By: Prof. Zaghloul El-Naggar
Professor of Earth sciences, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dahran, Saudi Arabia.

The Miraculous Quran:

The Quran is basically a book of Divine guidance in areas that cannot be covered by the human senses or intellect, such as faith, acts of worship, a moral code and a code that governs the transactions between people. These are the four basic foundations of religion, an area in which man always needs Divine guidance. Besides this religious guidance the Quran contains hundreds of verses that speak of the universe, its components and phenomena such as the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, wind, running water, plants, embryological animals, and the successive stages of development of the human being. More than 1,000 verses relating to cosmic facts or cosmic phenomena can be counted in the Quran. Before discussing some of these Quranic verses that mention our planet, the earth, we have to emphasise the fact that the Quran is the Divine word revealed to the last messenger of Allah, Muhammad (p.b.u.h), more than 14 centuries ago and was revealed in installments, verse by verse or a group of verses. The Prophet (p.b.u.h) used to have a group of scribes entrusted with committing immediately whatever was revealed to him to writing. Those scribes used parchment, pottery, pieces of bone to write on, and the revealed verses were memorised by heart as the mere recitation of the Quran is in itself an act of worship, and as Muslims used these verses in their judgments.

In this manner the verses of the Quran were committed to writing immediately after revelation and were also committed to memory by thousands of Muslims at the time of revelation. In the last year of his noble mission, Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) was ordered by angel Jibreel (alaih al-Salam) to arrange these verses into 114 chapters. The chapters were named by Divine decree, and Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) recited the whole of the Quran in front of Jibreel more than once in the last month of Ramadan in his noble life. No revealed book has ever enjoyed the authenticity of the Quran . No revealed book had the cherishing, reverence, surveillance and care of its followers as the Quran. The Quran has been memorised by thousands of Muslims in the lifetime of Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) and after his departure, his wife Aisha ( may Allah be pleased with her ) was entrusted with this treasure, which she handed to the first caliph, Abu Bakr and then it was handed to the second caliph Umar and finally to the third caliph Uthman. During the reign of Uthman the Arabs came to know the paper industry from China and Uthman entrusted the same scribes who wrote the revealed Quran in the lifetime of Muhammad to make seven copies. Those seven copies were distributed to the various parts of the Islamic Khilafah. At least 3 of those original copies of the Quran are still intact, one in Tashkend, one in Istanbul, and one in Cairo. They do not differ in one letter from the millions of copies of the Quran which are in the hands of people today. This authentication of the last revelation is in itself miraculous. The Quran is the oldest book within the hands of humanity that has been kept intact in exactly the same language of revelation word for word and letter for letter.

That is why the Quran is unique, because it is the word of the Creator in its purest divinity. As Muslims we believe in the authentic original revelation of the Bible, of the Torah and of the Psalms of David, but none of these original revelations is found intact, and none is found in the original language of revelation, and here the Quran stands unique in its divine purity. Again the Quran is different from any human writings because it is neither prose nor poetry. It came to the Arabs when they were at their peak in eloquence and challenged them to produce one single chapter of it or similar to it or to produce ten similar chapters or even a book like it. This challenge still exists today and no challenger is forthcoming.

The early scholars of Quran thought that its miraculous nature was due mainly to its style and beautiful expression. The beauty of expression is really unique and cannot be paralleled by human writings. That is why the early commentators of the Quran concentrated on its eloquence and style. Yet being the word of the Creator, any area that has been covered in the Quran must be unique. If you look at the area of jurisprudence the Quran is unique, in the area of worship, the Quran instructs people how to worship Allah (swt). The concepts of divinity, prophethood, and morality are all unique in the Quran. If we look at the narration of history of previous nations, one after the other, and how they received the Divine message, their reaction towards it and what their reward or punishment was, at a time when there was no form of regular documentation what so ever. The Quran talks about these successive nations without a single mistake, and modern archeological discoveries are a testimony to this.

During the early days of the Quran, scientific knowledge of the universe was limited and it was not easy to elaborate on the verses relating to the universe or its phenomena except within the limitations of the time. However, we now know about the laws of the universe much more than before and that is why reviewing the 1,000 or more verses relating to the cosmos, man and his surroundings, can be one of the most obvious miraculous aspects of the Quran. We can use this as a means of da'wah, a means of inviting people to believe in Allah and to study his final revelation to man, the Quran.

