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TAG: Scientific Facts
What Makes Muslims Believe That The Quran Is Not Written By Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)?
What makes Muslims believe that the Quran is not written by Prophet Muhammad? Does the Quran claim that it is from God? Could the Prophet have copied some portions of the Bible? Are there scientific facts in the Quran?
Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad is not the author of the Quran. God is its Author. The following points bear the fact:
*First of all, the Quran itself, in a number of places and in different ways, says that it is from God. One of the claims runs thus: “This is indeed a Quran most honorable, a Book well-guarded…a Revelation from the Lord of the Worlds.” (Quran 56:77-80)
(Here, one ought to know the features of the Quran to understand the claim better. For instance, if the Quran consisted of a number of books, and each book was made up of a number of chapters, then each of the books had to claim that it was from God in order to render the WHOLE volume as coming from God. But, this is fortunately not so with the Quran. The Quran is just ONE Book made up of 114 chapters. So, if the Quran claims, in any of its chapters, that the Book is from God, then the WHOLE Quran is from God. Yet, the Quran does not make the divine claim only once, but several times in different phrases and in different chapters.)
*If the Prophet had written the Quran – a Book par excellence – surely he would have claimed credit for it, but he did not. He could not claim what was not his. Indeed God says: “This Quran is not such as can be produced by anyone other than God.” (10:37)
*The Prophet was unlettered. However, even if he was educated and had written the Quran, how could he be bold enough to make this statement: “Do they not consider (ponder over) the Quran (with care)? Had it been from other than God, they would surely have found therein discrepancies”. (4:82)
Abdullah Yusuf Ali, commenting on this verse (verse 4:82) in his English translation of the Quran, says: “From a mere human point of view, we should have expected many discrepancies, because (1) Prophet Muhammad who promulgated it was not a learned man or philosopher, (2) it was promulgated at various times and in various circumstances, and (3) it is addressed to all grades of mankind. Yet, when properly understood, its various pieces fit together better than a jigsaw puzzle even when arranged without any regard for chronological order. There was just the One Inspirer and one inspired.”
*The Quran took 23 years to complete. Had the verses of the Quran been written by the Prophet, he would have needed a number of drafts and the work would have needed editing, updating, etc. But this did not happen, yet the information is consistent throughout the Quran. The verses were taken down as dictated by the Prophet only once and no redrafting, editing, or updating took place after that.
*At a number of stages during the 23-year period, challenges to reproduce, even a chapter of the Quran was made. If the Prophet had written the Quran, he would not have made the challenges, for fear that the learned
Arabs and eminent poets of his time would have taken up his challenges and shamed him. One of the challenges goes thus: “And if you are in doubt as to what We have revealed (from time to time) to Our servant (Muhammad), then produce a chapter like thereunto…” (2:23)
*The Quran says that the Prophet was not learned.
So, if the Prophet was educated in some institution but mentioned in the Quran that he wasn’t, he would have been accused of being a liar and his mission would have fallen through.
*Even if the Prophet was learned, how could he have written such an inimitable Book of Information and Wisdom without resorting to consultation with prominent scholars and the best books from the best libraries in the world?! If he did this, it would surely have been known, since every move he made was known to people. The Prophet was a historical figure, not a mythological figure.
*The Prophet was the busiest and most active person in history. So, how could he have found the time to write (even if he were educated) such a comprehensive and extensive Book of Guidance which would have needed years of seclusion and concentration to complete?
*In the Quran, in Chapter 111, it is mentioned that Abu Lahab, one of the Prophet’s uncles who was always against Islam, would never accept Islam. This Revelation came some ten years before the death of Abu Lahab. How could the Prophet have dared to write this chapter because all he (Abu Lahab) needed to do to prove that the Quran was not the Words of God, was to accept Islam dishonestly?
*The Prophet was mentioned by name in the Quran only five times whereas Jesus Christ’s name was (honorably) mentioned 25 times. Could the Prophet go to such an extent of honoring someone more than himself if he had written the Quran?
*There is a chapter in the Quran entitled and dedicated to “Mary”, the mother of Jesus Christ, while there is no chapter called, or dedicated to, the Prophet’s own mother, Aminah, or daughter, Fatimah, nor were their names mentioned in the Quran. Could this have happened if the Prophet was the author of the Quran?
*Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, is glorified in the Quran as a “woman of all nations”. Why would the Prophet glorify a woman he had never seen and one from another race, saying that she was chosen (by God) above all women unless the formulation of the verses had nothing to do with the Prophet’s own authorship but that he only repeated what was inspired to him by God?
*In the Quran, God is called “Allah” (in Arabic). He is also referred to by His Attributes, like the Cherisher, the Merciful, the Almighty. There are 99 such Attributes but none of these is “Abba” (Father) by which the Arab Christians of the Prophet’s time (and even today) refer to God. If the Prophet was the writer of the Quran, he would surely have used “Abba” as one of the names for God because of its familiarity and also because it was easier to say “Abba” than many of the Attributes.
*Although the Quran’s objective is basically religious, it does touch on certain principles and laws governing the universe. A French scientist, Maurice Bucaille, in his book, “The Bible, the Quran and Science”, says: “What initially strikes the reader confronted for the first time with a text of this kind (the Quran) is the sheer abundance of subjects discussed: the Creation, astronomy, the explanation of certain matters concerning the earth, and the animal and vegetable kingdoms, human reproduction …I could not find a single error in the Quran. I had to stop and ask myself: if a man was the author of the Quran, how could he have written facts in the 7th Century AD that today are shown to be in keeping with modern scientific knowledge?”
