Prepared by Sabqat Mansoor (sabqat@gmail.com) for his friend and co-student Henrik Nowak, from various Internet resources.

V0.2.

The Quran and Modern Science

Key Point

The key point in this document:

Muslims claim the Quran was revealed 1400 years ago to Muhammad (peace be upon
him). It is pertinent to note the significance of the absence of any description anywhere in
the Book that might highlight the beliefs of the times when it was sent down, rather than
fundamental scientific truths as discovered in modern times. This is just a claim till we
prove it; let’s investigate more.

Let’s apply the barometer of modern science to the Quran.

This document aims to present some data on this.

Methodology

Proposed methodology to beginning the study of the Quran:

1. Step1:
a. There are so many details in the Quran to discuss. One way to simplify the
equation is to take a step back, and see if there can be any way to establish that
the Quran’s author is God (having intellect and compassion far greater than us).
If this can somehow be shown, then our ability to trust the systems in the Quran
would grow. So before getting into any details, let’s see whether the Quran is
special. One way (used in this document) is to put the Quran to the test of
science.
i. Understand and discuss this document
ii. Get more details/other points
iii. See what anti-Islam sites say about these and similar points to ensure we
don’t blindly agree to something’s greatness without seeing what the
opponents are saying
iv. Reconfirm after point c above if any criticism is valid
2. Step2:
a. Pick some important problems that confront man today, and compare how the
best societies have solved them versus how the Quran solves them
3. Step3:
a. Study Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) life
i. From a secular perspective
ii. From a religious perspective
Introduction

Muslims believe the Quran to the be the literal word of God, revealed primarily through
Angel Gabriel to Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on him, in the 7 th century AD, in
Makkah and Medina, present day Saudi Arabia. Muhammad was illiterate, and an orphan,
but of noble birth. His life history is unique because it was not documented by one man or
two, but by thousands of his companions. An interesting study would be to delve into the
life and achievements of Muhammad’s life, even if one does not regard him as a Prophet.

One of the claimed purposes of the Quran is to give mankind guidance on how to live.
However since it claims to be the literal word of God, which is quite a significant claim, it
has to set a level in its content that helps readers identify it as such. Thus the Quran
contains many things to help someone identify it as the book of God, and these range from
the vocabulary of the Quran, to the style of the Quran, and so on including scientific
‘miracles’.

(Quran 2:2-3) This is the Scripture whereof there is no doubt, a Guidance unto those who are
conscious of Allah. Who believe in the Unseen, and establish worship, and spend of that We
have bestowed upon them;

A test the Quran itself announces for itself:

(Quran 4:82) Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? If it had been from [any] other than
Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction.

What does the Quran do?

1. It is not a book of science. It claims to be a book of signs; signs of the Almighty’s

omnipotence.
2. It encourages science, and thinking by repeatedly calling people to ponder over the
stars, the earth, our own creation etc.
3. It makes a commentary about several natural phenomenon, and things in the universe
(stars, sun/moon, mountains) as well as topics like creation, sometimes getting into
specific details. Yet the amazing thing is that there are no conflicts therein with modern
science. No incorrect scientific beliefs from 1400 years ago (and there could have been
several) have found a way into the Book. The choice of vocabulary is so amazing; the
Bedouin from 1400 years ago understood these verses to the limit of his own intellect,
and yet today’s man can refer to them and find amazing correlation with his modern
scientific discoveries.

To illustrate this, imagine if today someone had to make definitive statements about a
phenomenon we do not fully know about, like the causes of cancer, or the reason
babies get colic, or how many planets there are in the solar system, the risk would be
 high that within 50, 60 or 100 years, his statements would be proven false. This has
been observed for example, for the Bible present in the world today.

(Quran 10:38) Or do they say, "He forged it"? Say: "Bring then a Sura/Chapter like unto it,
and call (to your aid) anyone you can besides Allah, if it be ye speak the truth!"

Some statements:

Here, we present only a small subset of the verses in the Quran dealing with what we today
understand through science. I have tried to add as few comments as possible so as to not
make this preachy. However let’s discuss any details/concerns/questions.

Note: There can be no ‘stepping on the toes’ in this. Please feel free to ask any
questions/more info frankly and openly. 

