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Scientific Miracles in the Quran: Difference between revisions
→The Big Bang: Added in Al-Jallad's point that the context for Q21:30 covers the contemporary pre-scientific opponents are already in agreement with both ideas so cannot be considered true scientific miracles.
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(→The Big Bang: Added in Al-Jallad's point that the context for Q21:30 covers the contemporary pre-scientific opponents are already in agreement with both ideas so cannot be considered true scientific miracles.) |
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Below are the most-often discussed of the many so-called scientific miracles of the Quran | Below are the most-often discussed of the many so-called scientific miracles of the Quran | ||
===The Big Bang=== | ===The Big Bang (the Earth was split from the Heavens)=== | ||
Many modern Islamic scholars have argued that {{Quran|21|30}} describes the Big Bang. Historians, by contrast, have shown that the verse describes a version of [https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/epic/hd_epic.htm Mesopotamian mythology] which continued into late antiquity. According to the archetype of the myth, the Earth and heaven were united, then were split apart to become the Earth below and heaven above. | Many modern Islamic scholars have argued that {{Quran|21|30}} describes the Big Bang. Historians, by contrast, have shown that the verse describes a version of [https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/epic/hd_epic.htm Mesopotamian mythology] which continued into late antiquity. According to the archetype of the myth, the Earth and heaven were united, then were split apart to become the Earth below and heaven above. | ||
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A version of the Mesopotamian myth is sustained even in late antique Syriac Christian homilies, where commentators such as Ephrem (d. 373 CE) expound on the Biblical Genesis story of the waters above and waters below being separated when the firmament is created.<ref name="EphremGenesis" /> See also the quotes from Ephrem in the section [[Scientific_Miracles_in_the_Quran#Every living thing from water|Every living thing from water]] below regarding the water part of {{Quran|21|30}} in the creation context. | A version of the Mesopotamian myth is sustained even in late antique Syriac Christian homilies, where commentators such as Ephrem (d. 373 CE) expound on the Biblical Genesis story of the waters above and waters below being separated when the firmament is created.<ref name="EphremGenesis" /> See also the quotes from Ephrem in the section [[Scientific_Miracles_in_the_Quran#Every living thing from water|Every living thing from water]] below regarding the water part of {{Quran|21|30}} in the creation context. | ||
It is also worth highlighting the context of the polemical verse (Q21:30) in that it is clear the point being disputed by the opponents is not that the Earth and sky were split apart (or all living things are made from water), but rather ''the contemporary (and pre-scientific) Arabic pagans were already in agreement with this'';<ref name=":0">Ahmad Al-Jallad, ''[https://academic.oup.com/jss/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jss/fgaf012/8129546?utm_source=authortollfreelink&utm_campaign=jss&utm_medium=email&guestAccessKey=3263d58f-6955-46c6-84a8-e0af7e4edcd9&login=false Ancient Allah: An Epigraphic Reconstruction,] pp.46.'' Journal of Semitic Studies, 2025;, fgaf012, <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgaf012</nowiki></ref> therefore negating this as a scientific miracle. The point being made here is rather that the knowing this makes their rejection of his message of God's abilities (e.g. of resurrection) the more confusing.<ref name=":0" /> Al-Jallad (2025) notes that therefore the motifs of the Earth/sky split may not have come from Judeo-Christian traditions, but rather both them and the native Arab religion from a common source just as found in ancient Mesopotamia/Near East cosmological myths.<ref>Ahmad Al-Jallad, ''[https://academic.oup.com/jss/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jss/fgaf012/8129546?utm_source=authortollfreelink&utm_campaign=jss&utm_medium=email&guestAccessKey=3263d58f-6955-46c6-84a8-e0af7e4edcd9&login=false Ancient Allah: An Epigraphic Reconstruction,]'' pp. 46 & further evidence is cited in Ibid. pp. 4 where he notes the verb for 'to create' ''khalaqa'' etymology's relation to splitting suggests this was an ancient ancestral Arabic belief: | |||
''Another clue as to the mythological background of the pre-Islamic Allāh lies in the etymology of the verb ‘to create’ in Arabic, found in the question posed in Q39:38, for example: laʾin saʾalta-hum man ḫalaqa s-samāwāti wa-l-ʾarḍa la-yaqūlunna llāh ‘if you ask them who created the heavens and the earth they unequivocally reply ‘Allāh’.'' | |||
''The verb ḫalaqa with this meaning is unique to Arabic. Its cognates in other languages mean ‘divide, separate’: Syriac ḥəlaq, Hebrew ḥālaq, Sabaic ḫlq, and Minaic ḫlq. <sup>10</sup> The Arabic meaning of the word must have developed from the ancient Near Eastern cosmological myth, in which the creation of the world was accomplished through the ‘dividing’ of pre-existing matter.<sup>11</sup> This concept likely drove the semantic shift through metaphorical extension. Given that this term was understood by Mohammed’s interlocutors as well, it indicates that the semantic shift happened in pre-Islamic times and was not something introduced by the Qurʾān.'' </ref> | |||
===A universe from smoke=== | ===A universe from smoke=== | ||
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Critics of the miracle claim sometimes also point out that the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles had proposed that all living things are made from water, among other substances<ref>Frag. B17, (Simplicius, ''Physics'', 157-159)</ref>, and Thales of Miletus taught that the originating principle of everything including life is water.<ref>[https://iep.utm.edu/thales/#H5 Thales of Miletus] - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy</ref> | Critics of the miracle claim sometimes also point out that the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles had proposed that all living things are made from water, among other substances<ref>Frag. B17, (Simplicius, ''Physics'', 157-159)</ref>, and Thales of Miletus taught that the originating principle of everything including life is water.<ref>[https://iep.utm.edu/thales/#H5 Thales of Miletus] - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy</ref> | ||
