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 narration's 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 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 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 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. |