No. Name Science Quran Ayah/Verses

1. Universe; http://science.nasa.gov/astrop 21:30 “Have those who disbelieved
Creation hysics/focus-areas/what- not considered that the
powered-the-big-bang/ heavens and the earth were a
joined entity, and We
separated them…”
2. Universe; After the Big Bang, science says 41:11 Then turned He to the heaven
Interstellar there was interstellar smoke when it was smoke, and said
smoke that eventually cooled down to unto it and unto the earth:
form stars. Come both of you, willingly or
loth. They said: We come,
obedient.
3. Universe; Edwin Hubble discovered that 51:47 And the heaven We
Expansion the universe is expanding in constructed with strength,
1924 and indeed, We are steadily
expanding it.
4. Universe; The sun/moon/planets are all 21:33 And He it is Who created the
Orbits in orbit and moving. night and the day, and the sun
and the moon. They float,
each in an orbit.
36:40 It is not for the sun to
overtake the moon, nor doth
the night outstrip the day.
They float each in an orbit
6. Creation; Pairs Science? 36:36 Exalted is He who created all
pairs (Sabqat adds for
Could it mean: clarification: a pair includes
Electrons paired with neutron man and wife, as well as day
 Matter paired with anti-matter
Day paired with night
Male paired with female
10. Sun and Moon Some stars have erratic orbits,
but sun and the moon have
constant ones.
13. Sun end Modern data allow us to
predict that, in a few billion
years, the conditions prevailing
in the solar system will not be
the same as they are today.
and night type combinations)-
from what the earth grows
and from themselves and
from that which they do not
know.
13:3 And it is He who spread the
earth and placed therein
firmly set mountains and
rivers; and from all of the
fruits He made therein two
mates
51:49 And of everything We
created pairs, that possibly
you would be mindful.
20:53 "(God is the One Who) sent
water down from the sky and
thereby brought forth pairs of
plants each separate from the
other."
13:2 Allah it is Who … compelled
the sun and the moon to be of
service, each runneth unto an
appointed term; He ordereth
the course; He detaileth the
revelations, that haply ye may
be certain of the meeting with
your Lord.
14:33 And maketh the sun and the
moon, constant in their
courses, to be of service unto
you, and hath made of service
unto you the night and the
day
21:33 And He it is Who created the
night and the day, and the sun
and the moon. They float,
each in an orbit
81:1 When the sun (with its
spacious light) is folded up
(Sabqat adds for clarification:
like a turban is folded)
 Like other stars whose
transformations have been
recorded until they reached
their final stage, science
predicts an end to the Sun
where its energy will literally
get ‘folded up’.
The sun is moving towards the
constellation Hercules (a place
modern science calls the solar
apex) at 12mph. Furthermore,
it is a matter of time before it
turns into a white dwarf and
dies.
15. Sun and moon The light of the moon is
difference reflected light, while that of
the sun is its own.
16. Earth; Turning The Sun permanently lights up
Around its Axis (except in the case of an
eclipse) the half of the Earth's
surface that is facing it, while
the other half of the globe is in
darkness. The Earth turns on its
own axis and the lighting
remains
the same, so that an area in
the form of a half-sphere
makes one revolution around
the Earth in twenty-four hours
while the other half-sphere,
that has remained in darkness,
makes the same revolution in
the same time. Thus there is a
perpetual rotation of night and
day.
(Sabqat: imagine the
probability of things that
could have been said here,
but that would’ve been
wrong)
36:38 And the sun runneth on unto
a resting-place/time (Sabqat
adds: Arabic word is same for
both) for him. That is the
measuring of the Mighty, the
Wise.
71:16 And hath made the moon a
light therein, and made the
sun a lamp?
(Sabqat adds: This is a very
interesting verse. In several
places in the Quran, the sun is
called a lamp. The moon is
never called by that name,
implying a difference in the
light of the two (one is its own
light, the other’s is derived
light))
39:5 ". . . He coils the night upon the
day and He coils the day upon
the night."
(Sabqat adds: Notice that instead
of coils, so any other words
could have been used to say the
night comes after the day)
17. Water cycle Bernard Palissy in 1580 AD
discovered that underground
water came from rain. The
earlier ‘scientific’ view had
been that underground water
came from sea water being
pushed under the continents.
18. Atmosphere Science: Oxygen is limited as
and Oxygen we go up in the sky.
19. King’s title at Bible refers to the king at the
the time of time of Joseph as Pharaoh.
Joseph http://bibleverses4u.org/genes
is-39
However modern research has
shown that the Dynasty ruling