Scientific Commentary versus Scientific Miracles

At the very beginning , I would like to emphasise that there is a big difference between what we call scientific commentary on the Quran and what we address today as scientific miracles of the Quran. By scientific commentary we mean the application of all available correct knowledge in the proper understanding of the meaning of the Quran. We can use all the available information hypotheses theories, facts, laws, etc. since the commentary remains a human effort towards a better understanding of the meanings of the glorious Quran. However , when we speak about scientific miracles in the Quran, we mean the precedence of the Quran ( which was revealed more than 14 centuries ago) with many of the scientific facts at a time when people had no knowledge whatsoever of such facts. The Quran has addressed so many of these facts in a language that is more precise, accurate and concise than scientists have ever been able to do.

In the area of scientific miracles it is virtually impossible for one man to cover all areas from astronomy to embryology. Specialisation is what is required here, and that is why I shall restrict myself to the area of Earth sciences.

Earth Science in the Quran :

The word Earth is mentioned in the Quran more than 460 times and it is mentioned in three different contexts. When the Quran talks about the earth in comparison with heavens, with the moon or the sun or the stars, it means the whole planet earth. When the Quran talks without reference of these planetary bodies it may mean the crust on which we live, the continental masses or what covers that crust of soil. In so doing the Quran describes the earth -its shape, motions and origin, describes mountains, the origin of the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, the darkness at the bottom of the ocean, the darkness in outer space and many of the phenomena which we have just come to know about over the last few years. I have counted more than 300 Quranic verses relating to earth sciences. These cannot be all covered in a short article and hence I have chosen only five simple verses which can testify to the miraculous nature of the Quran from a scientific point of view.

Heaven's Returning Capacity:

We read in surat At-Tariq two verses that are most striking from a geological point of view. "By the Heavens that has the capacity to return; and By the Earth that has its own fractures (or its own faults)" (Q 86 :11-12).

When the early commentators of the Quran tried to explain these two verses . "By the Heaven that has the capacity to return", they said heavens can return rain. Raj'us-sama' is the rain. The thing that returns from heaven is rain and this is absolutely correct. One of the most important phenomena of our existence is what we call the water cycle or the hydrogeological cycle. We know that under the influence of the sun, water is evaporated from open massed like seas and oceans, and rises up in the form of water vapour to the lower level of the atmosphere which is known as the troposphere. This troposphere layer is a distance of 13-15 km. away from the surface of the sea, but this distance varies from one climatic zone to another. Allah has given this zone the characteristic of cooling gradually as we rise up into it.

It becomes cooler and cooler, until it reaches minus 80 degrees Celsius and this is the only means by which the water vapour that is evaporated from the surfaces of oceans and seas is condensed and comes back to earth. Unless this zone of the atmosphere has this cooling characteristic, the water which is evaporated could be lost from the very first moment of its evaporation. Therefore, one of the miraculous aspects of our planet is this water cycle. This is one of the most striking features of what the sky can return to the earth.

We also know that since billions of life forms die in the seas and oceans every minute, stagnation would have occurred without this cycling of water. The water cycle is so precise that it is well balanced between land and sea. The rate of evaporation from seas and oceans is much greater than the rate of rainfall, but on land the reverse is true-the rate of evaporation from continental masses is much less than the rainfall it receives. In this way the loss and gain of water is balanced. This water cycle is one of the most important features of our planet which is also known as the blue planet because it is the only known planet in our solar system that is enriched and endowed with this great mass of water. Yet one would be surprised if the explanation is that the meaning of 'raj' or echo or returning capacity is just water, rain. Why didn't Allah instead say: "was-samaa-i-thaatil matar", "By the heavens or by the sky that returns rain?" Now we understand why, because we have come to realise that in the sky there are successive layers of protection for the earth. These layers return to the earth all useful forms of matter and energy and return to the outer space all harmful forms. Thus , the sky does not only return rain but it returns both inwardly and outwardly. Above the atmosphere is the ozonosphere, the ozone layer. This is a layer in which oxygen is further oxidised (03) and this layer is about 25 km from the surface of the sea. Allah (swt) has radiation that comes to us from the sun and from outer space. Without the absorption of these ultraviolet rays, life on earth would have been impossible . This is a form of "raja" a form of "capacity to return" but returning harmful things to the outer space. We also know that these two layers, the troposphere and ozonosphere reflect to the earth not only rain, but also forms of energy forms of solid particles that are absolutely useful and important for the inhabitation of the earth.

