ASTRONOMY-LIGHT AND MOVEMENT
By Maurice Bucaille-French
Academy of Medicine
Let us now turn to the
subject of Astronomy.
Whenever I describe the
details the Qur’an contains on certain points of astronomy to Westeners,
it is unusual for someone not to reply that there is nothing special in
this, considering the Arabs made important discoveries in this field
long before the Europeans.
This is, infact, a singularly
mistaken idea resulting from an ignorance of history. In the first
place, science was developed in Arabian countries at a time that was
considerably after Qur’anic revelation had occurred; in the second, the
scientific knowledge prevalent at the high point of Islamic civilization
would not have made it possible for a human being to have written
statements on the Heavens comparable to those in the Qur’an. Here again,
the subject is so wide that I can only provide an outline of it.
Where as the Bible talks of
the sun and the moon as two luminaries differing in size, the Qur’an
distinguishes between them by the use of different epithets: Light (noor)
for the moon, Torch (siraaj) for the sun. The first is an
inert body which reflects light, the second a celestial formation in a
state of permanent combustion, and a source of light and heat.
The word Star (najm)
is accompanied by another qualifying word which indicates that it burns
and consumes itself as it pierces through the shadows of the night; it
is the word Thaaqib. In the Qur’an, the word Kawkab
definitely seems to mean the planets which are celestial formations that
reflect and do not produce light like the Sun.
Today it is known how the
celestial organisation is balanced by the position of stars in a defined
orbit and the interplay of gravitational forces related to their mass
and speed of movement, each with its own motion. But is not this what
the Qur’an describes, in terms which have only become comprehensible in
our own day, when it mentions the foundation of this balance in the
chapter, The Prophets (21:33).
“(Allah is) the One Who
created the night, the day, the sun and the moon. Each one is travelling
in an orbit with its own motion”.
The Arabic word which
expresses this movement is a verb sabaha (yasbahun
in the text); it carries with it the idea of a motion which comes from
any moving body, be it the movement of one’s legs as one runs on the
ground, or the action of swimming in the water. In the case of a
celestial body, one is forced to translate it in the original sense,that
is, ‘to travel with one’s own motion’. The description of the sequence
of day and night would, in itself, be rather commonplace were it not for
the fact that, in the Qur’an, it is expressed in terms that today are
highly significant. This is because it uses the verb kawwara
in the chapter, The Troops (39:5) to describe the way the night ‘winds’
or ‘coils’ itself about the day and the day about the night, just as, in
the original meaning of the verb, a turban is wound around the head.
This is a totally valid comparison; yet at the same time the Qur’an was
revealed, the astronomical data necessary to draw it were unknown.
The evolution of the Heavens
and the notion of a settled place for the sun are also described. They
are in agreement with highly detailed modern ideas. The Qur’an also
seems to have alluded to the expansion of the Universe. There is also
the conquest of space. This has been undertaken thanks to remarkable
technological progress and has resulted in man’s journey to the moon.
But this surely springs to mind when we read the chapter, The
Beneficient (55:33).
“O assembly of jinns and men,
if you can penetrate regions of the Heavens and the Earth, then
penetrate them! You will not penetrate them except with (Our) Power”.
This power comes from the
All-Mighty, and the subject of the whole chapter is an invitation to
recognise God’s Beneficence to man.
Next week watch
out for “The Earth” by Dr.Maurice Bucaille.
Released by: Mulla
Mujaheedali Sheriff
mulla@almahdi.org.uk |