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Rebuttals to "It is Truth"
Responses to "It is Truth"
Chapter 2
Islam and Science
Western thought today is in the midst of a raging battle between
religion and science. It is almost impossible for a western thinker
today to accept the fact that there may be a meeting ground between
religion and science.
This statement is more opinion than science.
The Bible, in which the Christians believe, states that the tree
from which the Prophet Adam (`alaihi salaam) was forbidden to eat
was the tree of knowledge. Thus, after he ate from it, he gained
certain knowledge that he had not had before.
This is completely wrong! Man was forbidden to eat from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:9 : And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out
of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:17 : but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
The Church ruled that the pursuit of such scientific knowledge
was the cause for the original sin. The bishops drew their evidence
from the Old Testament, where it is mentioned that when Adam ate of
the tree and gained some knowledge, Allah was displeased with him
and denied him mercy.
Can you provide back up this statement with any reference where a
pope or Christian leader has said that scientific knowledge was the
cause of original sin?
Scientific knowledge was therefore rejected entirely by the
Church as a taboo.
If that really were the case, why then are there thousands of
scientific treatises in the Vatican Library?
Finally, when the free thinkers and scientists of the West were
able to overcome the power of the Church, they took revenge by
going in the opposite direction and suppressing any power of the
religion. They went to all possible extremes in order to overcome
the power of the Church and reduce its influence into a narrow and
a confined corner.
Please do not confuse the political institution called the "church"
with the teachings of Christ. Please also do not overlook the fact
that many of the finest scientists and doctors who have lived over
the past few centuries have been Christians. They would all admit
that their scientific contributions meant nothing to them in comparison
to their faith in Jesus Christ.
It is known from the Qur'an that Adam (`alaihi salaam) was
favored over the angels by virtue of the knowledge given to him
by Allah. The Qur'anic story contradicts that of the Bible which
Muslims hold to have been distorted.
It is worrying that a web-site such as It-is-truth which
claims to be honest and scientific should make such a bold assertion
as to maintain that the Bible has been distorted then not provide a
shred of evidence to support this claim. Interestingly note that it
is "Muslims" who hold the Bible to have been distorted. Very many
non-Muslim scholars would disagree totally with this.
Incidentally, the Bible has a very high view of man, being created
in the image of God. But admittedly does not go as far as the Qur'an,
which claims that God actually told the angels to bow down and worship
Adam! (see suras 2:34 and 7:11). Would God really be likely to order
such a command?
The "Science" of the Qur'an and Hadith
Among those who were taken by surprise is Dr. Joe Leigh Simpson,
Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and
Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics.... We proved to him
that the Qur'an informs us that the hereditary and the chromosomal
make-up of the new being take place only after a successful union
between the sperm and the ovum.
This is an extraordinary statement to come from what is presumably
an organisation of scientists. There is not a single passage in the
Qur'an which mentions the ovum or chromosomes. The Qur'an ONLY mentions
semen.
Second, Dr. Simpson says in an article in the Wall Street Journal
(by Daniel Golden, January 23rd, 2002):
Dr. Simpson now says he made some comments that sound "silly and embarrassing"
taken out of context, but no matter: Mideast television shows, Muslim books and
Web sites still quote him as saying the Quran must have been "derived from God,"
because it foresaw modern discoveries in embryology and genetics.
... Prof. Simpson -- who attended conferences in Saudi Arabia, Cairo and Islamabad --
recalls being asked to analyze an anecdote from the Sunnah, an Islamic holy book
recording the acts and words of the prophet, in view of modern genetics.
In this passage -- apparently intended to discourage unjustified accusations of
adultery -- a Bedouin complained to Muhammad that his wife had given birth to
a black child. Muhammed inquired about the nomad's camels, and was told that
some were tinged with red, but one was dusky in color. The prophet then likened
the child to the dusky camel, saying both could have inherited their hues from
ancestors.
At the urging of conference organizers, Prof. Simpson attested that this passage
was consistent with the way recessive genes pass on traits not obvious in parents.
But he says that the parallels -- while striking -- aren't necessarily evidence
of divine inspiration.
"It is the Truth" continues:
Hence, many of the details in the human being's make-up are
determined in his chromosomes. These chromosomes begin to form
during the early nutfah stage of embryonic development
Ah, so the Qur'an doesn't actually talk about the hereditary
makeup of the embryo, it merely mentions semen (nutfah) which
we now know to contain hereditary material.
From what stuff has He created him? From a sperm-drop (nutfah):
He has created him, and then molded him in due proportion.
(Qur'an 80:18-19)
This is scientifically incomplete - we are formed when a sperm and
egg unite! Why does male semen get all of the credit in the Qur'an?
After all, we can see semen, but we cannot see the ovum. Since the
Qur'an tells us about semen (or the "sperm drop"), which we can see,
but knows nothing of the egg, we might conclude that this is a simple
human observation, and certainly not a scientific miracle.
During the first 40 days of gestation, all the body parts and
organs are completely, though consecutively formed. We can notice
in Figure 2.1 that the organs begin to be formed, assembled, and
the fetus appears twisted. The Prophet Muhammad, (sallallahu
`alaihi wa sallam), has informed us in a hadeeth that: In every
one of you, all components of your creation are gathered together
in your mothers' womb by 40 days. (Narrated in Saheeh Muslim and
Al-Bukhaari).
There are other Hadiths which contradict this particular one.
