for the perfect
and complex creation of our ear, mouth and tongue. To all these, however, has to
be added the endowment by our Creator of the potential a priori faculty of
speech. A more detailed study of this issue will be tackled in a further work.
37- Then Adam received from his Lord words...
2-The Cow, 37
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
DUE MEASURE IN RAIN
HOME PAGE
DUE MEASURE IN RAIN
11- And He is the One who sends down water in due measure from the sky, to
revive dead lands therewith. Similarly you will be raised.
43-Vanity, 11
Rain is one of the gifts of God to man. In the verse above, God says that the
rain has its own mathematics and that it is sent according to ?due measure.?
Water on earth is subject to an impeccable process and passes in due order from
the state of liquid to the state of gas and solid. It has a marvelous balancing
power, as it balances energy while satisfying the vital needs of the living
being.
You would not have gotten an answer if you were, a century back, to ask a
scientist whose field of interest was rainfall in particular, ?Is there a
measure in the rainfall; can it be quantified?? Being ignorant of the
meteorological phenomena going on in every part of the world, the scientist
would not have been in a position to say anything on the issue. The Quran told
us 1400 years ago that the rainfall had a certain measure. Research conducted in
the last century revealed the process of rainfall, shedding light over the
cycling characteristics of water. One of the facts discovered was that the earth?s
annual rainfall was always of the same amount. The amount per second varied
between 16-17 million tons. Thus, the amount of rain falling was above 500
trillion tons a year while an equal amount evaporated. These yearly values
remain constant. This constancy was of great significance in establishing the
ecological balance of the world. The scientist of a few centuries back could not
have estimated the amount of the rainfall in the region where he lived since the
precipitation yearly changed according to region. He might have concluded,
therefore, that rain is not quantifiable.
CALCULATIONS RELATED TO WATER CYCLE
The rainfall and cycle of water involve complicated calculations. To give you an
example, researchers were curious to know the reason for the maximum temperature
of the upper portion of the tropical ozone layer which was maximum 28 degrees
Celsius, despite the sun?s continual warming of the water. Their research
produced the following finding: the factor that prevented the overheating of the
ozone layer in warmer regions was not merely water vapor, but at the same time
the shadow cast by clouds. In the shade, the temperature dropped. The shield
prevented the earth from overheating. Water vapor also exerts a greenhouse
effect. Along with carbon dioxide, methane and other gases, it creates an
invisible insulation layer in the atmosphere. This layer prevents the totality
of every radiation coming down on earth under normal conditions from getting
lost in the space where cold is reigning. Water vapor forms 60% of the ?natural
greenhouse effect,? making the basic climate of the earth relatively warm. All
these things are finely calculated; we can gain an insight into this if we
examine the greenhouse clouds revolving around the planet Venus. The dense
clouds muffle it, so that only half of the sun?s rays reach it. The quantity of
97% carbon dioxide there creates a super greenhouse effect and the temperature
rises up to 500 degrees Celsius. This temperature far exceeds the temperature
range in which man can live. The water cycle on earth, passing through the
states of liquid, cloud and water vapor, is calculated with precision. In
contradistinction with the general properties of water, the clouds do not freeze,
even at a temperature of - 30 degrees Celsius. As it is stated in the Quran,
there are masses of clouds as large as mountains, but they do not freeze into
mountains of ice to fall upon the earth. Had it not been for this precise
calculation in the formation of clouds and the rainfall and for the ideal
arrangement of the chemical composition of water by its Creator, the system
would certainly not function.
When we throw an object of a few kilograms from a balcony, we can follow its
descent. If we empty a large pan full of water from the balcony, we can observe
the splash on the ground. The fall of tons of water from above, thanks to God?s
programming, is so arranged that water coming down in drops from above is a
blessing rather than a natural disaster. This is the wonderful artistry in the
physical rules imposed by God. Such a balancing of acceleration is definable in
physical formulas. This definability, this calculation is due to God?s creation
of rain in ?due measure.?
