Scientific Exegesis of the Quran

Centre for Islamic Studies at SOAS

Scientific Exegesis of the Qur'an / التفسير العلمي للقرآنAuthor(s): Zafar Ishaq Ansari and ٲنصاري ظفر ٳسحاقReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of Qur'anic Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2001), pp. 91-104Published by: Edinburgh University Press on behalf of the Centre for Islamic Studies at SOASStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25728019 .Accessed: 23/04/2012 04:36

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Scientific Exegesis of the Qur'an

Zafar Ishaq Ansari

ISLAMIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE, ISLAMABAD

Baljon, in his Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation: 1880-1960, (published in 1961),

devoted a section to the scientific exegesis of the Qur'an.1 In the seventies, the authors

of three other major works which are devoted to, or are at least concerned with, mod

ern Qur'anic exegesis - al-Dhahabi, al-Sharqawi and Jansen - also allocated sub

stantial space to an exposition and analysis of this trend in their studies on Tafsir

especially in the modern period.2 This paper is a continuation of such studies. It will

take note of this trend and covers, to some extent, the same ground that has already been covered by other scholars. It will focus, however, on the study of this trend

roughly during the last quarter of a century. In view of the linguistic proficiency of

the writer in Arabic, English and Urdu, the inquiry will be mainly confined to the

writings in these languages and will focus on the Arab world, South Asia and the

English-speaking countries.

I

The eighteenth century marks a watershed in the encounter between Muslims and

Europeans. The French occupation of Egypt in 1798 was the culmination of the

changing balance of power between them. Throughout the century Muslims had an

enhanced opportunity to interact with Europeans. This took place mostly in their own

lands, where they came across Europeans as soldiers, scientists, doctors, engineers, traders and administrators. Muslims, however, also had the opportunity to observe

them in some parts of Europe and form certain impressions about their ways of life,

institutions, and attitudes. As a result, while there were several aspects of European civilization which provoked the ire of Muslims, there were also other features which

evoked praise from them; features which some of them found more admirable than

the corresponding ones in their own societies. One of the most commonly admired

aspects of European modernity - one that was also perceived by Muslims as a major

factor in the strength and prosperity of Europeans - was the remarkable progress they

had made in the field of knowledge, especially in science and technology.3

With the passage of time, an increasing number of Muslims woke up to the need to

acquire modern European knowledge, especially natural sciences and technology.4 This need was felt for a combination of theoretical and practical reasons. Apart from

theoretical considerations, the acquisition of modern knowledge seemed the only

practical way for Muslims to overcome their increasing military enfeeblement and

92 Journal of Qur'anic Studies

economic stolidity and backwardness. During the nineteenth century, the trend among Muslims to appropriate what seemed to them to be the beneficial aspects of European

modernity gained momentum. A number of Muslim rulers as well as thinkers strong

ly felt the need to do so. Mahmud II (d. 1839), Muhammad Ali Pasha (d. 1849), Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi (d. 1889), Rifacah al-Tahtawi (d.1871), Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d.

1897), Muhammad cAbduh (d. 1905) and Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898) voiced

the need to do so. Those who wielded political power and felt the need to improve

things at the practical level, some of which were inspired by the ideas and institutions

of Europe, initiated a process of change.

The modern phenomenon of scientific exegesis of the Qur'an, in our opinion, began as a discourse aimed at encouraging Muslims to acquire natural sciences. It was

argued that Muslims were required to do so because, from an Islamic standpoint (i) there was nothing objectionable in doing so, and (ii) in fact it was highly praisewor

thy. In the course of time new themes and emphases were added to this discourse, as

we shall see. One of the most important of these was that the Qur'an (and the Sunna) contain a substantially large number of scientific truths that were discovered only in

modern times, many centuries after the revelation of the Qur'an. The Qur'anic vers

es which are perceived to embody these scientific truths are emphatically presented as evidence of the miraculous nature of the Qur'an. The core of the argument would

run as follows: The Qur'an substantially contains basic facts about the creation of the

universe, in fact a vast collection of scientific facts and laws such as the Big Bang

