ASTRONOMY IN THE QUR'AN

Mon Apr 9 16:07:51 EDT 2012

THE QUR'AN AND MODERN SCIENCE
Extracted from the Book
 The Bible, The Qur'an and Science
Maurice Bucaille
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ASTRONOMY IN THE QUR'AN

The Qur'an is full of reflections on the heavens. In the preceding
chapter on the Creation, we saw how the plurality of the heavens and
earths was referred to, as well as what the Qur'an calls an
intermediary creation 'between the heavens and the earth': modern
science has verified the latter. The verses referring to the Creation
already contain a broad idea of what is to be found in the heavens,
i.e. of everything outside the earth.

Apart from the verses that specifically describe the Creation, there
are roughly another forty verses in the Qur'an which provide
information on astronomy complementing what has already been given.
Some of them are not much more than reflections on the glory of the
Creator, the Organizer of all the stellar and planetary systems. These
we know to be arranged according to balancing positions whose
stability Newton explained in his law of the mutual attraction of
bodies.

The first verses to be quoted here hardly furnish much material for
scientific analysis: the aim is simply to draw attention to God's
Omnipotence. They must be mentioned however to give a realistic idea
of the way the Qur'anic text described the organization of the
Universe fourteen centuries ago.

These references constitute a new fact of divine Revelation. The
organization of the world is treated in neither the Gospels nor the
Old Testament (except for a few notions whose general inaccuracy we
have already seen in the Biblical description of the Creation). The
Qur'an however deals with this subject in depth. What it describes is
important, but so is what it does not contain. It does not in fact
provide an account of the theories prevalent at the time of the
Revelation that deal with the organization of the celestial world
theories that science was later to show were inaccurate. An example of
this will be given later. This negative consideration must however be
pointed out.

A. General Reflections Concerning the Sky
- Surah 50, verse 6.
Do they not look at the sky above them, how We have built it and
adorned it, and there are no rifts in it
- Surah 31, verse 10:
(God) created the heavens without any pillars that you can see...
- Surah 13, verse 2:
God is the One Who raised the heavens without any pillars that you can
see, then He firmly established Himself on the throne and He subjected
the sun and moon...
These last two verses refute the belief that the vault of the heavens
was held up by pillars, the only things preventing the former from
crushing the earth.
- Surah 55, verse 7:
. the sky (God) raised it....
- Surah 22, verse 65:
. (God) holds back the sky from falling on the earth unless by His
leave....

It is known how the remoteness of celestial masses at great distance
and in proportion to the magnitude of their mass itself constitutes
the foundation of their equilibrium. The more remote the masses are
the weaker the force is that attracts one to the other. The nearer
they are, the stronger the attraction is that one has to the other:
this is true for the Moon, which is near to the Earth (astronomically
speaking) and exercises an influence by laws of attraction on the
position occupied by the waters of the sea, hence the phenomenon of
the tides. If two celestial bodies come too close to one another,
collision is inevitable. The fact that they are subjected to an order
is the sine qua non for the absence of disturbances.

The subjection of the heavens to divine order is often referred to as
well:
- Surah 23, verse 86: God is speaking to the Prophet.
. Say: Who is lord of the seven heavens and Lord of the tremendous
throne?.
We have already seen how by 'seven heavens' what is meant is not 7,
but an indefinite number of heavens.
- Surah 45, verse 31:
. For you (God) subjected all that is in the heavens and on the earth,
all from Him. Behold! In that are signs for people who reflect.
- Surah 55, verse 5:
. the sun and moon (are subjected) to calculations.
- Surah 6, verse 96:
. (God) appointed the night for rest and the sun and the moon for
reckoning.
- Surah 14, verse 33:
. For you (God) subjected the sun and the moon, both diligently
pursuing their courses. And for you He subjected the night and the
day.

Here one verse completes another: the calculations referred to result
in the regularity of the course described by the heavenly bodies in
question, this is expressed by the word da'ib, the present participle
of a verb whose original meaning was 'to work eagerly and assiduously
at something'. Here it is given the meaning of 'to apply oneself to
something with care in a perseverant, invariable manner, in accordance
with set habits'.

Surah 36, verse 39: God is speaking:
. And for the moon We have appointed mansions till she returns like an
old shriveled palm branch.

This is a reference to the curled form of the-palm branch which, as it
shrivels up, takes on the moon's crescent. This commentary will be
completed later.
- Surah 16, verse 12:
. For you (God) subjected the night and the day, the sun and the moon;
the stars are in subjection to His Command. Verily in this are signs
for people who are wise.

The practical angle from which this perfect celestial order is seen is
underlined on account of its value as an aid to man's travel on earth
and by sea, and to his calculation of time. This comment becomes clear
when one bears in mind the fact that the Qur'an was originally a
preaching addressed to men who only understood the simple language of
their every day lives. This explains the presence of the following
reflections:
- Surah 6, verse 97:
. (God) is the One Who has set out for you the stars, that you may
guide yourselves by them through the darkness of the land and of the
sea. We have detailed the signs for people who know.
- Surah 16, verse 16:
. (God sets on the earth) landmarks and by the stars (men) guide
themselves
- Surah 10, verse 5:
. God is the One Who made the sun a shine and the moon a light and for
her ordained mansions, so that you might know the number of years and
the reckoning (of the time). God created this in truth. He explains
the signs in detail for people who know.

This calls for some comment. Whereas the Bible calls the Sun and Moon
'lights', and merely adds to one the adjective 'greater' and to the
other 'lesser', the Qur'an ascribes differences other than that of
dimension to each respectively. Agreed, this is nothing more than a
verbal distinction, but how was one to communicate to men at this time
without confusing them, while at the same time expressing the notion
that the Sun and Moon were not absolutely identical 'lights'?

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