tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50575678865309564192024-02-20T07:10:20.141-08:00SCIENCE IN THE QUR’ANSCIENCE IN THE QUR’AN.KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-89946761319328210332008-01-11T14:19:00.002-08:002008-01-11T14:33:19.834-08:00MAIN MENU<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">1. The Universe<br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/organization-of-universe.html">Organization of the universe</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/interstellar-galactic-material.html">Interstellar galactic material</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/once-joined-together-later-separated.html">Once joined together; later separated</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/six-days-of-creation.html">The six days of creation</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/origin-of-universe.html">The origin of the universe</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/position-of-stars.html">Position of stars</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/universe-is-expanding.html">The universe is expanding</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/end-of-universe.html">The end of the universe</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/red-rose.html">The Red Rose</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/centuries-long-journey-through-universe.html">Centuries-long journey through the universe</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/conquest-of-space.html">Conquest of Space</a></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">2. The Sky<br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/astronomy.html">Astronomy</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/evolution-of-heavens.html">Evolution of heavens</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/celestial-organization.html">Celestial organization</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/fusing-and-separating-of-heavens-and.html">The Fusing and Separating of the Heavens and the E...</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-holds-up-sky.html">What holds up the sky</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/sun-and-moon-move-with-their-own-motion.html">The sun and the moon move with their own motion</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/sun-and-moon-orbits.html">Sun and moon orbits</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/sunlight-and-moonlight.html">Sunlight and moonlight</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/comparing-oranges-and-apples.html">Comparing oranges and apples</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/quran-on-clouds.html">The Qur’an on clouds</a></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">3. The Earth<br /><br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-old-is-earth.html">How old is earth</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/history-of-earth.html">The history of earth</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/from-gaseous-mass-to-heavens-and-earth.html">From a Gaseous Mass to the Heavens and the Earth</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-many-earths.html">How many earths</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-shape-is-earth.html">What shape is the earth</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/shape-of-earth.html">Shape of Earth</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/earths-motion.html">Earth’s motion</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/on-mountains.html">On mountains</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/mountains-as-anchors.html">Mountains as anchors</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/lowest-point-on-earth.html">Lowest point on earth</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/seas-and-rivers.html">Seas and rivers</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/deep-sea-currents.html">Deep sea currents</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/deep-seas-and-internal-waves.html">Deep seas and internal waves</a></li></ul><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">4. Embroyolgy<br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/historical-background.html">Historical background</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/sperm.html">The sperm</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/leech-like-clot-al-alaqa.html">Leech-like clot (al-alaqa)</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/chewed-like-lump-of-flesh.html">Chewed-like lump of flesh</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/stage-of-bones.html">The stage of bones</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/stage-of-muscles.html">The stage of Muscles</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/stage-of-nashah.html">The stage of nash’ah</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/stage-of-labour.html">The stage of labour</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/conclusion.html">Conclusion</a></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">5. Medicine<br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/cerebrum.html">Cerebrum</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/forelock.html">Forelock</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/ear-and-eyes.html">The Ear and Eyes</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/hearing-over-sight.html">Hearing over sight</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-we-see-and-what-we-dont.html">What we see and what we don’t</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/eye-drop.html">Eye drop</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/skin.html">The Skin</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/sensation-of-skin-pain.html">The sensation of skin pain</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/finger-prints.html">Finger prints</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/intestines.html">Intestines</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/breastfeeding.html">Breastfeeding</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/breastfeeding-from-scientific-point-of.html">Breastfeeding from scientific point of view</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/human-psychology.html">Human psychology</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/man-in-high-attitudes.html">Man in high attitudes</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/medical-references-at-shadows-of.html">Medical references at the shadows of Chapter The C...</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/quran-is-healing-mercy.html">Qur’an is a healing mercy</a></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">6. Health<br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/ablution-and-health.html">Ablution and health</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/prayer-healing-for-spirit-and-body.html">Prayer: a healing for the spirit and the body</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/fasting.html">Fasting</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/fruit-is-it-before-or-after.html">Fruit: Is it before or after?</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/sexual-intercourse-during-menstruation.html">Sexual Intercourse During</a></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">7. Pure Sciences<br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/atoms.html">Atoms</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/theory-of-relativity-in-time.html">The theory of relativity in time</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/origin-of-creation-clay-and-water.html">Origin of creation: clay and water</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/geology-water-cycle-mountains.html">Geology, water cycle, mountains</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/water-and-life.html">Water and life</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/biology-botany-physiology.html">Biology, Botany, Physiology</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/miracle-of-honey.html">Miracle of honey</a></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">8. Miscellaneous<br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/quran-and-modern-science-by-bucaille.html">The Qur’an and modern science by Bucaille</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/miscellaneous.html">Miscellaneous</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/lechery-adultery-and-polygamy.html">Lechery (adultery and polygamy)</a></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">9. Comparative Studies<br /></span><ul class="posts"><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/bible-quran-and-science.html">Bible, Qur’an and science</a></li><li><a href="http://scienceinthequran.blogspot.com/2008/01/genesis.html">Genesis</a></li></ul>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-15182647771339312892008-01-11T14:19:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:19:35.659-08:00Organization of the universe<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Organization of the universe</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">What the Quran mentions about the organization of the Universe is important because "<strong>these references constitute a new fact of divine Revelation</strong>" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 153). The Quran deals with this matter in depth although this is not dealt with in the previous scriptures. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Dr. Maurice Bucaille also points out the important fact that the Quran does not contain "<strong>the theories prevalent at the time of the Revelation that deal with the organization of the celestial world</strong>" (p. 153). If the Quran was authored by any human being, he or she would have naturally included the ideas prevalent at the time. But many of those ideas were later shown to be inaccurate. How did the author of the Quran know enough to exclude those ideas, unless the author is God himself. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Those who say that Muhammad authored the Quran think that the Arabs were very knowledgeable in the field of Science, and Muhammad was or course one of them. But this explanation is based on the incorrect assumption that the Arabs knew Science before the Quran was revealed. As pointed out by Dr. Bucaille, the fact is that Science in Islamic countries came after the Quran, not before. "In any case", writes Dr. Bucaille, "<strong>the scientific knowledge of that great period would not have been sufficient for a human being to write some of the verses to be found in the Quran</strong>" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 1 53-1 54) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Modern astronomers are aware that the stars and planets are kept within ranges of precise distances from each other. Had it not been for this fact, collision between them would be inevitable. The author of the Quran was also aware of this. In the Quran we read "the sun and the moon (are subjected) to calculations (Quran 55:5). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Again, we read: "<strong>For you (God) subjected the sun and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses</strong>" (Quran </span><st1:time hour="14" minute="33"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">14:33</span></st1:time><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">). The phrase 'diligently pursuing their courses' is a translation of the Arabic term daa'ib which here means 'to apply oneself to something with care in a perseverant, invariable manner, in accordance with set habits' (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p.l55). And that indeed is how the sun and moon behave. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Another verse in the Quran says, "<strong>the stars are in subjection to His command</strong>" (Quran </span><st1:time hour="16" minute="12"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">16:12</span></st1:time><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">). Order in the universe is essential for its preservation. God, who subjected them to that order knew about it before any scientist.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-23274509712557551382008-01-11T14:18:00.002-08:002008-01-11T14:19:07.799-08:00Interstellar galactic material<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Interstellar galactic material</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Quran mentions a rather curious category of created things, namely things between the heavens and the earth. Dr. Bucaille observes that this mention in the Quran "<strong>may surprise the twentieth century reader of the Quran</strong>" (The Bible, tl1e Quran and Science, p. 144). For example, one verse says as follows: "<strong>To Him (God) belongs what is in the heavens, on earth, between them and beneath the soil</strong>" (Quran 20:6; other verses include 25:59, 32:4 and 50:38). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">What is that between the heavens and the earth? Dr. Bucaille explains as follows: "<strong>The creation outside the heavens and outside the earth is a priori difficult to imagine. To understand these verses, reference must be made to the most recent observations on the existence of cosmic extragalactic material, and one must indeed go back to ideas established by contemporary science on the formation of the universe . . .</strong>" (p. 145). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Scientists tell us that a primary nebula condensed, then divided up into fragments. These fragments, these galactic masses, further split up into stars and their sub-products, the planets. Each time such a division or split occurred, there remained extra material apart from the principal elements newly formed. The scientific name for these extra materials is 'interstellar galactic material'. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Is this extra material significant? Yes. Experts in astrophysics are quite aware of such material which have "a tendency to interfere with photometric measurements" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 149). The extra material is so rarefied that they may be referred to as dusts or smokes or gases. Yet they altogether occupy so much total space that they may correspond to "a mass possibly greater than the total mass of the galaxies" (p. 149). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Again, we must face up to the implication of all this. How could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have known about interstellar galactic material? Was Muhammad, on whom be peace, well versed in modern astrophysics? Or is the Quran nothing but the Word of God? Allah, the only true God, declares in His book: "<strong>The revelation of the scripture is from Allah, the Mighty, the Wise. Surely We [Allah] have revealed the scripture unto you [Muhammad] with truth; so worship Allah, making religion pure for Him (only)</strong>" (Quran 39:1-2).</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-33035935982844573832008-01-11T14:18:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:18:43.718-08:00Once joined together; later separated<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><b>Once joined together; later separated</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >According to the Big Bang</span><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >, the whole universe was initially one big mass. Then there was a big bang (explosion) which resulted in the formation of Galaxies. These then divided to form stars, planets, the sun, the moon, etc. The origin of the universe was unique and the probability of it occurring by chance is zero.<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >There are also basic pieces of information concerning the existence of an initial gaseous mass (<i>dukhaan </i><span style="">in Arabic</span>) which are unique to the Qur’an. The statement of the existence of a gaseous mass with fine particles, for this is how the word 'smoke' (<i>dukhaan</i>) is to be interpreted. Smoke is generally made up of a gaseous substratum, plus, in more or less stable suspension, fine particles that may belong to solid and even liquid states of matter at high or low temperature. As well as descriptions of the elements which, although at first were fused together (<i>ratq</i>), they subsequently became separated <i>(fatq). </i>These ideas are expressed in chapters <span style="">F<u>uss</u>ilat<i> </i></span>and <span style="">al-Anbiyaa:<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><strong>"God then rose turning towards the heaven when it was smoke"</strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Qur’an, 41:11<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><strong>"Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder?"<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Qur’an, </span></i><st1:time hour="21" minute="30"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >21:30</span></i></st1:time><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >The reference to a separation process (fatq) of an primary single mass whose elements were initially fused together (ratq). It must be noted that in Arabic 'fatq' is the action of breaking, diffusing, separating, and that 'ratq' is the action of fusing or binding together elements to make a homogenous whole.<span style=""> </span>This concept of the separation of a whole into several parts is noted in other passages of the Book with reference to multiple worlds. The first verse of the first chapter in the Qur'an proclaims, after the opening invocation, the following: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >“<strong>Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds.”