While discussing about the possibility
of the Qur’ān being the word of God with an atheist, I drew his attention to the
fact emphasized quite convincingly, among others, by Maurice Bucaille
that the Book alludes, on many occasions, to the natural phenomena which have
now, thanks to the tremendous advancement in scientific knowledge, been much
more deeply explored than ever before. ‘If the Qur’ānic description of these
subjects is consistent with what has now been discovered in a period when none
of these was anywhere near from being discovered, then there can be no
explanation acceptable for what the Qur’ān says except that its origins are
divine’, I emphasized.
The atheist was quick to dismiss my
point by informing me that there have been other people as well, like
Nostradamus, who have had the vision of the future and, therefore, there was
hardly anything special in what I was presenting as a proof for the divinity of
a book. The objection apparently seemed valid.
On deeper reflection on the contents of
“The Centuries“,
however, one finds how unacceptable the comparison between the two books is.
While the Qur’ān is a Book of guidance thoroughly clear in its description, “The
Centuries” seems to have been carefully authored to render the prophecies it
makes as vague and general in application as could be to widen the scope of its
applicability.
We believe the Qur’ān to be a miracle
from God Almighty not just because its contents do not contain any statement
contradicting any of the established realities; we confidently claim it to be
His final Message because it qualifies in all respects to justify that claim:
Its inimitable language, the remarkable history of its protection from human
tampering, and the thoroughly convincing arguments it presents to support its
claim are some of the more important reasons why the Qur’ān has to be accepted
to be true to its claim---the very word of God.
In fact, one has only to read it in an
unbiased manner to appreciate that it has been written by someone who is also
the Creator of the human soul as well, for one notices complete affinity between
the Message and one’s innerself. The fact that its contents haven’t made even a
slight error in mentioning any of the natural phenomena is only an additional
confirmation of that claim.
An example each from the book of
Nostradamus and the Qur’ān would help understand the difference in the nature of
the two books.
Let us first of all take an example from
the work of Nostradamus: one of the translation of his prophecies from the
original work in French, which has been acclaimed to be amazing by its
commentators, reads like this:
“Rain, famine and war will not cease
in Persia; too great a trust will betray the monarch. Those [actions] started in
France will end there, a secret sign for one to be sparing.”
This is what Erika Cheetham, a
translator and interpretor of Nostradamus’s work has to say about this prophecy:
“This is an amazing quatrain by any
standards. Politicians could not have conceived of it in 1978, let alone 1568
[when the work was written]. The monarch, the Shah of Persia, now Iran will lose
his grip on his kingdom partly through rain, famine and war. But as Nostradamus
states the war was started in France, in Paris, in fact, where Ayatollah
Khomeine remained plotting his downfall. The secret sign for one to be sparing
is difficult to interpret but certainly the Ayatollah’s regime is extremely
spartan in its concept.”
It can be seen from the
translation and explanation of one of the most remarkable prophecies of one of
the most distinguished non-prophet predictors that it has been so carefully
generalized that no one can be sure what has really been prophecized. The
commentator, who is an avid admirer of the author, has to admit while explaining
the above-quoted quatrain, which he himself has picked to be one of the most
‘amazing’, that a part of the prophecy is ‘difficult to interpret’.
The basic purpose of the Qur’ān is to
guide mankind by informing them correctly about what their Creator---God
Almighty---is and what He wants them to do. While informing about what He is,
the Qur’an, on one occasion mentions:
“Indeed, the knowledge of the hour is
with God alone and it is He who sends down rain, and He knows what is in the
wombs and no one knows what it is that he will earn on the morrow nor does
anyone know in what land he is to die. Indeed with God is full knowledge and He
is thoroughly acquainted.” (31:34)
The verse hasn’t deviated from the real
purpose of the Holy Message ie. guidance. While informing us about our Creator,
however, the verse has alluded to a subject which can be brought under more
rigorous scrutiny today given the level of knowledge that has grown on the
subject. If we read the verse a little carefully, we cannot escape from
observing that the verse is describing Allah Almighty’s knowledge about four
things and His ability to send down rainfall. Of the pieces of information
mentioned in the verse, three are those which, it has been categorically
mentioned, no one knows except God Almighty. It is quite significant that for
the fourth---what is in the wombs---it has not claimed that it is an area of
knowledge He has reserved exclusively for Himself alone.
Maintenance of this careful distinction
between the two categories of information may have been a mystery for those who
belonged to the earlier periods; not so much though for those living in the
present one when, thanks to the developments in the field of science, undeniable
information about what resides in the wombs is no more an impossibility. What
other explanation can be given to this act of extreme care in the choice of
words save that it is an act of One Who knew what is to happen centuries later?
The above two examples show the glaring
difference between what is an act of a man who somehow had some vague, though
not always accurate, glimpses of the future and what is the word of God which
does not commit an error even in details on a topic which is not the real
subject-matter of the Book.
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