What we really need
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is something definitive, and certainty can only come from the Knower of the unseen, who is the Creator of the unseen. Everything else is speculation.
There are a few other religions that one might mention. Sikhism is similar to Buddhism in the sense that it doesn’t claim to be of divine origins, at least not directly. The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, took what he thought were the best parts of Hinduism and Islam and amalgamated them to form his own way. That is something many of us might be tempted to do in the face of such choice, but there is a simple rational problem here. If we agree that there is actually a revelation and message from the Creator, then how could we rationally choose to abandon the Creator’s guidance and follow something else or presume to mix it up with something else, unless of course we could establish that this is what the Creator actually wants us to do? One might be able to justify that from Hindu ideas, but it would be very hard from the point of view of Islam or Judaism, for example.
We’ve already applied one test to see if the claim of a religion being from the Creator is valid or not: Does it agree with the rational basis through which we can understand that there is a single, unique, eternal and self-sufficient Creator who is distinct and separate from the Creation? Are there any other criterion that we might apply to shorten our list of candidates?
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Well, perhaps there are a few other tests we could apply to see if the I.D. is valid or not. One of them that makes some sort of sense is the idea of universality. What is meant by this is that this message from the Creator should be for everybody. As long as humans generally have the rational capacity to understand the reasons for the Creator’s existence and to actually ask the deep and profound questions about life, death, the universe and everything, it seems unreasonable that the Creator would only give guidance to one select group of humans and leave everyone else out. Of course the Creator might have very good reasons for choosing a select group to carry and follow these wise instructions, just as there might be good reasons to choose to give the message to one outstanding person rather than speak to everyone individually, liven so, it begs the question that if we are not one of that select group, what are we supposed to do? What happens to us? All this then becomes sort of irrelevant. It seems strange that the Creator, who has provided for every human the means to fulfil every need, doesn’t provide the means to fiilfil what is psychologically, mentally, and spiritually the greatest need, which are the answers to the big questions!
That pretty much eliminates Judaism. Judaism is great if you are born to a Jewish woman, not so great if you aren’t. Although quite a few of us tend to think in some way that our country, race, tribe, town, or football team is the best (or at least will be some day), most of us would find it pretty hard to stomach the notion that unless you are born into a certain race or tribe you haven’t got a hope of getting to the eternal bliss of paradise when you die, and that the wise guidance of the Creator is only for them and not for you. So even if it was true, then most of us would have to dismiss it as irrelevant anyway! There are a few other reasons why Judaism
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might reasonably be discounted, but this is not the time for it.
1 need us to stop here for a brief interlude.
Now I did warn you right at the beginning that you weren’t going to like this!
Perhaps I should have warned you a bit more that the conclusions of this rational approach might mean going completely against your desires and the things that you think you want in life. Perhaps I should have warned you that you might actually hate the truth, and if you’re that kind of person who thinks your life’s alright, and 1 have everything I want anyway...well, I could warn you that there are lots of reasons why things might not stay like that for you for long. But then if you’re that sort of person, you probably wouldn’t really listen anyway. So here it is.
What follows is only for people who are really ready to put prejudice aside, to think a little deeply and follow the most reasonable conclusion.
So far things have been easy going. What follows is going to be a bit of a rough ride when it comes to the sort of decisions and conclusions you need to make. I’m not trying to put you off. Really I’m not, because it will be well worth the effort. After all, was there anything really worth having that didn’t take some hard work to get? Well, the conclusions I am leading you to here will take some effort to follow up. In fact, for some it will take a momentous effort.
The hard work here is not physical, or even mental in the sense of having to think a lot. If you’ve agreed to use reason and common sense to come to your conclusions, and if you are ready to take the most reasonable option and that’s all that matters to you, I reckon
you’ll be fine. Some of you won’t. Some of you reading this might even agree with everything and then just keep on living the way you always did...or at least you’ll try. 1 say try because you won’t be able to, and I speak from experience. What follows is going to lead you to a conclusion that for some might come as a shocking t ruth. Others might have suspected it already. One thing is for sure, once you know the truth your life can never be the same.
It will always be with you. I Iowever hard you want to escape you can’t run away from yourself.
So back to where we left off...
That pretty much leaves us with two contenders. Zoroastrianism and Islam.
