Does the Qur’an Allude to Scientific Developments?.Part2

*The Qur’an is not a science textbook that has to expound upon cosmological or scientific matters; rather, it is the eternal interpretation of the Book of the Universe and the interpreter of all natural and other sciences.

*It comments upon the visible and invisible worlds, and discloses the spiritual treasures of the Divine Beautiful Names in the heavens and the Earth.

*The Qur’an is the key leading to an understanding of the hidden realities behind events taking place in nature and human life, and is the tongue of the hidden worlds in the manifest world.

*The Qur’an is like the sun shining in the spiritual and intellectual sky of Islam.

*It is the sacred map of the next world; the expounder of the Divine Attributes, Names, and acts; and the educator of humanity that guides us to truth and virtue.

*It is a book of law and wisdom, worship and prayer, Divine commands and prohibitions.

Fully satisfying our spiritual and intellectual needs, it leaves no theological, social, economic, political, or even scientific issue undiscussed, whether in brief or in detail, directly or through allusion or symbols.

The Qur’an considers creation only for the sake of knowing its Creator; science considers creation only for its own sake. The Qur’an addresses humanity; science addresses only those who specialize in it. Since the Qur’an uses creation as evidence and proof to guide us, its evidence must be easily understandable to all of us non-specialists.

Guidance requires that relatively unimportant things should be touched on briefly, while subtle points should be discussed as completely as possible through parables and comparisons. So that people are not confused, guidance should not change that which is obvious. If it did, how could we derive any benefit?

Essentially, like everything else, science has its source in one of God Almighty’s Beautiful Names. The Name All-Healing shines on medicine; geometry and engineering depend on the Names All-Just, All-Shaping, and All-Harmonizing; and philosophy reflects the Name All-Wise. As pointed out above, the Creator refers in the Qur’an to everything that He has allowed us to learn and use for our material and spiritual progress.

The Qur’an’s primary aims are to make God Almighty known, to open the way to faith and worship, and to organize our individual and social life so that we may attain perfect happiness in both worlds. To achieve this aim, it refers to things and events, as well as scientific facts, in proportion to their importance. Thus the Qur’an provides detailed explanations of the pillars of faith, the fundamentals of religion, the foundations of human life, and essentials of worship, but only hints at other relatively less significant things.

The meaning of a verse may be compared to a rosebud: it is hidden by successive layers of petals. A new meaning is perceived as each petal unfolds, and people discover one of those meanings according to their capacity and are satisfied with it.

Examples

One way the Qur’an hints of technological advances and marks their final development is by mentioning the Prophets’ miracles.

• It encourages us to fly in the air and alludes implicitly to the fact that one day we will make spaceships and aircraft:

And to Solomon (We subjugated) the wind; its morning course was a month’s journey, and its evening course was a month’s journey (34:12).

• It invites us to learn how to cure every illness: (Jesus said):

I also heal the blind and the leper, and bring to life the dead, by the leave of God (3:49),

and hints that one day we will be so successful that people will find it hard to believe that they will actually die.

• The verse:

Said he who possessed knowledge of the Book: “I will bring it (the throne of the Queen of Saba’) to you (to Solomon in Jerusalem) before ever your glance returns to you” (27:40),

foretells that one day images or even physical items will be transmitted instantly through knowledge of the Divine Book of the Universe, just as those who have knowledge of the Book of Divine Revelation can bring things from a long distance in the blink of an eye.

• The Qur’an symbolically informs us that it might be possible to identify a murderer by some cells taken from his body at the time of death by narrating that a murderer was revealed in the time of Prophet Moses, upon him be peace, by smiting the slain man with part of a cow that God Almighty ordered the Children of Israel slaughter (2:67-73).