<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Qur’an, 1:1 <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >These Qur’anic references are in perfect agreement with modern ideas on the existence of primary nebula (galactic dust), followed by the separation of the elements which resulted in the formation of galaxies and then stars from which the planets were born. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Reference is also made in the Qur’an to an intermediary creation between the heavens and the earth, as seen in chapter <span style="">al-Furqaan<i>:<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><strong>“God is the one who created the heavens, the earth and what is between them...”<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Qur’an, 25:59<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >It would seem that this intermediary creation corresponds to the modern discovery of bridges of matter which are present outside organized astronomical systems.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >This brief survey of Qur’anic references to creation clearly shows us how modern scientific data and statements in the Qur’an consistently agree on a large number of points. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Dr. Alfred Kroner is one of the world’s renowned geologists. He is Professor of Geology and the Chairman of the Department of Geology at the </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Institute</span></st1:placetype><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" > of </span><st1:placename><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Geosciences</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >, </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Johannes</span></st1:placename><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" > </span><st1:placename><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Gutenberg</span></st1:placename><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" > </span><st1:placetype><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >University</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >, </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Mainz</span></st1:city><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >, </span><st1:country-region><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Germany</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >. He said: “<strong>Thinking where Muhammad came from . . . I think it is almost impossible that he could have known about things like the common origin of the universe, because scientists have only found out within the last few years, with very complicated and advanced technological methods, that this is the case.</strong>” Also he said: “Somebody who did not know something about nuclear physics fourteen hundred years ago could not, I think, be in a position to find out from his own mind, for instance, that the earth and the heavens had the same origin.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-14375079938553813042008-01-11T14:17:00.002-08:002008-01-11T14:18:06.253-08:00The six days of creation<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The six days of creation</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Today we know that the creation process can be measured in billions of years. The priestly editors or the Bible could not have known this. In their eagerness to enjoin Sabbath observance on others they wrote that God rested on the very first Sabbath day after finishing up his work of creating the heavens and the earth. <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The six days of creation in the book of Genesis, then, are clearly like six days of any seven-day week. The Priestly editors have made it clear that a day is meant a period from one sunset to another. Six days meant from Sunday to Friday. They believed that the reason the Sabbath day became holy is that God Himself had rested on that day. Thus the editors tell us: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done</strong>" (Genesis 2:2). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">If that is not far enough, the editors took the idea that God rested farther still when they wrote as follows: "<strong>In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed</strong>" (The Holy Bible, King James Version, Exodus 31: 17). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The idea that God rests like humans and gets refreshed like humans had to be corrected by Jesus, on whom be peace, when, according to John, he declared that God never stops working, even on the Sabbath day (see John 5:16). God clarified the matter in His own words when he declared: "<strong>And verily we created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, and naught of weariness touched us</strong>" (Quran 50:38 see also v. 15). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The above quranic verses clearly refute the idea that God rested. God, according to the Quran does not get tired. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes him (Quran 2:255). But how about the period of creation? Was that six days in the Quran too? In the above quotation from the Quran the term translated 'days' could mean, according to Dr. Maurice Bucaille, "<strong>not just 'days', but also 'long periods of time', an indefinite period of time (but always long)</strong>" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 139). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Dr. Bucaille notes that the Quran also speaks of "a day whereof the measure is a thousand years of your reckoning" (Quran 32:5). The Quran also speaks of a day whereof the measure is 50,000 years" (Quran 70:4). Dr. Bucaille also points out that long before our modern ideas of the length of time involved in the creation, commentators of the Quran understood that when the Quran speaks of six days of creation, it does not mean six days like ours, but rather six periods. Abu al Su'ud, for example, writing in the sixteenth century, understood it as six events (see The Bible, the Quran and Science, p.l39). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Again, we see that the Quran has avoided repeating an error which was established in a previous book an error that will not be discovered until modern times. In view of this, can anyone insist that the Quran is the work of a man?</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-5894168995727268212008-01-11T14:17:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:17:32.901-08:00The origin of the universe<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The origin of the universe</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>“Then He turned to the heaven when it was smoke...”<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 41:11)</span></i><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The theory<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Big Bang Theory</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the big bang, the universe was created from a cosmic explosion that hurled matter in all directions. In <b>1927</b>, Georges<b> Lemaître</b> was the first to propose that the universe began with the explosion of a primeval atom. Years later, Edwin <b>Hubble</b> found experimental evidence to help justify Lemaître's theory. He found that distant galaxies in every direction are going away from us with speeds proportional to their distance. The theory also predicts the existence of cosmic background radiation (the glow left over from the explosion itself). The Big Bang Theory received its strongest confirmation when this radiation was discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who later won the <b>Nobel Prize</b> for this discovery. Until now, the cosmic microwave background, big bang nucleosynthesis, and the observed Hubble expansion of the Universe are considered proof of the big bang theory.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The nebula: The big gaseous mass<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The science of modern cosmology, observational and theoretical, clearly indicates that, at one point in time, the whole universe was nothing but a cloud of ‘smoke’ <i style="">i.e.</i>, an opaque highly dense and hot gaseous composition. This is one of the undisputed principles of standard modern cosmology. Scientists now can observe new stars forming out of the remnants of that ‘smoke’ (figures 1 and 2).</span><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="AR-SA"><br /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><img style="width: 400px; height: 300px;" alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/nebula.jpg" align="bottom" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;" align="center"><b style=""><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="AR-SA"></span></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Figure 1</strong>:<span style=""> </span>A new star forming out of a cloud of gas and dust (nebula), which is one of the remnants of the smoke that was the origin of the whole universe.<span style=""> </span>(<i style="">The Space Atlas</i>, Heather and Henbest, pg. 50).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"></span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> <img style="width: 306px; height: 248px;" alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/newstar.jpg" align="bottom" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;" align="left"><b style=""><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="AR-SA"><br /></span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Figure 2</strong>:<span style=""> </span>The Lagoon nebula is a cloud of gas and dust, about 60 light years in diameter.<span style=""> </span>It is excited by the ultraviolet radiation of the hot stars that have recently formed within its bulk.<span style=""> </span>(<i style="">Horizons, Exploring the Universe</i>, Seeds, plate 9, from Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Because the earth and the heavens above (the sun, the moon, stars, planets, galaxies, etc.) have been formed from this same ‘smoke,’ we conclude that the earth and the heavens were one connected entity. Then out of this homogeneous ‘smoke,’ they formed and separated from each other. God has said in the Quran: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Have not those who disbelieved known that the heavens and the earth were one connected entity, then We separated them?...<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Quran, </span></i><st1:time hour="21" minute="30"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">21:30</span></i></st1:time><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">)</span></i></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-69680748714292643302008-01-11T14:16:00.004-08:002008-01-11T14:17:14.789-08:00Position of stars<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Position of stars</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Today's science confirms that if we were to move or tilt planets and stars afew degrees from their axis of rotation then they will loose their orbit path and chaos is the result.In the Holy Quran Allah(God) swears by the positioning of the stars thus drawing attention to their importance.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">In the ame of Allah most gracious most merciful<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Nay, I swear by the places of the stars .(*75*) And lo! that verily is a tremendous oath, if ye but knew.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">REFERENCE: Qur'an, 56: 75-76.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-44888129151074594402008-01-11T14:16:00.003-08:002008-01-11T14:16:51.756-08:00The universe is expanding<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The universe is expanding</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Universe is expanding after the big event of the Big Bang , and this is stated in the holy Quran:<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>“It is We who have raised the Heaven high with force, and verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it”</strong> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 51:47)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Einstein admitted his mistake in 1929 when Edwin Hubble, an astronomer at Caltech, made a critical discovery that the universe is expanding and showed that distant galaxies were, indeed, receding from the earth, and the further away they were, the faster they were moving. That discovery changed cosmology.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Creator of the Universe, Allah, had already indicated more than 1400 years ago that the universe is expanding. He says in the Quran:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>In time We will show them Our Signs in the utmost Horizons and within themselves, so that it will become clear to them that this Qur'an is indeed the Truth. Is it not enough for them to know that your Lord is Witness to all things (including this proclamation)?<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 41:53)</span></i></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-10274855542957121702008-01-11T14:16:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:16:36.340-08:00The end of the universe<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The end of the universe</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">As we have seen , the universe is expanding due to its evolution from a big-bang billions of years ago: yet, eventually after this stage of expansion " the entire universe will collapse and shrink by gravity into limited space as it happened to be at the beginning of creation.'<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>On the day when We shall roll up heaven as a scroll is rolled for the writings; as We originated the first creation, so We shall bring it back again - a<span style=""> </span>promise binding on Us<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>so We shall do.</strong><span style=""> <br /></span>(Qur’an 21:104)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Scientists have deduced a logical and scientific conclusion as to when the Doomsday could be.<span style=""> </span>But when exactly could it happen belongs only to God’s knowledge.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>To God belongs the unseen in the heavens and in the earth.<span style=""> </span>And the matter of the Hour is as a twinkling of<span style=""> </span>the eye, or nearer.<span style=""> </span>Surely God is powerful over everything.</strong><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 16:77)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">and<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Glory be to Him , to whom belongs theKingdom of the heavens and the earth and all that between them is; with Him is the Knowledge of the Hour, and to Him you shall be returned.</strong><span style=""> <br /></span>(Qur’an 43:85)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">and<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>They will question thee concerning the Hour, when it shall berth.<span style=""> </span>What art thou about, to mention it? Unto thy Lord is the final end of it. Thou art only the warner of him who fears it.<span style=""> </span>It shall be as if, on the day they see it, they have but tarried for an evening, or its forenoon.</strong><span style=""> <br /></span>(Qur’an 79:42-46)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Scientists have given us an image of how the universe will come to an end. They say, as I have mentioned before, that the velocity of all galaxies will be reduced and eventually they will shrink into a limited space, instead of the infinite space in which they swim now with extreme velocity, which enables them to move away from<span style=""> </span>each other<span style=""> </span>with great speed. This shrinking of galaxies into a very limited space would give us an insight as to how scary and awe inspiring the image could be. This terrifying image is stated in The Holy Qur’an in various verses to frighten man that he might come to his senses and worship God as properly as He should be worshiped i.e. with love, fear and hope of everlasting salvation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Some people would ask when the Hour would come? I tell them it is very soon; at least the hour of each one of us would be at his death, which we can never tell (when it could be).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>And the unbelievers will not cease to be in doubt of it, until the Hour comes on them suddenly, or there shall come upon them the chastisement of a barren day <o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 22:55)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">and<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>asking "when shall be the Day of Resurrection?"<span style=""> </span>But when the sight is dazed and the moon is eclipsed, and the sun and the moon are brought together, upon that day man shall say, " Whither to flee?" No indeed; not a refuge!<br /></strong>(Qur’an 75:6-12)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Scientists say that when the sun expands and its extreme heat catches the moon, the earth's temperature will exceed 100 <sup>o</sup>C, hence it will not be available for any kind of life to prevail. What is really amazing is:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>The Hour has drawn nigh: the moon is split.<span style=""> </span>Yet if they see a sign they turn away, and they say "A continuous sorcery!"</strong><br />(Qur’an 54:1-2)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">and <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>They also say; "when shall this promise come to pass, if you speak truly?"