There are a couple of reasons why Islam has the ups over Zoroastrianism. Eirstly, Islam claims to be a universal religion for everybody. Contrary to what some people might think, and contrary to how some of the followers of Islam might behave, Islam is not an Arab/Pakistani/Indian religion. It’s just as much for English speaking white people as it is for Arabs, Africans or Eskimos.
It’s also interesting that the word ‘Islam’ is an Arabic word that has a meaning, and that it is a descriptive term that means ‘submission’ or ‘surrender’ to the Creator. A Muslim then is one who claims to obey and follow the Creator’s guidance. It also claims that this basic message of believing and following the One, Unique and transcendent God is the basic message that the Creator has always revealed through special chosen people referred to as Prophets or Messengers. The name of this religion is not connected to a particular person or place. Judaism (Juda), Christianity (Christ), Buddhism (Buddha), Hinduism (India), Zoroastrianism (Zoroaster), are all connected to a person or place. So, for example, if one lived in some remote location and never heard that
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a man called Jesus, who is also God and God’s son, died for one’s sins, there is no way at all that one could come to the realisation of this through one’s mind or through experience. You could never reason it. Someone would have to tell you. This is not the case with Islam. The basic idea of Islam, that there is a Unique Creator whose guidance we should follow, is something anyone anywhere could figure out. As an idea, Islam, submission to the One God, is truly universal.
Chapter 5
There are a few other tests that one could apply.
The first is connected with the character and personality of the person making the claim. If the person claiming to have a message from the Creator is known and displays truthfulness, sincerity and honesty, it becomes easy to accept that the person is also telling the truth about the Message they are receiving from the Creator. Of course this could be countered by the claim that this person is simply deluded. They think that they are what they claim to be, and are honest and truthful, but their experiences are a product of some mental aberration or hallucination. How can we know that this is not the case?
Certainly none of us want to be conned or taken for a ride by a fraudster or end up following a madman. Of course a good fraudster will do everything in his or her power to make you think that they are sincere and truthful. They will certainly make what they have look and sound like the real thing, and they will often tempt
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you with an offer that seems too good to be true. The problem here is that we can easily end up back where we started. All our contenders could end up looking like pretty credible characters, but the point here of course is that we are not dealing with the actual claimants themselves. It’s not Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, Mohammad or Guru Nanak knocking on our door themselves, it’s people who claim to be representing them and what they said. We have stuff said about them and written about them. So before we can examine these characters we need to have some idea about how we know what they actually said as opposed to what people have claimed that they said.
This is why the issue of scriptural authenticity is important. The problem with Zoroastrianism is that there is nothing really left of the actual writings and sayings of Zoroaster. The liturgy remains, and some ideas of the basic theology, but his actual words are more or less lost. The problems with Biblical authenticity are well known even to honest Christian and Jewish scholars. Here is an area where the Quran, the main scripture of Islam, is really outstanding. There is very little controversy over the authenticity of the Quranic text. In fact, one could pick up a copy of the Quran from any mosque anywhere in the world, and one could compare these with manuscripts dating to within thirty years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed and you would find the text unchanged except for the style of writing and certain marks placed to aid pronunciation. This is quite remarkable for a text just over 1400 years old. Not only is there an excellent record of written preservation, but the Quran has a remarkable history of oral preservation as well. Muslims claim other scriptures have been changed, lost and distorted in various ways, but the Creator (whose word the Quran is) has promised to preserve the Quran because it is the last revelation from the Creator for humanity and thus Mohammed is the final messenger. Although Muslims themselves are human and fallible, and as such do not necessarily represent the true face of the religion, the Quran, and example and teachings of the Prophet remain intact for people to be able
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to find out what the God’s guidance really is.
This is what Muslims claim, but aren’t there lots of problems with Islam?
I mean how can anyone in the civilized free world, or in fact anywhere, be expected to follow a religion that’s 1400 years old? It seems to treat women as second class citizens (but in the civilized free world women are still paid less for the same job, are regularly portrayed as sex objects, suffer scary amounts of sexual and physical abuse and find it almost impossible to be respected as mothers and wives, but at least in the civilized world we claim that women are supposed to be equal). I mean the Quran actually says to beat your wife on certain occasions! Men can have up to four wives and unlimited concubines! Nice for them, and they get twice the inheritance, and a woman’s testimony is worth half a man’s!
Then there is this jihad business and all that terrorism and ‘fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them.’
