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Summary of 10.13 "The Quran and modern Sciences I - Reservations/Comparisons"

We started with the question that some may raise abut the appropriateness of comparing science with scriptures or with holly books and we discussed the reasons why people may have reservations on this.  We tried to conclude that if some precautions are take there is nothing wrong with that and we refer to the Quran that encourages us to investigate and to increase our knowledge.  We started by looking into some comparative aspects which were discussed in the book The Bible The Quran and Science by Dr. Bucaille .  We analyzed two of the areas that he discussed: which included the story of creation and the date of the first human on earth.  The conclusion that is clear in his book is that only in the case of the Quran do we fail to find a single statement which are incompatible with established sciences.

 

10.14   The Quran and Modern Sciences II - Comparisons with The Bible

Host: How is the account of the flood during the time of Prophet Noah given in the Bible?

Jamal Badawi:

It basically says that there was corruption and infractions during the time of Prophet Noah and not many people believed in him or followed him.  Then God decided to punish the people on earth and there was a universal flood that destroyed everything on earth.  According to Genesis 6:17 it says “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.”  The Bible is clear that this universal flood which destroyed all life on earth except of course Noah and his household in the arch.  Beside this universality of the flood the debate of the flood is quite interesting.  According to the calculation made by Dr. Bouquet based on the Bible the flood should have taken place about 292 years before Prophet Abraham.  He went on to calculate when Prophet Noah was born which was 1056 years after Adam, then the flood took place when he was 600 years old.  So the total after Adam would be 1656 years subtracting the years from Adam to Abraham which gives us 292 years before Abraham lived.  Based on the previous calculation that there were 1800 years from Adam to Jesus and from Jesus till today is another 2000 years which means that the flood took place in the 21st. and 22nd century before Jesus (PBUH).

To say that the flood took place about 4200 years ago is rather incompatible with findings from archeology and other sources.  It is known that during that period many civilizations continued to exist without interruption.  For example this period coincides before the 11th dynasty in Egypt and with the 3rd dynasty in Babylon.  From that sense it is impossible that life was entirely destroyed on earth at that time as we find in Genesis 6.  The other observation that Bouquet refers to is that it says that when Abraham came he found that humanity was able to regroup and live in separate communities.  No one was saved from the flood except Prophet Noah, his three sons and their wives and the animals that he took on the arch.  This means that if all of humanity was destroyed and they started with again with the four men and their wives.  Bouquet says that it is impossible that in 292 years that this very small family could have multiplied to such an extent that they were divided and lived in so many different parts of the world and under different civilizations.  These are some of the difficulties that are presented in respect to the story of the flood.

 

Host:  What is the Quranic version of this time?

Jamal Badawi:

First of all the Quran does not give any dates.  All this problem of chronology does not exist in the Quran.  The Quran indicates that there were more than Noah and his sons on the arch.  In fact in the 11th Surah indicated that one of the sons of Noah did not come with him on the arch and was drowned with the unbelievers.  In addition in the same chapter (11:40) it indicates that there were other believers other than the household of Noah who came with him on the arch.  Yes, they were few but they were still people outside of his immediate family.  Perhaps the most important thing from the scientific standpoint is that the Quran does not say that the flood was universal.  In fact there is clear indication in the Quran that it was only the people of Noah that were destroyed.  In (25:37) “And the people of Noah,- when they rejected the apostles, We drowned them.”  Not only does he conclude that the scientific discoveries are totally compatible with the Quran that there was no universal flood.  The only source about the story of the flood prior to the revelation of the Quran was the Bible and for those who say that the Quran adopted or copied from the Bible.  How could it be that the Bible was the only source, when there was no other source that referred to the flood; so how would this have ended up with a different outcome in the Quran.  The Quran is different and makes corrections to the statements made hundreds of years before it and hundreds of years before anyone could have discovered this from a scientific standpoint.

 

Host: What were Dr. Bouquet’s findings in Exodus?

Jamal Badawi:

Bouquet found that the story of Exodus in the Bible is fairly compatible with scientific discoveries.  The point that he added in the importance of studying the Quran her is that there are information given in the Quran about Exodus which seem to shed light on many puzzling questions that historians had.  To start with many historians raise the question as to whom the Pharaoh of the Exodus was, his name and dynasty?  In the Quran we find one common point and that is the Pharaoh of the Exodus, who persuade Moses and his followers, was drowned.  However as far as the Bible is concerned there is no mention as to what happened to his body and the implication is that he just perished in the sea.  Dr. Bouquet makes reference to an interesting passage in the Quran in (10:92) which says “This day shall We save thee in the body, that thou mayest be a sign to those who come after thee! but verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our Signs!”  This is a clear reference that is body was preserved.  Dr. Bouquet goes on to describe in some detail from a historical standpoint.  Exodus he says could have been Ramses the second and he concludes that in all likelihood Ramses II is the Pharaoh who persecuted Moses before he took refuge in Median died during the stay of Prophet Moses in Median.  His successor Merneptah, who was also his son, is believed the Pharaoh of Exodus and the Pharaoh who pursued Moses.  The interesting thing is that it was only 1898, the very end of the 19th century, that the mummified body of Merneptah was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.  In 1907 the wrappings of the mummy by Elliot Smith who wrote Royal Mummies which was published in 1912.  It was not 1975 that Bouquet persuaded the Egyption Government to allow him to medically examine the Mummified body of Merneptah.  The varies investigations that he and other doctors shed light on that historical aspect.

