Qur’anic Science: Water a Cosmological Necessity and the Key to Life

A number of Muslim authors and apologists, such as Haruna Yahya, Osama Abdallah and the Muslim exponent Maurice Bucaille claim that the Qur’an is a miraculous prodigy in its reference to life originating from water.

In Sura 21: 30 we read:

‘...and we made every living thing of water’

Since this phrase follows the reading in which Allah separates heaven and earth and since Sura 41: 10 refers to ‘dukhan’ which can be translated ‘smoke’ or ‘vapour’ I am inclined to conclude based on the cosmogony of ancient philosophical writings that the authors of the Qur’an were referring to the matter that separated from the earth and expanded and which according to a number of pre-Islamic thinkers and writers contributed to the creation of the seven planets or earths (Sura 65: 15), which according to Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria was a Greek concept of the seven entities orbiting the earth (see Plato, Timaeus, 1966: 76-9; 84-5), in seven tracts (Sura 23: 17), which according to Clement of Alexandria were also described as seven heavens (that is the seven earth or planets orbiting in seven tracts were commonly described as seven heavens).

A number of Greek text refer to his matter that separated from the earth either as ether or as vapour. Some authors such as Lucretius even considered and included both theories.
Interestingly the Arabic ‘dukhan’ if we consider the same authors including Aristotle in his Meteorologica depicts and describes the very same substance which according to pre-Islamic scientists expanded from the earth.

This might indeed explain why water is connected so closely to Qur’anic cosmogony, since the Qur’an views the heavens and its matter (sun, moon, planets and stars) to have emerged from the earth, either as ether or vapour. In fact according to Kathir, vol.1, 2000: 180 Mujahid considered the earth to exist prior to the heavens, and the smoke bursted out of it.

This completely refutes Answering-Christianity which claims:

‘The Universe out side earth did not originate from water. It originated from Hot Smoke or Hot Gas, in which also amazingly was mentioned in the Noble Quran’

See:

http://www.answering-christianity.com/origin_of_life.htm

Dukhan can refer to both smoke or vapour, which fits the exact cosmogony and its related substances in the writings of pre-Islamic philosophers. This passage within its context and the understanding of the community within its time is not a reference to gas or gasseous clouds, unless of course the ancient philosophers predicted that scenario and process prior to Islam and the author of the Qur’an simply follows a lucky example of scientific guesswork .

I guess Osama Abdallah and his team need to do their homework and revise their material.

This rather than ascribing the Qur’an as a miracle exposes its human origin.

Yet another vital matter appears from Sura 21: 30, namely that from water Allah created life.
There are a number of other verses in the Qur’an that elaborate further on this passage:

"It is He Who has created man from water: then has He established relationships of lineage and marriage: for thy Lord has power (over all things). (Sura, 25:54)"

"And God has created every animal from water: of them there are some that creep on their bellies; some that walk on two legs; and some that walk on four. God creates what He wills for verily God has power over all things. (Sura, 24:45)"

I hate to be fuzzy over contradictions, but considering all the silly arguments of contradictions Muslims bring up in the Bible, these two passages certainly contradict a number of other Qur’anic passages which clearly state that Allah created man from mud or clay. It is possible that Allah created man from water and mud, yet the passages do not confirm this, hence let’s not read into the wording what is not therein.

Let me however point out here that the pre-Islamic thinkers and writers did refer to mankind as created from mud and water, hence this claim if present in the Qur’an would not present a Qur’anic miracle either.

Yet due to this Qur’anic claim Muslim apologists and authors have exclaimed that the Qur’an predicts yet another scientific discovery; Bucaille the Islamic exponent writes:

‘The phrase can equally mean that every living thing was made of water (as its essential component) or that every living thing originated in water. The two possible meanings are strictly in accordance with scientific data. Life is in fact of aquatic origin and water is the major component of all living cells. Without water, life is not possible…What has been translated her by ‘water’ is the word ma which means both water in the sky and water in the sea, plus any kind of liquid…We shall see further how this word also applied to seminal fluid.’