And how about all those seemingly barbaric laws with hand chopping for thieves, and death for apostates and adulterers (and how come it’s always the women that seem to get killed?) and death for homosexuals, and whipping for drunks, and even crucifixion for highway robbers!
Isn’t the Quran just like every other religious book; full of contradictions, vague terms and open to many levels of interpretation?
Well, the Quran seems to be unlike any other scripture from at least one angle, and that is the nearly undisputed fact of its preservation and authenticity. Then again, how many of the issues that people have with Islam are actually to do with the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet as opposed to the behaviour of Muslims?
Let’s look at this rationally rather than emotionally.
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I )oes the fact that the Quran teaches some things that go against the customs and norms that we are used to, mean that it is not from the Creator?
There is in fact no rational reason why any of the aforementioned issues actually preclude its divine origin. So what if it does not seem compatible with ‘modern’ life? Perhaps the Creator doesn’t like modernity or any other man-made ideology. I’m not saying this is the actual case, I’m just proving the point that again this is not a rational reason to reject the claim of the Quran to be from the Creator. In this respect, nearly every religion joins Islam in questioning the validity of a lifestyle based on pure materialism and enjoyment that seems to characterise much of modern life.
The problem with judging any given book or scripture only on its morals and laws is that morals and laws in general are far from universal. For example, something that may seem like a harsh punishment in one culture is considered soft in another. Limited polygamy might seem like an unreasonable restriction in a society that relies on marriage as means of social security for women and practices unlimited polygamy. To them monogamy might seem like madness, especially to the women who rely on polygamy for security. The self styled ‘civilized free world’ is itself constantly changing its moral and ethical stance on many tilings. Things that were bad ten years ago are acceptable today and vice versa, yet some spokespcople for the values of the ‘free world’ talk about their morals and values as if they were some sort of divine writ, which of course they are not. In fact the opposite is true.
The point here is that the biggest problem that people tend to have with Islam is actually not really a valid criterion by which to judge it. Rationally, one should take the position that if one can establish convincing evidence of a book’s divine origin, then one should accept that the Creator of us knows what is best for us. In fact, it is quite likely that humans would choose morals, laws and values that they feel comfortable with rather than those which are
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actually good and beneficial for them, or that some humans (like those with authority and control) devise a system and moral order that keeps them in power! The fact is, there are many things that are good for us that we don’t like and many things we like that are actually bad for us. So we should put this issue of the so called incompatibility of Islam with modern life aside as a red herring (or perhaps as another man in red underpants!)
No, this may be time to swallow the bitterest pill of all so far.
Time to accept what for some of us might be the hardest truth; that the Quran just might possibly be that guidance from the Creator, and that Mohammed is a Prophet. At least we should put our prejudice aside and try to openly examine the reasoned arguments put forth in favour of the Quran’s claim to be that guidance. After all, it does already have a few things in favour of this claim. Let’s go over them again. Firstly, what it teaches about the Creator matches what can be understood rationally by everyone everywhere, i.e. that there is One Creator that is unlike the creation. There are lots of verses in the Quran that expound this idea. For example:
“Say: He is God, the One and Alone, God the one whom everything needs and who Himself needs nothing, He is not born, nor does He beget, and there is nothing that can be compared to Him.” [The Quran; Chapter 112 - The Purity, verses 1-4]
Some people question the use of‘Fie’ in the Quran. Does this mean that the Creator is a man? The Creator, according to these verses, is not like anything. It’s just that in Arabic, the original language of the Quran, like many other languages, there is only male and female, no neuter. Even in English, saying ‘it’ doesn’t really seem an appropriate way to talk about God. ‘l ie’ just happens to be the gender term that is used in the Quran, but it does not imply or necessitate that God is a man or male.
The second thing in Islam’s favour is that the scripture has been
preserved in a remarkable manner. The history of this preservation is itself worthy of some study, but for brevity I’ll just relate some comments of various scholars on this matter, for example:
The orientalist Richard Burton writes that the Qur’an we have today is ‘the text which has come down to us in the form in which it was organized and approved by the Prophet....What we have today in our hands is the mushaf [text] of Muhammad.’ Kenneth Gragg describes the transmission of the Qur’an from the time of revelation to today as occurring in ‘an unbroken living sequence of devotion.’ Schwally writes in Geschichte des Qorans that ‘As far as the various pieces of revelation are concerned, we may be confident that their text has been generally transmitted exactly as it was found in the Prophet’s legacy’.