RAIN IS LIFE
In the same verse, God speaks of the rain?s regenerative power. It is a well-known
fact that dry land is revitalized by rain and the vegetation becomes lush once
again. The basic element of the animate being is DNA in which the hydrogen bonds
keep changing, perpetuating life. This hydrogen is exchanged with the hydrogen
that emerges during the ionization of water. A dehydrated living being is like a
frozen skeleton even though it may preserve its DNA and genetic code; it cannot
reproduce or move. Only when the water comes up and lends the hydrogen from its
disintegrated ions can the code be activated. Such characteristics can be
observed in living microorganisms like microbes. The more developed living
beings cannot recover their vitality when fresh water is supplied, as their
tissue surfaces have already deteriorated. Rain is thus the source of
regeneration of plants and bacteria. The last sentence of the verse that reads:
?Similarly you will be raised? evokes the following association in our mind: God
sends down rain in predetermined amounts, by which plants and bacteria that are
near death are resuscitated. The rising of man from the dead is no problem for
God, who knows the measure of all things.
God, who devised the system of regeneration of plants and bacteria through a
well-calculated amount of rain, will raise man from the dead according to the
measures and knowledge in His wisdom. The sprouting of vegetation from the dead
soil is something our eyes behold. What we see is the evidence of the facility
by which our Creator will re-create His creation whose measure, calculation and
formula are known only to Him.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
DUE MEASURE IN RAIN
11- And He is the One who sends down water in due measure from the sky, to
revive dead lands therewith. Similarly you will be raised.
43-Vanity, 11
Rain is one of the gifts of God to man. In the verse above, God says that the
rain has its own mathematics and that it is sent according to ?due measure.?
Water on earth is subject to an impeccable process and passes in due order from
the state of liquid to the state of gas and solid. It has a marvelous balancing
power, as it balances energy while satisfying the vital needs of the living
being.
You would not have gotten an answer if you were, a century back, to ask a
scientist whose field of interest was rainfall in particular, ?Is there a
measure in the rainfall; can it be quantified?? Being ignorant of the
meteorological phenomena going on in every part of the world, the scientist
would not have been in a position to say anything on the issue. The Quran told
us 1400 years ago that the rainfall had a certain measure. Research conducted in
the last century revealed the process of rainfall, shedding light over the
cycling characteristics of water. One of the facts discovered was that the earth?s
annual rainfall was always of the same amount. The amount per second varied
between 16-17 million tons. Thus, the amount of rain falling was above 500
trillion tons a year while an equal amount evaporated. These yearly values
remain constant. This constancy was of great significance in establishing the
ecological balance of the world. The scientist of a few centuries back could not
have estimated the amount of the rainfall in the region where he lived since the
precipitation yearly changed according to region. He might have concluded,
therefore, that rain is not quantifiable.
CALCULATIONS RELATED TO WATER CYCLE
The rainfall and cycle of water involve complicated calculations. To give you an
example, researchers were curious to know the reason for the maximum temperature
of the upper portion of the tropical ozone layer which was maximum 28 degrees
Celsius, despite the sun?s continual warming of the water. Their research
produced the following finding: the factor that prevented the overheating of the
ozone layer in warmer regions was not merely water vapor, but at the same time
the shadow cast by clouds. In the shade, the temperature dropped. The shield
prevented the earth from overheating. Water vapor also exerts a greenhouse
effect. Along with carbon dioxide, methane and other gases, it creates an
invisible insulation layer in the atmosphere. This layer prevents the totality
of every radiation coming down on earth under normal conditions from getting
lost in the space where cold is reigning. Water vapor forms 60% of the ?natural
greenhouse effect,? making the basic climate of the earth relatively warm. All
these things are finely calculated; we can gain an insight into this if we
examine the greenhouse clouds revolving around the planet Venus. The dense
clouds muffle it, so that only half of the sun?s rays reach it. The quantity of
97% carbon dioxide there creates a super greenhouse effect and the temperature
rises up to 500 degrees Celsius. This temperature far exceeds the temperature
range in which man can live. The water cycle on earth, passing through the
states of liquid, cloud and water vapor, is calculated with precision. In
contradistinction with the general properties of water, the clouds do not freeze,
even at a temperature of - 30 degrees Celsius. As it is stated in the Quran,
there are masses of clouds as large as mountains, but they do not freeze into
mountains of ice to fall upon the earth. Had it not been for this precise
calculation in the formation of clouds and the rainfall and for the ideal
arrangement of the chemical composition of water by its Creator, the system
would certainly not function.