See also Osama Abdallah making similar statements on his website:

http://answering-christianity.com/water_is_a_must_have_for_life.htm

Notice that the Qur'an does not elaborate in details how this creation of life from water was processed; hence the possibilites and theories vary.

Yet the idea that life originated from water flourished greatly amongst the Greeks, even centuries before the rise of Islam; and true the idea is similar: life came from water, yet the theory of such process varies. According to Empedocles:

‘The aether was first separated, and secondly fire, and then earth, from which, as it was compressed tightly by the force of its rotation, water gushed forth; and from this the air arose as vapour, and the heavens arose from the aether, the sun from the fire, and bodies on the earth were compressed out of the others.’

Hence according to Empedocles the bodies of the earth were compressed from earth, water and air (Now think isn’t Empedocles pretty amazing in his prediction of modern science, even with out the need of divine intervention and revelation).

Thales who earlier had proposed that water was the principle of all things and the end of all things, based his conclusion upon the observation of nature, that the seed of all animals is moist (probably a reference to semen). Secondly, he noticed how the plants were depended upon moisture and were nourished by it.

Aristotle, in his reference to Anaximander writes:

‘Wherefore they (the Syrians) reverence the fish as of the same origin and the same family as man, holding a more reasonable philosophy than that of Anaximandros; for he declares, not that fishes and men were generated at the same time, but that at first men were generated in the form of fishes, and that growing up as sharks do till they were able to help themselves, they then came forth on the dry ground.’

Plato’s Timaeus brings up an entirely different picture in which humanity is sophisticatedly composed by various elements, in which water or liquid played a significant role:

‘The souls, then, being bound within a mighty river…for while the flood which foamed in and streamed out, as it supplied the food was immense…’

Comparing the above with the claim of Bucaille, the Greeks believed that all life on earth, whether humanity, animals or plants originated or either through or in water. The types of liquid involved included sea, vapour, rain and semen. In other words, the Arabic word ‘ma’, introduced by Bucaille was already a common recognition prior to the rise of Islam.

Another Qur'anic scientific claim debunked.

http://debunkingquranicscience.blogspot.com/

Link to my dialogue with Etheshaam

I just wanna notify the reader of my continuous dialogue with my friend Etheshaam, a Muslim apologist, in which our writing relates to the Qur'an, the Bible and Science:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7465988133223323978&postID=2149791832182765926

Our dialogue belongs and should have occurred on this blog in which the focus is on the Qur'an and science, but anyway if you find this interesting you can click the link.

The Qur'an and the Seven Heavens: Introduction to an upcoming Article

This is going to be a less detailed post with less references; the purpose being to introduce a very lengthy upcoming work.

I am currently preparing a lengthy article on the seven heavens in the Qur’an and the concept of the Greeks and Talmudic Jews on the seven heavens.

Originally, if you consider the Greeks and also the elaboration of some of the early church fathers and the common concepts of their time, the seven heavens were considered as seven tracts, the the running structure of seven planets and their orbits.

These seven planets consisted of the moon as the object nearest the earth, second the sun and further away the orbits of five other planets, which are today recognised as existing in our solar system.

I will post all the early quotes and reference of these when I have brought all the material together into one article.

But notice how the Qur’an is consisted with the early views; we read in Sura 71: 15:

"See ye not How Allah has created The seven heavens One above another, "And made the moon A light in their midst, and made the sun As a (Glorious) Lamp?" [Al-Qur?aan 71:15-16]

This passage does not refer to a miraculous prediction of anything, since the author of the Qur’an states that we see or observe that Allah has created seven heavens one above the other.

Hence this is not a divine miraculous prediction of modern science but an human observation; here the author of the Qur’an even reveals the ability of the early human community to engage in science and to correctly perceive and understand how nature and the universe is structured (even though in this case the scientific information which the early humans saw and which Allah confirms is wrong; but I will get back to that in another article).

Now ask yourself, how did the early human societies observe this structure of seven heavens?

The answer is: they had correctly discovered five of the solar-system planets in their orbits.