The return to us heat waves that are transmitted from the earth. They return to us solid particles that are responsible for the beautiful daylight we enjoy, by multiple reflections of the sunlight on their outer surfaces. Without these, life would have been impossible on our planet.

Above the ozonosphere we find the ionosphere, an ionised layer that returns to us transmitted radio, television and telecommunication waves which are reflected back to earth.

Without this ionosphere, radio, television and telecommunication would have been virtually impossible. This capacity of the sky to return was never known before the discovery of radio waves.

Above the ionosphere we have what is called the Van Allen Belts, two concentric belts that thin enormously at the two poles and thicken enormously at the equator. These belts expel cosmic particles that travel at fantastic speeds toward the earth and would have been absolutely lethal to life on it. Above the Van Allen Belts is the magnetosphere, a sphere that also acts as a protective barrier to life on earth, expelling the greatest proportion of cosmic particles traveling towards it.

The word "raj" in this verse is therefore truly miraculous since with one word the Quran describes the capacity of the sky to return either to our planet useful forms of matter and energy or return to outer space harmful forms, thereby protecting life on earth. That is why Allah (swt) in his eternal knowledge and wisdom used the word "raj" and not the word rain. "Was-samaa-i-thatir -raj", "By the heavens that have the capacity to return."

The Fractured Earth :

In the second verse: "Wal-ardi thatis -sadi", Allah ( swt) is giving an oath "by the fractured earth". The early commentators on the Quran could not see this, except in the form of fracturing the soil as the plant germinates. Once you place a seed into the soil and water it , a gentle shoot will penetrate the soil growing into a wonderful tree or a beautiful flower or a useful plant. The capacity therefore for the gentle shoot to penetrate the soil is miraculous by itself . However , fracturing the soil by germinating seeds is only one of the numerous aspects of the "fractured earth".

After the second world war, scientists went to the bottom of seas and oceans searching for mineral wealth. To their surprise they found that the deepest parts of oceans were not in the centre as was previously believed, but at its peripheries, and that the shallowest parts of oceans and seas are in the middle. Further study revealed that the outer rocky layer of the earth is fractured by a large number of faults that run north -south and east -west in all directions and that these faults are tens of thousands of kilometers long 60-150 km deep traversing the whole thickness of the rocky sphere of the earth and communicating molten magma below the lithosphere to the bottom of the oceans and seas. From these fractures lava flows out building mountains in the middle of the sea- these are currently known as mid-oceanic ridges. The highest land peak is Mt.Everest, 8,812 m above sea level. We have elevations rising at the bottom of seas and oceans that exceed 11 km.

One of the main features of our planet is its fractured nature. These fractures allow enormous amounts of molten rock to flow out and produce these mid-oceanic ridges. Unless the earth has these fractures that can communicate with the areas of high heat flow below the Earth's crust, life on earth would have been virtually impossible. One wonders how the prophet (s) knew these facts since he (s) never rode the sea. How would he know this unless he was informed by Allah , the Creator. And why does the Quran refer to such unknown facts at the time of its revelation and for centuries to follow unless Allah knows in his eternal knowledge that the time will come when scientists can discover these facts and immediately realise that the Quran is the word of Allah and that Muhammad (s) was the seal of His Prophets and his messengers.

The Sea Set on Fire :

In surat At-Tur (Q 52:6), Allah (swt) swears on oath:

"Wal bahril masjur", "By the sea set on fire". Water and fire are incompatible , water quenches fire and fire causes water to evaporate and it is virtually impossible to have water and fire in one place. Therefore, early commentators on Quran thought in the first instance that the verse probably is referring to akhirah, the last hour, because there is another verse which says: "Waithal - Biharu -sujjirat" translated as : "When the seas will be set on fire". But the context of the oath in surat At-Tur is in relation to things that exist in our present day life. They immediately said that it could not refer to akhirah, and has to refer to our worldly life. They then started looking for another meaning for the word masjur, other than "set to fire". They found in the Arabic language that some of the meanings of "sajjara" means "mala-a wa kaffaa" (it has been filled with water and kept from transgressing on land). This is true because we have many instances in the history of our planet when the seas encroached more on land than they do today. We also know that the maximum amount of fresh water on land is stored in the form of ice caps in the two poles as well as at the peaks of high mountains.