<span style=""> </span>They are waiting only for one cry to seize them while they are yet disputing, then they will not be able to make any testament nor will they return to their people-And the Trumpet shall be blown, then behold, they are sliding down from their tombs unto their Lord They say, "Alas for us! Who roused us out of our sleeping place? This is what the All-merciful promised and the Envoys spoke truly”<span style=""> </span>It was only one Cry, then behold, they are all arraigned before us<br /></strong>(Qur’an 36:48-53)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">We stand in awe as to how the Holy Qur’an, 1400 years ago confirms the modern scientific idea that the whole universe will shrink into a limited space.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>They measure not God with :His true measure, The earth shall be His handful on the day of Resurrection, and the heavens shall be rolled up in his right hand, Glory be to Him! High be He exalted above that they associate! For the trumpet shall be blown, and whosoever is in heavens and whosoever is in the earth shall swoon ,save whom God wills.<span style=""> </span>Then it shall be blown again, and lo they stand beholding<br /></strong>(Qur’an 39:67-68)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">On Doomsday the picture will be terrifying and awe inspiring.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Upon the day when heaven spins dizzily and mountains are in motion, woe that day unto those that </strong><span style=""><strong>cries lies<br /></strong>(Qur’an 52:9-11)<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">To what extent the terror will be at Doomsday is referred to in:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>When the Terror descends (and none denies its descending) abasing, exalting , when the earth shall be rocked and the mountains crumbled and become a dust scattered</strong> <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 56:1-6)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">and<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>So when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast and the earth and the mountains are lifted up crushed with a single blow, then, on that day , the Terror shall come to pass,<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>and heaven shall be split, for upon that day it shall be very frail, and the angels shall stand upon its borders, and upon that day eight shall carry above them<span style=""> </span>the Throne of<span style=""> </span>thy Lord.<br /></strong>(Qur’an 69:13-17)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">To what extent people will be scared and frightened, God describes their state of terror in:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Upon the day when heaven shall be as molten copper, and the mountains shall be as plucked wool-tufts, no loyal friend shall question loyal friend, as they are given sight of them. The sinner will wish that he might ransom himself from the chastisement of that day even by his sons, his companion wife, his brother, his kin/ who sheltered him, and whomsoever is in the earth, all together so that then it might deliver him. <o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 70:8-14)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">and<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><strong><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">And when the Blast shall sound upon the day when a man shall flee from his brother,</span></i><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="AR-SA"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>his mother, his father, his consort, his sons every man that day shall have business to suffice him.</strong><br />(Qur’an 80:33-37)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">God makes it very clear that Doomsday or the Hour happens only at His will.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>When the earth is shaken with a mighty shaking and earth brings forth her burdens, and man says, "what ails her?" Upon that day she shall tell her tidings for that her Lord has inspired her.<span style=""> </span>Upon that day men shall issue in scatterings to see their works, and whoso has done an atom's weight of good shall see it and whoso has done an atom's weight of evil shall see it.</strong><br />(Qur’an 99:1-8)</span></i></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-44340355870709679892008-01-11T14:15:00.002-08:002008-01-11T14:16:17.591-08:00The Red Rose<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The Red Rose</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"></span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" stroked="f" filled="f" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" preferrelative="t" spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f></v:formulas><v:path connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" extrusionok="f"></v:path><o:lock aspectratio="t" ext="edit"></o:lock></v:shapetype><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" align="center"><img alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/redrose.jpg" align="bottom" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /><br /></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><strong>Picture: </strong>Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. <a href="http://www.stsci.edu/EPA/PR/95/01.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">This image</span></a> from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals <a href="http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/background-text/phinterv.txt"><span style="color: windowtext;">The Cat's Eye Nebula</span></a> to be one of the most <a href="http://www.astro.washington.edu/balick/WFPC2/"><span style="color: windowtext;">complex</span></a> <a href="http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/97/pn/"><span style="color: windowtext;">planetary nebulae</span></a> known. <a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990916.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">In fact</span></a>, the features seen in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central object may actually be a <a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970219.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">binary star system</span></a>. The term <a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990703.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">planetary nebula</span></a>, used to describe this general class of objects, is misleading. Although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small telescopes, <a href="http://www.noao.edu/jacoby/pn_gallery.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">high resolution images</span></a> reveal them to be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the <a href="http://plabpc.csustan.edu/astro/stars/stars.htm"><span style="color: windowtext;">late stages of stellar evolution</span></a>. On planet Earth, of course, cats and <a href="http://www.cccoe.k12.ca.us/bats/welcome.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">other creatures</span></a> may be on the prowl tonight. Keep <i>your</i> eyes peeled and have a safe and <a href="http://www.bestweb.net/%7Ewallnut/halloween/index.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">happy Halloween</span></a>!<br /><br />(<u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991031.html">http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991031.html</a></span></u>)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The picture was taken by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope of the "Cat's Eye Nebula", an exploding star 3,000 light years away.<span style=""> </span>It is also mentioned (Nasa Site) that this represents a dying star which inevitably is the awaiting faith of our own solar system.which the holy Quran speaks of as the day when the Sky is torn apart. it would be like a Red Rose like ointment:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>When the sky is torn apart, so it was (like) a red rose like ointment. Then which of the favours of your lord will you deny?"<br /></strong>(Quran 55:37-38)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />As Mentioned in the holy Book the Quran over 1,400 years ago; Indeed a favor for us to contemplate and dwell upon.</p></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-69975504659767029662008-01-11T14:15:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:15:44.690-08:00Centuries-long journey through the universe<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Centuries-long journey through the universe</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">In the the previous passages, some verses of the Qur’an answered questions that it has taken some of the greatest physicists and astronomers of history centuries to answer. It was only in this century that they finally found the truth. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Mankind has studied the heavens and the earth for countless centuries. The Greeks were some of the first people to attempt to describe various cosmological phenomena. They gave us many of the very first theories regarding the universe and it's composition. The major contribution came with the writings of Plato. Plato claimed that the universe was created by what he called <i style="">"The Demiurge."</i> According to Plato, the universe was the result of reasoning and planning, it was constructed by the Demiurge upon precise mathematical and geometrical principles. Later on, Aristotle, Plato's student, adopted his teacher's basic concept. Aristotelian cosmology was based on the concept of an enclosed cosmos comprising a series of concentric, spheres revolving around a stationary Earth. Motion was provided by the <i>"Prime mover"</i> and, once initiated, would remain circular, uniform and eternal. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Both Plato and Aristotle taught that the universe was eternal, with neither beginning nor end. The universe as a whole was considered steady and unmoving, and this was the basis for the later formation of the <i>"steady state theory."</i> In 1915, Albert Einstein had published the famous general theory of relativity. Soon afterward he proposed a static model of the universe, but he would later declare that it was <i>"one of the greatest mistakes of my career."</i> Why?, Because in 1925, Edwin Hubble (after whom the Hubble Space telescope is named) provided the observational evidence for the expansion of the universe, or as Stephen Hawking put it <i>"The universe is not static, as had previously been thought, <u>it was expanding</u>."</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Although mankind did not discover these facts till this 20th Century, still, we find that Allah Almighty had provided the answers for mankind 1400 years ago in the Qur'an through the agency of His illiterate Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). During Muhammad's (pbuh) time, the Greeks were claiming that the cosmos was static and not expanding. So how did he know that the universe was expanding 1300 years before the foremost scientist of the West proved this to be a scientific fact? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">However, this is not the only claim that the Qur'an makes with regard to the universe. Let us study the next two verses: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">At the present time, the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe is the cosmological model most widely accepted by astronomers. It holds that about 20,000,000,000 years ago the universe began with the explosive expansion of a single, extremely condensed state of matter (<i>"the heavens and the earth were fused then we ripped them asunder"</i>). As mentioned above, a further development of this model, known as <i>"Inflationary Theory,"</i> describes the original condensed matter as arising from virtually empty space. It was only after the development of radio telescopes in 1937 AD that the necessary observational precision was achieved in order for astronomers to arrive at the above conclusion. Out of the observations of such scientists has arisen the so called "Hubble Constant" (Ho) which is quantity currently used to gauge the <i>rate</i> at which the universe is expanding. In other words, the issue is no longer whether the universe is expanding or not, rather, it is only a question of <i>how fast</i> it is expanding. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The second and third verses presented appear to claim that the heavens and the earth were once a single mass then were "ripped asunder," The exact root words used in the Qur'an are the words "ra-ta-qa" and "fa-ta-qa," or <i>"the heavens and the earth were 'ra-ta-qa' then we 'fa-ta-qa' them"</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"Ra-ta-qa"</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> is an Arabic word which has the general meaning of "to fuse, to sew, to mend, to patch up, to repair." ("Lisan Al-Arab," by Ibn Mandoor, Vol. 10, Dar Al-Fikr, p. 114, and also "A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic," Hans Wehr, Librairie du Liban, p. 325) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Similarly, <b>"fa-ta-qa"</b> has the general meaning of "To rip, to undo sewing, to unstitch, to tear apart, to rend, to rip open." ("Lisan Al-Arab," by Ibn Mandoor, Vol. 10, Dar Al-Fikr, p. 296, and also "A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic," Hans Wehr, Librairie du Liban, p. 695) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The verse then goes on to say that Allah Almighty created the heavens and the earth from a celestial "smoke." Astronomers today have pictures of galaxies being formed by exactly this process, <i style="">i.e.,</i> the condensation of spiraling celestial "mists." Isn't it an incredible coincidence that an illiterate man from the desert, without the aid of observatories or satellite imaging was making these claims over 1400 years ago?. Was he just guessing?<span style=""> </span>Further, the cosmic phenomenon depicted in the following two figures is commonly referred to by astronomists as a cosmic "mist." However, if we were to read the second verse of the Qur'an presented above we will find that the Qur'an more accurately refers to it as a "smoke." This is because "mist" implies a cool and tranquil spray of water. However, "smoke" implies a hot gas containing airborne particles. This is indeed another example of the literary miracle of the Qur'an in that it manages to convey to us in a very concise language a very accurate and detailed description of the topic at hand. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"And those who have been given knowledge know that that which has been revealed to you from your Lord is the Truth"</strong></span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong> </strong><span style=""><br /></span><i style="">(Qur'an 34:6)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><strong><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care) or are there locks upon their hearts?"</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur'an 47:24)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">1) Dr. E. Marshall Johnson, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, and the Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA. Author of over 200 publications. Former President of the Teratology Society among other accomplishments. After studying the verses of the Qur'an he came to the following conclusion: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><strong><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"The Qur'an describes not only the development of external form but emphasizes also the internal stages - the stages inside the embryo of its creation and development, emphasizing major events recognized by contemporary science... If I was to transpose myself into that era, knowing what I do today and describing things, I could not describe the things that were described... I see no evidence to refute the concept that this individual Muhammad had to be developing this information from some place... so I see nothing in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was involved..."</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">2) Dr. Joe Leigh Simpson. Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor Collage of Medicine, </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Houston</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:state><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Texas</span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">. He is the President of the American Fertility Society, and has served in many other professional, national, and international organizations. He has received numerous awards including Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology Public Recognition Award in 1992. He has published more than 400 chapters and articles in journals and books. He says: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"... these Hadeeths (sayings of Muhammad) could not have been obtained on the basis of the scientific knowledge that was available at the time of the writer'... It follows that not only is there no conflict between genetics and religion (Islam) but in fact religion (Islam) may guide science by adding revelation to some of the traditional scientific approaches... There exist statements in the Qur'an shown centuries later to be valid which support knowledge in the Qur'an having been derived from God."