Theory. This is mentioned to prove that the Qur'an embodies the infinite knowledge of God rather than the limited knowledge of man. In view of the above, it is now being

increasingly claimed by some Muslim scholars that the Qur'an is not only a depend able source of knowledge about God, about the After-life, and about the principles on

which human behaviour should be patterned, but a dependable source of scientific

knowledge as well.5

The underlying premise of Qur'anic exegesis throughout the last fourteen centuries

has, by and large, been that it embodies the guidance needed by man to live a good life in the present world and achieve success in the Next. This requires, first of all,

that he should have faith (Imdn) which in turn necessitates that the content of that faith

be clearly explained to him. Second, that he should act righteously. As we know, the

expression alladhlna dmanu wa camilu 'l-sdlihdt is interspersed throughout the

Qur'an. It would perhaps not be inaccurate to say that the main task to which the

Qur'an addresses itself is to give a lucid exposition of the Straight Path which com

bines imdn and al- camal al-sdlih.6

Muslims have predominantly considered the Qur'an to embody all essential knowl

edge pertaining to this basic need of man. However, they have hardly ever looked

Scientific Exegesis of the Qur'an 93

upon it as the source of comprehensive knowledge in all fields, in a strictly literal

sense. Those who were inclined, or are perceived to have been inclined, to the opin ion that the Qur'an contains all knowledge, including scientific, have been only a few.

And it was possible to identify them , for the simple reason that their attitude was

divergent from the mainstream of Muslim scholarship. Al-Dhahabi, who has tried to

trace the roots of modern scientific exegesis of the Qur'an in the earlier Islamic intel

lectual tradition, has been able to point out no more than the following scholars in this

connection: al-Ghazali, Jalal al-DTn al-Suyuti and Abu al-Fadl al-Mursi.7 This is

despite the fact that the statements made by some of these scholars to the effect that

the Qur'an was a source of specific scientific information are of a somewhat vague and tentative character.8

II

The trend of scientific exegesis manifested itself, or acquired some degree of promi nence, in the writings of a few Muslim scholars in the later half of the nineteenth cen

tury. One of these was Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Iskandarani, an Egyptian physician, who in 1880 published in Cairo a book entitled Kashf al-Asrdr can al-Nurdniyyah al

Qur'dniyyah fi ma yatacallaqu bi al-Ajrdm al-Samdwiyyah wa al-Ardiyyah, and

another book in 1883 from Constantinople. This was entitled Tibydn al-Asrdr al

Rabbdniyyah fi al-Nabdt wa al-Macdin wa al-Khawdss al-Haywdniyyah. In both

these books questions pertaining to natural sciences are explained in the light of vers

es from the Qur'an that seemed appropriate to the author for the purpose. This trend

was also represented in Egypt by Ahmad Mukhtar al-GhazlT, author of Riydd al

Mukhtdr, cAbd Allah Fikri Basha, a physician, Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi (d. 1920), the author of al-DTn fi Nadar al-cAql al-Sahih (Cairo: 1 323 A.H), and by 4Abd al

cAziz Isma'il, the author of al-Isldm wa al-Tibb al-Hadlth (Cairo: 1938).

This trend, however, came to fruition in the writings, especially the tafsir of Tantawi Jawhari (d. 1940) which he called al-Jawdhir fi Tafslr al-Qur'dn al-Karim,9 a mas

sive work of 26 volumes. Jawhari emphasized that the Qur'an has 750 verses which

clearly pertain to the physical universe. There are in addition several other verses on

the same subject although they do not have, according to him, the same degree of

direct relevance. On the other hand, Jawhari points out that there are no more than 150

Qur'anic verses pertaining to legal matters.10 Jawhari strongly castigates Muslim

scholarship for having largely disregarded a subject which is of primary concern in

the Qur'an - natural sciences - and to have focused instead on religious law which,

in his view, has a much lower ranking. Now and again Jawhari passionately address es his plea to Muslims to reverse their order of priorities and give the highest degree of importance to natural sciences. The following quote will give us some idea of the

thrust of Jawhari's views and his feelings on the matter:


O ummah of Islam! ... There are a limited number of verses on inher itance which embrace just a section of Mathematics. But what about the seven hundred verses wherein are all the wonders of the world ...?

