The topic of Islam and science is a widely debated topic between Ex-muslim Atheists and their fellow muslims, But as a former muslim, I had to look up that topic carefully before i decide to leave Islam.
Muslim clerics ohave claimed that Mohammed have mentioned some scientific facts before they were discovered by the modern scientists, But is that claim any where near the truth? lets find out by taking a look at some of their examples :
First alleged miracle : Surat alnaml 27:88 "And you see the mountains, you think them to be solid, and they shall pass away as the passing away of the cloud-- the handiwork of Allah Who has made every thing thoroughly; surely He is Aware of what you do."
Muslims claim that mohammed meant to tell about the movement of the earth when he wrote this verse, and unfortunately, they sound very confident when they say it, but this verse was completely taken out of context, to fully understand what mohammed meant, lets look at the surrounding verses
Verse 87 : "And on the day when the trumpet shall be blown (aka: the judgement day), then those who are in the heavens and those who are in the earth shall be terrified except such as Allah please, and all shall come to him abased."
Verse 88 : "And you see the mountains, you think them to be solid, and they shall pass away as the passing away of the cloud-- the handiwork of Allah Who has made every thing thoroughly; surely He is Aware of what you do."
Verse 89 : "Whoever brings good, he shall have better than it; and they shall be secure from terror on the day."
So, As we can see Mohammed meant that the mountains will move on the alleged day of judgment Not in our times, and he made it clear in another verse:
Surat alkahf 18:47 :" And the day on which We will cause the mountains to pass away and you will see the earth a levelled plain and We will gather them and leave not any one of them behind."
Second alleged miracle : Surat Yasen 36:38 "And the sun runs on to a term appointed for it; that is the ordinance of the Mighty, the Knowing."
Although its clear that this verse brings up a very awful scientific mistake, muslims have claimed that it meant to be "a great scientific miracle" Because scientists have recently found out that the sun actually "moves" as it "run" toward something, but did mohammed talk about the the old belief that the earth is flat and the sun run around it, or was he talking about the nearly-discovered fact ? lets find out by looking up mohammed's own explanation of this verse from the hadith :
Narrated by Abuthar Alghafary : I was sitting with the prophet on the mosque, And when the sun was taking off, he said : O abouthar, Do you know where the sun goes ?, I said : Only Allah and his prophet know, he said : It goes to Allah and prostrate to him, then it asks him the permission to come back (to earth) and he allows it, As if he said : go back to where you came from, Then it takes off from where it laid, And that's its distension"
Narrator : Abuthar Alghafary , Told by : Al bukhary , Source : The book of "The Whole True" , Summary rating : True and confirmed hadith
Third alleged miracle : did Allah mention that the earth is egg-shaped ? according to every version of the quran : No!, According to muslim clerics : Yes!, but since muslims claim that the english quran have mis-translated the verse, I will prove my point by using the original arabic quran along with the english version of it, first, what did the english translations of the quran say about the verse 79:30 from Surat alnaziat :
Shakir 79:30 : And the earth, He expanded it after that.
yusufali 79:30 : And the earth, moreover, hath He extended (to a wide expanse);
Pickthal 79:30 : And after that He spread the earth,
Al-Hilali 79:30 : And after that He spread the earth;
Its clear that this verse didn't imply at any stage that the earth is egg-shaped, but lets look at the original Arabic version of the quran,
79:30 : والأرض بعد ذلك دحاها
Muslims claim the the word "دحاها" (Dahaha) came from the word "دحوة" (Dahwa) which means the egg of the ostrich, to see if they were right, lets look at the explanation of the word in every Arabic language dictionary :
المحيط Al-Muheet :
دحاها : بسطها
Translation : Made it flat
الغني Al-Ghani :
دحاها : بسطها
Translation : Made it flat
الوسيط Al-Waseet :
دحاها : بسطها ووسعها
Translation : Expanded it and made it flat
-End of the quotations from the arabic dictionaries-
So, As we see, there is no single scientific miracle in the quran or the hadith, on the other hand, there are hundreds of scientific mistakes, which we will discuss in a future articles.
Yasser
