| Origin of the Universe and Life An
interesting characteristic of the Qur'an is how it deals
with surprising phenomena which relate not only to the
past but to modern times as well. In essence, the Qur'an
is not and old problem. It is still a problem even today
- a problem to the non-Muslims that is. For everyday,
every week, every year brings more and more evidence that
the Qur'an is a force to be contended with - that its
authenticity is no longer to be challenged! For example,
one verse in the Qur'an (Surah al-Anbiya 21:30) reads:
"Do not the unbelievers see
that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then
We clove them asunder, and made from water every living
thing? Will they not then believe?"
Ironically, this very information is exactly what they
awarded the 1973 Noble Prize for - to a couple of
unbelievers.
The Qur'an reveals the origin of the universe - how it
began from one piece - and mankind continues to verify
this revelation, even up to now. Additionally, the fact
that all life originated from water would not have been
an easy thing to convince people of fourteen centuries
ago.
Indeed, if 1400 years ago you had stood in the desert
and told someone, "All of
this, you see (pointing to yourself), is made up of
mostly water," no one would have believed
you. Proof of that was not available until the invention
of the microscope. They had to wait to find out that
cytoplasm, the basic substance of the cell, is made-up of
80% water. Nonetheless, the evidence did come, and once
again the Qur'an stood the test of time.
More on Falsification Test
In reference to the falsification tests mentioned
earlier, it is interesting to note that they, too, relate
to both the past and the present. Some of them were used
as illustrations of God's omnipotence and knowledge,
while others continue to stand as challenges to the
present day.
An example of the former is the statement made in the
Qur'an about Abu Lahab. It clearly illustrates that God,
the Knower of the Unseen, knew that Abu Lahab would never
change his ways and accept Islam. Thus God dictated that
he would be condemned to the Hellfire forever. Such a
chapter was both an illustration of God's divine wisdom
and a warning to those who were like Abu Lahab.
A Mathematical Approach
All of the examples so far given concerning the
various angles from which one can approach the Qur'an
have undoubtedly been subjective in nature; however,
there does exist another angle, among others, which is
objective and whose basis is mathematical.
It is surprising how authentic the Qur'an becomes when
one assembles what might be referred to as a list of good
guesses.Mathematically, it can be explained using
guessing and prediction examples. For instance, if a
person has two choices (i.e., one is right, and one is
wrong), and he closes his eyes and makes a choice, then
half of the time (i.e., one time out of two) he will be
right. Basically, he has a one in two chance, for he
could pick the wrong choice, or he could pick the right
choice.
Now if the same person has two situations like that
(i.e., he could be right or wrong about situation number
one, and he could be right or wrong about situation
number two), and he closes his eyes and guesses, then he
will only be right one-fourth of the time (i.e., one time
out of four). He now has a one in four chance because now
there are three ways for him to be wrong and only one way
for him to be right. In simple terms, he could make the
wrong choice in situation number one and then make the
wrong choice in situation number two; or he could make
the wrong choice in situation number one and then make
the right choice in situation number two; or he could
make the right choice in situation number one and then
make the wrong choice in situation number two; or he
could make the right choice in situation number one and
then make the right choice in situation number two.
Of course, the (only instance in which he could be
totally right is the last scenario where he could guess
correctly in both situations. The odds of his guessing
completely correctly have become greater because the
number of situations for him to guess in have increased;
and the mathematical equation representing such a
scenario is ½ x ½ (i.e., one time out of two for the
first situation multiplied by one time out of two for the
second situation).
Continuing on with the example, if the same person now
has three situations in which to make blind guesses, then
he will only be right one-eighth of the time (i.e., one
time out of eight or ½ x ½ x ½ ). Again, the odds of
choosing the correct choice in all three situations have
decreased his chances of being completely correct to only
one time in eight. It must be understood that as the
number of situations increase, the chances of being right
decrease, for the two phenomena are inversely
proportional.
Now applying this example to the situations in the
Qur'an, if one draws up a list of all of the subjects
about which the Qur'an has made correct statements, it
becomes very clear that it is highly unlikely that they
were all just correct blind guesses. Indeed, the subjects
discussed in the Qur'an are numerous [some of them are
listed in the Qur'an and Scientific Knowledge], and thus
the odds of someone just making lucky guesses about all
of them become practically nil. If there are a million
ways for the Qur'an to be wrong, yet each time it is
right, then it is unlikely that someone was guessing.
