"We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and
within themselves until it will become clear to them
that it is the Truth. Does it not suffice that your
Lord is Witness over all things?" Qur'an:41:53.
Muslims are taught that throughout the ages, Allah
Almighty has sent a prophet to every nation as a
Warner and a bearer of glad tidings. Each Prophet
was wisely selected by Allah in order to be the best
person for the job. He was then provided by Allah
with miracles as proof of his truthfulness and his
message. These miracles were wisely selected by
Allah in order to be in the same field as that which
these people excelled in so that they could fully
comprehend the magnitude of these miracles.
For instance, the people during the time of Moses
excelled at magical trickery. Their rulers used to
surround themselves with the most powerful of these
wizards as a sign of power. This is why Allah made
the miracles of Moses (as) similar to their magical
trickery (changing a stick into a snake, parting of
the sea... etc.) but of a much greater magnitude
than anything they could ever hope to accomplish.
For they were not tricks, but actual physical
miracles.
The people at the time of the Prophet Jesus (as)
excelled in matters of medicine. For this reason,
his miracles were of a medical nature (raising of
the dead, healing of the blind...etc.), but of a
degree that they could never hope to imitate.
Similarly, one of the major miracles of Islam was a
new and unheard-of type of literature similar to the
Bedouin's poetry but far beyond anything they could
ever hope to match. Although they did indeed try.
This new literature was called "The Quran."
The Arabic language, as can be attested to by any of
it's scholars, is a very rich and powerful language.
The Bedouin people of the Arabian desert were, in
general, illiterate people of very little scientific
knowledge. The thing that set them apart, however,
was their mastery of poetry. Spending their days as
they did in the desert watching their sheep graze
got quite boring. They alleviated their boredom by
continually composing and refining poetry. They
would spend entire years composing and refining
their poetry in anticipation of a yearly face-down
of the poetic compositions of their peers from all
over the country. The fact that they were illiterate
forced them to also train themselves in the
memorization of works of literature to such an
extent that they were able to memorize complete
works from a single recitation. Even in matters of
leadership, one of the major criteria for selecting
the leaders of the various Bedouin tribes was the
individual's prowess in literary composition and
memorization.
When Muhammad (saws) first became the prophet of
Islam, he presented his people with a challenge:
"compose a literary work on a par with this Quran
that I have brought you and you will prove that I am
a liar." They could not. The Quran continued to
reduce it's challenge until the challenge finally
became: "compose only a single verse comparable to
this Quran and you will have won." They still could
not. This in addition to the fairness, justice, and
logic of the Quran eventually won them over and
slowly more and more people became Muslims.
Many claims have been made against Muhammad (saws)
in that day and this. Among them are the claims that
he was a lunatic, a liar, or deceived by the devil.
If Muhammad (saws) was a lunatic or a liar then we
have to wonder how all of his prophesies came true?.
Further, if he was a deceived by Satan then we are
faced with another problem. For we know that all
Muslims are taught that when reading the Qur'an to
first begin with the words "I seek refuge in Allah
from Satan the accursed one." and then follow this
up with the words "In the name of Allah, Most
Beneficent, Most Merciful" So, we have to wonder if
Satan would "inspire" a man to teach mankind to seek
refuge in God from Satan? Indeed this is the exact
same accusation which was made against Jesus (as).
Let us read how Jesus responded to this claim:
"But some of them (the Jews) said, He casteth out
devils through Beelzebub (Satan) the chief of the
devils. And others, tempting [him], sought of him a
sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts,
said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself
is brought to desolation; and a house [divided]
against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided
against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?
because ye say that I cast out devils through
Beelzebub." The Bible: Luke 11:15-18
It has been the case throughout the ages that with
all previous Prophets, their miracle was separate
from their book. Although we may claim that we have
the "Torah" of Moses, still, it is not possible now
to bring Moses' (as) staff and see it perform
miracles as it did in his time. Similarly it is not
possible today to see Jesus (as) raise the dead as
he did so many centuries ago. However, since the
message of Islam was the final message of God to
mankind, therefore, the book of Islam itself was
made the main miracle of Islam. It was also promised
to renew it's challenge to mankind throughout the
ages.