Egypt at the time of Joseph
(established from discovery of
Egyptian texts, and Biblical and
Jewish history) did not use the
title Pharaoh.
20. Human Fertilization of the egg and
reproduction: reproduction are produced by
Sperm a cell that is very elongated: its
dimensions are measured in
ten thousandths of a
millimetre. In normal
conditions, only one single cell
among several tens of millions
produced by a man will actually
penetrate the ovule; a large
number of them are left behind
and never complete the
journey which leads from the
vagina to the ovule, passing
through the uterus and
Fallopian tubes. It is therefore
an infinitesimally small part of
the extract from a liquid whose
composition is highly complex
23:18- We sent down water from the
19 sky in measure and lodged it in
the ground. And We certainly
are able to withdraw it.
6:125 "Those whom God wills to guide,
He opens their breast to Islam.
Those whom He wills lose their
way, He makes their breast
narrow and constricted, as if
they were climbing with great
effort (Sabqat: great effort –
planes? Rockets?) in the sky."
http://www.islamic-
awareness.org/Quran/Contra
d/External/josephdetail.html
Note: The Quran refers to the
Egyptian Monarch at the time of
Moses as Pharaoh, but calls the
Monarch at the time of Jospeh as
‘King’.
75:36- Thinketh man that he is to be left
37 aimless? Was he not a
drop/small quantity of
fluid/sperm that gushed forth?
Note: Only a small quantity of the
seminal fluid discharged leads to
pregnancy.
16:4 He has created man from a
drop/small quantity of sperm;
and behold this same (man)
becomes an open disputer!
Note: Only a small quantity of the
seminal fluid discharged leads to
pregnancy.
8:32 "(God) made his progeny from
the ‘sulala’ of a despised liquid."
 which actually fulfills its (Sulala in arabic signifies
function. What the naked eye 'something which is extracted’ or
sees is a lot of fluid being ‘the best part of a thing'. In
ejected. whatever way it is translated, it
refers to a part of a whole)
Spermatic liquid is formed by 76:2 Verily We created Man from a
various secretions which come drop of mingled sperm
from the following
glands:
a) The testicles: the secretion
of the male genital gland
contains spermatozoons, which
are elongated cells with a long
flagellum; they are bathed in a
sero-fluid liquid.
b) The seminal vesicles: These
organs are reservoirs of
spermatozoons and are placed
near the prostate gland; they
also secrete their own liquid
but it does not contain any
fertilizing agents.
c) The prostate gland: this
secretes a liquid which gives
the sperm its creamy texture
and characteristic odor.
d) The glands annexed to the
urinary tract: Cooper's or
Méry's glands secrete a stringy
liquid and Littré's glands give
off mucous.
24. Human The sex is determined by the 53:45- That He did create in pairs,- male
reproduction: chromosomes in the male 46 and female. (Sabqat: Note that
Gender sperm. The male sperm lodges here, to restrict ‘pair’ to only
in the female ovary to fertilize male and female, the words
the egg. make and female have
specifically been used in the
The Y chromosome carries Quran)
characteristics of masculinity, From a seed when lodged (in its
while the X chromosome place);
carries those of femininity. In
the mother's egg, there is only (Sabqat adds: i.e. sex of a child is
the X chromosome, which determined by the sperm, and that
determines female the sperm lodges in a place/ovary to
characteristics. In the semen fertilize the egg)
from the father, there are 23:13 Then We placed (man) as a small
sperms that include either X or quantity (of sperm) in a safe
Y chromosomes. Therefore, the lodging firmly established."
 sex of the baby depends on
whether the sperm fertilizing
the egg contains an X or Y
chromosome. In other words,
as stated in the verse, the
factor determining the sex of
the baby is the semen, which
comes from the father.
26. Human When the sperm of the male
reproduction: unites with the ovum of the
Stages female, the essence of the
baby to be born is formed. This
single cell, known as a "zygote"
in biology, will instantly begin
reproducing by dividing. The
zygote clearly ‘clings’ to the
wall of the uterus of the
mother to derive its
nourishment, (and is destroyed
if it cannot cling while passing
through the uterus) much like a
leech. Eventually it becomes
what looks under the
microscope like a "piece of
flesh" that looks like a lump.
71:13- What aileth you that ye hope not
14 toward Allah for dignity When
He created you by (diverse)
stages?
23:14 Then fashioned We the
drop/sperm into something that
clings (Arabic: alaq means
something that clings, like a
leech), then fashioned We the
alaq a chewed lump of flesh
(arabic: mudghata), then
fashioned We the little lump
bones, then clothed the bones
with flesh, and then produced it
as another creation. So blessed
be Allah, the Best of creators!