This is the age of science. This is the age of the appearance [in full

ness] of the light of Islam; this is the age of its progress. If only if I could know ... why should we not work on the verses relating to the cosmic sciences in the same manner in which our ancestors worked on

the verses relating to inheritance? But I say and all praise be to Allah - that you will read in this tafsir the gist of the sciences. The study of these sciences is superior to the study of the science of inheritance, because the former is only the collective duty ifard kifaya) whereas the latter is aimed at bringing about an increase in the knowledge that would lead to greater faith and this is the individual duty ifard cayn) of everyone who has the power [to acquire it].11

It would appear from the above that in the earlier phases, in comparison with Muslim scholars of South Asia, the scholars of Egypt were more prominent as proponents of 'scientific exegesis' although it is true that in South Asia, Sayyid Ahmad Khan grap

pled with science and scientific ideas and his religious concepts also bore the imprint of the scientific ideas of his age. In fact, in the perception of his co-religionists in India Sayyid Ahmad Khan had gone so far in this direction that he earned the oppro brious nickname of nochari (naturalist). Sir Sayyid interpreted a large number of

Qur'anic verses from a naturalist frame of reference so that he virtually explained away the verses that mention miracles. Nevertheless Sir Sayyid Ahmad recognized that in order to arrive at scientific facts one should primarily follow the scientific

method rather than look into the scriptures. It was for this reason that Sayyid Ahmad Khan wrestled for so long with problems involving conflict between religion and sci ence and took pains to devise a set of rules which would bring about harmony between the two. The way in which he attempted to resolve the conflict was to declare

Nature to be the Work of God, and the Qur'an - as all Muslims believe - the Word of

God. He was of the firm view that the Word of God could not be in conflict with the

Work of God; and vice versa. In cases where there was a conflict between the two, Sir Sayyid worked out certain rules to resolve that conflict. However, were one to

study the relevant portions of his tafsir or other writings, there remains little doubt that operationally he was inclined more towards the Work rather than the Word of

God.12

With the passage of time, the lines of demarcation between science and religion (or, to put it more accurately, Islam) began to get increasingly blurred in the minds of


many Muslim thinkers of the current century. However, the development of this trend

has led to the emergence of not one, but a variety of positions and stances on the ques

tion of the relationship between Islam and science and the right approach to inter

preting Qur'anic verses which are in one way or another pertinent for understanding issues which form the subject-matter of the natural sciences.

One of the themes that we increasingly encounter in contemporary Islamic discourse

is that the Qur'an encourages the acquisition of science. In elaborating this view ref

erence has been made to a large number of verses in which natural phenomena have

been mentioned as signs of God, or in which man has been urged to observe natural

phenomena and to reflect on them.13 In other words, these verses are marshaled to

show that by carefully observing and reflecting on natural phenomena, man's scien

tific knowledge will grow, which is something desirable. To pursue science is thus,

not only a response to man's latent desire to know more about the universe and to har

ness this knowledge -

knowledge of the laws operating in the universe - to serve his

objectives. It is also perceived as an act of religious merit, in fact, a religious duty.

We find the best and most vigorous expression of this idea in the famous poet

philosopher of South Asia, Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938). The idea is interspersed

through out his poetry, but is most impressively and systematically expressed, as one

would expect, in his The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. Iqbal quoted

many verses of the Qur'an which either mention the 'signs' [of God] in natural phe

nomena, or ask the believers to observe and ponder over them. In so doing he had

recourse to more or less the same verses that are quoted by other Muslim scholars and

thinkers of the present century.14 But Iqbal assigned a much greater significance to

these verses: in the first instance, they contributed to shaping Muslim intellectual atti

tudes, and subsequently had a major impact on the history of mankind.

Iqbal recognizes that the "immediate purpose of the Qur'an in this reflective obser

vation of nature is to awaken in man the consciousness of that of which nature is

regarded as a symbol".15 Iqbal's main stress is that the verses that urge a 'reflective

observation' of nature represent the true spirit of Muslim culture since "for purposes of knowledge it fixes its gaze on the concrete, the finite".16 This is a distinctive fea

ture of Muslim thought and culture and one that distinguishes it from the Greek intel

lectual tradition with which it came into contact in the early stages of its history. The

overriding interest of Greek thought lay in theory rather than in fact. Let us turn to

Iqbal to understand his thesis:

The Qur'an sees signs of the ultimate Reality.in the whole of

nature as revealed to the sense-perception of man. And the Muslim's

duty is to reflect on these signs and not to pass by them 'as if he is deaf

and blind', for he 'who does not see these signs in this life will remain


blind to the realities of the life to come'. This appeal to the concrete

combined with the slow realization that, according to the teachings of

the Qur'an, the universe is dynamic in its origin, finite and capable of

increase, eventually brought Muslim thinkers into conflict with Greek

thought which, in the beginning of their intellectual career, they had

studied with so much enthusiasm.17

It is no wonder, for the reasons mentioned above, that Iqbal was of the opinion that

the "birth of Islam ... is the birth of inductive intellect".18 Iqbal was well aware of the

contributions made by Muslim scholars and scientists to different important branch es of knowledge such as Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics and Chemistry.