What does this mean? Nowadays, the number of people
who can appreciate the literary content of the Quran
has dwindled and this challenge no longer has the
same impact it did fourteen hundred years ago.
However, as we have seen in the verse quoted at the
beginning of this chapter, Allah Almighty has
promised to continually renew the challenge of the
Quran throughout the ages. So how will it be
renewed?
Recently, a new field of study has opened up to
scholars. People nowadays are fascinated with
science. This is the age of technology and
scientific discovery. For this reason, mankind has
begun to study the religious scriptures of humanity
from a scientific point of view in order to
challenge the scientific claims made in these
scriptures. Many works have been published on this
topic.
As mentioned previously, Muhammad (saws) lived among
tribes of illiterate Bedouins. He himself was also
illiterate. These people used to live extremely
simple lives. Most of them were Nomads who traveled
from place to place depending on where they could
find grass for their sheep to graze. When Muhammad
(saws) brought them the Quran, the believers found
in the Quran the command to go out, seek knowledge,
and to learn, learn, learn. A few centuries later,
once the Islamic nation became firmly established,
Muslims began to fulfill this command of the Quran
and this resulted in one of the greatest explosions
of scientific advancement mankind has ever seen. All
of this was going on during a period that the West
calls "The Dark Ages," wherein the scientists of the
West were being persecuted and killed as sorcerers
wizards and witches. During this period, Muslim
scholars introduced into the world such things as:
* Mathematical evolution of spherical mirrors
* Rectilinear motion of light and use of lenses
* Refraction angle variations
* Magnifying effects of the plano convex lens
* Introduced the concept of elliptical shape of
cosmological bodies
* Study of the Centre of Gravity as applied to
balance
* Measurement of specific weights of bodies
* Rule of algebraic equations
* Solutions to quadratic and Cubic equations
* Work on square roots, squares, theory of numbers,
solution of the fractional numbers
* Solutions of equations of cubic order
* Wrote on conic geometry elaborating the solution
of algebraic equations
* Determined the Trinomial Equation
* Avicenna's "Canon of Medicine." He is know as the
Prince of Physicians to the West
* Wrote the first description of several drugs and
diseases as meningitis.
* Treatment of Physiological shocks
* Expertise in psychosomatic medicine and psychology
* Al Biruni mentions 56 ( fifty six ) manuscripts on
pharmacology
* Credited for identifying Small Pox and its
treatment
* Use of alcohol as an antiseptic
* Use of mercury as a purgative for the first time
* First to describe the circulation of blood.
* "Holy Abbas" was, after Rhazes, the most
outstanding Physician. His works were authoritative
till the works of ibn Sina appeared
* Writings on Cosmology, Astrology, Music, Science
of numbers and letters
* Proved that the earth is smaller than the sun but
larger than the moon.
* Final authorities on Chemistry for many Centuries
* Classified metals into three classifications
* Laid the basis of the Acid Base theory
* Distillation, calcinations, crystallization, the
discovery of many acids
* Cultivation of Gold - is a continuation of Jabir's
work
* Theory of Oscillatory motion of equinoxes
* Addition of ninth sphere to the eight Ptolemaic
astronomy
* Discovered the increase of the suns apogee
* Gravitational force
* Responsible for the discovery motion of the solar
apsides
* wrote ' On the Science of Stars '
* Determination of latitudes and longitudes
* Determination of geodetic measurements
* Described the motion of the planets
* Solved the problems of spherical trigonometry
* First to study the isometric oscillatory motion of
a pendulum
* Invented the instrument ' Sahifah "
* Responsible for the proof of the motion of the
apogee of the sun with respect to the fixed stars.
* authorities on the theory of the system of
homocentric spheres
* Prepared a calendar that was more accurate than
the Gregorian one in use today.
and much, much more.
All of this began with a single illiterate Bedouin
Arab from the desert fourteen hundred years ago. The
book that was brought into the world by such a man,
cries out to be studied from a scientific aspect
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