COMMENTS ON "THE QUR'AN & SCIENCE”
Brig Gen (Retd) Syed Ashrafuzzaman
I have carefully gone through Mr. Abdur Rahman Abid's article " Qur'an O Biggan" in
Bengali. I find it interesting and educative. Mr. Rahman
has treated the subject with the maturity required to deal with such a
sensitive subject. He has very justifiably brought out the point that the
Qur'an is not a treatise on science. It is a Book of guidance for the whole of
mankind, and not for Muslims only, for all the time to come. To clarify certain
points of guidance and make those easily understandable to the mankind Allah
has, at places, quoted from history, mentioned some natural phenomenon and
given some simile. Inclusion of these elements in the Book does not make it a
book on history, science or mythology, and change the fundamental status of the
Qur’an as a Book of guidance. It is ‘… a revelation from the Lord of the
worlds ` (56:80). It is ‘ …the Book explaining
all things` (16:89), ‘ … in detail ` (41:03). There is ‘ no crookedness ` (
It may be even frustrating for a Muslim scholar to try to correlate the scientific
indications in the Qur’an with modern science now, or in the days to come. The
Qur’an will remain valid till the last day of the mankind. It will never become
old or outdated. No prophet will be sent after Muhammad (PUBH) and no other
divine book of guidance will be sent after the Qur’an. When the Qur’an was
revealed in the seventh century AD science was at a very primitive stage.
Naturally, it was not possible for the scientists of that period to understand,
not speak of correlating the science of the day with, the scientific
indications given in the Qur’an. With the development of science scientists at
later periods, with the help of new discoveries and inventions, could correlate
some, but not all, scientific indications given in the Qur’an. Science as a
dynamic natural process will continue to develop till the last day of the
mankind. As time passes, it can naturally be expected that with the unfolding
of the new scientific discoveries and inventions, scientists and Islamic
scholars will be able to correlate more and more scientific indications given
in the Qur’an with the science of the day.
The Quran did not undergo any revision,
correction or change in the past, nor is it going to happen at any time in the
future. ‘ Allah will assuredly guard it from
corruption till eternity `(
Before I proceed further, here I would like to issue a warning to all
those Muslim scholars who are enthusiastic about carrying out research on the
subject. While Muslims all over the world appreciate their efforts and
findings, they must be aware of the risks involved in trying to correlate the
scientific indications given in the Qur’an with today’s scientific theories and
findings. Modern Arabic language in many ways differs from the Arabic which was
spoken in the seventh century when the Qur’an was revealed. One must be a
master of Arabic of that period to comprehend the correct and full meaning of
the verses of the Qur’an. Translation of the Qur’an in any language involves
great risks. To do the job correctly and honestly one has to not only be a
master of the Qur’anic Arabic, one must also be a master of the second language
into which the translation is to be done. Last but not the least,
one has to be also a master of Islamic theology. A scholar with these
outstanding qualifications will be very rare in any society at any time. recently I had to go through some Bengali translations of
the Qur’an done by Bengali Islamic scholars. I found all of them falling short
of the required standard, in some way or the other, in translations and
interpretations. As I do not know Arabic myself, I am these days banking on the
English translation done by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Here
I would like to quote some excerpts from a write-up of mine which was published
earlier to prove how confusing a wrongly translated Qur’anic text could be.
“ a.
In the recent past, for the sake of a study, I had to refer to the holy Qur’an.
I don’t know Arabic. So I had to fall back on a Bengali translation of the holy
book done by Moulana Muhiuddin
and published and distributed by the Government of the KSA. I was dealing with
verse No.25 of Surat Al-Baqarah.
This verse gives a short description of heaven (Jannat)
in a way ordinary people can comprehend. Before I proceed further I must make
it clear that no human being knows exactly what a heaven, or a hell, will be in
the world hereafter. Only Allah knows it. What Allah knows is beyond the
comprehension of the mankind. Therefore, to make it easily comprehensible to
the mankind, Allah explains this and other phenomena at several other places in
the Qur’an, with the help of simile. Here in this verse the description of the
heaven is also given in the form of a simile. In this description it is said
that in the heaven a person will be provided with, among other things, “women
purified” (shuddhacharini romonikul).
Doubts arose in my mind about the authenticity of this translation. Why should
Allah make this discrimination? If only “women purified” are made available to
the residents of the heaven, only the men will be served. What about the female
residents? To Allah, if I have understood the Qur’an well, there is no
difference between a man and a woman, as far as their personal accountability
is concerned. Allah has created all living animals, including human beings, in
pairs of male and female just to continue the process of procreation. Then I
took out the English translation of the Qur’an by Abdullah Yusuf
Ali, also published and distributed by the Government of the KSA. To my
satisfaction I found there that the same Arabic words have been translated as “Spouses
purified”. Here Abdullah Yusuf Ali did justice to
the translation by saying what Allah probably wanted to say.
b. I was also baffled by the similar translation in both Bengali and English of
another verse. It was verse No.34 of Surat An-Nisaa. This verse says how to deal with a delinquent wife.
