Previous Article     Mysterious Universe and Quran Index     Next Article 

Chapter 5:

 GLIMPSES OF PREMONITORY VISION OF THE QURAN RESPECTING THE TWELVE PAGES OF THE "MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE". PROOFS OF QURAN'S ORACULAR FACULTY OF ANTICIPATION

       

  The Quran not only anticipated the philosophical trends of human mind in future age, but it has at times even forestalled certain writings of some great revolutionary authors of the world. Judging from the pattern of such anticipative glimpses of the Quran it may seem, as if the Quran did expect these questions and writings and had placed the answers well prepared before hand. Proofs of this kind have already been found in the previous chapters concerning the comparative trends of the two philosophies, that of the unscientific scientist and the Quran, and a discerning eye might not have failed to observe, but we now intend to present a few instances of extraordinarily conspicuous colour in this respect. At times the point takes the form of a dialogue between the author of twelve pages and the Quran, while the retorts, repartees, rebukes or consoling remarks of the Quran throw the audience into surprise for undeniable supremacy, never fainting brilliance, unfathomable and infallible knowledge, and astonishingly oracular faculty of an unusual order. If all this is not recognized and acknowledged as a miracle, a miracle of the highest order, then indeed the characteristics of the miracle have been misunderstood, misconstrued and misjudged. I have found the highest intelligentsia, and the highest intelligentsia only, spell-bound and amazed, whenever I discussed these topics, and I find no reason why other  intelligentsia should fail to be influenced by the same. The effect may not penetrate into the lower strata of the general humanity in an original form, but it may reasonably be expected that even the lower strata may not be deprived of the reflective glimpses of the dazzle.

Allah's claim regarding the Quran is :-

“Verily we have coined for mankind in this Quran all kinds of similitudes, that haply they may reflect."

                        (Qumran 39 +27)

            And verily this Quran of Allah never falls short of so great a claim, provided indeed, that there is a discerning eye. Just read the following:-

(1) The unscientific scientist says:-

“This vast multitude of stars are wandering about in space. A few form groups which journey in company, but the majority are solitary travellers. And they travel through a universe so spacious that it is an event of almost unimaginable rarity for a star to come anywhere near to another star. For the most part each voyage is in a splendid isolation: like a ship on an empty ocean".

            (The Mysterious Universe page 1)

The unscientific philosopher says:-

“It is an event of almost unimaginable rarity for a star to come anywhere near to another star. For the most part each voyages in splendid isolation like a ship on an empty ocean".

            (The Mysterious Universe)

The Quran says:-

“It is not expedient that the sun should overtake the moon in her course, nor doth the night overstrip the day, they float each in an orbit". (Quran 36 + 40)

(2) The unscientific philosopher says:-

“We believe nevertheless, that some two thousand million years ago this rare event took place, and that a second star wandering blindly through space, happened to come within hailing distance of the sun. Just as the sun and moon rise tides on earth, so this second star must have raised tides on the surface of the sun. But hey would be very different from the puny tides which the small mass of the moon raises in our oceans. A huge tidal wave must have travelled over the surface of the sun ultimately forming a mountain of a prodigious height, which would rise ever higher and higher as the causes of the disturbance came nearer and nearer. And, before the second star began to recede, its tidal pull had become so powerful that this mountain was torn to pieces and threw off small fragments of itself, much as the crest of a wave throws off spray. These small fragments have been circulating around their parent sun ever since. They are the planets, great and small, of which  our earth is one".

                        (The Mysterious Universe page 1 -2)

            Now as far as the creation of the earth is concerned, the Quran has its own theory, philosophically as well as scientifically different from this advanced by the scientist. The treatment of that very minute and very delicate, and very complex subject I will here omit. I will however, cite a description from the Quran, which bears exact resemblance to the description of the process of the separation of the earth from the sun as is given by Sir Jams Jeans. Obviously this is a very interesting analogy; Read the following from the Quran, in which the Angel is described as descending on the heart of the prophet and delivering the message of Allah in a process of divine revelation, a process identical with the process of earth's separation from the sun as fancied by Sir James Jeans.