They certainly seem convinced of the Quran’s authenticity.
The third reason we should sit up and take notice is because the message of Islam claims to be a universal one, that is, for everybody regardless of race or status, and indeed makes clear that the Creator does not look at a person’s colour, race, tribe, wealth or status, but rather at a person’s heart, goodness and deeds.
The Quran, however, is no casual read. It can be very difficult to get one’s head around, since it doesn’t seem to follow any particular order of events, topic or theme. It repeats itself a lot and even in the best English translation its style is challenging to say the least. In fact, in order to understand it you are forced to think, and thinking is what the Quran asks us to do a lot.
Despite this, the basic message is very clear. There is only One God, who is both compassionate and merciful to all His creatures, but especially to those who are humble and believe. He is also severe in punishment to those who are arrogant and reject the truth. Life is a test, and when we die and this universe as we know it ends, there will be a day when we will be recreated physically and
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judged and either rewarded with eternal bliss, or punished with eternal torment.
Well 1 did tell you in the beginning there was going to be stuff you wouldn’t like, like death and hell! Still, the fact that we don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s not real or true.
Is there anything else that might help us accept the claim of the Quran to be from the Creator of the heavens and earth? Well, the Quran itself gives a sort of falsification test. Phis is in fact a good test to apply to any book that claims to be from the Creator:
“Do they not then consider the Quran carefully? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein contradictions in abundance”
[The Quran; Chapter 4 - The Women, verse 82}
The point being here is that if a book is from the Creator of everything, it’s quite rational to conclude that this unique Being must be very intelligent and wise, to a level that is perhaps beyond human comprehension. Certainly one would expect the Creator of all things to be familiar with the basic workings of the natural world and universe, and with events in human history.
Actually what is remarkable about the Quran is not only that it does not contain any contradictions, but in fact it seems to be making statements about history, theology, philosophy, law and the natural world that defies a normal human explanation.
And there is another remarkable quality about the Quran and that is that it still stands today as by far the most outstanding piece of literature in the Arabic language. In fact, the Quran itself challenges the Arabs, who were masters of poetry and linguistic skill, to produce even one chapter that could compare to it. The shortest chapter of the Quran was a mere three verses! At a time when poets were the ‘pop stars’ of the Arabia, Mohammed showed no
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poetic ability, either prior to or after the revelation of the Quran. In fact, his sayings and statements are clearly different linguistically from the Quran and can easily be told apart. Many of the most skilled poets and orators of that time admitted that these were not the words of Mohammed, or even a human. Many embraced Islam just from hearing the Quran being recited. For them it was the most convincing proof of its divine origin. Of course this may be hard for us to appreciate today, but it stands as a historical fact. The question remains as to how someone with no known poetic gifts was able to produce a piece of literature that until today stands supreme in the whole of the Arabic language at a time when the greatest pieces of Arabic poetry were being produced. If one were to take a modern day comparison, it’s as extraordinary as an uneducated person with no scientific knowledge or training expounding a faultless unified theory of physics!
Mohammed was, like most people in Arabia at that time, unable to read or write. He had no access to the means of acquiring such knowledge. Indeed, it was a constant challenge to his opponents then, as it has been throughout the history of those who refuse to accept the possibility that the Quran is from the Creator, as to where exactly he got all this information. Some Christian polemicists even went as far as to claim that Mohammed himself was in fact a heretical Christian bishop that had fled to Arabia, others claiming that he learned from some dissident monk! However, despite the rich history and available literature of Mohammed’s life, no one can seem to be able to identify this character and how he managed to stay hidden for the duration of the twenty-three years the Prophet preached. Of course, another issue that this raises is the suggestion that the Quran was an invention, and that Mohammed was a liar, and such a claim is really very problematic, since any study of the life of Mohammed clearly shows his complete sincerity and truthfulness. He docs not display the psychological profile of a con artist at all. This has led others to claim that he was deluded and mad, that he really believed that he was a Prophet, and managed therefore to convince himself and others.
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This leaves us still with the unexplained mystery of the amazing information and breadth of knowledge contained in the Quran.
You see, someone can’t be both deluded and a liar at the same time.
If you think you are a Prophet and really believe you are receiving information from God, when someone comes to ask you a difficult question as often happened to Mohammed, you don’t go off running to your nearest priest or Rabbi to find out what the answer is going to be. You’re convinced God is going to tell you.
