Quran fourteen centuries ago at the time of its revelation, advanced an hypothesis that the habits of backbiting, wealth accumulation and a belief in the eternity of the process of wealth increase together as the three ingredients, (like the three ingredients of dynamites) that produce the atomic dynamitic result in the appearance of atomic fire on the principle of the nuclear annihilation of matter. The words of the Quran are:-
“Woe to every backbiter and 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. And what could teach thee what Al-Hotama is? It is a fire of Allah enkindled which leaps up onto the hearts. It is (a fire) closed in on them in outstretched columns.” (Quran: 104- Al-Homaza)
This hypothesis remained undiscovered till in 1961 I discovered it and worked on it. It is as yet as unknown to the non-Muslims as it is to the Muslims. It was in 1626 after the appearance of Bacon’s Philosophy that the experiment began to put the hypothesis of the Quran to proof. It was a grand experiment. This earth was the laboratory. The followers of Bacon that is the philosophers of modern atomism and the scientists of the modern age participated in conducting the experiment. The experiment beginning with physics and chemistry reached the stage of nuclear zones in a period of about 333 years with the detonation of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945, and the subsequent successful experiment of the hydrogen bomb in Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean in 1954. Now the final display of the experiment remains only in the worldwide flare up of the atomic hell and complete annihilation of the all life on earth. Surely the atomic dynamite accumulated in the stockpiles of the atomic powers in the world is of sufficient quantity to conduct such an experiment as the final display.
We will now discuss the points of the hypothesis one by one in the light of the 333 year’s long experiment. No element of exaggeration or hyperbolism ought to be suspected in the assertion that this hypothesis of the scripture left no grounds for either doubt or denial of the miraculous and supernatural aspect extent therein. We shall be brief to the point even of bluntness, yet these knowing the subject will understand. Our English translation of the text of the Quran does not show all those different shades of the meanings of the original to the minuteness of characterization of the things described.
(I) The Quran says: {{Backbiter and defamer}}. The habit of backbiting and defaming is inherent in the very nature of the philosophy of atomism. Atomism basically is a great defamer in itself against the doctrines of faith and revealed religion. The sophisticated type of slander given the name of propaganda in this age may be cited as the specimen to the layman.
(2)The Quran says: {He, that is, the backbiter and defamer amasseth wealth of this world and arrangeth it against the future}.Now this is a very rude type of translation. The form of the original text has a minute description of the matter which describes exactly this modern progress of the design of Bacon’s philosophy of atomism that is this particular, continuous, systematic, ever-increasing and infinite progress guided and advanced in the light of scientific research of continuous, systematic, ever-increasing and infinite kind. To the attainment of man’s dominion over nature, through systematic research of science for the material advantage of mankind in general as the sole business of man on earth as against the pursuit of moral philosophy, was the basic design of Bacon’s philosophy. The economic entanglement of this modern progress at present with the nuclear energy is a factor observable.
(3) The Quran says: The slandering wealth accumulator thinks that his wealth will render him immortal. That is he believes in the eternity of the process of wealth increase, and that his durable buildings and lands and gardens will ensure the eternity of his name in the world. So is the belief of the people of this Baconian age in the eternity of the modern progress. So that when now sure signs of the end of this modern progress are manifesting themselves in the world, the general belief of the scientist and the non-scientist world is in the perpetuity of this modern progress, somehow by some unexpected miracle.
(4) The Quran says: Nay, that will not be so. In this the Quran negates the hope of the slandering wealth accumulator in the eternity of his riches. That is the Quran differs with him in the sequence of the process.
(5)The Quran says: Verily he will be cast into Al-Hotama. Both he and his wealth to be reduced to powder to prove the felicity of his view of the eternity. Hotama in Arabic language literally means a crusher, a grinder. The Quran says: What a Prophet could teach thee what Al-Hotma is? The mode of interrogation here means the inexpressible terribleness of the phenomenon. This was the opinion of the original, authentic commentators of the Quran. Now in the light of the subject of nuclear science, to this may be added the factor of the unusual complexity of the subject. The same question may be with feasibility put to the nuclear scientist today or a few hundred years hence. What could teach thee what the subject of nuclear science is? Invariably the answer of the nuclear scientist would be: Nothing. The terribleness of the atomic bombs and the atomic radiations and the magnitude of the destruction to be wrought by them is no longer any secret to the people of this age now.
(6) The Quran says: Hotama is the fire of Allah enkindled which leaps up onto the hearts, it is a fire closed in on them in outstretched columns”. This then is the characteristic description of the atomic phenomenon. Herein are those characteristic features of the Atomic phenomenon which distinguish the atomic phenomenon from every other type of phenomenon. Chemical, electrical or gravitational. This then is very scientific and this for the nuclear scientist to understand.