The fallacy of their theory was to view the sun and the moon as similar objects, all orbiting in parallel lines around the earth; yet this nevertheless postulated that seven interstellar objects were orbiting in seven tracts, which is consistent with the view of the Qur’anic author.

These orbits were by numerous early writers referred to as seven tracts and seven heavens (I shall give the references from the Qur’an and the pre-Islamic writers in an upcoming post).

This why the Qur’an says that the people of Muhammad’s time had even seen that Allah created seven heavens, each above the other; these seven heavens marked the orbit of the seven planets:

"See ye not How Allah has created The seven heavens One above another," (Sura 71: 15)

This is already a significant error as our solar-system consists of eight planets and five dwarf planets, which already provides evidence that the Qur’an is not based upon divine knowledge but human knowledge; the knowledge that already flourished in Muhammad’s time.

Furthermore, we need to presume that since the Qur’an refers to seven planets it also follows the discoveries and ideas of its time, which viewed the sun and moon as included objects and excluded the earth. This is obvious from the Qur’an, which views the earth to have separated from the heavens and the interstellar matter and objects to derive on a later stage of the cosmological development (Sura 21: 10 and Sura 41: 9-12).

In fact this is also consistent with the views flourishing in Muhammad’s time (but I shall get back to his in a future post).

That Sura 71: 15 is also elaborating on the centrality of the sun and moon as being in the midst of the seven orbits, which is also confirming that the Qur’an utilizes the science of antiquity.

This was also the view of authors who predated Islam, and consists with the idea that the sun and the moon orbited closest to the earth in a orbit circle around the earth, which most ancient thinkers postulated; hence they were central and in the middle of this orbit and lighted up its entire structure.

The passage might even suggest that the sun and the moon light up all seven tracts and the other planets; this is what the ancient thinkers believed.

Except for the moon being an object attached to the earth, the early philosophers got this quite right.

However, the Qur’an might also be in agreement with e.g. Plato that the sun lighted up not only the earth and planets but also the entire universe; take a look at sura 25: 61:

"Blessed is He Who made Constellations in the skies, And placed therein a Lamp And a Moon giving light."

Now, is this supposed to be modern science or prediction of modern science?Brianman is certainly correct that the Qur’an ‘confirms’; but to say that it confirms the truth or modern science is an overstatement!

The Qur’an does certainly not confirm anything, it may certainly quote the early philosophers and their postulates, of which some ideas were fairly correct and others plainly wrong; just a pity that the Qur’an fails to differentiate between these.

The whole Qur’anic reference to seven heavens and that these were observed by the people of the time is nevertheless a fallacy far too serious to overlook and we will in future assess this matter in details.

Debunking Qur'anic Science: Does the Qur'an Predict that the Moon Reflects Sun Light? Is this a Miracolous Prediction?

A whole range of Muslim apologists have claimed that the Qur’an is miraculous in its prediction of the moon reflecting sunlight; about this matter Zakir Naik writes:

THE LIGHT OF THE MOON IS REFLECTED LIGHT

It was believed by earlier civilizations that the moon emanates its own light. Science now tells us that the light of the moon is reflected light. However this fact was mentioned in the Qur?aan 1,400 years ago in the following verse:

"Blessed is He Who made Constellations in the skies, And placed therein a Lamp And a Moon giving light." [Al-Qur?aan 25:61]

Consider the following verses related to the nature of light from the sun and the moon: "It is He who made the sun To be a shining glory And the moon to be a light (Of beauty)." [Al-Qur?aan 10:5]

"See ye not How Allah has created The seven heavens One above another, "And made the moon A light in their midst, and made the sun As a (Glorious) Lamp?" [Al-Qur?aan 71:15-16]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18926563/Quran-and-Modern-Science-EnglishBy-Dr-Zakir-Naik

See also a youtube video debunking Zakir Naik’s speculation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIw_obd7a-k

Osama Abdallah has also made similar claims:

So why would Ibn Kathir come up with this statement, many centuries before man discovered that the earth was spherical and that the moon does indeed reflect the sun's light?

http://www.answering-christianity.com/ahmed_eldin/light_of_moon.htm

Notice that Osama Abdallah believes that Ibn Kathir came up with statements about this scientific accuracy only because the Qur’an makes such statements.