“By the star when it setteth ....when (the angel Gabriel) drew clear to view, when he was on the uppermost horizon. Then he drew nigh and came down, till he was (distant) two bows length or even nearer, and He revealed unto his servant that which he revealed".

   (Quran: In the beginning of the Chapter 53. The Star)

            Please mark the beginning oath “By the Star". A fact which established in a way, apparent relevance of the two descriptions of a phenomenon that is the one given by the scientist and the other given by the Quran. And though there be basic disparity between the two occasions, there clearly exists an unmistakable resemblance between the two processes even to the minute details. The unscientific scientist philosopher mentions the star. The Quran swears by the star. The star of the scientist appears on the uppermost horizon with all its blinding dazzle and unimaginable a power. The angel of the Quran also appears like a dazzling star on the uppermost horizon. The star of the scientist gradually draws nearer and nearer to the sun. The angel of the Quran also draws nearer and nearer to the heart of the prophet. The star of the scientist eventually approaches near the sun, at a point where it is exerting a particular amount of gravitational pull on the sun. The angel of the Quran also has approached within a distance of two bows' length or even nearer, where it can exert the spiritual influence to a desired degree. The star of the scientist has raised huge tides on the surface of the sun. The angel of the Quran has raised huge spiritual tides in the soul of the prophet. The tide of the sun was thrown in every direction in the form of spray, a little before the second star began to recede. The spiritual tides, of the soul of the prophet were also thrown in all directions all over the earth in the form of revelations consisting of the will of the creator for mankind, after the angel returned. Beads of sweat like shining stars it is said, used to appear on the forehead of the prophet always when the process of revelation was over. It also can be assumed that a relief in temperature to some extent might have as a rule been experienced by the sun after the fragments of the tide were thrown away into space, and the exerting influence of the star was over. A new world in the form of earth is supposed to have appeared after the visit of the second star to the sun. Similarly another world of faith and culture appeared as a result of the message imparted by the angel of God to the prophet. Yet this hypothesis regarding the separation of earth from the sun is a mere hypothesis and not at all an ascertained fact of science. The process however which the scientist has narrated in his hypothesis though not a fact, yet is a scientific plausibility and hence we have attempted this analogy. The Quran has quite a different theory of earth's creation, and indeed a correct one scientifically.

(3)        The unscientific philosopher says:-

“Standing on our microscopic grain of sand, we attempt to discover the nature and purpose of the universe which surrounds our home in space and time. Our first impression is something akin to terror. We find the universe terrifying because of its inconceivably long vistas of time which dwarf human history to the twinkling of an eye".

            (The Mysterious Universe page 2-3)

The unscientific Philosopher says:-

            “The twinkling of an eye".

The Quran says:-

"Lo. We have created every thing by measure. And our commandment is but one (commandment) as the twinkling of an eye".

                        (Quran 54 + 49-50)

The Quran says:-

“And the matter of the hour of (doom) is but a twinkling of the eye, or it is nearer still".

                        (Quran 16 + 77)

(4) The unscientific scientist says:-

"This rarity of planetary systems is important, because so far as we can see, life of the kind we know on earth, could only originate on the planets like the earth. It needs suitable physical conditions for its appearance, the most important of which is a temperature at which substances can exist in a liquid state ".

            (The Mysterious Universe page 4).

The Unscientific Philosopher says:-

            “Liquid State".

The Quran says:-

“We made every living thing of water. Will they not then believe?".

                        (Quran 21 + 30)

The unscientific philosopher says:-

"Life can only exist inside a narrow temperate zone, which surrounds each of these fires (stars) at a very definite distance. Outside these zones life would be frozen, inside it would be shrivelled up. At rough computation, these zones within which life is possible, all added together, constitute less than a thousand million millionth part of the whole of space. And even inside them  life must be of a very rare occurrence, for it is so unusual an accident for suns to throw off planets as our own sun has done, that probably only about one star in 100,00 has a planet revolving round it in the small zone in which life is possible.