(7) The Quran has coined the term Hotama. It is a descriptive term. Hotama means a crusher, a grinder, an atomizer. In a way. Remarkable is the phonetic and functional identity between the word Hotama, (It actually is nearer to otama in pronunciation) and the word atomos. Both are concerned with the action of breaking. This characteristic of crushing is one of the basic characteristics which distinguish the atomic phenomenon from the rest. Atomic energy is generated by breaking the binding of the atomic nucleus. No other type of energy is generated in this way. Again the atomic phenomenon is a crusher of an absolute kind. The nuclei once crushed are for every crushed. No synthetic method is there to rearrange them and to produce them in their original form. The atomic radiations show the same characteristics that of crushing. They crush the order of the atomic nuclei of inanimate matter through which they pass and cause transmutations of the atoms therein. In living bodies they attack the cell nucleus and break the chromosome. The genetic effects of radiations are decidedly irreversible and irreparable. This characteristic of breaking and crushing in the atomic phenomenon indeed is so conspicuous, so overwhelmingly manifest that the nuclear scientists have not only always observed it with vivid realization, but also have experienced wonders in this peculiar characteristics of the atomic phenomenon. Rutherford has recorded the wonder of his life experienced during the bombardment of Alpha Particles. The German term BEREMSSTRAHLUNG which literally means the breaking radiation was generally applauded by the atomists as highly descriptive to describe the continuous spectrums of rays. Books of atomic physics as well as of radiobiology are replete with terms, phrases, similes and sentences which bespeak the crushing and breaking characteristics of atomic phenomena.
(8)The Quran says: Hotama is fire. Manifestly the atomic fire is there as a sure proof.
(9)The Quran says: It is fire of Allah. The fire of atomic phenomenon is the result of the habits which are evil. It is a retributive fire. The fact will become clear by the time the destructive nature of the atomic energy for peace is proved.
(10)The Quran says: Hotama is a fire which leaps up over the hearts. Here then is another basically characteristic feature of the atomic phenomenon. A desiccative characteristic which distinguishes the atomic phenomena from the rest. The atomic phenomenon takes place in the nucleus, hence the term nuclear. No other type of reaches or touches the nucleus of the atom. The Quran has used the word heart. This is a very general expression and has very wide meanings to be found in the literature of every language spoken on earth. Heart, however, is meant to express the heart. The scientist has used in this particular context that of the atomic phenomenon, the word nucleus. But the scientist has also used the word heart instead of nucleus. Two examples only will suffice:-
(a) “Each fast particle comes from the break-up of the very heart of a single atom. The nucleus. Of the radioactive material”. (Vide: physics Physical Science Study Committee. Second edition. D.C. Heath and Company Lexington. Massachusetts. July 1965 .page 130)
(b) “How many nuclear heart-beats are in the life –time of a radioactive nucleus which lasts but billionth of a second”. (Ibid: page 21: short problems)
Scores of examples in the words even of the leading nuclear scientists may in this respect be quoted. The term thermonuclear, however, presents the most spectacular spectacles of the fire of Hotama rising onto the hearts. In the hydrogen bomb the fire produced by the inner fission device is directed onto the nuclei that is the hearts of the outer fusile material that is hydrogen. The consideration of space would not allow us to dwell at length in this article, and we will be brief.
(11) The Quran says: Hotama is a fire closed in on them. The atomic phenomenon from the detonation of the atomic device to the log-term effects of atomic radiations shows particular characteristic of encompassment. Mankind’s inability to avoid the atomic energy at present can also be taken into account in this respect. But this characteristic may be seen manifestly in the attack of radiation on the cell in the latter’s resting phase and the appearance of this effects in the Anaphase only, but the greatest manifestation of the encompassing characteristic of the atomic fire may be seen in the fact that the radiations keep a guard over the mankind invisibly and undetectably for generations till their radio genetic effects manifest themselves and continue thereafter and multiply to the themselves and continues thereafter and multiply to the time of the extinction of mankind and life on earth. The radioactive materials dispersed all over the earth then keen this earth uninhabitable for incredibly long period according to the half-life of the radioactive elements.
(12) The Quran says: Outstretched columns. The lofty, outstretched column of the atomic bomb explosion now is known as the symbolically distinctive feature. The scientist can see the world of radioactivity as a world of columns. It indeed is very interesting spectacle. An alpha particle which has risen to the height of 4 centimeter has risen to the height of a formidable column. It may be understood if the height is measured in comparison to the smallness of the particle. Cosmic rays present a scene of incredibly high columns in showers.
The author with two volumes on this topic now is in need of being at some center of knowledge anywhere in the world to place the case before the competent judges and to explain it in lectures the competent judges and to explain it in lectures etc. and arrange the publication of the volumes that might prove of some use to mankind in understanding the atomic problem and avoiding the atomic threat. Invitations from societies, scientific, philosophical and literary will be most welcome. These interested may please contact the author on the following address:
Allamah Mohammad Yousuf Gabriel, C/o Khalid General Store, main Bazar, Nawababad, Wah Cantt, Distt Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Dated: 17th December 1979