When we throw an object of a few kilograms from a balcony, we can follow its
descent. If we empty a large pan full of water from the balcony, we can observe
the splash on the ground. The fall of tons of water from above, thanks to God?s
programming, is so arranged that water coming down in drops from above is a
blessing rather than a natural disaster. This is the wonderful artistry in the
physical rules imposed by God. Such a balancing of acceleration is definable in
physical formulas. This definability, this calculation is due to God?s creation
of rain in ?due measure.?
RAIN IS LIFE
In the same verse, God speaks of the rain?s regenerative power. It is a well-known
fact that dry land is revitalized by rain and the vegetation becomes lush once
again. The basic element of the animate being is DNA in which the hydrogen bonds
keep changing, perpetuating life. This hydrogen is exchanged with the hydrogen
that emerges during the ionization of water. A dehydrated living being is like a
frozen skeleton even though it may preserve its DNA and genetic code; it cannot
reproduce or move. Only when the water comes up and lends the hydrogen from its
disintegrated ions can the code be activated. Such characteristics can be
observed in living microorganisms like microbes. The more developed living
beings cannot recover their vitality when fresh water is supplied, as their
tissue surfaces have already deteriorated. Rain is thus the source of
regeneration of plants and bacteria. The last sentence of the verse that reads:
?Similarly you will be raised? evokes the following association in our mind: God
sends down rain in predetermined amounts, by which plants and bacteria that are
near death are resuscitated. The rising of man from the dead is no problem for
God, who knows the measure of all things.
God, who devised the system of regeneration of plants and bacteria through a
well-calculated amount of rain, will raise man from the dead according to the
measures and knowledge in His wisdom. The sprouting of vegetation from the dead
soil is something our eyes behold. What we see is the evidence of the facility
by which our Creator will re-create His creation whose measure, calculation and
formula are known only to Him.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
UNDERGROUND WATERS AND WATER CYCLE
HOME PAGE
UNDERGROUND WATERS AND WATER CYCLE
21- Do not you see that God sends down water from the sky and places it into
underground springs.
39-The Throngs, 21
The rainfall and its role in our lives as mentioned in the Quran give us correct
information. Had we been living in some other periods of history, we could not
have grasped it. Now we are in a position to understand this, as the world?s
water cycle has been made clear by the
knowledge provided by contemporary science. If we compare the ancient lore about
water with the information contained in the Quran, we realize that the Quran?s
communications are free from errors, as always.
Let us take up the verse of the Quran that speaks of the formation of
underground waters as a consequence of the rainfall (sura 39, verse 21). Was
this fact, which is no mystery for us today, as clear in the minds of the
ancients as it is in ours? Two specialists, G.Castany and B. Blavoux, give the
following account: ?According to Thales, the waters of the ocean that gushed out
in the air by the pressure exerted by winds blowing from the depths of
continents fell back down, penetrating the earth. Plato shared this view and
believed that its return to the ocean was caused by a huge whirlpool. Aristotle
contended that the vapor that rose from the earth condensed in the cool recesses
of mountains, forming subterranean lakes and spring waters that were fed by
these lakes. The first significant discovery of water?s perpetual cycle was by
Bernard Palissy in 1580. According to him, underground springs were formed by
the penetration of rain water into the earth.?
