FROM A GASEOUS MASS TO THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH Concerning the creation of the heavens and the earth, the Quran says that prior to the creation, the Heaven was smoke. God then commanded it and the earth to come into being and they came willingly (see surah 41:1 1). How does that compare with modern scientific explanations? Let us hear a scientific explanation and then judge for ourselves. The French scientist Dr. Maurice Bucaille in his book called The Bible, the Quran and Science explains: At the earliest time it can provide us with, modern science has every reason to maintain that the universe was formed from a gaseous mass principally composed of hydrogen and a certain amount of helium that was slowly rotating (p.147). (Big Bang Theory) Didnt the Quran say that the Heaven was smoke before its creation? Dr. Bucaille explains the connection between his description and that of the Quran as follows: Smoke is generally made up of a gaseous substratum, plus, in more or less stable suspension, fine particles that may belong to solid and even liquid states of matter at high or low temperature (p. 143). He therefore sees no contradiction of the Quranic use of the Arabic word dukhan (translated smoke) and a modern interpretation of that word as a gaseous mass with fine particles when speaking of the formation of the universe. We notice here two remarkable features of the Quran. The first feature is that it expresses scientific truths that will be verified many centuries later. The second feature is that the Quran expresses those truths using terms and expressions that would avoid confusing its first readers in the seventh century. The seventh century reader of the Quran can easily relate to the image of smoke, and the twentieth century scientist can easily interpret the word as a gaseous mass. TOP AVOIDING THE MISTAKES OF GENESIS As we saw in chapter 2, both the Quran and modern science confirm that the heavens and the earth were created simultaneously, having been separated from a primary nebula. It is important to understand that the Bible, the most famous record of the creation prior to the Quran gives a sequence for the creation of the heavens and the earth that is today found unacceptable from a scientific standpoint. If the Quran was the work of human beings it is difficult to imagine how they could have avoided the human errors so firmly fixed in the minds of people from the previous records. In the Bible, in Genesis, chapter 1, we read that God created light which He called day, and separated it from the darkness which He called night (see v. 3). Today we know that the alternation of day and night is caused by the earths movement in relation to the sun. But, according to Genesis, the sun was not created until the fourth day (see v. 16). So how could day and night alternate before that? A related problem is that vegetation is created on the third day (see vv. 11-12) whereas the sun which is necessary for sustaining vegetation does not appear until the fourth day. What is totally untenable says Dr. Bucaille, is that a highly organized vegetable kingdom with reproduction by seed could have appeared before the existence of the sun (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 42). We have already seen that the Quran states, and modern science confirms, that the heavens and the earth were formed together. Dr. Bucaille explains as follows: Earth and moon emanated, as we know, from their original star, the sun. To place the creation of the sun and moon after the creation of the earth is contrary to the most firmly established ideas on the formation of the elements of the solar system (p. 42). By giving a sequence in which the sun and moon are created after the creation of the earth, the Genesis account proves erroneous. On the other hand, the Quran, by speaking of the simultaneous creation of the heavens and the earth, has judiciously avoided the errors of the Genesis account. Could the Quran have been authored by a human? No! Dr. Bucaille asks: How could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have made corrections to the existing description to such an extent that he eliminated scientifically inaccurate material and, on his own initiative, made statements that science has only in the present day been able to verify? (p.151). (Dr. Bucaille was not born a muslim, but after reading the Quran and seeing how the Quran goes in such details into Science he converted to Islam.) Maaschallah May Allah guid Those who are guided for ever and guid Those who are not guided Ameen
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 05:09:00 +0000
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