The Expansion of
the Universe and the Qur’an – Abdassamad Clarke
The following examination of the ayah of Qur’an which is taken to
refer to the expansion of the universe is a single example of what is becoming
a burgeoning literature among Muslims claiming that science proves the Qur’an
to be true. This literature can be said to date from the book of Maurice
Bucaille: The Bible, the Qur’an and Science. As Hajj Idris Mears
pointed out, it is implicit in the title of his book that there are three successive
stages of revelation: first, the Bible; second, the Qur’an which the author
regards as a great deal more scientific (although in the process he manages to
undermine and indeed repudiate the hadith literature); and then thirdly and
lastly, science, which is clearly in his view the judge and arbiter as to the
truth or falsity of the previous two.
This perspective is of course utterly unacceptable to us, since, as Thomas Kuhn
showed, the modern scientific outlook is in his terminology ‘a paradigm’ which
was preceded by the Aristotelian ‘paradigm’ and may thus clearly be succeeded
by yet another. Thus it is impossible that we should tie the meanings of the
Qur’an to what is simply a paradigm.
It might help if we look at one example which is widely touted as definitive
proof of the scientific authenticity of the Qur’an: the ayah 47 in Surat
adh-Dhariyat which many people take as predicting the twentieth-century
discovery that the universe is expanding.
The Expansion of
the Universe and the Qur’an – Abdassamad Clarke
The following examination of the ayah of Qur’an which is taken to
refer to the expansion of the universe is a single example of what is becoming
a burgeoning literature among Muslims claiming that science proves the Qur’an
to be true. This literature can be said to date from the book of Maurice
Bucaille: The Bible, the Qur’an and Science. As Hajj Idris Mears
pointed out, it is implicit in the title of his book that there are three successive
stages of revelation: first, the Bible; second, the Qur’an which the author
regards as a great deal more scientific (although in the process he manages to
undermine and indeed repudiate the hadith literature); and then thirdly and
lastly, science, which is clearly in his view the judge and arbiter as to the
truth or falsity of the previous two.
This perspective is of course utterly unacceptable to us, since, as Thomas Kuhn
showed, the modern scientific outlook is in his terminology ‘a paradigm’ which
was preceded by the Aristotelian ‘paradigm’ and may thus clearly be succeeded
by yet another. Thus it is impossible that we should tie the meanings of the
Qur’an to what is simply a paradigm.
It might help if we look at one example which is widely touted as definitive
proof of the scientific authenticity of the Qur’an: the ayah 47 in Surat
adh-Dhariyat which many people take as predicting the twentieth-century
discovery that the universe is expanding.