This is a discovery of modern

times.

Lastly these observations at the

microscopic level show that the
development inside the
mother's womb takes place in
just the way it is described in
these verses. First, the cartilage
tissue of the embryo ossifies
(bones). Then, muscular cells
that are selected from amongst
the tissue around the bones
come together and wrap
around the bones.

Please consult any

books/doctors you prefer to
further understand the medical
view on this. This topic is
covered in detail by Dr.
 Maurice Bucaille’s book on
Quran, Bible and Science (a
senior French doctor who
converted to Islam).
28. Iron According to modern science,
the source of iron in earth’s
crust is meteors. That iron is
not native to the earth or solar
system (there is no iron in the
Sun). In fact it is iron that
settled at the core of the earth
and helped it solidify from a
gaseous state.
29. 23 years of Many battles took place, the
gradual Prophet had enemies who
revelation of tried to kill him, he was
the Quran poisoned etc.
57:25 And We sent down iron,
wherein is great military
might and benefits for the
people
(Sabqat: imagine the
probability of things that
could have been said here
instead of iron, but that
would’ve been wrong)
5:3 (Sabqat adds: The Prophet,
may Peace be on him, did not
leave this world till the Quran
was completed:)
“This day have I perfected
your religion for you and
completed My favor unto
you, and have chosen for you
as religion Islam”
Appendix A

Arabic vocabulary

Multiple meaning words in English:

- Go and wait for me at the bank.

o This can mean:
 Wait for me at the river bank
 Wait for me at a bank that deals with money
o It cannot mean ‘wait for me at the shoe store’
- Bring me a light bag
o This can mean:
 bring me a bag that is not heavy
 bring me a bag that is not dark in (color)
o This cannot mean ‘bring me a muffin’. Also light can mean a torch, or a cigarette, but
those meanings do not fit here either.

In Arabic vocabulary, words are created this way generally:

A root (not a word itself) -> Different patterns exist that this root is molded into -> Different tenses,
different parts of the speech etc

Example:

NZL is a root which means ‘send down’. If this root appears in one particular pattern (aNZaLna), its
meaning is to ‘send down in one go’. If it appears in another pattern (taNaZaLu), it means ‘to send down
progressively or in stages’.

The Quran was revealed in the Arabic language. The Arabic of the Quran (today called Fus-ha Arabic) is
still alive, and in use as the official language in the Arab world, spoken, written, understood by millions.
There are no two versions of the Arabic Quran. Translators have long been at work taking the Quran’s
message to different languages, but a translation is not that the Quran itself; the Quran is only in Arabic.
Almost all translations you see, therefore, will be labeled something like ‘A translation of the meaning of
the Quran’. This is easy to understand; someone can translate Shakespeare or Wordsworth into Danish,
but while it would convey the content, would it be the same as reading their works in the original
English?

Within translations, translators have used their own intellect and abilities to find the right word in the
target language. With time, as human knowledge of different things improves, people have understood
the Quran better, and translations have improved. But note per the explanation about the language
above that no one can put in a meaning that does not exist there; afterall Arabic dictionaries exist and
anyone can verify that a given meaning is correct. This is in fact a beauty of the Book that it uses words
that did not startle the readers from centuries ago, and allowed them to make the best use of the Book,
but also allows the readers of today to be awed by its agreement with modern knowledge.