 

Host:  Can you analyze the results of that analysis and indicate what the Quran says about the Exodus?

Jamal Badawi:

Bouquet called on the help of specialists and doctors who did and excellent radiographic study of the mummy.  In addition he was able to examine the interior of the thorax and abdomen using an endoscopy.  He says that his was the first case where they used an endoscopy to examine a mummy.  He concluded from a few studies that this mummified body o Merneptah, which is believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus, most probably died from drowning or from a very violent shock which proceeded the moment of drowning or both.  He says “Those who seek among modern data for proof of the veracity of the Holy Scripture will find a magnificent illustration of the verses of the Quran dealing with the Pharaoh’s body by visiting the royal mummy’s room in the Egyptian Museum in Ciro.”  In this he refers to the citation from the Quran which says that God will preserve him in his body so that he may be a sign for those after him.  This is also a sign that the Quran could have never come from a human source.  To discover this in 1975 and to discover the mummy in 1898 for the first time when nobody knew of its existence for centuries.  This is really amazing and raises the question of it being conceivable that the Quran borrowed from any other source? Or that Prophet Muhammad was 1400 years ahead of his time in terms of science and made that reference at a time where nobody would have thought of it?  Is it possible that the Quran could have had any other source other than divine revelation.

 

Host:  How does our planet fit into the universe?  What does the Quran say about the creation of the universe?

Jamal Badawi:

It is like a drop in an ocean.  Our earth and the planets rotate around various points in the solar system which is the star of that system and in our case it is the sun.  Many of the viewers have read of the moon shuttle and people who landed on the moon and so on which is about 240 thousand miles.  The distance between the earth and the sun is 93 million miles which might sound like allot.  Between the earth and Pluto, the farthest planet in the solar system, the distance is 3,672,000,000 miles.  This means that the light of the sun takes 6 hours to reach from the sun to Pluto at the horrifying speed of 186,000 miles per second.  This is again a drop in another big ocean because the entire solar system is actually a small part of our galaxy and in our galaxy scientists estimate that there are 100,000,000,000 stars.  Again we might think that these galaxies are just stunning and not realize the grandness of it all.  About 55 years ago it was discovered that the Milky Way is not the only galaxy in the universe but that there are also other giant galaxies again with hundreds of billions of starts, some of which are billions of times the size of various planets like our earth.  Now just to appreciate this vastness it sometimes takes billions of light years at the speed of 186,000 miles per second for the light of the farthest star that we know of in the confounds of the known universe to reach earth.  This means that we may be looking at the light that reaches us now after billions of light years have passed of that horrifying speed.  We come back to the initial statement that our earth is not even a drop in an ocean.

 

Host:  How do these galaxies come to existence in the first place?

Jamal Badawi:

It is difficult to determine the exact date when the universe was created.  There is growing evidence that in the beginning the universe was a gaseous mass which was composed mainly of hydrogen and helium which was slowly mutating.  This kind of mass or medulla was then split up into fragments which were so huge, between one to one hundred billion times the size of the sun, beyond imagination.  These fragments separated again into what we know now to be the stars.  The stars are again just one element around which systems rotate.

 

Host:  What makes stars shinny?

Jamal Badawi:

Scientists say that over time there was a process of condensation where gravity came in coupled with the pressure and influence of magnetic field and radiation which started to contract and transform gravitational forces into thermal energy.  This thermal energy is what explain the shininess that we observe in the starts.  As a result of thermo-nuclear reactions the transition took place from hydrogen to helium and then from helium to carbon and oxygen and then from there to metals and metalloids.  It is basically this process which resulted in the sparks that we observe in the stars.

 

Host:  Does the Quran make any reference to the galaxy originally being a mass of gas?

Jamal Badawi:

There are very interesting citations made to this in the Quran.  One appears in (21:30) “Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before we clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?”  The second related citation in the Quran is in (41:11-12) “Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke: He said to it and to the earth: “Come ye together, willingly or unwillingly.” They said: “We do come (together), in willing obedience.”  So He completed them as seven firmaments in two Days, and He assigned to each heaven its duty and command.  And We adorned the lower heaven with lights, and (provided it) with guard. Such is the Decree of (Him) the Exalted in Might, Full of Knowledge.”  The word “smoke” is a very simple word that can be understood by anyone at any level of knowledge.  For a Beduin smoke is smoke but for the scientists the mention of smoke in the Quran is very interesting.  As Dr. Bouquet says that smoke is generally made up of gaseous substratum, as physicists call it, in more or less stable suspension.  These fine particles may belong to solid or even liquid states at very high or low temperatures.  In other words smoke is a gaseous mass.  The question that is raised here is how could Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 1400 years ago invent that the universe as modern science has discovered was one part and then split into fragments which were split into starts and other planets.  How could he have possibly gotten this information?

 

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