Significant though these contributions were to specific fields of knowledge, what

truly excited Iqbal was what he perceived to be the historical role of Islam in man's

intellectual development. The essential role of Islam in history was that under its

inspiration there took place the development of the scientific spirit and scientific

method which are the source of all the achievements of modern science.19

A good deal of what Iqbal had emphasized has become an integral part of the current

Islamic discourse on the question of Islam and science. A great many Muslim writers on the subject feel fully convinced that the 'sign' verses regarding natural phenome na, or the Qur'anic biddings to observe and reflect on them, mean that Muslims

should engage in the pursuit of science, and that to do so is an essential requirement of Islam. Iqbal was conscious, as we have noted earlier, that the immediate purpose of this 'reflective observation' of nature enjoined by the Qur'an was "to awaken in

man the consciousness of that of which nature is regarded as a symbol".20 After hav

ing read much of what has and is being written on the subject and noting the main

points of emphases in it, the impression one gets is that the above-mentioned obser

vation of Iqbal -

which, in any case, was perhaps couched in terms too refined and

subtle to be grasped by any but a very select intellectual elite - has not registered to

any significant degree on his audience. Personally Iqbal had such deep appreciation of Islamic lore and had such a penchant for Islamic spirituality that for him the idea

that the observation of nature should necessarily remind man of the Creator was

something self-evident; that was part of the very fibre of his being. To many in the

generations that came after Iqbal, natural phenomena seem to call for little beyond

practicing science and putting the laws and forces of nature to one's service.

Ill In recent decades Muslim scholars have introduced a theme in this discourse that, even if it was a part of Muslim discourse before, was somewhat incipient. We have

seen how vehemently Iqbal had stressed the historical role of Muslim culture in giv

ing birth to the experimental method which, as Iqbal emphasized, was the means


whereby man could arrive at scientific facts. Iqbal, however, does not seem to enter

tain the notion that it is by carefully reading the Qur'an rather than by recourse to

observation and experiment that the frontiers of scientific knowledge could expand, and that the scripture could replace the scientific disciplines. True, one does not come

across any categorical statements in the current discourse on Islam and science which

would deny the efficacy of the experimental method, but one notes an increasing

emphasis on the idea that the Qur'an is the repository of scientific data. This being so,

one is often at a loss about the exact relationship between the two 'sources' - the

Qur'an and the 'experimental method' used by the scientists. This, however, is a point to which we shall turn later.

A major purpose that seems to motivate those who claim that the Qur'an is the repos

itory of scientific data - is to instil or reinforce the faith of people in the Qur'an. In

other words, it is a means to prove that apart from the hitherto emphasized aspects of

icjaz -

linguistics, etc. - the Qur'an is also possessed of another highly impressive

kind of icjaz - the scientific icjdz.21

One of the best known contemporary geologists, who combines his knowledge of

Earth Sciences with a very extensive knowledge of Islam, is Zaghloul R. El-Naggar.

El-Naggar points out that the Qur'an consistently describes mountains as stabilizers

for the earth. Since they hold its outer surface firmly lest it shake with us, they serve

as pickets (or pegs) which hold that surface down as a means of fixation. Now, this

aspect of things began to be known, according to El-Naggar, only in the middle of the

nineteenth century, some thirteen centuries after the revelation of the Qur'an.22

Mentioning these recently discovered facts about the mountains, El-Naggar concludes:

These are only a few of the numerous testimonies for the divine nature

of the Qur'an and the messengerhood of the prophet Mohammad

(PBUH), as no man knew anything about such facts before the mid

nineteenth century, and that the present-day picture was indeed far

from being complete before the 1960s.23

Maurice Bucaille's The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, has been extremely popular

among Muslims during the last two decades. The main premise of this book is that

there can be no contradiction between definitely established scientific data and

Revelation. Bucaille states that he has examined the degree of compatibility "between

the Qur'anic text and modern scientific data"24 and that this study has led him to the

conclusion that "the Qur'an did not contain a single statement that was assailable

from a modern scientific point of view".25 He proceeded to do the same with the Bible

and the results were quite different. Even in its first book, Genesis, Bucaille found


"statements totally out of keeping with the cast-iron facts of modern science".26 It is

significant that Bucaille concludes the book with these words:

In view of the level of knowledge in Muhammad's day, it is incon

ceivable that many of the statements in the Qur'an which are connect

ed with science could have been the work of a man. It is, moreover,

perfectly legitimate, not only to regard the Qur'an as the expression of a Revelation, but also to award it a very special place, on account of

the guarantee of authenticity it provides and the presence in it of sci

entific statements which, when studied today, appear as a challenge to

explanation in human terms.27

c Abd al-Razzaq Nawfal of Egypt has written a number of popular books on the rela

tionship between Islam and science. In the very first chapter, entitled "icjaz al

Qur'drT, of his book al-Qur'an wa al-cIlm al-Hadith the author characterizes the

Qur'an as being the "eternal miracle". He notes that in the past Muslims have empha sized some aspects of the Qur'an's miracle such as its rhetoric, its literary style, its

musical quality, its predictions which were vindicated by the events that unfolded, and its legal injunctions.28 Nawfal goes on to argue that at the present time the scien

tific miracle of the Qur'an has become altogether undeniable. "The intellectual (sic)

progress of sciences in the modern time has established that the Qur'an is a book of

science which has brought together the fundamentals (usul) of all sciences and wis

dom. Whenever there is a new piece of knowledge, we find that the Qur'an had either

already drawn attention to it or had at least alluded to it".29 Nawfal proceeds to illus

trate the scientific miracles of the Qur'an, by first mentioning one or other Qur'anic verse, and then drawing attention to the accepted scientific doctrines of our time

which are seen to be in accord with it. For instance, the Qur'an says: "The heavens

and the earth were one solid mass, then We tore them apart". (Q.21:30). When

Laplace developed his theory about the creation of the heavens and the earth, says

Nawfal, "this was regarded as a triumph of science although the Qur'an had laid it

down since tens of centuries (sic)".30 "Were we to explain to the non-Arab world", asks Nawfal, "that the Qur'an is a scientific miracle, [a Book] which contains the fun

damentals of modern science, even the ever-new developments in it, will this aspect of the miracle of the Qur'an not be sufficient to convince Westerners about the mirac

ulous nature of the Qur'an?"31

Another work that has aroused a great deal of interest among Muslims is Keith L.

Moore's well-known work on Embryology, The Developing Human. We are referring here to the third edition of this book which was published "With Islamic Additions:

Correlation Studies with the Qur'an and Hadith" by Abdul Majeed A. Al-Zindni. Al

Zindni is a well-known scholar of Yemen who has been the guiding spirit of the


Committee on the Scientific Miracles of the Qur'an and Sunnah mentioned by us

earlier.

In his "Foreword" to the book Moore mentions that in this edition the text of his work

is the same as the original, "except that numerous references to statements of the

Qur'an and Sunna about human embryology have been added". He further writes:

At first I was astonished by the accuracy of the statements that were

recorded in the 7th century AD, before the science of embryology was

established. Although I was aware of the glorious history of Muslim

scientists in the 10th century AD and of some of their contributions to

Medicine, I knew nothing about the religious facts and beliefs con

tained in the Qur'an and Sunna. It is important for Islamic and other

students to understand the meaning of these Qur'anic statements

about human development, based on current scientific knowledge.

(emphasis added).32

What is of primary interest to us for the purposes of this paper however, is not the

viewpoint of Keith Moore. What interests us is the significance of the contribution

that has been made by the "Additions", and the approach and underlying purposes of

the "Additions". It must be recognized that the "Additions" represent a very thorough and careful study of the material in the Qur'an and Sunna pertaining to embryology. As for the purpose of the work, one should refer to the "Introduction to Islamic

Additions" written by al-Zindani:

The Qur'an and Hadith on many occasions encourage man to examine

and think deeply about Allah's Creation. Modern investigations using modern techniques, in the several fields mentioned in the Qur'an and

Hadith, have yielded surprisingly similar results. In essence, there is

agreement between explicit statements in the Qur'an, the Hadith

revealed 1400 years ago, and present day facts which have been

proved by scientific evidence. The attention of Muslim and non

Muslim scientists was drawn to this amazing agreement between

Qur'anic texts and the Hadith on one hand and proven scientific facts

on the other .... Embryologists will be surprised to find in the Qur'anic texts, revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) 1400 years

ago, and in his Hadith, information on stages of development of the

embryo. These texts reveal facts which were misunderstood by man

for ages after the revelation of the Qur'an in the 7th century A.D. It

goes without saying that the total agreement of science with Qur'anic texts will become clear because the Qur'an is the word of Allah whose

knowledge is the truth.33


IV

Despite the impressive array of evidence by the scholars mentioned by us so far, and

several others who could not be mentioned for want of space, there are some very serious questions which pertain to the relationship between the Qur'an and science

which remain to be addressed with a high degree of seriousness and scholastic rigour.