The following three examples of subjects about which
the Qur'an has made correct statements collectively
illustrate how the Qur'an continues to beat the odds.
The Female Bee
In the 16th chapter (Surah an-Nahl 16:68-69) the
Qur'an mentions that the female bee leaves its home to
gather food. Now, a person might guess on that, saying, "The bee that you see flying around
- it could be male, or it could be female. I think I will
guess female." Certainly, he has a one in two
chance of being right. So it happens that the Qur'an is
right. But it also happens that that was not what most
people believed at the time when the Qur'an was revealed.
Can you tell the difference between a male and a
female bee? Well, it takes a specialist to do that, but
it has been discovered that the male bee never leaves his
home to gather food. However, in Shakespeare's play,
Henry the Fourth, some of the characters discuss bees and
mention that the bees are soldiers and have a king. That
is what people thought in Shakespeare's time - that the
bees that one sees flying around are male bees and that
they go home and answer to a king.
However, that is not true at all. The fact is that
they are females, and they answer to a queen. Yet it took
modern scientific investigations in the last 300 years to
discover that this is the case.
So, back to the list of good guesses, concerning the
topic of bees, the Qur'an had a 50/50 chance of being
right, and the odds were one in two.
The Sun
In addition to the subject of bees, the Qur'an also
discusses the sun and the manner in which it travels
through space. Again, a person can guess on that subject.
When the sun moves through space, there are two options:
it can travel just as a stone would travel if one threw
it, or it can move of its own accord.
The Qur'an states the latter - that it moves as a
result of its own motion (Surah al-Anbiya 21:33). To do
such, the Qur'an uses a form of the word sabaha to
describe the sun's movement through space. In order to
properly provide the reader with a comprehensive
understanding of the implications of this Arabic verb,
the following example is given.
If a man is in water and the verb sabaha is applied in
reference to his movement, it can be understood that he
is swimming, moving of his own accord and not as a result
of a direct force applied to him. Thus when this verb is
used in reference to the sun's movement through space, it
in no way implies that the sun is flying uncontrollably
through space as a result of being hurled or the like. It
simply means that the sun is turning and rotating as it
travels.
Now, this is what the Qur'an affirms, but was it an
easy thing to discover? Can any common man tell that the
sun is turning? Only in modern times was the equipment
made available to project the image of the sun onto a
tabletop so that one could look at it without being
blinded. And through this process it was discovered that
not only are there spots on the sun but that these spots
move once every 25 days.
This movement is referred to as the rotation of the
sun around its axis and conclusively proves that, as the
Qur'an stated 1400 years ago, the sun does, indeed, turn
as it travels through space.
And returning once again to the subject of good
guesses, the odds of guessing correctly about both
subjects - the sex of bees and the movement of the sun -
are one in four!
Seeing as back fourteen centuries ago people probably
did not understand much about time zones, the Qur'an's
statements about this subject are considerably
surprising. The concept that one family is having
breakfast as the sun comes up while another family is
enjoying the brisk night air is truly something to be
marveled at, even in modern time.
Indeed, fourteen centuries ago, a man could not travel
more than thirty miles in one day, and thus it took him
literally months to travel from India to Morocco, for
example. And probably, when he was having supper in
Morocco, he thought to himself, "Back home in India
they are having supper right now."
This is because he did not realize that, in the
process of traveling, he moved across a time zone. Yet,
because it is the words of God, the All-Knowing, the
Qur'an recognizes and acknowledges such a phenomenon.
In an interesting verse it states that when history
comes to an end and the Day of Judgement arrives, it will
all occur in an instant; and this very instant will catch
some people in the daytime and some people at night.
This clearly illustrates God's divine wisdom and His
previous knowledge of the existence of time zones, even
though such a discovery was non-existent back fourteen
centuries ago. Certainly, this phenomenon is not
something which is obvious to one's eyes or a result of
one's experience, and this fact, in itself, suffices as
proof of the Qur'an's authenticity.
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