The science of the qu'rran is fascinating? Has any other religion ?

Question

in around 600 ad written that the earth is shaped like an egg or had as many scientific observations be proven centuries later? ( I am seriously leaning towards converting to Islam. ( any rude comments will be reported and thumbs downed.)

Answer 1

You're right --- The Quran spoke about many scientific facts, long before they were discovered by modern scientists. I would just like to clarify the fact mentioned by you. The Quran mentions this fact in Surah An-Naziat, 79:30: "And the earth, moreover, hath He made egg-shaped". The Arabic word for egg here is 'dahaha' which does not mean just any egg, it means an ostrich egg. An Ostrich egg is an oblate spheroid unlike other eggs which are prolate ellipsoids. Thus, the shape of the Earth is described very accurately. Apart from the example mentioned by you, the most striking example of the Quran's accuracy in scientific matters can be found in its description of the human embryo in the mother's womb at different stages. Embryology is a rather new field of study as compared to the other sciences. The great accuracy of the Quran in dealing with this field led even the great scientist Dr. Keith Moore, Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada to accept its authenticity. It is not possible to discuss all the scientific facts mentioned in the Quran in this forum but I recommend you to read the book Bible, Quran and Science by Dr. Maurice Bucaille where the texts of the Bible and the Quran are scrutinised against modern scientific data. I'm providing you with a link from where you can download a pdf version of the book. Other interesting books are 'The Amazing Quran' by Gary Miller and 'A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam', both of which can be found on the website I am giving you. You can also e-mail me if you want other references or are unable to find these books online( although you should be able to).

The Quran mentions that many Prophets such as Jesus, Moses and others had been given miracles to convince people of their prophethood. The Muslim position is, though the fact about these miracles is undoubtedly true since it is mentioned in the Quran, yet, these miracles cannot be verified today. But since Prophet Muhammad was to be the last Prophet of God sent to mankind, he was given a miracle that could not only be verified in his time, but can still be verified today. And what is that miracle --- The Holy Quran. The Quran challenges any man to find a single error in it. If there is a contradiction in the Quran, then it cannot be the word of God ---- "Do they not consider the Qur’an (with care)? Had it been from other than God, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy (contradictions)." [Al-Qur’an 4:82]. Many people have tried to find errors but once you delve deep into their arguments, you will find that they all fall flat on their faces --- either because they make logical errors, or are simply biased, make false assumptions or misunderstand the nuances of the Arabic language because of a poor knowledge of it.

Besides this , another miracle of the Quran is that it has remained unchanged in every respect, ever since it was revealed. God Himself has promised to guard it --- "We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly Guard it (from corruption)."[Al-Qur’an 15:9] (Note that 'We' here is not a plural of multiplicity but a royal plural, a plural of reverence and exaltation to express the Majesty and fullness of the Supreme God who is One.).

It is a good thing that you are leaning towards conversion and are verifying the truth. Be completely convinced of the Truth and do not be afraid to use your logic and common sense while scrutinising Islam because Islam is the most logical religion that I have come across, but make sure you verify from the right sources. All the Best and may God bless you!

Answer 2

Falsification Test
I suggest to you that the next time you get into dispute with someone about Islam and he claims that he has the truth and that you are in darkness, you leave all other arguments at first and make this suggestion. Ask him, "Is there any falsification test in your religion? Is there anything in your religion that would prove you are wrong if I could prove to you that it exists - anything?" Well, I can promise right now that people will not have anything - no test, no proof, nothing! This is because they do not carry around the idea that they should not only present what they believe but should also offer others a chance to prove they're wrong. However, Islam does that.
A perfect example of how Islam provides man with a chance to verify it authenticity and "prove it wrong" occurs in the 4th chapter. And quiet honestly, I was very surprised when I first discovered this challenge. It states (Surah An-Nisa, 4:82):
"Do they not consider the Qur'an? Had it been from any other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy."This is a clear challenge to the non-Muslim. Basically, it invites him to find a mistake. As a matter of fact, the seriousness and difficulty of the challenge aside, the actual presentation of such a
challenge in the first place is not even in human nature and is inconsistent with man's personality. One doesn't take an exam in school and after finishing the exam, write a note to the instructor at the end saying, "This exam is perfect. There are no mistakes in it. Find one if you can!" One just doesn't do that. The teacher would not sleep until he found a mistake! And yet this is the way the Qur'an approaches people.