            Just for this reason it seems incredible that the universe can have been designed primarily to produce life like our own; had it been so, surely we might have expected to find a better proportion between the magnitude of the mechanism and the amount of the product. At first glance at least, life seems to be an utterly unimportant by-product, we living things are somehow off the main line".

            (The Mysterious Universe page 4-5)

            Now apparently the scientist philosopher by presenting a diminutive picture of earth and the life upon it form strictly a material point of view, indeed quite obviously means to show its apparent insignificance. In order to further show its purposelessness, and the lack of God's interest in it. But the Quran is of a different view. To the Quran the whole universe is an impact entity. Life is its fruit. And no disproportion anywhere occurs in the works of Allah. The unscientific philosopher says in this context:-

            "At first glance at least life seems to be an utterly unimportant by-product". The Quran says:-

“Life up thine eyes, again to heaven and look whether thou seest any flaw: then take two other views: and thy sight shall return unto thee dull and fatigued. Thou canst not see a flaw in the creation of the beneficent".

                        (Quran 67 + 2 to 5)

(f)

            The unscientific philosopher says:-

“We do however know that while living material consists of quite ordinary atoms, it consists in the main of atoms which have a special capacity for coagulating into extraordinary large bunches or molecules".

     (The Mysterious Universe page 6).

The Quran says:-

"Created man from a clot of coagulated blood".

                        (Quran 96 +2)

(g)

            In an endeavour to exemplify the triviality of life in comparison with the immensity of the universe, and further, puny material activity of life against the huge material activity of the universe, for the purpose of proving insignificance of life and hence the lack of the interest of the Creator therein, the unscientific scientist philosopher goes so far as to produce an analogy representing therein the unimaginativeness of the sailor, quite wrongly though, saying:-

“A trivial analogy may exhibit the situation in a clearer light. An unimaginative sailor, accustomed to tying knots, might think it would be impossible to cross the oceans if tying knots were impossible. Now the capacity for tying knots is limited to space of three dimensions, no knot can be tied in a space of 1,2,4,5 or any other number of dimensions. From this fact, our unimaginative sailor may reason that a beneficent creator must have had sailors under his special patronage, and have chosen that space should have three dimensions in order that tying knots and crossing the oceans should be possibilities in the universe he had created --------in brief space was of three dimensions so that there could be sailors. This and the argument outlined above (the argument about the insignificance of the material activity of life as compared with that of the universe) seem to be much on a level, because the life as a whole and the tying of knots are petty much on a level in that neither of them forms more than an utterly insignificant fraction of the total activity of the material universe".

                        (The Mysterious Universe page 9-10)

            Now the unscientific scientist philosopher, who, due to his blindness in the realm of mind and spirit has reproached the believing sailor with so ill-beseeming an epithet, quite unjustifiably, which could with justification be applied to himself. We hear a very appropriate taunt of the Quran meant for those who denied divine order of the world and the existence of the spirit, and the possibility of resurrection or existence in the other world. They who refuse to admit a possibility of existence of anything except the substantial that essentially is subject to three dimensions, and thus deny the existence of resurrection and the reward and punishment in the other immaterial world, shall be led to a strange site which in this world had seemed to them as an utter impossibility, namely a mere shade, a mere spiritual thing, yet having assumed in the next world three dimensions, a character essentially of a material substance in this world, and not only this, but also it is seen there to shoot up sparks as huge as their material castles on earth, this also being a quality of matter and these sparks looking like tawny camels. This they will not only be obliged to observe, but will be further cast in it to practically experience the true material qualities thereof. This will be a shade but a shade of different kind, for it will neither afford a shade, nor will it give protection against the flame.