The view adopted during the Middle Ages was Aristotle?s. According to this
erroneous view, water springs were fed by underground lakes. Remenieras gives
the following account: ?The concepts of purely philosophic character about the
natural phenomena related to waters had to wait until the Renaissance in order
to yield their places to impartial observations. In the Renaissance, Leonardo da
Vinci (1452- 1519) argued against the assertions of Aristotle. Bernard Palissy
in his work ?Discours admirables sur la nature des eaux, des fontaines, de la
terre, etc.? gives a clear account of water?s perpetual cycle with special
reference to feeding of underground springs by rainwater.? The knowledge that
underground springs were fed by rainwater provided in the Quran was first
postulated in the 16th century in Europe against Aristotle?s contention. The
prominent figures of philosophy like Thales, Plato and Aristotle had made errors
in the accounts they gave of water. Muhammad in the desert, who had no other
claim than that of being a messenger of God, proved to be correct when he
uttered the related statements of the Quran.
203- Say: ?I follow only what my Lord reveals to me.? These are enlightenments
from your Lord, and guidance, and mercy for those who believe.
7-The Purgatory, 203
RAINWATER PURE TO DRINK
68- See you the water which you drink?
69- Do you bring it down from the clouds or do We?
70- If We wish, We can make it salty. You should be thankful.
56-The Inevitable, 68-70
All sorts of details related to the water cycle have been impeccably designed by
God. The physical laws and the chemistry of water reflect the fine calculations
behind it. The fact that rainwater contains no salt is again a blessing. We saw
that the rain was the consequence of evaporation of water. More than 90% of
water that evaporates has, in its origin, oceans and seas with salt waters. The
rules that govern the evaporation of water are arranged in order that the water
is purified and disposed of its salt content and other impurities. The water of
oceans and seas is not potable, while rainwater is, thanks to the evaporation
process.
In the Quran, reference is made to pure water coming from above.
48- ?And we send down pure water from the sky?
25-The Distinguisher, 48
The Quran informs us that water was created after the formation
of the earth.
31- From it, He produced its own water and pasture.
79-The Snatchers, 31.
At the time of the Quran?s descent, the first stages of creation of the earth
were a mystery. The fact that the emergence of water on the surface of the earth
was a phenomenon that took place after the creation of the earth, as mentioned
in the Quran, is a miraculous statement. The earth in the beginning was
extremely hot. As it gradually cooled down, heavy metals like iron settled in
its center, while granite and oxides remained at the upper layers. As a result
of the cooling, an outermost solid layer formed. When the surface temperature
fell below 100 degree Celsius, the water in the depths rose to the surface,
forming the oceans and seas. This emergence of water is in perfect accord with
the account given in the Quran.
PROPERTIES OF WATER
The proportion of water on the earth is of great importance. Had lands extended
into an expanse larger than the seas, the difference between night and day
temperatures would have been higher and the greater portion of the living space
would turn into a desert. The fact that waters form more than 70% of the surface
of the earth is the result of an intelligent design. Had the water displayed
disintegrative properties like certain acids during chemical reactions or
remained unaffected like argon, it could not perform its function in the
universe and in our bodies. Chemical laws have special applications for water,
so essential for life. All other substances, whether solid or liquid, contract
as they grow cooler. The volume of a substance in solid state is smaller and
denser. Water, however, has quite different characteristics. Water, like any
other substance, contracts until the temperature drops down to +4 degrees
Celsius. Nevertheless, as the temperature continues to fall, it begins expanding,
unlike other substances. That is, its volume increases. When it freezes, it
expands still further. That is why it floats on the surface instead of sinking.
All other substances behave differently; in solid state they sink. Thanks to
special chemical relations proper to water, life becomes possible in the seas.
Had the density of ice been greater than the density of water, the frozen water
in lakes and seas would have sunk. And as there would be no layer of ice on the
surface, the freezing process would continue upward. In this way, the depth of
the oceans, seas and lakes would be transformed into mountains of ice and when
the temperature in the atmosphere became warmer only a thin layer of water would
thaw; thereby the aquatic life would come to an end.
MARVELLOUS CHAIN AND WEAKEST LINK
The other chemical properties of water are such that they allow life to
perpetuate. Thanks to its chemical properties, plants carry water from the
depths of the soil up to the top of large trees (which distance can be measured
in meters). If the surface tension of water were low, as in the case of many
other liquids, the plants could not absorb water. This would be the end of the
vegetation and animal kingdom.
