A Walk To ISLAM

13 scientific facts in the holy Quran

"We will show them Our signs in the universe and in their own selves, until it becomes manifest to them that this (the Quran) is the truth" (Quran; 41:53).

Based on this Quranic verse, Allah (SWT) exhorts Muslims to observe and study the universe in order to find some of His signs. For that reason, many verses of the Noble Quran invite Muslims to study nature and seek knowledge, and this has been interpreted to mean encouragement for scientific inquiry.

 1. WATER

In Surah Al-Anbya, it was revealed: "We made every living thing from water, will they not believe?" (Quran, 21:30) and it was only after the discovery of the microscope that it was concluded that all living things consist mostly of water – while in the deserts of Arabia, the last thing a man could guess is that all of life ultimately came from water.

2. UNIVERSE : THE BIG BANG THEORY

In Surah Al-Anbya, Allah (SWT) also states: "Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them" (Quran, 21:30). In 1929, American astronomer Edwin Hubble proposed the Hubble's Law according to which all entities in space are moving away from the Earth at speeds proportional to their distance i.e. the greater the distance from earth, the faster they are moving. Soon after this, he discovered that galaxies are moving away from each other as well which means that the universe is expanding overall.

This laid the basis for the Big Bang theory which states that around 12-15 billion years ago the universe came into existence from one single extremely hot and dense point, due to an explosion of this point the universe came into being. The universe, since then, has been expanding from this single point. In 1965, radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson won the Noble Prize for the discovery that confirmed the Big Bang theory [3]. When looking at the verse cited above, while acknowledging Allah Knows best, it remains astounding that the Quran had already revealed that "the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them".

3. UNIVERSE: THE BIG CRUNCH THEORY

Again, in Surah Al-Anbya, Allah (SWT) says: "The Day when We will fold the heaven like the folding of a [written] sheet for the records. As We began the first creation, We will repeat it. [That is] a promise binding upon Us. Indeed, We will do it" (Quran, 21:104). This fits in with the theory of Big Crunch which talks about how the universe will be pulled back into the black holes and again form a tiny mass [4].

Indeed, the Big Crunch is one of the scenarios predicted by scientists in which the Universe may end. Just like many others, it is based on Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. That is, if the Big Bang describes how the Universe most possibly began, the Big Crunch describes how it will end as a consequence of that beginning [5], just as the Quran has so beautifully described above.

4. EMBRYOLOGY

In Surah Al-Mu'minun, Allah (SWT) says "We created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended thing, and blood clot), then We made the alaqah into a mudghah (chewed substance)..." (Quran 23:12-14).

Science has only proved this with the help of the latest technology. It is Professor Emeritus Keith L. Moore who is one of the world's most well-known scientists in the fields of anatomy and embryology, who said that "It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, because almost all of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later" [6].