            The unscientific scientist philosopher in his above quoted passage regarding the unimaginative sailor and three dimensional space, means to show, that, just as the tying of knots is a matter of no significance amidst the vast activity of sailing on the oceans, so is the material activity of life against the vast activity of the material universe, and is utterly insignificant in comparison with the total material activity of the whole universe. These are the meanings apparent and outward as found on the outer surface of the analogy presented by the unscientific scientist philosopher. But further, a keen observation, reveals meanings implied and essential namely that he means to say:-

"We cannot believe that there could be any significant link between such factors as three space dimensions, tying of knots, crossing the oceans, unimaginative sailors and the patronage of the Creator".

The Quran says:-

 (And it must be understood as alluding to the Day of Judgment) Depart unto that (doom) which ye used to deny; depart unto the shadow failing three fold, (which yet is) neither relief nor shelter from the flame. Lo. It throweth up sparks like the castles, as if they be camels of bright yellow, hue. Woe unto the repudiators that day. This is a day wherein they speak not".

                        (Quran 77+29 to 35)

            Now please read this above-quoted passage of the Quran. The shade falling three fold could mean, a shade of three dimensional space, and something against the rules of this material world, wherein the shade could not be as a rule assume three dimensions. Further, it is to be seen to throw up sparks, and sparks as large as the castles of the materialistic, strangely enough as if to increase the surprise and frustration of the unbelieving materialists, the sparks assume the form of camels, the very camels which they in the world had despised and left off and substituted by mechanical vehicles, the marvelous productions of science, the science for which they had forsaken belief in the spiritual and immaterial things and so also the resurrection and the life in heaven. After the reader has completely understood this subject, he shall very well enjoy the retort of the Quran against those disbelievers in the spiritual world, and then only he shall realize the appropriateness of our presenting this passage of the Quran against this analogy of the unscientific scientist philosopher, with real, heartfelt appreciation of the fact, and will then understand the mistake of imputing so inapt an epithet as, unimaginative to so imaginative person as our sailor, and will on the contrary behold the real lack of imagination on the part of our unscientific scientist philosopher who called the sailor as unimaginative due merely to his own deficiency of that quality.

(h) The unscientific philosopher says:-

“So much for the surprising manner in which, so far science can at present inform us, we came into being. And our bewilderment is only increased when we attempt to pass from our origins to an understanding of the purpose of our existence, or to foresee the destiny which fate has in store for our race".

(The Mysterious Universe page 10).

The unscientific philosopher says:-

            “Our bewilderment is only increased".

The Quran says:-

"Like one bewildered whom the devils have infatuated in the earth".

                                    (Quran 6 +71)

The unscientific philosopher says:-

“Or to foresee the destiny which fate has in store for our race".

            The Quran foresees the destiny of the atomistically materialistic race of slanderous wealth-accumulators of a Baconian age as follows:-

“Woe to every back-biter, defamer, who amasseth wealth (of this world) and arrangeth it (against the future). He thinketh that his wealth will render him immortal. Nay, for verily he will be cast into Al-Hotama. (the atomic hell). And what Al-Hotama is? It is fire of Allah kindled which leapeth up unto the hearts. It is (a fire) closed in on them in outstretched columns".

                        (Quran 104-Al-Homaza)

The Quran says:-

“Like one bewildered whom the devils have infatuated in the earth".

                        (Quran 6 +71)

The unscientific philosopher says:-

" Primitive man living in the temperate zone of the earth, must have watched the ice-age descending on his home with some thing like terror; each year the glaciers came farther down into the valleys, each winter, the sun seemed less able to provide the warmth necessary for life. To him as to us the universe must have seemed hostile to life".

            (The Mysterious Universe page 10)

The Quran says:-

"We know those primitive among you and we know those that modern are” Lo! Thy Lord will gather them together. Lo. He is wise and aware",

                                    (Quran 15 +24-25)

The Quran says:-

“Those are a people who have passed away. Theirs is that, which they earned, and yours is that, which ye earn, and ye will not be asked of what they used to do".

