Taken from "The Origin of Man", by Dr.
Maurice Bucaille.
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 civilisations, 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 suras(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 summarised 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 emphasise 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 realised 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 summarise 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 Qu'ran 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 moulded 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.
Copyright © ISS, 1994
The Islamic Students Society (ISS) c/o Students Union
University of Wales,Aberystwyth Dyfed WALES (UK) SY23 2AX