We have so far covered many essential subjects vital for our life on earth. The
subjects covered ranged from the precise regulation of the velocity of the atom
in the aftermath of the primeval explosion to our remoteness from the sun, from
the features of the atmosphere to Van Allen belts, from the surface temperature
of the earth to the heat in the depths of the earth; the least change in any one
of these creations would be the end of our lives. Our life depends on a chain of
phenomena with thousands of links, each one being in perfect order and of
extremely complex structure. This chain may break at its weakest link. So, the
chain?s life entirely depends on that particular link. Supposing that each of
the prerequisites making life possible displayed excellent performance of its
function; if a seemingly insignificant event like water?s tension were ignored,
our life would vanish. All these minutiae are so many evidences of precise
calculation by our Creator, Omnipotent and Omniscient.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
UNDERGROUND WATERS AND WATER CYCLE
21- Do not you see that God sends down water from the sky and places it into
underground springs.
39-The Throngs, 21
The rainfall and its role in our lives as mentioned in the Quran give us correct
information. Had we been living in some other periods of history, we could not
have grasped it. Now we are in a position to understand this, as the world?s
water cycle has been made clear by the
knowledge provided by contemporary science. If we compare the ancient lore about
water with the information contained in the Quran, we realize that the Quran?s
communications are free from errors, as always.
Let us take up the verse of the Quran that speaks of the formation of
underground waters as a consequence of the rainfall (sura 39, verse 21). Was
this fact, which is no mystery for us today, as clear in the minds of the
ancients as it is in ours? Two specialists, G.Castany and B. Blavoux, give the
following account: ?According to Thales, the waters of the ocean that gushed out
in the air by the pressure exerted by winds blowing from the depths of
continents fell back down, penetrating the earth. Plato shared this view and
believed that its return to the ocean was caused by a huge whirlpool. Aristotle
contended that the vapor that rose from the earth condensed in the cool recesses
of mountains, forming subterranean lakes and spring waters that were fed by
these lakes. The first significant discovery of water?s perpetual cycle was by
Bernard Palissy in 1580. According to him, underground springs were formed by
the penetration of rain water into the earth.?
The view adopted during the Middle Ages was Aristotle?s. According to this
erroneous view, water springs were fed by underground lakes. Remenieras gives
the following account: ?The concepts of purely philosophic character about the
natural phenomena related to waters had to wait until the Renaissance in order
to yield their places to impartial observations. In the Renaissance, Leonardo da
Vinci (1452- 1519) argued against the assertions of Aristotle. Bernard Palissy
in his work ?Discours admirables sur la nature des eaux, des fontaines, de la
terre, etc.? gives a clear account of water?s perpetual cycle with special
reference to feeding of underground springs by rainwater.? The knowledge that
underground springs were fed by rainwater provided in the Quran was first
postulated in the 16th century in Europe against Aristotle?s contention. The
prominent figures of philosophy like Thales, Plato and Aristotle had made errors
in the accounts they gave of water. Muhammad in the desert, who had no other
claim than that of being a messenger of God, proved to be correct when he
uttered the related statements of the Quran.
203- Say: ?I follow only what my Lord reveals to me.? These are enlightenments
from your Lord, and guidance, and mercy for those who believe.
7-The Purgatory, 203
RAINWATER PURE TO DRINK
68- See you the water which you drink?
69- Do you bring it down from the clouds or do We?
70- If We wish, We can make it salty. You should be thankful.
56-The Inevitable, 68-70
All sorts of details related to the water cycle have been impeccably designed by
God. The physical laws and the chemistry of water reflect the fine calculations
behind it. The fact that rainwater contains no salt is again a blessing. We saw
that the rain was the consequence of evaporation of water. More than 90% of
water that evaporates has, in its origin, oceans and seas with salt waters. The
rules that govern the evaporation of water are arranged in order that the water
is purified and disposed of its salt content and other impurities. The water of
oceans and seas is not potable, while rainwater is, thanks to the evaporation
process.