Firstly, I am not so sure whether Kathir got this idea from the Qur’an, I don’t think the passage from Kathir clarifies that.

See also two articles from Answering-Islam that refute the claim that the Qur’an even utters such claims:

http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Science/moonlight_wc.html

http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Shabir-Ally/science10.htm

http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zaatari_moonlight.htm

However, let’s assume that the Qur’an does describe the moon reflecting sun-light; are Zakir Naik and Osama Abdallah then correct in their claims that these are miraculous statements, that these ideas were unknown prior to the revelation of the Qur’an?

The answer is no! This is yet again and example of the typical lies spread by modern Islamic apologists.

In fact the concept that the moon reflected sun-light was a very common concept even a thousand years prior to Islam.

Then why do individuals such as Zakir Naik and Osama Abdallah spread such lies to the masses?

There are three possibilities:

1) Either they knowingly spread such misconception and hence willingly deceive their readers and listeners.

2) Or they have simply not done their homework.

3) Or they are simply taken over by their emotionalism for Islam and are blinded from considering the related facts.

For example:

Anaxagoras (4-5 Century BC) indicated that within the ancient scientific of his time it was argued whether the moon shines by reflected light or emits its own light. Even in this era, even without divine revelation human thinkers got a number of ideas scientifically correct, such as Aristarchus (310-230 BC) whose ideas predicted the modern scientific discovery that the earth with the other planets orbits the sun and that the earth was in a constant rotation, and completed a full rotation once in every twenty-four hours (Russel, History of Western Philosophy, p.222-223).

Hence I wonder why Zakir Naik and Osama Abdallah not give up their faith in Islam and build a religion around Aristarchus, or include him as one of the greatest prophets ever; at least his ideas predict modern science and must therefore indicate divine revelation.

However, let’s look at how common this concept was prior to Muhammad and the rise of Islam:

Thales (585 BC):

The moon is lighted from the sun. 29; 360. Thales et al. agree with the mathematicians that the monthly phases of the moon show that it travels along with the sun and is lighted by it, and eclipses show that it comes into the shadow of the earth, the earth coming between the two heavenly bodies and blocking the light of the moon (Doxographi on Thales, Aet. ii. 1 ; Dox. 327) (6).

Anaxagoras (500-428 BC) considered the moon be to a false-shining star (255).

The Doxographist elaborate further on this:

The moon is below the sun and nearer us. The sun is larger than the Peloponnesos. The moon does not have its own light, but light from the sun (The Doxographists on Anaxagoras, Hipp. Phil. 8 ; Dox. 561) (260-1).

Empedocles (490-430):

As sunlight striking the broad circle of the moon. 154. A borrowed light, circular in form, it revolves about the earth, as if following the track of a chariot (Empedocles, translations of the fragments I) (177).

Ptolemy (90-168):

The Moon principally generates moisture; her proximity to the earth renders her highly capable of exciting damp vapours, and of thus operating sensibly upon animal bodies by relaxation and putrefaction. She has, however, also a moderate share in the production of heat, in consequence of the illumination she receives from the Sun (Ptolemy?s Tetrabiblos: Book the First: Chapter IV, The Influence of the Planetary Orbs) (13).

Lucretius (100-50 BC):

How then, if the sun is so small, can it give of such a flood of light (p.189)?

The moon, too, whether it sheds a borrowed light upon the landscape in its progress or emits a native radiance from its own body. What then of the moon? It may be that it shines only when the sun’s rays fall upon it. Then day by day, as it moves away from the sun’s orb, it turns more its illuminated surface towards our view till in its rising it gazes down face to face up the setting of the sun and beams with lustre at the full. Thereafter, it is bound to hide its light bit by bit behind it as it glides around heaven towards the solar fire from the opposite point of the zodiac (192-193) (Lucretius, The Nature of the Universe).