</strong></span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">3) Dr. T.V.N. Persaud. Professor and Head of the Department of Anatomy, Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health, and Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is the author and editor of 25 books, has contributed 31 chapters to publications, and has published over 180 scientific papers. In 1991 he received the most distinguished award presented in the field of anatomy in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Canada</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, the J.C.B. Grant Award from the Canadian Association of Anatomists. He says: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"Muhammad was a very ordinary man, he couldn't read, didn't know how to write, in fact he was an illiterate... were talking about 1400 years ago, you have some illiterate person making profound statements that are amazingly accurate, of a scientific nature... I personally can't see how this could be mere chance, there are too many accuracies and like Dr. Moore, I have no difficulty in my mind reconciling that this is a divine inspiration or revelation which lead him to these statements."</strong></span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">4) After a study which lasted ten years, the famous French physician Maurice Bucaille addressed the </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">French</span></st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Academy</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> of Medicine in 1976 and expressed the complete agreement of the Qur'an and established findings of modern science. He presented his study on the existence in the Qur'an of certain statements concerning physiology and reproduction. His reason for doing that was that <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"our knowledge of these disciplines is such, that it is impossible to explain how a text produced at the time of the Qur'an could have contained ideas that have only been discovered in modern times."</strong></span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />5) Dr. Tejatet Tejasen, Head of the Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">University of Chiang Mai</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Thailand</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">. After his study on the Qur'an passages dealing with embryology: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"From my studies and what I have learnt at this conference I believe that everything that has been recorded in the Qur'an 1400 years ago must be true. That can be proved the scientific way."</strong></span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Others include:<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">6) Dr. Gerald C. Goeringer. Professor and Coordinator of Medical Embryology in the Department of Cell Biology in the </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Georgetown</span></st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">University</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">school</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> of </span><st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Medicine</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">. </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Washington</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:state><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">D.C.</span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> He has published numerous articles dealing mainly with the study of teratogenesis.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">7) Dr. Alfred Kroner, Professor of </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Geology</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Germany</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">8) Dr. Yoshiodi Kozan, Director of the observatory of </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Tokyo</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Japan</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">9) Dr. William Hay, Professor of Oceanography, </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">University</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> of </span><st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Colorado</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Boulder</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:state><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Colorado</span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">10) Dr. Pete Palmer, Professor of Geology, </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">University</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> of </span><st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Colorado</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Boulder</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:state><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Colorado</span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">11) Dr. Sayawida, Professor of Marine </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Geology</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Japan</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">12) Dr. Armstrong, Professor of Astronomy, </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">University</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> of </span><st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Kansas</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Lawrence</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:state><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Kansas</span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">13) Dr. Draga Persaud Rauw, Professor of Marine Geology, </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">King</span></st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> </span><st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Abdulaziz</span></st1:placename><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">University</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Jeddah</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Saudi Arabia</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">14) Dr. Schroeder, Professor of </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Oceanography</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">, </span><st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Germany</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The response of these scholars when presented with verses of the Qur'an in their field of specialization, varied. One thing however was always constant. They all confirmed the accuracy of the scientific statements made in the Qur'an, and they all could not explain how Muhammad (pbuh) could have known with such accuracy the scientific claims to be found in the Qur'an so many centuries before mankind discovered them to be scientific truths. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Allah Almighty tells us in the Qur'an:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>Allah did not create (all) that except in truth. He details the signs for people of knowledge."</strong><br />(</span></i><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Qur'an 10:5)</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>And those who were given knowledge see that which was sent down upon you by your Lord is the truth and guides to the path of the 'Exalted' (in Might) the 'worthy of all praise'."</strong></span></i><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong><br /></strong>(Qur’an 34:6)</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>Had We sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would surely have seen it humbling itself and rending asunder for fear of Allah. Such are the parables We put forth for mankind that they may reflect."</strong></span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong> </strong><span style=""><strong><br /></strong></span><i style="">(Qur’an 59:21)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>Verily! this Qur'an guides to that which is most upright, and gives glad tidings to the believers who work deeds of righteousness that theirs will be a great reward"<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 17:9)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"And We have indeed simplified [the comprehension of] this Qur'an for remembrance, so is there any that will remember [and be admonished]?"<br /></strong>(Qur’an 54:17)</span></i></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-68983421548730181072008-01-11T14:14:00.000-08:002008-01-11T14:15:17.708-08:00Conquest of Space<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Conquest of Space</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">From this point of view, three verses of the Qur'an should command our full attention. One expresses, without any trace of ambiguity, what man should and will achieve in this field. In the other two, God refers for the sake of the unbelievers in Makka to the surprise they would have if they were able to raise themselves up to the Heavens; He alludes to a hypothesis which will not be realized for the latter. <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">1)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The first of these verses is sura 55, verse 33: "O assembly of Jinns and Men, if you can penetrate regions of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate them! You will not penetrate them save with a Power." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The translation given here needs some explanatory comment:<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">a) The word 'if' expresses in English a condition that is dependent upon a possibility and either an achievable or an unachievable hypothesis. Arabic is a language which is able to introduce a nuance into the condition which is much more explicit. There is one word to express the possibility (<i>izha</i>), another for the achievable hypothesis (<i>in</i>) and a third for the unachievable hypothesis expressed by the word (<i>law</i>). The verse in question has it as an achievable hypothesis expressed by the word (<i>in</i>). The Qur'an therefore suggests the material possibility of a concrete realization. This subtle linguistic distinction formally rules out the purely mystic interpretation that some people have (quite wrongly) put on this verse. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">b) God is addressing the spirits (<i>jinn</i>) and human beings (<i>ins</i>), and not essentially allegorical figures. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">c) 'To penetrate' is the translation of the verb <i>nafazha</i> followed by the preposition <i>min</i>. According to Kazimirski's dictionary, the phrase means 'to pass right through and come out on the other side of a body' (e.g. an arrow that comes out on the other side). It therefore suggests a deep penetration and emergence at the other end into the regions in question. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">d) The Power (<i>sultan</i>) these men will have to achieve this enterprise would seem to come from the All-Mighty.'<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">There can be no doubt that this verse indicates the possibility men will one day achieve what we today call (perhaps rather improperly) 'the conquest of space'. One must note that the text of the Qur'an predicts not only penetration through the regions of the Heavens, but also the Earth, i.e. the exploration of its depths. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">2)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The other two verses are taken from sura 15, (verses 14 and 15). God is speaking of the unbelievers in Makka, as the context of this passage in the sura shows:<br /><b style="">"Even if We opened unto them a gate to Heaven and they were to continue ascending therein, they would say: our sight is confused as in drunkenness. Nay, we are people bewitched."</b> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The above expresses astonishment at a remarkable spectacle, different from anything man could imagine.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The conditional sentence is introduced here by the word lau which expresses a hypothesis that could never be realized as far as it concerned the people mentioned in these verses.<br />When talking of the conquest of space therefore, we have two passages in the text of the Qur'an: one of them refers to what will one day become a reality thanks to the powers of intelligence and ingenuity God will give to man, and the other describes an event that the unbelievers in Makka will never witness, hence its character of a condition never to be realized. The event will however be seen by others, as intimated in the first verse quoted above. It describes the human reactions to the unexpected spectacle that travelers in space will see: their confused sight, as in drunkenness, the feeling of being bewitched... <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />This is exactly how astronauts have experienced this remarkable adventure since the first human space flight around the world in 1961. It is known in actual fact how once one is above the Earth's atmosphere, the Heavens no longer have the azure appearance we see from Earth, which results from phenomena of absorption of the Sun's light into the layers of the atmosphere. The human observer in space above the Earth's atmosphere sees a black sky and the Earth seems to be surrounded by a halo of bluish color due to the same phenomena of absorption of light by the Earth's atmosphere. The Moon has no atmosphere, however, and therefore appears in its true colors against the black background of the sky. It is a completely new spectacle therefore that presents itself to men in space, and the photographs of this spectacle are well known to present-day man. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />Here again, it is difficult not to be impressed, when comparing the text of the Qur'an to the data of modern science, by statements that simply cannot be ascribed to the thought of a man who lived more than fourteen centuries ago. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <div align="right"><i> Maurice Bucaille</i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-45014202350691583172008-01-11T14:13:00.002-08:002008-01-11T14:14:13.402-08:00Astronomy<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Astronomy</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Whenever I describe to Westerners the details the Qur’an contains on certain points of astronomy, it is common for someone to reply that there is nothing unusual in this since the Arabs made important discoveries in the field of astronomy long before the Europeans. But, this is a mistaken idea resulting from an ignorance of history. In the first place, science developed in the Arab World at a considerable time after the Qur’anic revelation had occurred. Secondly, the scientific knowledge prevalent at the highpoint of Islamic civilization would have made it impossible for any human being to have written statements on the heavens comparable to those in the Qur’an. The material on this subject is so vast that I can only provide a brief outline of it here.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc364417607"></a><a name="_Toc364395711"></a><span style=""><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Sun and Moon</span></b></span><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Whereas the Bible talks of the sun and the moon as two lights differing only in size, the Qur’an distinguishes between them by the use of different terms: light (noor) for the moon, and lamp <i>(siraaj) </i>for the sun.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"Did you see how Allah created seven heavens, one above the other, and made in them the moon a light and the sun a lamp?"<br /></strong>(Qur’an 78:12-13)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The moon is an inert body which reflects light, whereas the sun is a celestial body in a state of permanent combustion producing both light and heat.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc364417608"></a><a name="_Toc364395712"></a><span style=""><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Stars and Planets</span></b></span><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The word ‘star’ <i>(najm) </i>in the Qur’an (86:3) is accompanied by the adjective <i>thaaqib </i>which indicates that it burns and consumes itself as it pierces through the shadows of the night. It was much later discovered that stars are heavenly bodies producing their own light like the sun.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">In the Qur’an, a different word, <i>kawkab, </i>is used to refer to the planets which are celestial bodies that reflect light and do not produce their own light like the sun.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>“We have adorned the lowest heaven with ornaments, the planets.”</strong><br />(Qur’an 37:6)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc364417609"></a><a name="_Toc364395713"></a><span style=""><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Orbits</span></b></span><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Today, the laws governing the celestial systems are well known. Galaxies are balanced by the position of stars and planets in well-defined orbits, as well as the interplay of gravitational forces produced by their masses and the speed of their movements. But is this not what the Qur’an describes in terms which have only become comprehensible in modern times. In chapter <i>al-Ambiyaa </i>we find:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>“(God is) the one who created the night, the day, the sun and the moon. Each one is traveling in an orbit with its own motion.”