                                    (Quran 2 + 134)

(j) The unscientific scientist says:-

“We of these later days, living in the narrow temperate zone surrounding our sun and peering into the far future, see an ice-age of a different kind threatening us. Just like TANTALUS (Tantalus is a well known figure of Greek myth. Son of Zeus condemned in TARTARUS to stand up to chin in water that receded whenever he stooped to drink) standing in a lake so deep that he only just escaped drowning, was yet destined to die of thirst, so it is tragedy of our race that it is probably destined to die of cold, while the greater part of the substance of the universe still remains too hot for life to obtain or retain a footing".

            (The Mysterious Universe page 10).

The Quran too presents a Tantalus. The Quran says:-

" Those unto whom they pray besides Allah respond to them not at all save as (is the response to) one who stretcheth forth his hands towards water (asking) that it may come upto his mouth and it will never reach it. The prayer of the disbelievers goeth far astray".

                        (Quran 13 +14)

(k) The unscientific scientist philosopher says:-

“Physics tells the same story as astronomy. For, independently of all astronomical considerations the general physical principle known as the second law of thermodynamics predicts that there can be but one end to the universe -- a "Heat-death", in which the total energy of the universe is uniformly distributed, and all the substance of the universe is at the same temperature. This temperature is going to be so low as to make life impossible. It matters little by what particular road this final state is reached; all roads lead to Rome, and the end of the journey cannot be other than universal death".

            (The Mysterious Universe page 11)

The unscientific philosopher says:-

            " Universal death".

The Quran says:-

“Every one, who liveth on earth will pass  away, but the glorious and the honourable countenance of the lord shall remain for ever".

                        (Quran 55 +26-27)

(l) The Unscientific philosopher says:-

"Is this, then all the life amounts to stumble, almost by mistake into a universe which was clearly not designed for life, and which, to all appearances, is either totally indifferent or definitely hostile to it, to stay clinging on to a fragment of a grain of sand until we are frozen off, to strut our tiny hour on or tiny stage with the knowledge that our aspirations are all doomed to final frustration, and that our achievements must perish with our race, leaving the universe as though we had never been".

            (The Mysterious Universe page 11-12)

The unscientific Philosopher says:-

            “As though we had never been".

The Quran says:-

            "As though they had never been".         

                        (Quran 11 68)

            Next the Quran gives two instances of two rebellious tribes, destroyed by severe chastisement of God. These are the tribes of the Prophet Saliah and the Prophet Shoaib. And the Quran says about them" As though they had not dwell there".

THE FATE OF UNBELIEVING PEOPLE OF ANCIENT PROPHETS:-

The Quran says:-

“When our commandment came to pass, we saved Saliah, and those who believed with him, by a mercy from us, from the ignominy of that day. Lo. Thy Lord He is the strong, the Mighty. And the awful cry overtook those who did wrong, so that morning found them prostrate in the dwellings, as though they had not dwelt there".

                        (Quran 11 + 66-68)

The Quran says:-

“And when our commandment came, we saved Shoaib and those who believed with him by a mercy from us; and the) (awful) cry seized those who did injustice, and morning found them prostrate in their dwellings as though they had not dwelt there".

                        (Quran 11 + 94-95)

            But contrary to the belief of the scientist, the achievements of these people will not perish with them here, but hey will be raised on the day of judgment with their achievements in company to be assessed and rewarded. The Quran about this life says:-

"The similitude of the life of the world is only as water which we send from the sky, then the earth's growth of which men and cattle eat, mingleth with it, till, when the earth hath taken on her ornaments and is embellished, and her people deem that they are masters of her, our commandment cometh by night or by day, and we make it as reaped corn as if it had not flourished yesterday".

                        (Quran 10+24)

Plato's Simile:

            On the title page of the "Mysterious Universe" is found quoted with much appropriateness to the topic of that book, the world-famous and history-honoured simile, namely, "Plato's simile of the Cave". I wondered if the Quran also contained a counterpart of that beautiful simile.

            The Quran has never disappointed me in such matters. In the following I quote Plato's simile of the cave, and thereafter its counterpart by the Quran.

PLATO'S SIMILE:-

"And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or un-enlightened:

              Behold human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave, here they have been from their childhood and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

I see, And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall..... you have shown me a strange image and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied, and they see only their own shadows, or the other shadows which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave.

True he said: how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads? And of the objects which are being carried in the like manner they would only see the shadows? Yes, he said, To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the image".

(Plato's The Republic Book-VII)

PLATO'S DESCRIPTION OF THE INMATES OF THE CAVE:

            "Human beings living in an underground cave which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave, here they have been from their childhood and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players, have in front of them, over which they show the puppets".

            Now the descriptive part of the Quran's simile which we will hereafter quote in full:-

"We have put yokes on their necks, and they are forced to hold up their heads: and we have set a bar before them and a bar behind them, and thus have covered them with darkness, wherefore they shall not see".

            (Quran Chapter 36.Y.S.)

            Both these similes are almost identical in their descriptive parts. Full text of the simile of the Quran is as follows:-

"Y.S. (I swear) by the instructive Quran that thou art (one) of the messengers (of Allah sent to show) the right way. This is a revelation of most mighty, the merciful Allah that thou mayest warn a people whose fathers were not warned and who live in negligence. (Our) sentence has justly been pronounced against a greater part of them, wherefore they shall not believe. We have put yokes on their necks, which (come) upto their chins, and they are forced to hold up their heads; and we have set a bar before them and a bar behind them, and thus have covered them with darkness, wherefore they shall not see. It shall be equal unto them whether thou preach unto them, or do not preach unto them, they shall not believe. But thou shalt preach (with effect) unto him only who followeth the admonition, and feareth the merciful in secret. Wherefore bear good tidings unto him of mercy and honourable reward. Lo. We it is who bring the dead to life. We record that which they send before (them) and their footprints. And all things we kept in a clear registrer".

                                    (Quran 36 +1 to 12)

A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO SIMILES:

PLATO:

"And now, I said, let me show in a figure, how for our nature is enlightened our unenlightened".

QURAN

"Y.S. (I swear) by the instructive Quran that thou (O Mohammed) art (one) of the messengers (of Allah) sent (to show) the right way. This is a revelation of the most mighty, the merciful Allah".

PLATO

"Behold, Human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave, here they have been from their childhood".

QURAN

"That thou mayest warn a people whose fathers were not warned and who live in negligence. (Our) sentence hath justly been pronounced against a greater part of them wherefore they shall not believe".

PLATO

"And have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads".

QURAN

"We have put yokes on their necks which (come) upto (their) chins, and they are forced to hold up their hands".

PLATO

"Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets".

QURAN

"And we have set a bar before them and a bar behind them, and (thus) have covered them with darkness wherefore they shall not see".

PLATO

"To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the image".

QURAN

"It shall be equal unto them, whether thou preach unto them, or do not preach unto them, they shall not believe. But thou shalt preach (with effect) unto him only who followeth the admonition and feareth the merciful in secret".

            Plato has assayed the intellectual level of mankind regarding their ability in comprehending the ultimate reality, whereas the Quran has alluded to their ability to accept faith, although the ability of accepting faith may also be taken to man the ability to judge the ultimate reality, for faith itself is the truth of ultimate reality. Plato has shown no exception, and has judged them all appropriately quite unable to know anything but shadows, as the nature of his topic implied. The Quran has shown exceptions although some of them may not be endowed with the quality to accept faith, yet some there are. There seems to be difference of application only between the view expressed by Plato, and that by the Quran. In the last resort indeed man's knowledge even of the most certain kind is only a shadow of the true reality. A reality which will appear to man only after he has expired and is outside this walled fortress of material body, this cave. Great indeed is the Quran and marvellous. Never in a book so much knowledge was found packed in so few pages. The best answers to the modern complex problems of humanity could be had from this book, the Quran. And now before we bring our discussion of the unscientific philosophy of the scientist to a close, we consider it our duty to warn that such a philosophy shall surely, work the destruction of science, and indeed much sooner than generally is expected, and that of mankind along with it.

Previous Article     Mysterious Universe and Quran Index     Next Article