This massive amount of fresh water does not need more than 4-5 degrees Celsius to melt and 4-5 degrees are nothing in the climatic changes of our planet. If these ice caps were made to melt this can raise the water level of seas and oceans by 100 metres or so and would be more than enough to drown most of the present day civilizations which lie very close to shore lines. The commentators thus said that the meaning of "al bahril masjur" is not "the sea set on fire" but "the sea that is filled with water and stopped from transgressing on land". This is correct, but when the scientists went down to study the mid-oceanic ridges they found that they are all composed of volcanic rocks. They also found that the network of fault lines that traverse the planet actually ooze magma at temperatures that exceed 1,000 degrees Celsius resulting in seas and oceans that are actually set on fire. Water boiling to superheated steam at temperatures of 200 degree Celsius or more. This is a fact that came to our knowledge only in the late 60's of this century.

Mountains in the Quran:

Another striking example in the Quran is that relating to mountains. The Quran speaks about mountains in 49 different verses. In one of these verses the Quran describes mountains as pegs or pickets. "And the mountains as pegs (awtaadaa)" (Q 78:7). If we take any scientific or linguistic dictionary of today and look for the meaning of mountain we will find that scientists define mountains as high elevations on the surface of our planet. Elevations that exceed 610 m in height are called mountains and anything below this is regarded as a hill. However, in many of the American references, elevations above 300 metres are considered mountains. The Quran that was revealed more than 14 centuries ago describes mountains as pegs or pickets. If we look at a tent's peg we find that most of its length, is buried in the ground, its smallest part crops out on the surface of the ground and its function is fixation.

Scientists have now come to realise that mountains are not just surface elevations or protrusions, but that they extend 10-15 times their surface elevation into the ground , and these are called mountain roots. Mountain roots were never known to scientists before the turn of this century and they were highly debated until recently. A peak like mount Everest, which is almost 9 km above the ground's surface, has a root that develops for more than 125 km inside the Earth's outer rocky layer.

Just as the peg or picket's function is mainly to hold the tent solidly to the ground, so too is the exact same role of mountains. We have come to know that the outer rocky layer of the Earth, is fractured by faults into plates that float on molten magma. With the earth's rotation around its own axis, these floating plates would have been rapidly moving had it not been for the stabilising influence of mountains. No soil could have accumulated, no water could have been stored in the soil, no plant could have germinated, no road constructed, no house could have been built , and life would have been impossible on our planet. For this reason Allah showered his bounties on man by fixing the earth with mountains. Mountains act like pegs or pickets that hold the continental masses down and stops them moving. Muhammad (s) is quoted to have said in an authentic hadith that when Allah created the earth it started to shake and jerk, then Allah stabilised it with mountains.

In our Solar System:

The source of iron (Fe), we read in the Quran : "Verily , we have sent down iron in which there is great might and uses for human beings". (Q 57 :25) When the early commentators of the Quran tried to explain this verse they explained that anzalnaa (we have sent down ), was not a physical sending down but meant that iron was created with the qualities of strength and might. However, it has recently been proven that all iron, not only in our planet but in the entire solar system was obtained from outer space. This is because the temperature of the sun cannot generate iron. The sun has a surface temperature of 6000 degrees Celsius and a central temperature of about 20 million degrees Celsius. There exists much hotter stars which are known as novae or super novae where temperatures can reach 100s of billions of degrees Celsius and it is in these stars that iron is formed . When the percentage of iron reaches a certain proportion of the mass of the star it explodes and these exploded particles -travel in space until they are captured by the gravitational fields of other heavenly bodies. This is how our solar system all obtained its iron and it is an established fact today that all the iron in our solar system was not generated or created within the system but has come to it from outer space.

One wonders why the Quran comments on matters like these, things that were not known to anyone at the time of revelation or even for centuries afterwards, unless Allah (swt) knows in His eternal knowledge that the time will come when man will then immediately realise that the Quran is the word of Allah and that Muhammed (s) is His last messenger.