In the Quran, reference is made to pure water coming from above.
48- ?And we send down pure water from the sky?
25-The Distinguisher, 48
The Quran informs us that water was created after the formation
of the earth.
31- From it, He produced its own water and pasture.
79-The Snatchers, 31.
At the time of the Quran?s descent, the first stages of creation of the earth
were a mystery. The fact that the emergence of water on the surface of the earth
was a phenomenon that took place after the creation of the earth, as mentioned
in the Quran, is a miraculous statement. The earth in the beginning was
extremely hot. As it gradually cooled down, heavy metals like iron settled in
its center, while granite and oxides remained at the upper layers. As a result
of the cooling, an outermost solid layer formed. When the surface temperature
fell below 100 degree Celsius, the water in the depths rose to the surface,
forming the oceans and seas. This emergence of water is in perfect accord with
the account given in the Quran.
PROPERTIES OF WATER
The proportion of water on the earth is of great importance. Had lands extended
into an expanse larger than the seas, the difference between night and day
temperatures would have been higher and the greater portion of the living space
would turn into a desert. The fact that waters form more than 70% of the surface
of the earth is the result of an intelligent design. Had the water displayed
disintegrative properties like certain acids during chemical reactions or
remained unaffected like argon, it could not perform its function in the
universe and in our bodies. Chemical laws have special applications for water,
so essential for life. All other substances, whether solid or liquid, contract
as they grow cooler. The volume of a substance in solid state is smaller and
denser. Water, however, has quite different characteristics. Water, like any
other substance, contracts until the temperature drops down to +4 degrees
Celsius. Nevertheless, as the temperature continues to fall, it begins expanding,
unlike other substances. That is, its volume increases. When it freezes, it
expands still further. That is why it floats on the surface instead of sinking.
All other substances behave differently; in solid state they sink. Thanks to
special chemical relations proper to water, life becomes possible in the seas.
Had the density of ice been greater than the density of water, the frozen water
in lakes and seas would have sunk. And as there would be no layer of ice on the
surface, the freezing process would continue upward. In this way, the depth of
the oceans, seas and lakes would be transformed into mountains of ice and when
the temperature in the atmosphere became warmer only a thin layer of water would
thaw; thereby the aquatic life would come to an end.
MARVELLOUS CHAIN AND WEAKEST LINK
The other chemical properties of water are such that they allow life to
perpetuate. Thanks to its chemical properties, plants carry water from the
depths of the soil up to the top of large trees (which distance can be measured
in meters). If the surface tension of water were low, as in the case of many
other liquids, the plants could not absorb water. This would be the end of the
vegetation and animal kingdom.
We have so far covered many essential subjects vital for our life on earth. The
subjects covered ranged from the precise regulation of the velocity of the atom
in the aftermath of the primeval explosion to our remoteness from the sun, from
the features of the atmosphere to Van Allen belts, from the surface temperature
of the earth to the heat in the depths of the earth; the least change in any one
of these creations would be the end of our lives. Our life depends on a chain of
phenomena with thousands of links, each one being in perfect order and of
extremely complex structure. This chain may break at its weakest link. So, the
chain?s life entirely depends on that particular link. Supposing that each of
the prerequisites making life possible displayed excellent performance of its
function; if a seemingly insignificant event like water?s tension were ignored,
our life would vanish. All these minutiae are so many evidences of precise
calculation by our Creator, Omnipotent and Omniscient.
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
BARRIER BETWEEN SEAS
HOME PAGE
BARRIER BETWEEN SEAS
19- He has let free the two seas meeting together.
20- Between them there is a barrier which they do not transgress.
55-Gracious, 19-20
A famous French oceanographer, J. Cousteau, gives the following account as a
result of his studies in water barriers: ?We studied the assertions by certain
researchers about barriers separating seas, and noticed that the Mediterranean
Sea had its own salinity and density and housed autochthonous fauna and flora.