One of the weaknesses that the scholars who subscribe to the idea of the scientific

miracles of the Qur'an exhibit is an immature haste in showing correspondences between the Qur'an and science. They tend to be carried away too quickly and too far

by this zeal at the cost of scholastic circumspection and intellectual maturity. They seem to jump at conclusions and make inferences that seem to be actuated more by the desire to prove a theory than by the urge to know the truth. The current Islamic

discourse is full of instances of haste and lack of intellectual vigour. My own spe cialisation does not entitle me to judge whether scientific theories such as the Big

Bang Theory are sound and definitively established or are simply hypotheses. But a

number of Muslim scholars seem to rush to the Qur'an, propelled by their zeal to

exalt it by citing a verse or two to show that the Qur'an had long ago said the same

as is being said by the scientists now. (It is our view that even if the Qur'an did not

have any verse in support of the Big Bang Theory, the Qur'an would still remain

exalted by dint of its being the Word of God). But let us consider some examples of

the zeal to produce a point from the Qur'an in support of the ever new theories of

science, ostensibly to prove the greatness of the Qur'an:

Let us look at one of the books on the subject which has been circulating among Muslims in recent years, a book by Nurbaki. We find in it that the Big Bang Theory has been supported in that book34 by referring to the verse 113:2: qui acudhu bi rabbi

'l-falaq. As a verb, falaq denotes "to split, cleave, ... tear asunder; to cause [dawn] to

break". In the present verse, keeping in view the total context of this short sura (113), the verse has been interpreted by Muslims scholars to mean as follows: "Say, I seek

refuge with the Lord of the dawn". Now, since the meaning of 'breaking' was there, it was subjected to undue strain by a scholar, Haluk Nurbaki, to claim that refuge was

being sought with the Lord who had caused the explosion that had led to the creation

of our universe. Hence the author chose to translate the first two verses of sura 113

as the following: "I seek refuge with the Lord of (post-big bang creation) from the

evil of created things"! The same writer, among several others, has referred to the

verse (51:47): wa-l-sama" banaynaha bi ay din wa inna la-musicun. He, like several

others, has translated the verse as follows: "We expanded the universe" (51:47).35

Let us also look at Fateh Ullah Khan's God, Universe and the Man: The Holy Qur'an and the Hereafter?6 He interprets the first half of the same verse 51:47 to mean that

"the universe was built by might". The author proceeds to elaborate his viewpoint as


follows: "The indication of this power with which the atom is built, is clear from

Einstein's equation E=mc2. Thus the entire universe is built with might". The second

half of the verse is considered to suggest expansion of the universe in conformity with

the well-known theory of the expanding universe. The two halves of the verse taken

together mean that the universe, which is built on might, is expanding.37

The other major issue with this whole approach -

something at which we have hint

ed above though very briefly - seems to be that it de-prioritizes the foremost concerns

of the Qur'an. The Qur'anic verses, according to this approach, seem to be telling us

more about the facts about the universe, as though the Qur'an was a major source of

these facts. It is clear that these facts about the universe can be discovered by man

through his own efforts. It is also quite evident that the scientific phenomena men

tioned as having been infered from Qur'an were, in most cases, first discovered by human beings, and usually non-Muslims, before they were presented to the world by one Muslim scholar or another as an evidence of the miraculous nature of the Qur'an. Even if all this were to be set aside, one point still remains to be considered with all

seriousness: what are the major concerns of the Qur'an? What are the things that the

Qur'an primarily seeks to convey to mankind? In this regard it would be highly illu

minating to consider what Shah Wall Allah has to tell us. What follows is a para

phrased summary of what he says:

The Qur'an deals with five subjects and no more. First, with 'injunctions' which tell

us which acts are obligatory or recommended on the one hand, or are disapproved or

unlawful on the other. These injunctions range from acts of worship to transactions, etc. This subject is the concern of jurists. Second, argumentation with those who have

strayed - the Jews, the Christians, the polytheists, and the hypocrites. This matter has

been left to the care of theologians. Third, the lore that consists of reminders to peo

ple of the bounties of God (tadkhir billah), of His creation of the heavens and the

earth, of stating how God has seen to it that all creatures are able to minister to their

needs, and of elucidating the perfect attributes of God. Fourth, reminders to His crea

tures of the "Days of God" (tadhkir hi ayydm Allah), that is, how God treated people in the past: how He rewarded some and punished others. Fifth, reminding people of

death and what will happen thereafter.