The most reasonable conclusion that explains the phenomenon of both the amazing level of information in the Quran and the clear sincerity and truthfulness of Mohammed is that he was what he claimed to be, the Messenger of God. It seems that this alone offers a plausible explanation for the information, because this knowledge is from the Creator, and acts as a sort of verification of it. The Prophet Mohammed’s sincerity, truthfulness and principled behaviour is explained by him actually being what he claimed to be and having certainty that he was receiving a divine message.
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Chapter 6
Now some of you might, or perhaps should be thinking what exactly is this ‘amazing level of information’ that I’m talking about, and this is a vast topic in itself which could in fact fill volumes, and then we’d need to add to that all the arguments and counter arguments, and that would fill even more volumes! There’s some recommended reading and web sites at the end of this if you’re interested in going deeper. I’m just going to select a choice few things that I find particularly fascinating and personally convincing.
The first is to do with history. Lots of Christians have tried to accuse Mohammed of attempting to copy and use the Bible, and this is pretty silly for a number of reasons. One of them is because there just wasn’t a Bible in Arabic at that time and even if there was, Mohammed wouldn’t have been able to read it. Now there are a lot of the same people mentioned in the Quran that are in the Bible, and this is because they are, mostly, Prophets and messengers of God. The Quran being the last revelation from the Creator deems their lives to be examples worthy of mention to inspire and motivate believers in times to come. It’s not strange that Abraham is mentioned since the Arabs considered him their patriarch via his son Ishmael. One of the Biblical terms used for the Arabs was Ishmaelites because of their descent from him. However, what might seem strange and a challenge to explain is just how much there is about Moses in the Quran. Of course the simple explanation for this is that the challenges and tasks that Mohammed faced were so much ‘like unto that’ of Moses, and therefore the experience of Moses was a useful guide and inspiration to the final Messenger.
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There are two fascinating little, but telling, details taken from these stories in the Quran.
Firstly, it is interesting how Joseph (son of Israel or Jacob) also mentioned in the Quran, never refers to the ruler of Egypt as Pharaoh but rather calls him King, whereas Moses is clearly dealing with a Pharaoh. The Bible calls both Pharaoh. Not such a problem one might think, except that when we try to locate Joseph in history we find that the dynasty ruling Egypt at the time were in fact the Hykos, who were Semites and didn’t use the term Pharaoh, which was a term used by the native Egyptians for their rulers. The ruler of Egypt under Moses was a native Egyptian who had supplanted the Hykos and who began to oppress the tribe of Israel. If Mohammed had copied the Bible, why didn’t he copy this historical error? And where did he get such accurate information from? There were no universities with departments of Egyptology at that time. The knowledge of reading hieroglyphs had been lost hundreds of years previously, and was not known again until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone 1000 years later. This makes the second piece of information even more fascinating.
The Quran relates the story of how Moses goes to Pharaoh and invites him to believe in...Well, pretty much what you’re reading here. Pharaoh starts to question Moses about this unseen God above the heavens. Now Pharaoh was the one who thought he was god, in fact he thought that through magic he could command the gods. So he arrogantly says to one of his people:
Pharaoh said: “O Idaman! Build me a lofty palace, that I may attain the ways and means-The ways and means of (reaching) the heavens, and that I may mount up to the god of Moses: But as far as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!” [The Quran; Chapter 40 - The Forgiver, verses 36 and 37]
Much has been made of the mention of this Haman, claiming that Mohammed copied stories from the Bible and got it all mixed up.
n
There is a Haman in the Bible in the book ol Usher, .1 book wlm b is considered of questionable authenticity itself, wlm li pl.u <1 lie. character later in time in Persia as a minister in the court of Alt.i suerus. However, there are no independent historical records ib.it show that such a character ever existed in Persia. In fact, Biblical scholars have identified Haman as the Elamite god I lumman, or possibly the Persian hamayun, meaning ‘illustrious’, and to the Persian name Owanes.
We do however, contrary to the mocking claims of many Christian polemicists, have a Haman, located in Ancient Egypt that seems to fit the bill perfectly.
Dr. Maurice Bucaille was one of the first people to study the name Haman from an Egyptological view point. He surmised that since ‘Haman’ was mentioned in the Qur’an during the time of Moses in Egypt, the best course of action was to ask an expert in the old Egyptian language, i.e., hieroglyphs, regarding the name. Bucaille narrates an interesting discussion he had with a prominent French Egyptologist:
“In the book Reflections on the Qur’an (Reflexions sur le Coran),
I have related the result of such a consultation that dates back to a dozen years ago and led me to question a specialist who, in addition, knew the classical Arabic language well. One of the most prominent French Egyptologists, fulfilling these conditions, was kind enough to answer the question.
I showed him the word ‘Haman’ that I had copied exactly like it is written in the Qur’an, and told him that it had been extracted from a sentence of a document dating back to the 7th century AD, the sentence being related to somebody connected with Egyptian history.
He said to me that, in such a case, he would see in this word the transliteration of a hieroglyphic name but, for him, undoubtedly it
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could not be possible that a written document of the 7th century had contained a hieroglyphic name - unknown until that time - since, in that time, the hieroglyphs had been totally forgotten.
Jn order to confirm his deduction about the name, he advised me to consult the Dictionary of Personal Names of the New Kingdom by Ranke, where I might find the name written in hieroglyphs, as he had written before me, and the transliteration in German.
I discovered all that had been presumed by the expert, and, moreover, I was stupefied to read the profession of Hainan: ‘The Chief of the workers in the stone-quarries,’ exactly what could be deduced from the Qur’an, though the words of the Pharaoh suggest a master of construction.
When I came again to the expert with a photocopy of the page of the Dictionary concerning ‘Haman’ and showed him one of the pages of the Qur’an where he could read the name, he was speechless...
Moreover, Ranke had noted, as a reference, a book published in 1906 by the Egyptologist Walter Wreszinski: the latter had mentioned that the name of‘Haman’ had been engraved on a stela kept at the Hof-Museum of Vienna (Austria). Several years later, when I was able to read the profession written in hieroglyphs on the stela, I observed that the determinative joined to the name had emphasised the importance of the intimate of Pharaoh.”
Now that’s what I call an ‘amazing level of information!’
Where did Mohammed get such knowledge from if not from God?
There is more.
Just think about the world 1400 years ago and the level of knowl-
1/
edge that existed, or perhaps we should say the level ol t
that was prevalent, especially in regards to the natural world < >1 course some thinkers and philosophers had made some amazing discoveries, even estimating the circumference of the earth, I nil they also got a lot of things very wrong. Legends and myths also abounded. Reading the Quran, you find a distinct lack of such legends and myths about the creation of the universe and the natural world. Yes, there are miracles and wonders worked by the Creator to increase the faith of the faithful and confound the obstinate, but otherwise descriptions of the world and universe seem remarkably modern. You would expect the Quran to reflect the myths and legends of the time. Even if Mohammed had managed to pick up the best ideas of the time and leave out these legends, it still does not account for the remarkable consistency of the Quran with modern science.
Here are a couple of verses in the Quran dealing with the universe and its creation.
“Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before We clove them asunder, and We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?” [The Quran; Chapter 21 - The Prophets, verse 30]
Ever heard of the Big Bang and how the universe started as a singularity, a super-condensed ball of matter and energy? We talked about that in the beginning, remember? It sure seems that the information in the Quran is correct about something that we discovered just about seventy years ago. Then how about this:
“And it is We who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it.”
[The Quran; Chapter 31 - The Winds That Scatter, verse 47]
When Einstein was conjuring up his theories, the consensus among scientists was that the universe was static and had been
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like that forever, but new observations made it clear that this was not the case and that in fact galaxies were moving a way from each other at a constant rate. In other words, the universe is expanding. More than strange is how these things came to be found in a book 1400 years old.
Science is a very fickle fellow. Things which scientists all agree upon at one time are turned on their heads and are shown to be contradicted by observations at another time, so perhaps it’s not the best thing to judge a book by. Still, there are some things that seem to have been observed so often and so much that it becomes some sort of‘fact’.
One of these things is the embryonic development of humans.
The idea that we go through stages of foetal development is really quite new. Lots of theories abounded in antiquity and early modern times that today seem to sound a bit silly. For example, one of the dominant theories that was prevalent in the eighteenth century was the pre-formation theory. This was the idea that animals existed pre-formed in the sperm. There were even claims of observations of this through the primitive microscopes available at the time. So much for seeing is believing! Aristotle thought that menstrual blood congealed with the aid of semen to form a foetus. It was not until the late nineteenth century that what we know today began to be clearly articulated. Yet over 1400 years ago the Quran stated:
“Man We did fashion from a quintessence of clay. Then We placed him as (a drop of) fluid in a place of rest firmly fixed. Then We fashioned the fluid into a leech-like thing that clings (the word “alaq” is sometimes incorrectly translated as a blood-clot). Then We fashioned that leech-like thing that clings into a chewed-like lump. Then We fashioned the chewed-like lump into bones and We clothed the bones with flesh. Then We developed out of it another creature. So hallowed be Allah, the Best of Artisans”; [The Quran; Chapter 96 - The Clot, verses 1-2}: “...who fashioned man
from a leech-like thing that clings”; and [The Quran; (iliaptn .>.• The Pilgrimage, verse 5}: “We fashioned you out of dust, then mil of a drop of fluid, then out of a leech-like thing that clings, 1 hen out of a morsel of flesh - partly formed and partly unformed...”
Keith Moore, Professor and Chairman, Department of Anatomy, University of Toronto, Canada, and author of‘The Developing Human’, and considered one of the world’s leading embryologists, said concerning these statements in the Qur’an and authenticated hadeeth: “Until the 19th Century, nothing was known about classifying the stages of human development. A system of staging human embryos was developed around the end of the 19th Century based on alphabetical symbols. During the 20th century, numerals were used to describe 23 stages of embryonic development. This system of numbering the stages is not easy to follow and a better system would be based on the morphological changes. In recent years, the study of the Qur’an has revealed another basis for the classification of the stages of the developing embryo which is based on easily understood actions and changes in shape. It utilizes terms which were sent from God to Muhammed the Prophet by the Angel Gabriel and recorded on the Qur’an ... It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God because almost all of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later. This proves to me that Muhammed must have been a Messenger of God.” Marshall Jonson, Professor and Chairman, Department of Anatomy, Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, U.S.A., said: “As a scientist I can only deal with things I can specifically see.
I can understand embryology and developmental biology; I can understand the words that are translated to me from the Qur’an.
If I were 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 Muhammed had to be developing this information from some place, so I see nothing in conflict with the concept that Divine Intervention was involved on what he was able to say.”
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Another interesting statement that is found in the Quran concerns the mountains:
“Have We not made the earth as a bed, and the mountains as pegs?” [The Quran; Chapter 78 - The Great News, verse 6]
Today we know that mountains have deep roots under the surface of the ground and that these roots can reach several times their elevations above the surface of the ground. So the most suitable word to describe mountains on the basis of this information is the word ‘peg’, since most of a properly set peg is hidden under the surface of the ground. This theory of mountains having deep roots was introduced only in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Mountains also play an important role in stabilizing the crust of the earth. They hinder the shaking of the earth.
“And He has set firm mountains in the earth so that it would not shake with you...” [The Quran; Chapter 16 - The Bees, verse 15]
Likewise, the modern theory of plate tectonics holds that mountains work as stabilizers for the earth. This knowledge about the role of mountains as stabilizers for the earth has just begun to be understood in the framework of plate tectonics since the late 1960s!
The Quran mentions many things about the natural world and asks us to think deeply and contemplate, and that those with understanding will realise that these are all signs that point to the power and wisdom of its Creator, that all of this is not for nothing or for entertainment, but rather for a profound and noble pur pose.
The Quran is not meant to be a book of science, but a book of signs. It is easy to understand how the Creator would know about the common origin of the universe, the details of embryonic development and that mountains have roots, but it is not easy to
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explain how Mohammed managed to include this information in the Quran unless we accept his claim to be a Messenger. It would seem that accepting this would be the most sensible thing for a rational, sincere person to do.
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What then are the basic teachings of the Quran?
Well the first thing to accept is that there is One God, who is unique and unlike anything, and that nothing is like God. God is One and Alone, who has no partners and no rivals, and we should pray to and worship only the Creator.
I low to pray to and worship the Creator and be guided by His knowledge is where Mohammed comes in. The Quran teaches that all of God’s Prophets and Messengers to the humans have been human. That is because they are not only delivering a message, but their life is also a practical example of how to follow and implement that message. This makes sense. If one human can do it, then at least in theory the rest of us can too! If the messenger for all of us was an angel, then we’d all be making lots of excuses about how we couldn’t possibly be like an angel since it’s easy for them to be, well, so angelic!
Life, the Quran tells us, is a test. That is why there is suffering and joy, health and illness, wealth and poverty, good and evil, night and day, darkness and light. It is through its opposite that we come to know something. I low can we really appreciate what is good without evil, and how often is it that we only appreciate good health when we are sick? The test is to make known the reality of our selves. Will we accept the truth or follow our desires? Will we obey the Creator or rebel? God has given us guidance and free will. We should use our intelligence to understand and follow that guidance. If we make mistakes, as is inevitable since we are human, we should know that as long as we keep seeking the Creator’s guidance, asking for forgiveness and doing our best to change ourselves for the better, the Creator will keep forgiving us.
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In fact, this understanding of our limitations and recognition of God’s greatness is the essence of what Islam is about. This is why humans should submit and surrender themselves to God, and that is what Islam really means.
The reason for our existence, the primary purpose of our complex minds, and the gift of reason is to understand and to try to do everything in a way that is pleasing to the Creator. We know how to do that through the guidance that has been given to us. In order to help us live most effectively and be constant in this, the Creator has made it an essential component of this way of living to establish regular acts of worship in our lives. It is not that God needs this, not at all! God is without needs and is entirely self-sufficient. Rather, we have been created with that need. Just as our bodies need food, our minds, our souls are designed to be nourished through remembering and worshipping God.
This is why the most important action that a Muslim (one who follows Islam) has to do is to pray in a special way at special times throughout the day and night. There are five of these daily ritual prayers. Establishing this regular ritual prayer with sincerity and understanding is the key to changing ourselves. When done properly, it is a life transforming ritual.
Another essential component is giving charity to help those who are less fortunate and needy. One of the most important components of living a life that is pleasing to God is being kind to and helping others.
Of course living this life takes discipline, self control and patience, and this is the reason why fasting has always been a component of religious life, and this is also the case with Islam. Every year there is a month called Ramadan when one has to leave off food, drink and sex from dawn until sunset. It is also important to try to keep away from evil in speech and actions, since that is the essence of what fasting is supposed to lead to.
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Speaking the truth and not lying, keeping promises, fulfilling trusts, always being just, even against one’s own family or self, are essential characteristics of the true believer.
Respecting one’s parents and being kind to them, especially in old age, being good to one’s neighbour, and encouraging good and discouraging evil are essential virtues.
These make the fundamentals of Islam and being a Muslim.
Life is short and soon, very soon we will all die, but death is not the end.
The Quran teaches that there is a day of judgment when God will assemble us together and we will have to answer for everything that we have done. Every atom’s weight of good and evil, we will know about it.
For those who rejected truth, who chose to rebel, there is a terrible punishment in store. It is a choice they made. The truth was clear to them, yet they preferred to ignore it, and so an awful fate awaits them, the fire of hell, where people will be roasted and burnt yet will not die, but continue to suffer eternally.
Those who were good and lived a life of obedience to God will live forever in complete joy and bliss in paradise. There will be no hatred or anger or jealousy, just peace and happiness, physical and spiritual. What a beautiful abode!
That, really, is what the Creator is inviting us to. His paradise. Following Islam does not mean that there will be no more tests or difficulties in life. In fact, the Creator tells us that we will not be left just saying we believe without being tested. Following the guidance of God teaches us how to deal with those tests, and hardship turns into ease, confusion into understanding, pain into pleasure, and sadness into joy.
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Knowing this, and following it brings true peace to the heart. In this sense Islam really does bring peace. A peace that is not merely the absence of war, but a peace that is deeper and more profound.
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Chapter 8
So there we have it.
We have neared the end of our journey and the destination is in view. There is really only one thing left to do!
It’s about time to open that door and let the true message from the Creator guide your life.
Yes, it may seem a bit strange and the things you need to do are probably not those you are quite used to. You’re probably wonder ing what your family and friends will say! Well, you can always try just saying nothing except “read this” and pass it on!
As I said before, the difficult part is not understanding how much sense this all makes, the really hard part is doing it! In fact, really, honestly, truly even that is not so hard!
Just start by making a firm intention that you are doing this because it’s what the One who created you wants you to do! Then why not actually try asking for some help. Yes! Just go ahead and try asking the Creator of all things, and ask Him alone, not through anyone or anything, just direct to the Creator, and do it sincerely from your heart to guide and help you to do the right thing.
OK! So how do you feel?
Well if you feel the way I expect you to then all you have to do is follow these steps.
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