<br /></strong>(Qur’an 21:33)<br /><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Arabic word which expresses this movement is the verb <i>yasbahoon </i>which implies the idea of motion produced by a moving body, whether it is the movement of one’s legs running on the ground, or the action of swimming in water. In the case of a celestial body, one is forced to translate it, according to its original meaning, as ‘to travel with its own motion.’<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">In my book, <i>The Bible, The Qur'an and Science, </i>I have given the precise scientific data corresponding to the motion of celestial bodies. They are well known for the moon, but less widely known for the sun.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc364417610"></a><a name="_Toc364395714"></a><span style=""><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Day and Night</span></b></span><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Qur’anic description of the sequence of day and night would, in itself, be rather commonplace were it not for the fact that it is expressed in terms that are today highly appropriate. The Qur’an uses the verb <i>kawwara</i> in chapter <i>az-Zumar </i>to describe the way the night ‘winds’ or ‘coils’ itself around the day and the day around the night.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>“He coils the night upon the day and the day upon the night.”<br /></strong>(Qur’an 39:5)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The original meaning of the verb <i>k</i>is to coil a turban around the head. This is a totally valid comparison; yet at the time the Qur’an was revealed, the astronomical data necessary to make this comparison were unknown. It is not until man landed on the moon and observed the earth spinning on its axis, that the dark half of the globe appeared to wind itself around the light and the light half appeared to wind itself around the dark.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc364417611"></a><a name="_Toc364395715"></a><span style=""><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Solar Apex</span></b></span><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The notion of a settled place for the sun is vividly described in chapter <i>Yaa Seen </i>of the Qur’an:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"The sun runs its coarse to a settled place That is the decree of the Almighty, the All Knowing.”<br /></strong>(Qur’an 36:38)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">“Settled place” is the translation of the word <i>mustaqarr </i>which indicates an exact appointed place and time. Modern astronomy confirms that the solar system is indeed moving in space at a rate of 12 miles per second towards a point situated in the constellation of Hercules (<i>alpha lyrae</i>) whose exact location has been precisely calculated. Astronomers have even give it a name, the solar apex.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc364417612"></a><a name="_Toc364395716"></a><span style=""><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Expansion of the Universe</span></b></span><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Chapter <i>ath-<u>Thaa</u>riyaat </i>of the Qur’an also seems to allude to one of the most imposing discoveries of modern science, the expansion of the Universe.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">“<strong>I built the heaven with power and it is I, who am expanding it.”</strong><br />(Qur’an 51:47)<br /><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The expansion of the universe was first suggested by the general theory of relativity and is supported by the calculations of astrophysics. The regular movement of the galactic light towards the red section of the spectrum is explained by the distancing of one galaxy from another. Thus, the size of the universe appears to be progressively increasing.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="_Toc364417613"></a><a name="_Toc364395717"></a><span style=""><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Conquest of Space</span></b></span><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Among the achievements of modern science is the “conquest” of space which has resulted in mans journey to the moon. The prediction of this event surely springs to mind when we read the chapter <i>ar-Rahmaan </i>in the Qur’an:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>“O assembly of Jinns and men, if you can penetrate the regions of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate them! You will not penetrate them except with authority.”<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an 55:33)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Authority to travel in space can only come from the Creator of the laws which govern movement and space. The whole of this Qur’anic chapter invites humankind to recognize God’s beneficence.</span></p> <div align="right"><i> Maurice Bucaille</i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-60330166600921648722008-01-11T14:13:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:13:39.319-08:00Evolution of heavens<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Evolution of heavens</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Having called modern concepts on the formation of the Universe to mind, reference was made to the evolution that took place, starting with primary nebula through to the formation of galaxies, stars and (for the solar system) the appearance of planets beginning with the Sun at a certain stage of its evolution. Modern data lead us to believe that in the solar system, and more generally in the Universe itself, this evolution is still continuing.<br /><br />How can anybody who is aware of these ideas fail to make a comparison with certain statements found in the Qur'an in which the manifestations of divine Omnipotence are referred to.<span style=""> </span>The Qur'an reminds us several times that: <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"(God) subjected the sun and the moon: each one runs its course to an appointed term."<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">This sentence is to be found in sura 13, verse 2; sura 31, verse 29; sura 35, verse 13 and sura 39, verse 5. <span style=""> </span>In addition to this, the idea of a settled place is associate with the concept of a destination place in sura 36, verse 38: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><strong> </strong></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"The Sun runs its course to a settled place. This is the decree of the All Mighty, the Full of Knowledge."<o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">'Settled place' is the translation of the word <i>mustaqarr </i>and there can be no doubt that the idea of an exact place is attached to it.<span style=""> </span>How do these statements fare when compared with data established by modern science?<span style=""> </span>The Qur'an gives an end to the Sun for its evolution and a destination place. It also provides the Moon with a settled place. To understand the possible meanings of these statements, we must remember what modern knowledge has to say about the evolution of the stars in general and the Sun in particular, and (by extension) the celestial bodies that automatically followed its movement through space, among them the Moon. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Sun is a star that is roughly 4.5 billion years old, according to experts in astrophysics. It is possible to (distinguish a stage in its evolution, as one can for all the stars. At present, the Sun is at an early stage, characterized by the transformation of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. Theoretically, this present stage should last another 5.5 billion years according to calculations that allow a total of 10 billion years for the duration of the primary stage in a star of this kind. It has already been shown, in the case of these other stars, that this stage gives way to a second period characterized by the completion of the transformation of hydrogen into helium, with the resulting expansion of its external layers and the cooling of the Sun. In the final stage, its light is greatly diminished and density considerably increased; this is to be observed in the type of star known as a 'white dwarf'.<span style=""> </span>The above dates are only of interest in as far as they give a rough estimate of the time factor involved, what is worth remembering and is really the main point of the above, is the notion of an evolution. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Modern data allow us to predict that, in a few billion years, the conditions prevailing in the solar system will not be the same as they are today. Like other stars whose transformations have been recorded until they reached their final stage, it is possible to predict an end to the Sun. <span style=""> </span>The second verse quoted above (sura 36, verse 38) referred to the Sun running its course towards a place of its own.<span style=""> </span>Modern astronomy has been able to locate it exactly and has even given it a name, the Solar Apex: the solar system is indeed evolving in space towards a point situated in the Constellation of Hercules (alpha lyrae) whose exact location is firmly established; it is moving at a speed already ascertained at something in the region of 12 miles per second. <span style=""> </span>All these astronomical data deserve to be mentioned in relation to the two verses from the Qur'an. Since it is possible to state that they appear to agree perfectly with modern scientific data. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The expansion of the universe <o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The expansion of the Universe is the most imposing discovery of modern science. Today it is a firmly established concept and the only debate centres around the way this is taking place. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />It was first suggested by the general theory of relativity and is backed up by physics in the examination of the galactic spectrum; the regular movement towards the red section of their spectrum may be explained by the distancing of one galaxy from another. Thus the size of the Universe is probably constantly increasing and this increase will become bigger the further away the galaxies are from us. The speeds at which these celestial bodies are moving may, in the course of this perpetual expansion, go from fractions of the speed of light to speeds faster than this. <span style=""> </span>The following verse of the Qur'an (sura 51, verse 47) where God is speaking, may perhaps be compared with modern ideas: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br /><i style=""><strong>"The heaven, We have built it with power. Verily. We are expanding it."<o:p></o:p></strong></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />'Heaven' is the translation of the word <i>sama'</i> and this is exactly the extra-terrestrial world that is meant.<span style=""> </span>'We are expanding it' is the translation of the plural present participle <i>musi'una</i> of the verb <i>ausa'a</i> meaning 'to make wider, more spacious, to extend, to expand'. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />Some translators who were unable to grasp the meaning of the latter provide translations that appear to me to be mistaken, e.g. "we give generously" (R. Blachere). Others sense the meaning, but are afraid to commit themselves: Ramidullah in his translation of the Qur'an talks of the widening of the heavens and space, but he includes a question mark. Finally, there are those who arm themselves with authorized scientific opinion in their commentaries and give the meaning stated here. This is true in the case of the Muntakab, a book of commentaries edited by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Cairo</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">. It refers to the expansion of the Universe in totally unambiguous terms.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-40960645962166363362008-01-11T14:12:00.004-08:002008-01-11T14:13:12.823-08:00Celestial organization<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Celestial organization</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The information the Qur'an provides on this subject mainly deals with the solar system. References are however made to phenomena that go beyond the solar system itself: they have been discovered in recent times. There are two very important verses on the orbits of the Sun and Moon: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"(God is) the One Who created the night,and day, the sun and the moon. Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion." </strong><br />(Qur’an 21:33)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>The sun must not catch up the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion."<br /></strong>(Qur’an 36:40)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Here an essential fact is clearly stated: the existence of the Sun's and Moon's orbits, plus a reference is made to the traveling of these bodies in space with their own motion. A negative fact also emerges from a reading of these verses: it is shown that the Sun moves in an orbit, but no indication is given as to what this orbit might be in relation to the Earth. At the time of the Qur'anic Revelation, it was thought that the Sun moved while the Earth stood still. This was the system of geocentrism that had held away since the time of Ptolemy, Second century B.C., and was to continue to do so until Copernicus in the Sixteenth century A.D. Although people supported this concept at the time of Muhammad, it does not appear anywhere in the Qur'an, either here or elsewhere.<br /> <br /><b style="">The Existence of the Moon's and the Sun's Orbits<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Arabic word falak has here been translated by the word 'orbit'; many French translators of the Qur'an attach to it the meaning of a 'sphere'. This is indeed its initial sense. Hamidullah translates it by the word 'orbit'. The word caused concern to older translators of tne Qur'an who were unable to imagine the circular course of the Moon and the Sun and therefore retained images of their course through space that were either more or less correct, or hopelessly wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Si Hamza Boubekeur in his translation of the Qur'an cites the diversity of interpretations given to it: "A sort of axle, like an iron rod, that a mill turns around; a celestial sphere, orbit, sign of the zodiac, speed, wave . . .", but he adds the following observation made by Tabari, the famous Tenth century commentator: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"It is our duty to keep silent when we do not know." </strong><br />(Qur’an 17:15)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">This shows just how incapable men were of understanding this concept of the Sun's and Moon's orbit. It is obvious that if the word had expressed an astronomical concept common in Muhammad's day, it would not have been so difficult to interpret these verses. A new concept therefore existed in the Qur'an that was not to be explained until centuries later. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Moon's Orbit.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Today, the concept is widely spread that the Moon is a satellite of the Earth around which it revolves in periods of twenty-nine days. A correction must however be made to the absolutely circular form of its orbit, since modern astronomy ascribes a certain eccentricity to this, so that the distance between the Earth and the Moon (240,000 miles) is only the average distance. We have seen above how the Qur'an underlined the usefulness of observing the Moon's movements in calculating time (sura 10, verse 5, quoted at the beginning of this chapter.) This system has often been criticized for being archaic, impractical and unscientific in comparison to our system based on the Earth's rotation around the Sun, expressed today in the Julian calendar. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> This criticism calls for the following two remarks: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">a) Nearly fourteen centuries ago, the Qur'an was directed at the inhabitants of the </span><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Arabian Peninsula</span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> who were used to the lunar calculation of time. It was advisable to address them in the only language they could understand and not to upset the habits they had of locating spatial and temporal reference-marks which were nevertheless quite efficient. It is known how well-versed men living in the desert are in the observation of the sky; they navigated according to the stars and told the time according to the phases of the Moon. Those were the simplest and most reliable means available to them. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">b) Apart from the specialists in this, most people are unaware of the perfect correlation between the Julian and the lunar calendar: 235 lunar months correspond exactly to 19 Julian years of 365.25 days. Then length of our year of 365 days is not perfect because it has to be rectified every four years (with a leap year): With the lunar calendar, the same phenomena occur every 19 years (Julian). This is the Metonic cycle, named after the Greek astronomer Meton, who discovered this exact correlation between solar and lunar time in the Fifth century B.C.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0cm;" start="2" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Sun.