The Jewish Talmud gets this right:

Abraham once worshipped the moon and said: The light of the moon must be derived from the light of the sun (A Cohen, Everyman?s Talmud, London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd/NewYork: E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc, 1949: 2).

Hence once again we have refuted Zakir Naik, Osama Abdallah and a number of modern Muslim apologists who claim that the moon reflecting sun-light was a concept unknown prior to the era of Muhammad and the Qur’an, that is of course only if the Qur’an truly makes this prediction in the first place; but that is stuff for another article.

I urge therefore Zakir Naik, Osama Abdallah, Harun Yahay and others to correct this error.

Reply to Osama Abdallah's refutation of my post: The Qur'an, cosmological pairs and gender in plants: Conclusion: Abdallah totally failed

I am starting a new thread here since Osama Abdallah responded to my post on: The Qur'an, cosmological pairs and gender in plants:

http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2010/01/debunking-quranic-science-was.html

http://debunkingquranicscience.blogspot.com/2010/01/debunking-quranic-science-was.html

Osama replies by saying that he has written an entire article to refute me. However, reading his articles he does not deal with the issues I have raised in my post.

Either Osama has not read my post, or he is playing games.

Below is the response of Abdallah and beneath it my reply to his response:

Osama Abdallah wrote:

Hogan Elijah,

Since you made the challenge directly to me, then I have the right to respond to it on this board, and silence your blasphemy, if the owner of this board is not a liar.

Your nonsense is debunked in great details in my new article that I wrote especially for you at: http://www.answering-christianity.com/of_everything_pairs_are_created.htm.

Islam remains the Divine Truth from GOD Almighty, and your false religion of "CONJECTURE" (http://www.answering-christianity.com/warning.htm) as Allah Almighty declared it to be in Noble Verses 4:156-159 remains a man-made false religion.

I (Hogan respond to Abdallah):

Osama,

This is becoming more and more funny. This is the second time I respond to the same response on this particular post.

So here we go, once again:

Your rebuttal is not even dealing with the point I raised in my post.

I raised the point that you have claimed that these scientific assumptions were unknown to the people prior to Islam.

This is a complete lie!

As I have pointed out: that everything created in pairs and gender in plants were concepts flourishing among the Jews and Greek prior to Islam. I even posted the references.

This is was the point of my post.

I did not argue whether every detail in the universe functiones in pairs or whether plants have gender; if you read my post again you will notice that I emphasised:

if these are facts of science, is the Qur'an then presenting us with a miracolous statement?

The answer is no, since these concepts existed prior to Islam.

Whatever Osama Abdallah brings up in response to my reply, I will post it on this thread, unless he is willing to post his responses on both blogs.

Note however, that Abdallah has not touched the issue I raised in the blog.

Islamic science...well

Interesting article; did Islamic science derive particularly from Muslims or from others, e.g. from the nations they invaded:

http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/Setting_the_Record_Straight:_The_Non-Miracle_of_Islamic_Science

Debunking Qur'anic Science: Was everything created in pairs and do plants have gender? If so is this another miracolous Prediction in the Qur'an?

Harun Yahya has made the claim that the Qur’an predicts the modern concept of the universe that every details within it are made in pairs; I am referring this website below:

http://www.harunyahya.com/miracles_of_the_quran_p1_05.php

Here Harun Yahya writes:

‘DUALITY IN CREATION

Glory be to Him Who created all the pairs: from what the earth produces and from themselves and from things unknown to them (Qur’an 36: 36)

While "male and female" is equivalent to the concept of "pair," "things unknown to them," as expressed in the Qur'an, bears a broader meaning. Indeed, we encounter one of the meanings pointed to in the verse in the present day. The British physicist Paul Dirac, who discovered that matter was created in pairs, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933. This finding, known as "parity," revealed the duality known as matter and anti-matter. Anti-matter bears the opposite characteristics to matter. For instance, contrary to matter, anti-matter electrons are positive and protons negative. This fact is expressed in a scientific source as follows:

... every particle has its antiparticle of opposite charge… [T]he uncertainty relation tells us that pair creation and pair annihilation happen in the vacuum at all times, in all places.47

Indeed the Scientific claim of modern science might in a number of cases be correct. On the other hand the claim that everything is in pairs is not entirely correct; check out this article of Jochen Katz that refutes such a misconception:

http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/qe015.html

It's a fact also as Jochen Katz points out that Harun’s interpretation might be reading fairly too much information into the passage than originally belongs there. Indeed Sura 36: 36 states that everything the earth produces derives in pairs, however the matters unknown to them does not necessarily refer to anything outside our earthly globe such as matter and anti-matter, unless the Qur’an specifically makes such a statement.