Then we examined the water of the Atlantic Ocean and discovered features
entirely different from those of the Mediterranean Sea. According to our
expectations, these two seas that merged in the strait of Gibraltar should
present similar characteristics in terms of salinity, density and other
properties. The two seas presented different features even though they were
adjacent. This greatly puzzled us. An incredible barrier prevented the two seas
from coming together. The same sort of a barrier had also been observed in Bab
Al-Mandab in the Gulf of Aden connecting with the Red Sea.
Subsequent to our observations, further researchers made it clear that the seas
which had different characteristics had some barriers.? This fact that astounded
oceanographers was revealed 14 centuries ago in the Quran. This aspect, not
visible to the naked eye and appearing to be in conflict with the properties of
water known to man, was first revealed to men in the Arabian peninsula, men who
were not at all experienced in any sense with oceanography.
THE COLORFUL WORLD IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA
The barriers between adjacent seas demonstrate a rich diversity, a result of the
perfect planning of God. Wherever we turn our gaze, the complexion of human
beings, the infinite diversity of flowers, etc., demonstrate the marvelous
diversity of God?s creation. The Quran refers to the waters that do not coalesce.
This is because of a physical characteristic called ?surface tension.? Thus,
neighboring seas present different densities, salinity rates and compositions.
These differences enable media that permit different species to coexist. Thus,
fish, plants and microorganisms living under water present untold varieties.
Water, that usually mixes easily, can turn into a wall thanks to God?s
imposition and operation of physical laws, contributing to this variety. This
fact is not affected by strong waves and currents. This property to which the
Quran refers is a miraculous statement unknown at the time of the Prophet and
presents clear evidence for the man of understanding.
53- He is the One who has set free the two seas; one is sweet and palatable, and
the other is salty and bitter. And He made a barrier between them, a partition
that is forbidden to be passed.
25-The Distinquisher, 53
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
BARRIER BETWEEN SEAS
19- He has let free the two seas meeting together.
20- Between them there is a barrier which they do not transgress.
55-Gracious, 19-20
A famous French oceanographer, J. Cousteau, gives the following account as a
result of his studies in water barriers: ?We studied the assertions by certain
researchers about barriers separating seas, and noticed that the Mediterranean
Sea had its own salinity and density and housed autochthonous fauna and flora.
Then we examined the water of the Atlantic Ocean and discovered features
entirely different from those of the Mediterranean Sea. According to our
expectations, these two seas that merged in the strait of Gibraltar should
present similar characteristics in terms of salinity, density and other
properties. The two seas presented different features even though they were
adjacent. This greatly puzzled us. An incredible barrier prevented the two seas
from coming together. The same sort of a barrier had also been observed in Bab
Al-Mandab in the Gulf of Aden connecting with the Red Sea.
Subsequent to our observations, further researchers made it clear that the seas
which had different characteristics had some barriers.? This fact that astounded
oceanographers was revealed 14 centuries ago in the Quran. This aspect, not
visible to the naked eye and appearing to be in conflict with the properties of
water known to man, was first revealed to men in the Arabian peninsula, men who
were not at all experienced in any sense with oceanography.
THE COLORFUL WORLD IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA
The barriers between adjacent seas demonstrate a rich diversity, a result of the
perfect planning of God. Wherever we turn our gaze, the complexion of human
beings, the infinite diversity of flowers, etc., demonstrate the marvelous
diversity of God?s creation. The Quran refers to the waters that do not coalesce.
This is because of a physical characteristic called ?surface tension.? Thus,
neighboring seas present different densities, salinity rates and compositions.
These differences enable media that permit different species to coexist. Thus,
fish, plants and microorganisms living under water present untold varieties.
Water, that usually mixes easily, can turn into a wall thanks to God?s
imposition and operation of physical laws, contributing to this variety. This
fact is not affected by strong waves and currents. This property to which the
Quran refers is a miraculous statement unknown at the time of the Prophet and
presents clear evidence for the man of understanding.
53- He is the One who has set free the two seas; one is sweet and palatable, and
the other is salty and bitter. And He made a barrier between them, a partition
that is forbidden to be passed.
25-The Distinquisher, 53
Copyright © 2001-2008 Quranic Research Group
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)