A Revelation - Abu Lahab
Prophet Muhammad (s) had an uncle by the name of Abu Lahab. This man hated Islam to such an extent that he used to follow the Prophet around in order to discredit him. If Abu Lahab saw the Prophet (s) speaking to a stranger, he would wait until they parted and the would go to the stranger and ask him, "What did he tell you? Did he say, 'Black'? Well, it's white. Did he say 'morning'? Well, it's night." He faithfully said the exact opposite of whatever he heard
Muhammad (s) and the Muslims say. However, about ten years before Abu Lahab died, a little chapter in the Qur'an (Surah al-Lahab, 111) was revealed about him. It distinctly stated that he would go to the fire (i.e., Hell). In other words, it affirmed that he would never become a Muslim and would therefore be condemned forever. For ten years all Abu Lahab had to do was say, "I heard that it has been revealed to Muhammad that I will never change - that I will never become a Muslim and will enter the Hellfire. Well, I want to become Muslim now. How do you like that? What do you think of your divine revelation now?" But he never did that. And yet, that is exactly the kind of behavior one would have expected from him since he always sought to contradict Islam. In essence, Muhammad (s) said, "You hate me and you want to finish me? Here, say these words, and I am finished. Come on, say them!" But Abu Lahab never said them. Ten years! And in all that time he never accepted Islam or even became sympathetic to the Islamic cause. How could Muhammad (s) possibly have known for sure that Abu Lahab would fulfil the Qur'anic revelation if he (i.e., Muhammad) was not truly the messenger of Allah? How could he possibly have been so confident as to give someone 10 years to discredit his claim of prophethood? The only answer is that he was Allah's messenger; for in order to put forth such a risky challenge, one has to be entirely convinced that he has a divine revelation.

Answer 3

Today we can look at a globe and know that the earth is somewhat like a ball, a sphere. The Qur'an makes certain statements that led Muslim scientists to understand long before their European counterparts that the earth is spherical. When Europe was in the dark ages thinking that the earth was flat, Muslim students were using globes for studying the earth in Islamic universities.

Since it was not the purpose of the Qur'an to teach science, the Qur'an did not need to state explicitly that the earth is spherical in shape (or more precisely, a geoid). But some of what the Qur'an says stimulates you to think of the world as a globe. Take, for example, the following verse: "Have you not seen how God merges the night into the day and merges the day into the night?" (Qur'an 31:29).

Another verse tells us that God coils the day and night around: "He coils the night upon the day and He coils the day upon the night" (Qur'an 39:5).

The word 'coils' in the verse above is a translation of the Arabic verb kawwara which is used in describing the action of coiling a turban around the head. To understand this statement fully, readers of the Qur'an had to think of the earth as a sphere.

To fully appreciate the above two statements in the Qur'an, try this experiment at home: You need a flashlight and a globe. Take these items into a dark room. Using the flashlight to simulate the light of the sun, shine the light upon the globe. Notice that only one half of the globe is lighted up. The other half is in darkness. Half the world is having day, the other half is having night. Now, recall that the earth is continuously rotating on its axis and will go around completely in twenty four hours. Slowly turn the globe around to simulate this rotation. Notice that as the globe turns, the day is going around the globe to light up the other half of the world. The night is also going around the globe to give rest to the other half of the world.

The day and night are perpetually coiling around the earth with some degree of interpenetration. This is exactly how it appears to astronauts during their space flights.

Dr. Bucaille makes the following remark: "This process of perpetual coiling, including the interpenetration of one sector by another, is expressed in the Qur'an just as if the concept of the earth's roundness had already been conceived at the time—which was obviously not the case." (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 165).

How do we explain the presence of this knowledge in the Qur'an? This obviously did not reflect the level of learning of the time, but was helpful in stimulating Muslim scientists to conceive of the earth in its real shape.

Answer 4

Religion fascinates me because of all the most promising human affairs it is the most miserable failure. It fascinates me because the authentic religious impulse is so different from the outcome when the outcome is religious. It also fascinates me that a few atheists and most any theists argue so bitterly about who is right when both arguments are only just consciousness hijacking life from the palm of the hand. But I have to give hats off the the fundamentalist theists for being the most absurdly backassward - even given that is still only just consciousness. Religion fascinates me because it is so utterly seductive that it can convince a Zen priest (some of them anyway) that she/he does not teach religion, when it would actually be OK if they did - provided they were up front about it.!

Answer 5

It's a pity that the Earth is not egg-shaped. An egg is prolate ellipsoid while the Earth is oblate spheroid. Going through any religious text written without knowledge of the world, you will find some things that are right, some that can be made right by force, and some that are dead wrong.

Answer 6

it's not like people knew absolutely nothing about science in 600 ad. the knowledge in the quran is mostly unremarkable for its time, and some of it is plainly wrong. it's written in rather vague poetic language and open to many interpretations, so it's no wonder that some of it seems prophetic, but there's no reason to think this is more than chance. it's no better or worse than the bible, i would say.

Answer 7

Hey dear. Instead of copy n pasting the whole thing I found a couple of articles.. which are very easy to read and to understand that talk about the various scientific facts in the Quran ranging from the atmosphere, to the fetus even to creationism. This is a great cite. I'm sure you will find it very informative. And you are welcome to e-mail me anytime as well.

http://www.islamreligion.com/category/122/

Answer 8

* The fact that the earth was a sphere was discovered many centuries earlier
* The earth is much closer to a perfect sphere than to an egg
* According to the quran, the stars were made as missiles for throwing at devils.

Answer 9

The Bible, which was written long before the qur'an, has a lot of scientific pre-knowledge.

http://www.creationists.org/foreknowledge.html

Answer 10

[It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof [are] as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

Isaiah wrote this around 700 BC.