But lets assume that Harun’s claim is correct, that every detail in the universe is based upon pairs and that the Qur’an refers to this cosmological system; are we then to perceive the Qur’an as miracolous in its prediction?

Interestingly sources that predate Islam, include this assumed prediction of modern scientists about the universe and its pairs, not only from what grows and lives on earth but as a system that encompasses the entire cosmological dimension; interestingly these sources are more explicit than the Qur’an.

The Jewish Talmud states:

One the verse ‘Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one,’ the comment is made: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, ‘My children, everything that I created in the Universe is in pairs—e.g. heaven and earth, the sun and moon, Adam and Eve, this world and the World to Come; but I am one and alone in the Universe (Deut. R. II. 31)’ Dr. A. Cohen, Everyman’s Talmud, London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd: 1949: 4

Hence if the Qur’an is accurate in this matter, Harun fails to tell his readers that this was a common concept that existed among the Jews and other groups prior to Islam; hence the Qur’anic statement is not miracolous but merely a reference to the knowledge that existed in Muhammad’s time and prior to Islam.

But it does not end here, Harun Yahya continues by claiming that the Qur’an is miraculous in its statement about the pairs or sex of plants; he states:

Another example of duality in creation is plants. Botanists only discovered that there is a gender distinction in plants some 100 years ago.48 Yet, the fact that plants are created in pairs was revealed in the following verses of the Qur'an 1,400 years ago:

It is Allah Who created the heavens with no support-you can see them-and cast firmly embedded mountains on the earth so that it would not move under you, and scattered about in it creatures of every kind. And We send down water from the sky and make every generous plant grow in it, in pairs. (Qur'an, 31:10)

It is He Who made the earth a cradle for you and threaded pathways for you through it and sent down water from the sky by which We have brought forth diverse pairs of plants. (Qur'an, 20:53)

Osama Abdallah elaborates enormously on this claim; he writes:

‘Previously, humans did not know that plants too have male and female gender distinctions. Botany states that every plant has a male and female gender’.

(I refrain from posting a link to this article of Osama as the McFee system on my computer recently warned me from accessing his website)

Again this claim is greatly exaggerated; I suggest that the reader reads another excellent article of Jochen Katz that refutes this claim:

http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/sexy_fruits.html

But let’s just assess this claim in the light of pre-Islamic concepts; firstly if the Muslim claim would be solely accurate would this render the Qur’anic statement miraculous? Secondly, is Osama correct in his claim that humans prior to the modern scientific discovery did not know about the male and female gender distinctions in plants?

In fact both statements are wrong:

I welcome you to the worlds of Anaxagoras and Empedocles:

http://history.hanover.edu/texts/presoc/emp.htm

De Plant. i.; 815 a 16. Anaxagoras and Empedokles say that plants are moved by desire, and assert that they have perception and feel pleasure and pain. . . .Empedokles thought that sex had been mixed in them. (Note 817 a 1, 10, and 36.) (p. 200)

And we continue:

‘Trees first of living beings sprang from the earth, before the sun was unfolded in the heavens and before day and night were separated; and by reason of the symmetry of their mixture they contain the principle of male and female; and they grow, being raised by the warmth that is in the earth (v. 26; 440) (p. 230)’.

Hence let it be declared, here and now that we have completely debunked these claims of Harun Yahya and Osama Abdallah.

The Qur’anic reference to pairs in the universe and plants were concepts that existed prior to Islam and hence the Qur’an does not reveal itself miraculous by conveying to its readers either of these concepts.