Letter 5: The Bible, the Qur’an and Science

“Then He turned to the sky and it had been (as) smoke: He said to it and to the earth, come ye together . . . ” (Surah 41:11).

 

Parallel passages of the Qur’an suggest something else. They mention columns, which keep the heavens from falling onto the earth:

 

“He (i.e. Allah) withholds the sky from falling on the earth” (Surah 22:65).

 

“He (i.e. Allah) created the heavens without any pillars that ye can see; He set on the earth mountains standing firm lest it should shake with you” (Surah 31:10).

 

“Allah is He Who raised the heavens without any pillars that ye can see” (Surah 13:2).

 

These texts suggest convincingly that the Qur’an does not speak of the ‘Big Bang’, but rather tries to explain why the sky does not fall down to earth.

 

In the same passages it is alleged that the balance of the Laws of Gravitation and Centrifugal Force within a solar system is described by these passages (p. 152ff). The gravitation of a celestial body, according to the Natural Law, actually attracts any other body towards its own mass. That would, of course, eliminate its existence. But the force of gravity is balanced by the centrifugal force due to the planet’s movement around a sun. As a ball, when spinning around at the end of a string, is kept from flying away, so planets are forced away from the sun by the centrifugal force, but are kept in place by the law of gravity. So the balance between the two opposing forces keep the planets on track. I think it was Isaac Newton, who discovered these Laws in the 17^th century. Do we actually find these Natural Laws, directly or by implication, mentioned in the Qur’an in general or in these mentioned verses in particular? Certainly not in the suggested texts. And could Isaac Newton have formulated these Laws of Nature as he did, based on the knowledge of the above verses? I am sure we agree that with the best will in the world it would need a lot of imagination to let these verses explain the function of our universe. But Dr. Bucaille did it and he went even further. He discovered in the Qur’an a prediction of astronauts: