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Introduction
From The Origin Of Man
Misconceptions
Scientific Errors
Text Of Qur'an Uncorrupted
Unexpected Discoveries
Interest To Men Of Science
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Maurice Bucaille is an
eminent French surgeon, scientist, scholar and
author of "THE BIBLE, THE QUR'AN AND SCIENCE"
which contains the result of his research into
the Judeo-Christian Revelation and the Qur'an.
It is a unique contribution in the field of
religion and science.
Being
an outstanding Scientist, he was selected to
treat the mummy of Merneptah (Pharaoh), which
he did. During his visit to Saudi Arabia he
was shown the verses of the Holy Qur'an in which
Allah says that the dead body of the Pharaoh
will be preserved as a "Sign" for
posterity. An impartial scientist like Dr. Bucaille,
who (being also a Christian) was conversant
with the Biblical version of Pharaoh's story
as being drowned in pursuit of Prophet Moses.
He was pleasantly surprised to learn that unknown
to the world till only of late, the Holy Qur'an
made definite prediction about the preservation
of the body of that same Pharaoh of Moses' time.
This led Dr. Bucaille to study the Holy Qur'an
thoroughly after learning the Arabic language.
The final conclusion of his comparative study
of Qur'an and the Bible is that the statements
about scientific phenomena in the Holy Qur'an
are perfectly in conformity with the modern
sciences whereas the Biblical narrations on
the same subjects are scientifically entirely
unacceptable.
FROM
THE ORIGIN OF MAN
As
most people in the West have been brought up
on misconceptions concerning Islam and the Qur'an;
for a large part of my life, I myself was one
such person. Let me cite one or two specific
examples to indicate the kind of inaccurate
ideas generally current.
MISCONCEPTIONS
As
I grew up, I was always taught that 'Mahomet'
was the author of the Qur'an; I remember seeing
French translations bearing this information.
I was invariably told that the 'author' of the
Qur'an simply compiled, in a slightly different
form, stories of sacred history taken from the
Bible; the 'author' was said to have added or
removed certain passages, while setting forth
the principles and rules of the religion he
himself had founded. There are moreover Islamic
scholars today in France whose duties include
teaching and who express exactly these views,
although perhaps in a more subtle form.
This
description of the origins of the Qur'anic text,
which is so out of touch with reality, might
lead one immediately to assume that if there
are scientific errors in the Bible, there must
also be errors of this kind in the Qur'an! This
is the natural conclusion to be drawn in such
circumstances, but it is based on a misconception.
We are well aware that at the time of Muhammad
- the Qur'anic Revelation took place between
610 and 632 A.D - scientific obscurantism prevailed,
both in the Orient as well as in the West.
In
France, for example, this period corresponded
roughly to the reign of King Dagobert, the last
of the Mrovingians. This approach to what was
supposedly the Qur'anic text may on first sight
seem logical, but when one examines the text
with an informed and impartial eye, it becomes
clear that this approach is not at all in keeping
with reality. We shall see in a moment the truth
of this statement, which is obvious from the
texts.
Whenever
there is textual proof of the existence in the
Qur'an of statements that are in agreement with
modern knowledge, but which in the Bible are
related in a manner that is scientifically unacceptable,
the stock response is that, during the period
separating the two Scriptures, Arab scientists
made discoveries in various disciplines which
enabled them to arrive at these supposed adaptations.
This approach takes no account whatsoever of
the history of the sciences. The latter indicates
that the great period of Islamic civilizations,
during which, as we know, science made considerable
progress, came several centuries after the communication
of the Qur'an to the communication of the Qur'an
to man.
Furthermore,
scientific history informs us that, as far as
the subjects dealt with in this present book
are concerned, no discoveries were made during,
the period separating the Bible from the Qur'an.
When
this aspect of the Qur'an is mentioned in the
West, however, we are likely to hear it said
that while this may indeed be so, nowhere is
this fact referred to in the translations of
the Qur'an which we possess today, or in the
prefaces and commentaries that accompany them.
This
is a very judicious remark. Muslim - and indeed
non-Muslim - translators who have produced a
French version of the Qur'an are basically men
of letters. More often than not, they mistranslate
a passage because they do not possess the scientific
knowledge required to understand its true meaning.
The fact is, however, that in order to translate
correctly, one must first understand what one
is reading. A further point is that translators
- especially those mentioned above - - may have
been influenced by notes provided by ancient
commentators often came to be regarded as highly
authoritative, even though they had no scientific
knowledge - nor indeed had anybody else at that
time. They were incapable of imagining that
the texts might contain allusions to secular
knowledge, and thus they could not devote attention
to a specific passage by comparing it to other
verses in the Qur'an dealing with the same subject
- a process that often provides the key to the
meaning of a word or expression. From this results
the fact that any passage in the Qur'an that
gives rise to a comparison with modern secular
knowledge is likely to be unreliably translated.
Very
often, the translations are peppered with inaccurate
- if not totally nonsensical - statements. The
only way to avoid such errors is to possess
a scientific background and to study the Qur'anic
text in the original language.
SCIENTIFIC
ERRORS
On the subject of man, as well as the other
topics mentioned earlier, it is not possible
to find any corresponding data in the Bible.
Furthermore the scientific errors contained
in the Bible - such as those describing man's
first appearance on earth, which, as we have
seen, may be deduced from the Genealogies that
figure in Genesis are not to be found in the
Qur'an. It is crucial to understand that such
errors could not have been 'edited out' of the
Qur'an since the time they first became apparent:
well over a thousand years have elapsed since
the most ancient manuscripts and today's texts
of the Qur'an, but these texts are still absolutely
identical. Thus, if Muhammad were the author
of the Qur'an (a theory upheld by some people),
it is difficult to see how he could have spotted
the scientific errors in the Bible dealing with
such a wide variety of subjects and have proceeded
to eliminate every single one of them when he
came to compose his own text on the same themes.
Let us state once again, that no new scientific
facts had been discovered since the time the
Bible was written that might have helped eliminate
such errors.
In
view of the above, it is imperative to know
the history of the texts, just as it is essential
to our understanding of certain aspects of the
Bible for us to be aware, of the conditions
in which it was written.
As
we have noted earlier, experts in Biblical exegesis
consider the books of Old and New Testaments
to be divinely inspired works. Let us now examine,
however, the teachings of Muslim exegetes, who
present the Qur'an in quite a different fashion.
When
Muhammad was roughly forty years old, it was
his custom to retire to a retreat just outside
Mecca in order to meditate. It was here that
he received a first message from God via the
Angel Gabriel, at a date that corresponds to
610 A.D. After a long period of silence, this
first message was followed by successive revelations
spread over some twenty years. During the Prophet's
lifetime, they were both written down and recited
by heart among his first followers. Similarly,
the revelations were divided into surahs (chapters)
and collected together after the Prophet' death
(in 632 A.D.) in a book: the Qur'an. The Book
contains the Word of God, to the exclusion of
any human additions. Manuscripts dating from
the first century of Islam authenticate today's
text, the other form of authentication being
the recitation by heart of the Qur'an, a practice
that has continued unbroken from the time of
the Prophet down to the present day.
UNCORRUPTED
NATURE OF THE QUR'AN
In contrast to the Bible, therefore, we are
presented with a text that is none other than
the transcript of the Revelation itself; the
only way it can be received and interpreted
is literally. The purity of the revealed text
has been greatly emphasized, and the uncorrupted
nature of the Qur'an stems from the following
factors:
First,
as stated above, fragments of the text were
written down during the Prophet's lifetime;
inscribed on tablets, parchments and other materials
current at the time. The Qur'an itself refers
to the fact that the text was set down in writing.
We find this in several suras dating from before
and after the Hejira (Muhammad's departure from
Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D.) In addition to
the transcription of the text, however, there
was also the fact that it was learned by heart.
The text of the Qur'an is much shorter than
the Old Testament and slightly longer than the
New Testament. Since it took twenty years for
the Qur'an to be revealed, however, it was easy
for the Prophet's followers to recite it by
heart, sura by sura. This process of recitation
afforded a considerable advantage as far as
an uncorrupted text was concerned, for it provided
a system of double-checking at the time the
definitive text was written down. This took
place several years after the Prophet's death;
first under the caliphate of Abu Bakr, his first
successor, and later under the caliphate of
Omar and in particular that of Uthman (644 to
655 A.D.) The latter ordered an extremely strict
recension of the text, which involved checking
it against the recited versions.
TEXT
OF QUR'AN UNCORRUPTED
After Muhammad's death, Islam rapidly expanded
far beyond the limits of the area in which it
was born. Soon, it included many peoples whose
native language was not Arabic. Very strict
steps were taken to ensure that the text of
the Qur'an did not suffer from this expansion
of Islam: Uthman sent copies of his entire recension
to the principal centers of the vast Islamic
empire. Some copies still exist today, in more
or less complete form, in such places as Tashkent
(U.S.S.R) and Istanbul. Copies have also been
discovered that date from the very first centuries
after the Hejira; they are all identical, and
all of them correspond to the earliest manuscripts.
Today's
editions of the Qur'an are all faithful reproductions
of the original copies. In the case of the Qur'an,
there are no instances of rewriting or corruption
of the text over the course of time.
If
the origin of the Qur'an had been similar to
those of the Bible, it would not be unreasonable
to suppose that the subjects it raised would
be presented in the light of the ideas influenced
by certain opinions of the time, often derived
from myth and superstition. If this were the
case, one might argue that there were untold
opportunities for inaccurate assertions, based
on such sources, to find their way into the
many and varied subjects briefly summarized
above. In actual fact, however, we find nothing
of the kind in the Qur'an.
But
having said this, we should note that the Qur'an
is a religious book par excellence. We should
not use statements that have a bearing on secular
knowledge as a pretext to go hunting after any
expression of scientific laws. As stated earlier,
all we should seek are reflections on natural
phenomena; phrases occasioned by references
to divine omnipotence and designed to emphasize
that omnipotence in the eyes of mankind throughout
the ages. The presence of such reflections in
the Qur'an has become particularly significant
in modern times, for their meaning is clearly
explained by the data of contemporary knowledge.
This characteristic is specific to the Qur'an.
UNEXPECTED
DISCOVERIES
It was not until I had learnt Arabic and read
the Qur'an in the original that I realized the
precise meaning of certain verses. Only then
did I make certain discoveries that were astounding.
With my basic ideas on the Qur'an - which to
begin with were inaccurate, just as those of
most people in the West - I certainly did not
expect to find in the text the statements that
I in fact uncovered. With each new discovery,
I was beset with doubt lest I might be mistaken
in my translation or perhaps have provided an
interpretation rather than a true rendering
of the Arabic text.
Only
after consultations with several specialists
in linguistics and exegesis, both Muslim and
non-Muslim, was I convinced that a new concept
might be formed from such a study: the compatibility
between the statements in the Qur'an and firmly
established data of modern science with regard
to subjects on which nobody at the time of Muhammad
- not even the Prophet himself - could have
had access to the knowledge we possess today.
Since then, I have not found in the Qur'an any
support given to the myths or superstitions
present at the time the text was communicated
to man. This is not the case for the Bible,
whose authors expressed themselves in the language
of their period.
In
'La Bible le Coran et la Science' (The Bible,
the Qur'an and Science), which first appeared
in the original French in 1976 and which subsequently
appeared in English in 1978, I set forth the
main points of these findings. On November 9,
1976, I gave a lecture to the Academia de Medecine
(French academy of Medicine) in which I explored
the statements of the origins of man contained
in the Qur'an; the title of the lecture was
'Donnees physiologiques et embryologiques de
Coran'(Physiological and Embryological Data
in the Qur'an). I emphasised the fact that these
data - which I shall summarize below - formed
part of a much wider study. The following are
some of the points which arise from a reading
of the Qur'an:
*
A concept of the creation of the world which,
while different from the ideas contained in
the Bible, is fully in keeping with today's
general theories on the formations of the universe;
*
Statements that are in perfect agreement with
today's ideas concerning the movements and evolution
of the heavenly bodies;
*
A prediction of the conquest of space;
*
Notions concerning the water cycle in nature
and the earth's relief, which were not proven
correct until many centuries later.
All
of these data are bound to amaze anyone who
approaches them in
an
objective spirit. They add a much wider dimension
to the problem studied in the present work.
The basic point remains the same, however: we
must surely be in the presence of facts which
place a heavy strain on our natural propensity
for explaining everything in materialistic terms,
for the existence in the Qur'an of these scientific
statements appears as a challenge to human explanations.
That
does not mean to say, however, that the statements
in the Qur'an - especially those concerning
man - may all of them be examined in the light
of the findings of modern science. The creation
of man as described in both the Bible and the
Qur’an totally eludes scientific investigation
of the event per se.
Similarly,
when the New Testament or the Qur'an informs
us that Jesus was not born of a father, in the
biological sense of the term, we cannot counter
this Scriptural statement by saying that there
is no example in the human species of an individual
having been formed without receiving the paternal
chromosomes that make up one half of its genetic
inheritance. Science does not explain miracles,
for by definition miracles are inexplicable,
thus, when we read in both the Qur'an and the
Bible that man was molded from the ground, we
are in fact learning a fundamental religious
principle: Man returns from where he came, for
from the place he is buried, he will rise again
on the judgment.
Side
by side with the main religious aspect of such
reflections on man, we find in the Qur'an statements
on man that refer to strictly material facts.
They are quite amazing when one approaches them
for the first time. For example, the Qur'an
describes the origins of life in general and
devotes a great deal of space to the morphological
transformation undergone by man, repeatedly
emphasizing the fact that God fashioned him
as He willed. We likewise discover statements
on human reproduction that are expressed in
precise terms that lend themselves to comparison
with the secular knowledge we today possess
on the subject.
INTEREST
TO MEN OF SCIENCE
The many statements in the Qur'an that may thus
be compared with modern knowledge are by no
means easy to find. In preparing the study published
in 1976, I was unable to draw on any previous
works known in the West, for there were none.
All I could refer to were a few works in Arabic
dealing with themes treated in the Qur'an that
were of interest to men of science - there was,
however, no overall study. Over and above this,
research of this kind requires scientific knowledge
covering many different disciplines. It is not
easy, however, for Islamologists to acquire
such knowledge, for they possess a mainly literary
background. Indeed, such questions hardly seem
to occupy a place in their field of classic
Islamology, at least as far as the West is concerned.
Only a scientist, thoroughly acquainted with
Arabic literature, can draw comparisons between
the Qur'anic text - for which he must be able
to read Arabic - and the data supplied by modern
knowledge.
There
is another reason why such statements are not
immediately apparent: Verses bearing on a single
theme are scattered throughout the Qur'an. The
book is indeed a juxtaposition of reflections
on a wide variety of subjects referred to one
after the other and taken up again later on,
often several times over. The data on a precise
theme must therefore be collected from all over
the Book and brought together under a single
heading. This requires many hours' work tracking
down verses, in spite of the existence of thematic
indexes provided by various translators, for
such lists may perhaps be incomplete and indeed,
in many cases, they often are.
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