It would seem that what are called the scientific verses of the Qur'an would fall,

according to Shah Wall Allah's scheme, in the third category - tadhkir billah. It per

haps needs to be emphasized that the earth, the sky, the plants, the rainfall, the seas

and the mountains are not the things that the Qur'an has been revealed to inform

mankind about. The verses about natural phenomena, especially the 'sign' verses are, as far as we have been able to ascertain, aimed at drawing man's attention to these

micro facts in order that he might be enabled to arrive at the truths that are bigger and


more important than natural phenomena. To look at these verses in disregard of the

context is to consider them independent of the aims they were required to fulfill, and

to relegate to the background the basic concerns to which the Qur'an is addressed is

likely to distort those verses and divest them of their true meaning and significance.

In like manner, the sweeping statements that are made about the Qur'an - the claims

that it embraces knowledge of every kind - seem to be devoid of any substantial sup

port in the Islamic tradition. Statements which sometimes go so far as to state that the

Qur'an is a "textbook of sciences"3* can hardly be taken seriously as statements that

befit sober, informed, mature, and responsible scholars. On the one hand, the attitudes

underlying these exuberant statements are likely to end up -

notwithstanding senti

mental claims to the contrary - with subordinating the Qur'an to an ever-changing

science and reducing Islamic scholars to a role of servile allegiance, being ever at the

beck and call of the scientists to strain and twist the scripture to accommodate current

theories. On the other hand, vehement claims that the Qur'an is a source of scientific

data are also bound to create an epistemological confusion, or rather chaos, which is

likely to be to the detriment of both science and religion.

NOTES

1 See J.M.S. Baljon, Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation 1880-1960 (Leiden: Brill, 1961),

pp.88-98.

2 Muhammad Husayn al-Dhahabl, al-Tafslr wa al-Mufassirun, III edition (Cairo: Maktabat

Wahbah, 1985) see especially vol. 2, pp. 454-468 and 475-496; Mat Muhammad al-SharqawI Ittiajhat al-Tafslr fi Misr fi al-cAsr al-Hadith (Cairo: Matba'at al-Kllnl, 1972), pp. 367-377; J J.G. Jansen The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern Egypt (Leiden: Brill, 1974), pp. 35-54

and Fahd b.c Abd al-Rahman al-Rumi, Manhaj al-Madrasah al- cAqliyyah al-Hadlthah, III edi

tion (Beirut: Muwassat al-Risalah 1407 A.H.), pp. 269-283.

3 See Albeit Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939 (London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1970); Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, II

edition (London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), and Gulfishan Khan,

Indian Muslim Perceptions of the West During the Eighteenth Century (Karachi: Oxford

University Press, 1998).

4 Cf. J.J.G. Jansen, The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern Egypt, p. 41, especially the fol

lowing: "Obviously there is a connection between the rise of modern scientific exegesis [among

Muslims] and the beginning of the impact of the West on the Arab and Islamic world. In the sec ond half of the nineteenth century more and more Moslem territory came under European rule.

Egypt itself was occupied by the British Army in 1882 ... This European rule was made possi ble only by the superior European technology. To many devout Moslems it must have been a consolation to read in a commentary that sciences and techniques which enabled Europeans to

rule over the Moslems were based on principles and sciences mentioned in or foretold in Koran".

5 Significantly, a book by an eminent Muslim professor of geology, Zaghloul R. El-Naggar is entitled Sources of Scientific Knowledge: The Geographical Concept of Mountains in the

Qur'an (Herndon, VA: The Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers and The

International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1991).


6 The above is perhaps an amateurish attempt to state the main concerns of the Qur'an. For a

clear, precise and well-formulated statement on that see Shah Wall Allah Dihlawl, al-Fawz al

Kabirfi Usui al-Tafsir, tr. Rashld Ahmad Ansari along with Muhammad Taqi cUthmanI, Tafsir Ke Chand Zururi Usui, (Lahore: Idarah-'I Islamiyyat,1982), pp.4-5. See also Badr al-Din al

Zarkashl, Al-Burhan fi ctUlum al-Qur'an (Cairo: al-Halabl, 1957), vol.1, pp. 16-21.

7 See Dhahabi, 1985, vol.2, pp.454-464. The contention that the Qur'an embraces every kind

of knowledge, including the scientific, is supported on the grounds of two Qur'anic verses (i.e.