<o:p></o:p></span></b></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">It is more difficult to conceive of the Sun's orbit because we are so used to seeing our solar system organized around it. To understand the verse from the Qur'an, the position of the Sun in our galaxy must be considered. and we must therefore call on modern scientific ideas. Our galaxy includes a very large number of stars spaced so as to form a disc that is denser at the centre than at the rim. The Sun occupies a position in it which is far removed from the centre of the disc. The galaxy revolves on its own axis which is its centre with the result that the Sun revolves around the same centre in a circular orbit. Modern astronomy has worked out the details of this. In 1917, Shapley estimated the distance between the Sun and the centre of our galaxy at 10 kiloparsecs i.e., in miles, circa the figure 2 followed by 17 zeros. To complete one revolution on its own axis, the galaxy and Sun take roughly 250 million years. The Sun travels at roughly 150 miles per second n the completion of this. The above is the orbital movement of the Sun that was already referred to by the Qur'an fourteen centuries ago. The demonstration of the existence and details of this is one of the achievements of modern astronomy.<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Reference to the Movement of the Moon and the Sun in Space With Their Own Motion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">This concept does not appear in those tranislations of the Qur'an that have been made by men of letters. Since the latter know nothing about astronomy, they have translated the Arabic word that expresses this movemcnt by one of the meanings the word has: 'to swirn'. They have done this in both the French translations and the, otherwise remarkable, English translation by Yusuf Ali. The Arabic word referring to a movement with a self-propelled motion is the verb sabaha (yasbahuna in the text of the two verses). All the senses of the verb imply a movement that is associated with a motion that comes from the body in question. If the movement takes place in water, it is 'to swim'; It is 'to move by the action of one's own legs' if it takes place on land. For a movement that occurs in space, it is difficult to see how else this meaning implied in the word could be rendered other than by employing its original sense. Thus there seems to have been no mistranslation, for the following reasons: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Moon completes its rotating motion on its own axis at the same time as it revolves around the Earth, i.e. 29.5 days (approx.), so that it always has the same side facing us. <o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Sun takes roughly 25 days to revolve on its own axis. There are certain differences in its rotation at its equator and poles, (we shall not go into them here) but as a whole, the Sun is animated by a rotating motion.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">It appears therefore that a verbal nuance in the Qur'an refers to the Sun and Moon's own motion. These motions of the two celestial bodies are confirmed by the data of modern science, and it is inconceivable that a man living in the Seventh century A.D.--however knowledgeable he might have been in his day (and this was certainly not true in Muhammad's case)--could have imagined them. This view is sometimes contested by examples from great thinkers of antiquity who indisputably predicted certain data that modern science has verified. They could hardly have relied on scientific deduction however; their method of procedure was more one of philosophical reasoning. Thus the case of the Pythagoreans is often advanced. In the Sixth century B.C., they defended the theory of the rotation of the Earth on its own axis and the movement of the planets around the Sun. This theory was to be confirmed by modern sciece. By comparing it with the case of the Pythagoreans,it easy to put forward the hypothesis of Muhammad as being a brilliant thinker, who was supposed to have imagined all on his on his own what modern science was to discover centuries later. In so doing however, people quite simply forget to mention the other aspect of what these geniuses of philosophical reasoning produced, i.e. the colossal blunders that litter their work. it must be remembered for example, that the pythagoreans also defended the theory whereby the Sun was fixed in space; they made it the centre of the world and only conceived of a celestial order that was centered on it. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">It is quite common in the works of the great philosophers of antiquity to find a mixture of valid and invalid ideas about the Universe. The brilliance of these human works comes from the advanced ideas they contain, but they should not make us over look the mistaken concepts which have also been left to us. From a strictly scientific point of view, this is what distinguished them from the Qur'an. In the latter, many subjects are referred to that have a bearing on modern knowledge without one of them containing a statement that contradicts what has been established by present-day science. <br /> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Sequence of Day and Night<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">At a time when it was held that the Earth was the centre of the world and that the Sun moved in relation to it, how could any one have failed to refer to the Sun's movement when talking of the sequence of night and day? This is not however referred to in the Qur'an and the subject is dealt with as follows: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"(God) covers the day with the night which is in haste to follow it..."</strong><br />(Qur’an </span></i><st1:time hour="7" minute="54"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">7:54</span></i></st1:time><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"And a sign for them (human beings) is the night. We strip it of the day and they are in darkness."<br /></strong>(Qur’an 36:37)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>Hast thou not seen how God merges the night into the day and merges the day into the night."</strong><br />(Qur’an 31:29)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"...He coils the night upon the day and He coils the day upon the night."</strong><br />(Qur’an 39:5)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />The first verse cited requires no comment. The second simply provides an image. It is mainly the third and fourth verses quoted above that provide interesting material on the process of interpenetration and especially of winding the night upon the day and the day upon the night (39:5). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> 'To coil' or 'to wind' seems, as in the French translation by R. Blachere, to be the best way of translating the Arabic verb <i style="">kawwara</i>. The original meaning of the verb is to 'coil' a turban around the head; the notion of coiling is preserved in all the other senses of the word. What actually happens however in space? American astronauts have seen and photographed what happens from their spaceships, especially at a great distance from Earth, e.g. from the Moon. They saw how the Sun permanently lights up (except in the case of an eclipse) the half of the Earth's surface that is facing it, while the other half of the globe is in darkness. The Earth turns on its own axis and the lighting remains the same, so that an area in the form of a half-sphere makes one revolution around the Earth in twenty-four hours while the other half-sphere, that has remained in darkness, makes the same revolution in the same time. This perpetual rotation of night and day is quite clearly described in the Qur'an. It is easy for the human understanding to grasp this notion nowadays because we have the idea of the Sun's (relative) immobility and the Earth's rotation. This process of perpetual coiling, including the interpenetration of one sector by another is expressed in the Qur'an just as if the concept of the Earth's roundness had already been conceived at the time-which was obviously not the case. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Further to the above reflections on the sequence of day and night, one must also mention, with a quotation of some verses from the Qur'an, the idea that there is more than one Orient and one Occident. This is of purely descriptive interest because these phenomena rely on the most commonplace observations. The idea is mentioned here with the aim of reproducing as faithfully as possible all that the Qur'an has to say on this subject. The following are examples: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>the expression:</strong><i style=""><strong> <span style=""> </span>'Lord of Orients and Occidents'.<br /></strong>(Qur’an 70:40)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>the expression:</strong><i style=""><strong> <span style=""> </span>'Lord of the two Orients and the two Occidents'.<br /></strong>(Qur’an 55:17)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>a reference to the</strong><i style=""><strong> 'distance between the two Orients'</strong><br />(Qur’an 43:38)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">an image intended to express the immense size of the distance separating the two points. Anyone who carefully watches the sunrise and sunset knows that the Sun rises at different point of the Orient and sets at different points of the Occident, according to season. Bearings taken on each of the horizons define the extreme limits that mark the two Orients and Occidents, and between these there are points marked off throughout the year. The phenomenon described here is rather commonplace, but what mainly deserves attention in this chapter are the other topics dealt with, where the description of astronomical phenomena referred to in the Qur'an is in keeping with modern data. </span></p> <div align="right"><i> Maurice Bucaille</i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-59111169610505663942008-01-11T14:12:00.003-08:002008-01-11T14:12:42.518-08:00The Fusing and Separating of the Heavens and the Earth<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The Fusing and Separating of the Heavens and the Earth</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">How do modern scientists explain the formation of the universe? Dr. Maurice Bucaille explains it in his book, The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, as follows: <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>The basic process in the formation of the universe . . . Lay in the condensing of material in the primary nebula followed by its division into fragments that originally constituted galactic masses. The latter in their turn split up into stars that provided the subproduct of the process, i.e. the planets</strong>" (p. 149). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Does the Qur'an say anything about this condensing and separation of the primary material to result in the formation of our universe? Let's have a look. Our creator, Allah, says in his final book: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then we clove them asunder . . ."</strong><br />(Qur'an </span></i><st1:time hour="21" minute="30"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">21:30</span></i></st1:time><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">This could also be translated as follows: "<strong>Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were fused together, then we separated them . . ."</strong><br />(Qur'an </span></i><st1:time hour="21" minute="30"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">21:30</span></i></st1:time><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Dr. Bucaille sees this as "<strong>the reference to a separation process of a primary single mass whose elements were initially fused together</strong>" (p.143). <span style=""> </span>Thus the Qur'an gives an accurate account of the formation of the universe to call upon humankind to recognize the power of their creator. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">This raises an interesting question: How could a man living in the seventh century invent these ideas which could not be confirmed until modern times? And how could he in so doing avoid the mythical and fanciful ideas prevalent in human history? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Dr. Bucaille mentions some of these myths for contrast: "<strong>When, as in </strong></span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Japan</strong></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>, the image of the egg plus an expression of chaos is attached to the above with the idea of a seed inside an egg (as for all eggs), the imaginative addition makes the concept lose all semblance of seriousness. In other countries, the idea of a plant is associated with it; the plant grows and in so doing raises up the sky and separates the heavens from the earth. Here again, the imaginative quality of the added detail lends the myth its very distinctive character</strong>" (p. 152). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">In contrast to those myths, the Qur'anic statements are "<strong>free from any of the whimsical details accompanying such beliefs; on the contrary, they are distinguished by the sober quality of the words in which they are made, and their agreement with scientific data</strong>" (p. 152).<span style=""> </span>It must be that the Qur'an is not the product of any human or humans, but a revelation from Allah. The Qur'an says:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"The revelation of the scripture whereof there is no doubt is from the Lord of the Worlds"<br /></strong>(Qur'an 32:2).</span></i></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-82846389383128601242008-01-11T14:12:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:12:24.629-08:00What holds up the sky<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>What holds up the sky</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Today scientists speak of gravitational forces that hold the heavenly bodies apart from each other and prevent them from colliding with each other. How was this to be conveyed to the first readers of the Quran? God tells us in the Quran that He is the One Who raised the sky (Quran 55:7) and that he holds it back from falling on the earth (Quran 22:65). But how exactly does God do this? <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">If the author of the Quran was a human being, it would have been very easy for the author to copy the answer to this question from the Bible. But today no one will believe that answer. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">In the New American Bible, a picture is drawn to show how the authors of the Bible imagined the world to look like. In that picture, the sky "<strong>resembles an overturned bowl and is supported by columns</strong>" (The New American Bible, St. Joseph's Medium Size Edition, pp. 4-5). The earth in that picture is flat, and is also supported by pillars. After describing the picture at length, the editors of that Bible conclude by calling that idea of the world a "<strong>prescientific concept of the universe.</strong>" <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">At the time when the Quran was being revealed, anyone could have easily believed this description which was already found in the Bible. It is only in modern times that people would know better. How did the author of the Quran avoid this mistake? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">God says in the Quran that He created the heavens "<strong>without any pillars that you can see</strong>" (Quran 31:10). Again, the Quran says: "<strong>God is the One Who raised the heavens without any pillars that you can see</strong>" (Quran 13:2). Dr. Maurice Bucaille comments: "<strong>These two verses refute the belief that the vault of the heavens was held up by pillars, the only things preventing the former from crushing the earth</strong>" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 154). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">To be able to avoid that prescientific error, the author of the Quran must have been either a modern scientist, or God Himself.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-34996438560748280272008-01-11T14:11:00.002-08:002008-01-11T14:12:03.312-08:00The sun and the moon move with their own motion<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The sun and the moon move with their own motion</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Qur'an makes the following statement about the sun and the moon: <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion" </span></i></b><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />(Qur'an </span></i><st1:time hour="21" minute="33"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">21:33</span></i></st1:time><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">; 36:40)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Why did the Qur'an say that the sun and moon move with their own motion? And, if that is true, where did the author of the Qur'an get this information?<span style=""> </span>The fact is that the sun and moon rotate on their axes and are in part animated by this rotating motion. The phrase "travelling with its own motion" in the verses quoted above is a translation of the Arabic verb 'yasbahoon'. This could also be translated 'they swim.' In that case, the verse would read that the sun and the moon, "Each swim in its own orbit." Those who translate the verse this way explain that the term swim refers to movement with one's own internally generated force. Furthermore the movement of a swimmer is graceful, measured, and smooth. This is a very fitting description for the movement of the stars and planets including the sun and the moon. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">After describing the scientific data concerning the rotation of the sun and the moon, Dr. Bucaille says: "<b style="">These motions of the two celestial bodies are confirmed by the data of modern science, and it is inconceivable that a man living in the seventh century A.D.... could have imagined them</b>" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 163). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">It is also amazing that the Qur'an uses a different term for the movement of the clouds and the mountains (see Qur'an 27:88). Obviously, the clouds and mountains are driven by external forces. The cloud is driven by the wind and the mountains move with the rotation of the earth. The sun and moon, however, move with their own motion, and therefore the Qur'an uses a peculiar term "they swim" to refer to their smooth, graceful, self-propelled movement. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">How did the author of the Qur'an know enough to make this choice of words that will reflect a modern scientific truth? The Qur'an is no less than a revelation from God.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">More verses <o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">According to Modern science, our Sun is moving in the general direction of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra. This apparent direction is termed the Solar Apex or Apex of the Sun's Way.<span style=""> </span>The following are the verses of the Quran which indicated more than a thousand years ago that the SUN is not stationary but it is moving.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Allah is He Who raised the heavens without any pillars that ye can see; is firmly established on the throne (of authority); He has subjected the sun and the moon (to his Law)! Each one runs (its course) for a term appointed. He doth regulate all affairs, explaining the signs in detail, that ye may believe with certainty in the meeting with your Lord.</span></i></b><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><br />(Qur’an 13:02)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Seest thou not that Allah merges Night into Day and he merges Day into Night; that He has subjected the sun, and the moon (to his Law), each running its course for a term appointed; and that Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do?</span></i></b><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />(Qur’an 31:29)</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br /><br /><b style=""><i style="">He merges Night into Day, and he merges Day into Night, and he has subjected the sun and the moon (to his Law): each one runs its course for a term appointed. Such is Allah your Lord: to Him belongs all Dominion. And those whom ye invoke besides Him have not the least power.</i></b><i style=""><br />(Qur’an 35:13)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br /><b style="">He created the heavens and the earth in true (proportions): He makes the Night overlap the Day, and the Day overlap the Night: He has subjected the sun and the moon (to His law): Each one follows a course for a time appointed. Is not He the Exalted in Power - He Who forgives again and again? </b><br />(Qur’an 39:5)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing.</span></i></b><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />(Qur’an 36:38)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">It is He Who created the Night and the Day, and the sun and the moon: all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course.</span></i></b><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />(Qur’an 21:33)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: Each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).</span></i></b><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />(Qur’an 36:40)</span></i></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-45654523631360900712008-01-11T14:11:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:11:42.704-08:00Sun and moon orbits<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Sun and moon orbits</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Today we know that the Moon revolves around the earth in approximately 29.5 days. The sun also revolves in its own orbit. To understand the sun's orbit, Dr. Bucaille says that the position of the sun in our galaxy must be considered, and we must therefore call on modern scientific ideas (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 162). <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Our galaxy, the milky way galaxy, includes one hundred billion stars situated in such a formation that the galaxy is shaped like a disc. This disc turns around its center like a gramophone record. Now, it is obvious that when a gramophone record turns, any point on the disc would move around and come back to its original position. Similarly, every star in the galaxy moves as the galaxy rotates on its axis. Therefore the stars that are away from the center of the galaxy orbit around the axis. The sun is one of those stars. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Dr. Bucaille explains that modern science has worked out the details of the sun's orbit as follows: "<strong>To complete one revolution on its own axis, the galaxy and the sun take roughly 250 million years. The sun travels roughly 150 miles per second in the completion of this</strong>" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 162). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">After describing this, Dr. Bucaille comments: "<strong>The above is the orbital movement of the sun that was already referred to in the Qur'an fourteen centuries ago</strong>." (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 162) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">And yet this is a new finding. As Dr. Bucaille says, the knowledge of the sun's orbit is an acquisition of modern astronomy (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 162). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Two verses in the Qur'an refer to the orbits of the sun and moon. After mentioning the sun and the moon, God says: "<strong>Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion</strong>" (Qur'an </span><st1:time hour="21" minute="33"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">21:33</span></st1:time><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">; 36:40). How did the author of the Qur'an know of this? Even after the Qur'an was revealed, early commentators could not conceive of the orbits of the sun and moon. The tenth century commentator Tabari could not explain this so he said, "<strong>It is our duty to keep silent when we do not know</strong>" (XVII, 15 quoted in The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 161). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Dr. Bucaille comments: "<strong>This shows just how incapable men were of understanding this concept of the sun's and moon's orbit.</strong>" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 161). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">From this it is clear that if the Qur'an was here expressing an idea already known to the people, the commentators would have easily understood it. But this, as Dr. Bucaille explains was "<strong>a new concept that was not to be explained until centuries later"</strong> (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 161) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">This confirms what God said to his prophet, on whom be peace: "<strong>This is of the tidings of the Unseen which we inspire in you (Muhammad). Neither you nor your people knew it before this</strong>" (Qur'an </span><st1:time hour="11" minute="49"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">11:49</span></st1:time><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">).</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-34888587247651993142008-01-11T14:10:00.000-08:002008-01-11T14:11:15.748-08:00Sunlight and moonlight<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><b>Sunlight and moonlight</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >“<strong>It is He who has made the Sun ZIA and the Moon NOOR”</strong> (Qur’an 10:5)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >ZIA and NOOR both mean “light”. But according to the Arabic Language, there are various differences between ZIA and NOOR, which are significant according to the context these words are used. One of the differences between ZIA and NOOR is that<b> ZIA</b> is a light that subsists by itself, while <b>NOOR</b> is a light that subsists by some other thing. Sun’s light is its own. That is why the word ZIA is used for the sunlight. Moon’s light is not its own; it is because that of the Sun, hence the word NOOR for the moonlight.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-34147304843897167972008-01-11T14:09:00.002-08:002008-01-11T14:10:18.312-08:00Comparing oranges and apples<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>Comparing oranges and apples</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The sun and the moon are different from each other not only in terms of size, but also in terms of function. The sun generates light, but the moon does not. The moon merely reflects the light coming from the sun. Every high school student today knows this. <span style=""> </span>A man or woman in the seventh century, however, would not have known about this fine distinction between the sun and the moon. To such a person, the two would appear as a greater light and a lesser light. Such a person would observe that the greater light lights up the day and the lesser light lights up the night. And this indeed is how the sun and the moon were described in previous books. <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Bible, describing the creation, says: "<strong>God made two great lights the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night</strong>" (Genesis </span><st1:time hour="1" minute="16"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">1: 16</span></st1:time><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">). The author of the Qur'an however, was aware that this comparison between the sun and the moon is not adequate. Therefore the Qur'an does not refer to them as being a greater and a lesser light.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Qur'an says: "<strong>God is the One who made the sun a shine and the moon a light</strong>" (Qur'an 10:5). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Commenting on this, Dr. Bucaille says: <strong>"Whereas the Bible calls the sun and moon 'lights', and merely adds to one the adjective 'greater' and to the other 'lesser', the Qur'an ascribes differences other than that of dimension to each respectively</strong>" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 156). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Similarly, the Qur'an says: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>"Blessed is the One Who placed the constellations in heaven and placed therein a lamp and a moon giving light"</strong><br />(Qur'an 25:61).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Here again, the difference between the sun and the moon is noted. The sun is called a lamp, and the moon is called an object giving light. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Again in the Qur'an God says that<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>He "made the moon a light" and "made the sun a lamp"</strong><br />(Qur'an 71:15-16).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Furthermore, God calls the sun a "blazing lamp" (Qur'an 78:12-13). This term which is used for the sun is never used for the moon in the Qur'an. <span style=""> </span>In all of these verses, God expresses the notion that the sun and the moon are "not absolutely identical lights" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 156). <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Dr. Bucaille draws his conclusions from what he found in the Qur'an about the sun and the moon: "<strong>What is interesting to note here is the sober quality of the comparisons, and the absence in the text of the Qur'an of any elements of comparison that might have prevailed at the time and which in our day would appear as phantasmagorial</strong>" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p 157). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">In short, "<strong>There is nothing in the text of the Qur'an that contradicts what we know today about these two celestial bodies.</strong>" (The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, p. 157).</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-8002536242577830082008-01-11T14:09:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:09:48.774-08:00The Qur’an on clouds<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The Qur’an on clouds</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Scientists have studied cloud types and have realized that rain clouds are formed and shaped according to definite systems and certain steps connected with certain types of wind and clouds.<o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">One kind of rain cloud is the cumulonimbus cloud. Meteorologists have studied how cumulonimbus clouds are formed and how they produce rain, hail, and lightning. They have found that cumulonimbus clouds go through the following steps to produce rain: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 51.75pt; text-indent: -18pt; text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">1)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The clouds are pushed by the wind:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> Cumulonimbus clouds begin to form when wind pushes some small pieces of clouds (cumulus clouds) to an area where these clouds converge (see figures 1 and 2). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.islam-guide.com/ch1-1-g-img1-big.htm" target="Figure17"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" stroked="f" filled="f" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" preferrelative="t" spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f></v:formulas><v:path connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" extrusionok="f"></v:path><o:lock aspectratio="t" ext="edit"></o:lock></v:shapetype></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p><img alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/ch1-1-g-img1-big.jpg" align="bottom" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /> </o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Figure 1:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> Satellite photo showing the clouds moving towards the convergence areas B, C, and D. The arrows indicate the directions of the wind. (<i>The Use of Satellite Pictures in Weather Analysis and Forecasting</i>, Anderson and others, p. 188.) (Click on the image to enlarge it.)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.islam-guide.com/ch1-1-g-img2-big.htm" target="Figure18"><span style="text-decoration: none;"></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-indent: -0.75pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><img alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/ch1-1-g-img2-big.jpg" align="bottom" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /><br />Figure 2:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> Small pieces of clouds (cumulus clouds) moving towards a convergence zone near the horizon, where we can see a large cumulonimbus cloud. (<i>Clouds and Storms</i>, Ludlam, plate 7.4.) (Click on the image to enlarge it.) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 51.75pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">2)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Joining:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> Then the small clouds join together forming a larger cloud(1) (see figures 2 and 3). <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;" align="center"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><img alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/ch1-1-g-img3-big.jpg" align="bottom" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /> </b></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Figure 3:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> (A) Isolated small pieces of clouds (cumulus clouds). (B) When the small clouds join together, updrafts within the larger cloud increase, so the cloud is stacked up. Water drops are indicated by <b>·</b>. (<i>The Atmosphere</i>, Anthes and others, p. 269.) (Click on the image to enlarge it.)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 51.75pt; text-indent: -18pt; text-align: justify;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style="">3)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Stacking:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> When the small clouds join together, updrafts within the larger cloud increase. The updrafts near the center of the cloud are stronger than those near the edges.(2) These updrafts cause the cloud body to grow vertically, so the cloud is stacked up (see figures 3 (B), 4, and 5). This vertical growth causes the cloud body to stretch into cooler regions of the atmosphere, where drops of water and hail formulate and begin to grow larger and larger. When these drops of water and hail become too heavy for the updrafts to support them, they begin to fall from the cloud as rain, hail, etc.(3) <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 52.5pt;"><img alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/ch1-1-g-img4.jpg" align="bottom" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /> </p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Figure 4:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> A cumulonimbus cloud. After the cloud is stacked up, rain comes out of it. (<i>Weather and Climate</i>, Bodin, p.123.)