Just as with the above [[Scientific Miracles in the Quran#The Big Bang|big bang alleged miracle]], it is worth noting that the context these ideas (all living things being made from water, and the Earth and skies being split) raised in in Q21:30 are that the contemporary (and pre-scientific - somewhat negating the idea that this is a scientific miracle) Arab pagans are already in agreement with Muhammad on them.<ref name=":0" /> Rather the polemical point being made here is that given God can do these things then why would they question God's power for e.g. resurrection, not disputing the common motifs themselves. | |||
===Black holes and pulsars=== | ===Black holes and pulsars=== | ||
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We see similar exegesis occuring a number of times in the midrash Tanhuma, a name given to three texts, of which the relevant one is the Yelammedenu (also known as Tanhuma B), though also occuring in later texts such as Exodus Rabba. The earliest date for the final redactive layer of the Tanhuma Yelammedenu is the eigth or nineth century CE.<ref>[https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Introduction?lang=bi Midrash Tanchuma introduction] - Sefaria.org</ref> However, its first phase seems to have existed by the sixth century.<ref>Myron B. Lerner, "The works of Aggadic Midrash and Esther Midrashim" in Eds. Sefrai et. al. (2006) [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Aed5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 The literature of the Sages: Second Part] Netherlands: Royal van Gorcum and Fortress Press, p.150</ref> Generally newer research, however, has shown that a good chunck of the material in Midrash Tanhuma can be said to be pre-Islamic in their nature. <ref>Bregman, M. (2021). A Bibliographical Survey of Tanhuma- Yelammedenu Research: Past, Present, and Future. In Nikolsky, R. & Atzmon, A. (eds.) "Studies in the Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature" Brill. p. 25.</ref> | We see similar exegesis occuring a number of times in the midrash Tanhuma, a name given to three texts, of which the relevant one is the Yelammedenu (also known as Tanhuma B), though also occuring in later texts such as Exodus Rabba. The earliest date for the final redactive layer of the Tanhuma Yelammedenu is the eigth or nineth century CE.<ref>[https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Introduction?lang=bi Midrash Tanchuma introduction] - Sefaria.org</ref> However, its first phase seems to have existed by the sixth century.<ref>Myron B. Lerner, "The works of Aggadic Midrash and Esther Midrashim" in Eds. Sefrai et. al. (2006) [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Aed5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 The literature of the Sages: Second Part] Netherlands: Royal van Gorcum and Fortress Press, p.150</ref> Generally newer research, however, has shown that a good chunck of the material in Midrash Tanhuma can be said to be pre-Islamic in their nature. <ref>Bregman, M. (2021). A Bibliographical Survey of Tanhuma- Yelammedenu Research: Past, Present, and Future. In Nikolsky, R. & Atzmon, A. (eds.) "Studies in the Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature" Brill. p. 25.</ref> | ||
Another midrash on this topic from | Another midrash on this topic from the Yelammedenu, occurs in multiple instances in Midrash Tanhuma: | ||
{{Quote|[https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Bereshit.7.12?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Midrash Tanhuma, Bereshit 7:12.] |Observe that everyone who desired to be worshipped as a divine being constructed a palace for himself in the midst of the sea. Pharaoh erected a palace in the midst of the water and dammed up the water of the Nile to keep it from flowing into the Mediterranean."}}{{Quote|1=[https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Vaera.5.6?lang=bi Midrash Tanhuma, Vaera 5:6.]|2=[...] He said to them: “You have been speaking falsehood from the start! For I am the lord of the world, and I created myself and the Nile, as is written: The Nile is mine, I made it (Ezek. 29:3).” At that moment he gathered all the wise men of Egypt, and said to them: “Perhaps you have heard about the god of these?” They said to him: “We have heard that he is the son of wise men and the son of early kings.” The Holy One, blessed be He said: They call themselves wise men, but Me (they call) a son of wise men! [...]}}{{Quote|[https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Vaera.9.1?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Midrash Tanhuma, Vaera 9:1.]|See, I have set thee in God’s stead to Pharaoh (Exod. 7:1). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: The wicked Pharaoh boasts that he is a god. Make him realize that he is an insignificant being. Indeed, I will make you appear as a god to him. Whence do we know that he claimed to be divine? It is said: My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself (Ezek. 29:3). Therefore, he will look at you and say: “Surely this one is god.” | {{Quote|[https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Bereshit.7.12?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Midrash Tanhuma, Bereshit 7:12.] |Observe that everyone who desired to be worshipped as a divine being constructed a palace for himself in the midst of the sea. Pharaoh erected a palace in the midst of the water and dammed up the water of the Nile to keep it from flowing into the Mediterranean."}}{{Quote|1=[https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Vaera.5.6?lang=bi Midrash Tanhuma, Vaera 5:6.]|2=[...] He said to them: “You have been speaking falsehood from the start! For I am the lord of the world, and I created myself and the Nile, as is written: The Nile is mine, I made it (Ezek. 29:3).” At that moment he gathered all the wise men of Egypt, and said to them: “Perhaps you have heard about the god of these?” They said to him: “We have heard that he is the son of wise men and the son of early kings.” The Holy One, blessed be He said: They call themselves wise men, but Me (they call) a son of wise men! [...]}}{{Quote|[https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Vaera.9.1?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Midrash Tanhuma, Vaera 9:1.]|See, I have set thee in God’s stead to Pharaoh (Exod. 7:1). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: The wicked Pharaoh boasts that he is a god. Make him realize that he is an insignificant being. Indeed, I will make you appear as a god to him. Whence do we know that he claimed to be divine? It is said: My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself (Ezek. 29:3). Therefore, he will look at you and say: “Surely this one is god.” | ||