*The Quran mentions a number of scientific facts which were unknown to the world then. Some of them are:
-The moon has no light of its own and that what we see is the reflected light of the sun. (91:1-2),
-Every living thing began in water. (continuation of 21:30),
-Stages of reproduction of life in the womb. (22:5),
-Every living thing, including vegetable matter, is created in pairs (male and female). (36:36),
-All celestial body (namely, the moon and planets) have their own course of orbit. (7:54 and 21:33),
-Space travel is possible. (55:33), and
-There is also life (in whatever form) in other parts of the universe. (42:29).
-All these scientific facts were discovered only in the last couple of centuries whereas the Quran mentioned them 14 centuries ago. How could the Prophet, even if he were educated, have known these facts centuries ahead of recent times?
*Learned Arabs and other experts in the Arabic language acknowledge that the style, diction, and rendering in the Quran far excel those in the Hadith. Those in the Quran are inimitable, proving that the Quran is authored by God.
*Umar, later to become Caliph, had wanted to kill the Prophet because of his (Islamic) teachings. One day, Umar heard his sister reading something – the sound, diction, and meaning of which made him halt to listen. His sister, who had secretly converted to Islam, was reading (part of) the Quran. Umar realized that the Words he was listening to could not be the words of man. He submitted to Islam soon after.
*The Quran says: “If the whole of mankind and jinns (spirits) were to come together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce the like thereof even if backed up by each other with help and support.” (17:88) This is a bold statement indeed. If the Prophet had written the Quran, would he as a human being, dare make such an explosive statement? Would this statement go unchallenged by the learned Arabs of his time?
Prophet Muhammad, being an unlettered person, could not have written the Quran, a book full of wisdom and one dealing with varied subject matters. The Quran categorically states: “This Quran is not such as can be produced by anyone other than God. (It is a Book) from the Lord of the Worlds.” (10:37)
When Ants Sense Danger
WADEA Omrany notes a new scientific miracle in Surah Al-Naml (“Ants”), Verse number 18. This new miracle is about the scientific discovery that ants communicate with each other, especially when informing of impending danger.
God says what means in Surah Al-Naml: “At length, when they came to a (lowly) valley of ants, one of the ants said: ‘O ye ants, get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts should crush you (under foot without knowing it).” (27:18)
The ant reported the imminent danger facing them in four successive stages as follow:
“O ye ants” – this is the first alarm given by the ant to draw the attention of the other ants quickly. On receiving this alarm, the other ants stand alert to receive the other signals given by the same speaker ant.
“Get into your habitations” – here the speaker ant follows up with another signal, ordering the ants to take the next step.
“Lest Solomon and his hosts should crush you” – in these words, the speaker ant shows the reason for this danger to her fellow ants.
“Without knowing it” – the ants, as a reaction to the previous alarms, will make a certain kind of defense, with these last few words. The ant shows its fellow ants that they don’t have to attack the source of danger because it is not from a real enemy; the danger doesn’t aim to attack the kingdom of ants since Solomon and his soldiers don’t know of the ants in their way.
Here’s what science says in this context.
Ants use chemical communication in situations of alarm and defense, when the fast exchange of information is necessary, and when they face expected danger. This alarm is generally expressed by the emission of chemical signals. The protective glands are responsible for the roles of alarm and defense.
The Australian ant is a case in point. When these ants face danger, they secrete some droplets from their protective gland – so that their fellow ants run and make a vibration with their antennas showing that they are in a state of alert.
The first substance detected by the ants is an aldehyde hexanal. This draws their attention. As a result, they agitate and raise their antennae to search for other odors.
When they detect hexanol (the first message was in the form of alcohol), the ants go into a state of alert and run in all directions in search of the source of the problem. When undecanone is emitted, it attracts the ants toward the source of danger and makes them bite all foreign objects in the anthill. Finally, when they come closer to the target, they discern the butyloctenal, which increases their aggression and their readiness to sacrifice themselves.
Chemical communication is the most important method of communication for ants. They give out different kinds of substances, each having a different code denoting a certain message.
These messages are the same as those of the ant in Surah Al-Naml Verse 18.
The substances that an ant gives out of its body in a situation like this are divided into four, with each substance having a certain language and code.
The successive scientific stages of the reaction of the ants are as follows:
* aldéhyde hexanal is the first chemical substance that an ant emits if it senses danger. It is like a siren. On receiving this substance, ants begin to gather at one point where they remain alert and ready to receive the rest of the signals. This identifies with the first phrase uttered by the ant in the holy verse “O ye ants.”
* Then the ant emits the second chemical substance, hexanol. On receiving this substance, the ants begin to run in all directions to determine the source of this substance. The ant that emits the chemical substance should determine the way lest the rest of the ants stray elsewhere. And this is what the ant of Prophet Solomon did when it asked the other ants to enter their habitations by saying ” get into your habitations.” This is an instruction from the speaker ant to its fellows to go in the direction of the habitations. So, it must have determined the way and this is the same as directing the movement of ants in general.
* Undécanone is the third substance that the ant emits.
This substance shows the cause of the danger, and that was what the ant did when it said in the third phrase “lest Solomon and his hosts should crush you (under foot).” In this stage, the ants that receive this substance get ready to face the impending danger.
* In the fourth stage, the speaker ant emits butylocténal. This substance gives an order of defense and determines the kind of defense. And so it was said in the last phrase “without knowing it.” By doing so, the ant prevented the other ants from entering the stage of an attack that would lead to death.
So Prophet Solomon smiled tenderly and mercifully as if saying they needn’t worry as he had seen them and would not allow any harm to befall them.
These scientific facts were mentioned in the Holy Qur’an more than 1,400 years ago.