6:38 and 16:89. Were we to consult the commentaries of the Qur'an on these two verses, it will

become evident that the contention has hardly any basis.

8 Ibid.

9 (Cairo, al-Halabi, 1340-1351).

10 That the Qur'anic verses about the universe outnumber the verses on law has become a

recurrent theme of the discourse under discussion. The figure of 750 has also been quoted by a large number of writers who share his trend of thought, which only shows the impact that

Jawhari had on a section of Muslim intellectuals.

11 See Dhahabi, 1985,vol 2, pp. 483-484.

12 See Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Tafsir al-Qur'an (Lahore: Dost Associates, 1994), passim. See also C.W. Troll Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology (Karachi, Oxford, New York, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979), esp. chapter 5.

13 A careful study of the verses that are quoted in this regard will show that the true purpose of these verses is not to urge the observation of reflection over the natural phenomena per se.

The true purpose is to enable the 'believer' to rise, from the observation of these micro facts

about the universe, to the cognition of higher, macro truths - truths that reveal the knowledge,

wisdom, power, compassion and mercy of God, truths that fully bring out that the present life

will be followed by resurrection and the Next Life.

14 See, for instance, the Qur'an 2:164; 25:45-46; 88:17-20; 30:22, 13:14; 84:16-19; 29-20; 16:12; 41:20; 24-44; 10:66; 25:62; 31:27, etc.

15 Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1982), p. 13.

16 Ibid., pA3\. 17 Ibid.,pA26. 18 Ibid.,pA25.

19 Ibid., see especially pp. 129-131.

20 Ibid., p. 13.

21 It is significant that in the 1980s the Muslim World League at Makkah formed a commit tee known as the "Committee on the Scientific Miracles of the Qur'an and Sunnah.

22 See El-Naggar, Sources of Scientific Knowledge: The Geological Concept of Mountains in

the Qur'n (Herndon, VA: The Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers and The

International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1991), pp. 47-50.

23 Ibid., p.50.

24 Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, (Lahore: Progressive Books: n.d.),

p. vii.

25 Ibid., p.viii.

26 Ibid., p.viii.

27 Ibid., pp.251-52.


28 Nawfal, cAbd al-Razzaq, al-Qur'an wa al-cIlm al-Hadith (Cairo: Dar al-Macarif, 1959).

pp. llff.

29 Ibid., p.24.

30 Ibid., p.24.

31 Ibid., p.24.

32 Keith Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, published with Islamic Additions by AbdulMajeed A. Azzindani, III edition (Jeddah: Dar al-Qiblah, 1983), p. viii c. The italics are mine. It seems understandable that Moore should have said so. It is not so

easy to understand, however, a part of the statement in the "Publisher's Note" which has been

written on behalf of Dar al-Qiblah for Islamic Literature, Jeddah: "Let me here make one point clear. This Qur'an is not, inspite of its description of and verification of modern scientific data, a treatise on science but par excellence" a Book of Guidance" (Chapter 2, Verse 2). Being the

world (sic. read it as 'word') of the Creator of nature and with its own claim. "It is that Book

in which there is no doubt" (Chapter 2, Verse 2), it must verify what science establishes through observation, inquiry and experiment" (p. viii b.). (The italics are mine). One is somewhat puz zled while pondering over the implications of the statement made above. Unless I have misun

derstood it, the statement does not seem to accord the position of supremacy which, according to Islam, is the rightful position of the Qur'an. 33 Ibid., p.l2a.

34 Haluk Nurbaki, Verses from the Holy Koran and the Facts of Science, tr. Metin Beynam (Karachi: Indus Publishing Corporation, 1992).

35 Ibid., pp.308-314. See also pp.232-23. Personally speaking, I feel quite at ease with the

traditional understanding of banaynaha bi aydin according to which the verse stresses God's

power of creation, creation of something even as difficult as the heaven. This seems to be rein

forced by the use of the word aydin which suggests that God Himself created the heaven, unaided by anyone, for He has the power to do so.

36 (Lahore: Wajidalis, 1982).

37 Ibid, p.48. Apart from sounding far-fetched, this interpretation seems to be devoid of the

spiritually enriching dimension of the traditional interpretation which so forcefully and vivid

ly reminds one of the All-Powerful God.

38 Ibrahim B. Syed in M.A.K. Lodhi, ed. Islamization of Attitudes and Practices in Science

and Technology (Herndon, VA: The International Institute of Islamic Thought and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, 1989), p. 119. (Emphasis added).

Documents

Scientific Exegesis of the Quran