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><img alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/ch1-1-g-img5.jpg" align="bottom" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5" /> </p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Figure 5:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> A cumulonimbus cloud. (<i>A Colour Guide to Clouds</i>, Scorer and Wexler, p. 23.)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="bl1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 33.75pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="qr1" style="margin: 7.5pt 30pt 7.5pt 0cm;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Have you not seen how God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain come out of it....</strong> </span></i><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />(Quran, 24:43)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="nr1" style="margin: 15pt 0cm 7.5pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Meteorologists have only recently come to know these details of cloud formation, structure, and function by using advanced equipment like planes, satellites, computers, balloons, and other equipment, to study wind and its direction, to measure humidity and its variations, and to determine the levels and variations of atmospheric pressure.(4)</span></p> <p class="nr1" style="margin: 15pt 0cm 7.5pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The preceding verse, after mentioning clouds and rain, speaks about hail and lightning: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="qr1" style="margin: 7.5pt 30pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>....And He sends down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky, and He strikes with it whomever He wills, and turns it from whomever He wills. The vivid flash of its lightning nearly blinds the sight.</strong> </span></i><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><br />(Quran, 24:43)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="nr1" style="margin: 15pt 0cm 7.5pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Meteorologists have found that these cumulonimbus clouds, that shower hail, reach a height of 25,000 to 30,000 ft (4.7 to 5.7 miles),(5) like mountains, as the Quran said, <b>“...And He sends down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky...”</b> (see figure 21 above). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="nr1" style="margin: 15pt 0cm 7.5pt; text-indent: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><img alt="" src="http://www.islamanswering.com/makale/image/article/ch1-1-g-img6.jpg" align="right" border="1" hspace="10" vspace="5" />This verse may raise a question. Why does the verse say <b>“its lightning”</b> in a reference to the hail? Does this mean that hail is the major factor in producing lightning? Let us see what the book entitled <i>Meteorology Today</i> says about this. It says that a cloud becomes electrified as hail falls through a region in the cloud of supercooled droplets and ice crystals. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">As liquid droplets collide with a hailstone, they freeze on contact and release latent heat. This keeps the surface of the hailstone warmer than that of the surrounding ice crystals. When the hailstone comes in contact with an ice crystal, an important phenomenon occurs: electrons flow from the colder object toward the warmer object. Hence, the hailstone becomes negatively charged. The same effect occurs when supercooled droplets come in contact with a hailstone and tiny splinters of positively charged ice break off. These lighter positively charged particles are then carried to the upper part of the cloud by updrafts. The hail, left with a negative charge, falls towards the bottom of the cloud, thus the lower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. These negative charges are then discharged as lightning.(6) We conclude from this that hail is the major factor in producing lightning. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="nr1" style="margin: 15pt 0cm 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">This information on lightning was discovered recently. Until 1600 AD, Aristotle’s ideas on meteorology were dominant. For example, he said that the atmosphere contains two kinds of exhalation, moist and dry. He also said that thunder is the sound of the collision of the dry exhalation with the neighboring clouds, and lightning is the inflaming and burning of the dry exhalation with a thin and faint fire.(7) These are some of the ideas on meteorology that were dominant at the time of the Quran’s revelation, fourteen centuries ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="ftt" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="ftt" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Footnotes:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="ft1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 18.75pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="footnote1"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(1)</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> See <i>The Atmosphere</i>, Anthes and others, pp. 268-269, and <i>Elements of Meteorology</i>, Miller and Thompson, p. 141. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="ft1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 18.75pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="footnote2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(2)</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> The updrafts near the center are stronger, because they are protected from the cooling effects by the outer portion of the cloud. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="ft1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 18.75pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="footnote3"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(3)</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> See <i>The Atmosphere</i>, Anthes and others, p. 269, and <i>Elements of Meteorology</i>, Miller and Thompson, pp. 141-142. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="ft1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 18.75pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="footnote4"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(4)</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> See <i>Ee</i>’<i>jaz al-Quran al-Kareem fee Wasf Anwa</i>’<i> al-Riyah, al-Sohob, al-Matar</i>, Makky and others, p. 55. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="ft1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 18.75pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="footnote5"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(5)</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <i>Elements of Meteorology</i>, Miller and Thompson, p. 141. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="ft1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 18.75pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="footnote6"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(6)</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <i>Meteorology Today</i>, Ahrens, p. 437. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="ft1" style="margin: 7.5pt 0cm 7.5pt 18.75pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="footnote7"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(7)</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <i>The Works of Aristotle Translated into English: Meteorologica</i>, vol. 3, Ross and others, pp. 369a-369b.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-35159527654957906192008-01-11T14:07:00.004-08:002008-01-11T14:08:44.671-08:00How old is earth<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><b>How old is earth</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >The Bible provides a chronology of history that extends back to the creation of Adam and Eve and to the creation of the earth. From this chronology it is possible to determine the date of the creation and hence the age of the earth. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Archbishop Ussher of Armagh (1581-1657) had calculated the year of creation to be 4004 BC If that was not precise enough, Dr. Lightfoot of Cambridge worked out that the exact time when God completed His creation was 9 a.m. on Friday, October 23, 4004 BC (see the book 7whinking about God by Sr. R. W. Maqsood, p. 63). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Many religious groups and sects have used this date in predicting precise dates for the end of the world, but all such predictions have so far proved erroneous. The one fact against them is that the world is still intact and we are very much alive. One reason al1 of those predictions failed is that they are calculated from a false date of creation. If 4004 BC was the year of creation, that would make the earth less than six thousand years old. No scientist can accept this today. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >Modern scientists estimate that the earth is 4.5 billion years old with a maximum error of 2.2 % (see The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 148). Knowing this, many educated people lost faith in religion. They naturally felt that the Word of God should not contain errors of this kind. Others maintain that the Word of God was meant to teach only that truth which God wanted put into the scriptures for our salvation It if therefore immaterial if the book contains historical or scientific errors. As the scientist Galileo put it, the Bible is there to teach people how to go to heaven; it is not there to teach people how the heavens go. Some maintain, therefore, that it is understandable that the book will contain some historical and scientific errors since it was written by human beings who lived a long time ago and did not share our modern knowledge. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >The Quran, on the other hand, does not contain any historical or scientific or any kind of error. God challenges us to test this claim by examining the book for ourselves (see Quran 4:82). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >The Quran does not repeat the incorrect biblical chronology we have seen above. The Quran does not give a chronology since its purpose is not to provide us with the details of history, but only to teach us the lessons arising from specific events in history. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >The Quran does, however tell us that God measured the sustenance of the earth in four periods (Quran 41 :10). As to what could be the significance of these four periods, Dr. Bucaille comments as follows: "<strong>One could perhaps see in them the four geological periods described by modern science, with man's appearance, as we already know, taking place in the quaternary era. This is purely a hypothesis since nobody has an answer to this question</strong>" (The Bible, the Quran and Science, p. 150). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >How did the author of the Quran avoid the mistake in chronology committed by so many others, and believed in by so many others even up to our present day? Could a man in the seventh century have known that the earth was much more than six thousand years old? How could he come by this modern knowledge unless God was revealing knowledge to him? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >God tells us that the Quran is His book and not the work of any man (see Quran </span><st1:time hour="10" minute="37"><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >10:37</span></st1:time><span style=";font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10;" lang="EN-US" >).</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-6075760490705595812008-01-11T14:07:00.003-08:002008-01-11T14:07:43.476-08:00The history of earth<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>The history of earth</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><strong>Say:" Journey in the land, then behold how He originated creation <o:p></o:p></strong></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">(Qur’an The Spider: 20)</span></i><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="AR-SA"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Here is a clear order from God to study the crust of the earth and collect fossils because</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"> <strong>“…. evidence of things throughout the ages is recorded on the rocks of these ages in the form of fossils or buried things that can be carefully studied and traced back.</strong>"<span style=""> </span>That is to say, we can read on the layers of its crust the history of its creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">By the end of the 18th, century the famous geologist, James Hutton said the earth's history is written inside the layers of its crust. Dr. El- Fandy goes on saying:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 42.55pt 0pt; text-align: justify;"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">It is the duty of the geologist to travel through the earth here and there in order to collect the so-called fossils- remainders of the creatures which lived on earth in the past- and then try to arrange them in the order which enables him to follow (or read) their history.</span><span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="AR-SA"><o:p></o:p></span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 18pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">It is a well-known fact that the distribution of land and oceans has completely changed due to the different deluges that had taken place in the past. Hence some segments of animals; plants and humans could be traced in the different layers of the earth's crust. These layers could be likened to pages in a book on which information is written about the history of the creation of the earth.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5057567886530956419.post-45848769740731110302008-01-11T14:07:00.001-08:002008-01-11T14:07:14.263-08:00From a Gaseous Mass to the Heavens and the Earth<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 10px;" align="center" valign="bottom"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#990000;"><b>From a Gaseous Mass to the Heavens and the Earth</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://www.islamanswering.com/images/tezhip-line-1.gif" height="38" width="400" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 20px;" height="400" valign="top"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The Qur'an was revealed in the seventh century. Many statements pertaining to physical phenomena are dispersed throughout the Qur'an. These are there in the Qur'an to draw the attention of people to the wonders of Allah's creation. <o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Any other seventh century book making statements about the physical universe would surely contain mistakes. Our knowledge of physical sciences in the twentieth century is far advanced beyond the imagination of people living the seventh century. What will come as a surprise to many people is that of all the numerous statements about scientific matters found in the Qur'an, not one of those have proved contrary to the established facts of science. On the other hand, many of those statements have already been verified by modern scientific studies, and we confidently expect that as various fields of knowledge advance, other Quranic statements will likewise prove true. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Let us look at some of the statements which science has already verified. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Concerning the creation of the heavens and the earth, the Qur'an says that prior to the creation, the Heaven was smoke. God then commanded it and the earth to come into being and they came willingly (see surah 41:1 1). How does that compare with modern scientific explanations? Let us hear a scientific explanation and then judge for ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">The French scientist Dr. Maurice Bucaille in his book called The Bible, the Qur'an and Science explains: "<strong>At the earliest time it can provide us with, modern science has every reason to maintain that the universe was formed from a gaseous mass principally composed of hydrogen and a certain amount of helium that was slowly rotating</strong>" (p.147). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">Didn't the Qur'an say that the Heaven was smoke before its creation? Dr. Bucaille explains the connection between his description and that of the Qur'an as follows: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">"<strong>Smoke is generally made up of a gaseous substratum, plus, in more or less stable suspension, fine particles that may belong to solid and even liquid states of matter at high or low temperature</strong>" (p. 143). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">He therefore sees no contradiction of the Quranic use of the Arabic word dukhan (translated smoke) and a modern interpretation of that word as a gaseous mass with fine particles when speaking of the formation of the universe. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="EN-US">We notice here two remarkable features of the Qur'an. The first feature is that it expresses scientific truths that will be verified many centuries later. The second feature is that the Qur'an expresses those truths using terms and expressions that would avoid confusing its first readers in the seventh century. The seventh century reader of the Qur'an can easily relate to the image of smoke, and the twentieth century scientist can easily interpret the word as a gaseous mass</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>KuralSizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005292053638643391noreply@blogger.com0