For example, we read in Sahih Bukhari Volume 9, Book 93, Number 546:
Narrated 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud:
Allah's Apostle the true and truly inspired, narrated to us,
"The creation of everyone of you starts with the process of collecting
the material for his body within forty days and forty nights in the womb
of his mother. Then he becomes a clot of thick blood for a similar
period (40 days) and then he becomes like a piece of flesh for a similar
period ..." (Also read 4.430,
8.594,
and 4.550)
Error 1: An embryo is not a "clot of thick blood" at any
point in human development. Muhammad probably saw a miscarried embryo,
and made this incorrect assumption. Incidentally, the clotted blood
in a miscarriage is mostly from the mother, not the embryo. Another
possible explanation for this error is that Muhammad believed the
prevailing Aristotelian common "wisdom" of his day. Aristotle believed
that children were conceived from the action of male semen upon female
menstrual blood. (Aristotle (English trans. A. L. Peck, Heinemann, 1953), Generation of Animals, 717b)
Error 2: This hadith echoes sura 23:14, which mentions the
three stages of embryological development (nutfah, alaqa and
mudghah) then says the embryo is "another creation". According
to this hadith the human foetus was not completely formed until 120 days
of gestation, which contradicts what has just been said above.
In another Hadeeth, Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam)
said: When forty-two nights have passed over the drop (nutfah), Allah
sends an angel to it, who shapes it and makes its ears, eyes, skin,
flesh and bones. Then he says, "O Lord, is it male or female?" and
your Lord decides what he wishes. (Muslim).
There are a number of errors in this Hadith.
Error 1: Semen CANNOT remain viable in the womb for
forty two days. Under ideal circumstances, a male sperm cell can
only survive for approximately 7 days in the female reproductive
system.
Error 2: The gender of a child is determined at the moment
of conception, not 42 days after conception.
Error 3: Hippocrates taught that it took 30 days for the
male genitals to form and 42 for the female embryo. No wonder the
angel has to wait for forty-two days before it learns the child's
sex. In reality, prior to 7 weeks of gestation the ovaries and testes
appear identical and the external genitalia only start to diverge
around 9 weeks.
Professor Simpson studied these two hadeeths extensively, noting
that the first 40 days constitute a clearly distinguishable stage
of embryogenesis. He was particularly impressed by the absolute
precision and accuracy of those hadeeths. Then during one of the
conferences which he attended he gave the following opinion: So
that the two hadeeths that have been noted can provide us with a
specific time table for the main embryological development before
40 days.
NO. The Hadith clearly says that "the drop of (semen) remains in the womb
for forty or fifty (days) or forty nights." There is absolutely nothing
distinguishable about a drop of semen, especially since sperm cells cannot
survive, or even remain, in the female reproductive system for that long.
The Muslim speakers are desperately trying to prove that the stages of
development in the Qur'an were only visible under the microscope and hence
unknown to Muhammed. This means that they have to look for events in human
development that take place in the first few weeks, otherwise the embryo
would be big enough for the naked eye to see. But the Hadith exclude that
possibility, for they tell us that Muhammed said the Nutfah stage alone
lasted forty days, and clearly a sperm cannot survive inside a woman's
reproductive system for that length of time. Isn't it interesting that
Simpson tries to telescope the stages of development listed in the Qur'an
into forty days, because that suits his premise that the stages could not
have been seen by human eye? Muhammed tells us that they took place over
120 days.
Again, the point had been made repeatedly by other speakers this
morning that these hadeeths could not have been obtained on the
basis of the scientific knowledge that was available at the time
of their recording.
Wrong again. The Greek physician Galen (150 AD) believed that the
embryo developed in four stages:
- Geniture - an unformed white conceptus like semen (similar to nutfah)
- A bloody vascularised foetus with brain, liver and heart (similar to alaqa)
- Other features were mapped out but unformed (similar to mudghah)
- Puer - all the organs were well formed and joints were freely moveable
(Source: A. W. Meyer (Stanford, 1939) The Rise of Embryology, p. 27)
In his book Sex and Society in Islam (Cambridge, 1983, p. 54) Basim
Musallam says: "The stages of development which the Qur'an and Hadith
established for believers agreed perfectly with Galen's scientific account.
... There is no doubt that medieval thought appreciated this agreement
between the Qur'an and Galen, for Arabic science employed the same Qur'anic
terms to describe the Galenic stages".
After having realized through examples of scientific miracles in
the Qur'aan as well as knowing the related comments of the objective
scientists on them, let us ask ourselves these questions:
a) Could it be a coincidence that all this recently discovered
scientific information from different fields was mentioned in the
Qur'aan which was revealed 14 centuries ago?
Nothing in the Qur'an or Hadith comes close to "recently discovered
scientific information" in the fields of embryology and fetology. The
Qur'an and Hadith are scientifically wrong.
b) Could this Qur'aan have been authored by Muhammad (sallallahu
'alaihi wa sallam) or by any other human being?
Absolutely! Every single statement in the Qur'an and Hadith which
mentions human development is either scientifically incorrect or was
common (mostly incorrect) knowledge long before the birth of Muhammad
and Islam.
The only possible answer to that is that the Qur'aan must be the
literal word of God (Allah) revealed by Him.
That conclusion cannot be reached on the basis of the verses that
have been provided.
Moreover, the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam)
reviewed the Qur'aan with the Angel Jibreel once every Ramadhan
(the month of fasting) and twice in the last year of his life in
the same islamic calendar.
This is a statement of faith, not of science. Good science demands
independent verificiation and reproducibility for a claim. Were there
any witnesses, other than Muhammad, to these events?
Since the Qur'aan was revealed up until this day, there has
always been a huge number of Muslims who have memorized all of
the Qur'aan, letter by letter. Some of them have been able to
memorize all of the Qur'aan by the age of ten.
Does this prove that the Qur'an is from God? We had to memorize
the Gettysburg Address at school, does that make it divine?
Thus, it is not surprising to note that not one letter of the
Qur'aan has been changed for centuries up to now.
Wrong again!
For more information concerning embryology and the Qur'an please
read this excellent article.
Responses to "It is Truth"
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