It says, “ --- As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and
ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (next) refuse to share their beds, (and
last) beat them (lightly) ---“. In the original text of the Qur’an the word
is “wa-ad-ri-boo-hunnah” which has been
translated as “beat them (lightly)”. Though this translation is not
logically tenable, many Muslims all over the world beat their wives by taking
cover under this verse. The root of the word in Arabic is DARABA and it has
been used many times at different places in the Qur’an. At all these places it
meant: advancing a parable or similitude, or moving or preventing a movement to
achieve a good purpose or to produce a miracle, or wielding an weapon to cut
down an enemy in the combat, or moving something to inflict punishment without
causing physical hurt. Nowhere it implied physical
hurt.
c. The holy Prophet (pbuh) spent 38 years as a
married man. During this period he had some occasions to be annoyed with his
wives. As per local Arab custom he could very well beat his concerned wife on
some of these occasions. At least he could “beat lightly’ if the above
translation of “wa-ad-ri-boo-hunnah” is acceptable.
But to the contrary we find that on every such occasion the holy Prophet (pbuh) either admonished firmly without being impolite to
the concerned wife, or refrained himself from talking to her, or kept himself
away from her. That is what is Sunnah,
examples set by the holy Prophet (pbuh).
There lies a great danger in quoting a
Qur’anic verse out of context. There are a number of verses placed at different
places on a single subject in the Qur’an. To understand what exactly Allah
wants to tell us on the given subject one should read all the concerned verses.
Once the essence of the guidance is understood thus in totality, only then one
may go for the translation of a particular verse, taking care that it does not
go against the main spirit or the theme of the guidance. Let me quote an
example. According to verse No. 03 of Surat An-Nisaa, under some circumstances a man is allowed to take
maximum of four wives at one time. But if he fears that he will not be able to
deal justly with them, he should have only one wife. In verse No. 129 of the
same
The message here is quite clear. The Qur’an normally does not support a man to
take four wives at a time. It is only under certain very special circumstances
one may take four wives, provided some preconditions are fulfilled. Then again
the Qur’an says one can never fulfill those preconditions. Does the Qur’an
support polygamy in that case? The answer is no.
For the Bengali speaking people it is
very difficult to get a standard and acceptable translation and interpretation
(Tafsir) of the Qur’an in Bengali. To translate this
greatest book of guidance, which has been authored by Allah Himself, a
remarkably high standard of intelligence and scholarship in the subject is a
must. Unfortunately people with such intelligence and scholarship in
Having said the above, may I now suggest that all concerned should be more
careful to ensure its authenticity while quoting from the holy Qur’an. In that case it will serve all of us to understand
the Book better and act upon what is given in it. This is all the more
important when people have already started practicing a kind of non-Qur’anic
Islam in Muslim countries by corrupting, distorting and perverting the true
message of the Qur’an.”
Besides the above mentioned limitations, Islam and its source the Qur’an
are being also misunderstood by the non-Muslims due to the bigotry shown by
some half baked and politicized Court Ulema (Islamic
scholars employed by the government). Unfortunately these Ulema
with direct or indirect help of the powerful political leaders exercise
tremendous influence on the ordinary Muslims. If we look at the fifty or more
Muslim majority countries we find in each of them Qur’anic Islam has been
distorted, perverted and hijacked by these Ulema to
serve their political masters. History bears testimony to the fact the process
started from after the death of the fourth Caliph. The whole period of
caliphate under the Umayyads and the Abbasides, except a very short period under the eighth Abbaside caliph Umar-bin-Abdul Aziz (717 – 720), these Court Ulema
debased the entire political, economic and social philosophy of Islam by
distorting and perverting the meaning and the interpretation of the Qur’an in favour of the privileged class. They are still doing it to
serve their present local and foreign political masters. A non-Muslim is not
expected to study the Qur’an to find out what Allah wants a Muslim to be. They
will, naturally, judge Islam as a religion as it is seen to be practiced by the
Muslims. As most recently stated By Dr. Mahathir Muhammad
Muslims in all the Islamic countries have drifted far away from the teachings
of the Qur’an. The Qur’an was revealed to unite all Muslims of the world as one
single Umma. But what do we find today on ground ? In the name Sunni, Shia, Wahabi, Hanafi, Hambeli, Shafie etc Muslims are
disunited in many sects. Followers of one sect believe themselves to be the
true Muslims, and others as non-Muslims or lesser Muslims. They do not stop
there. They have been continually fighting against one another and seeking help
from the enemies of Islam to win these fights. Leave alone these intersect fights, the Qur’an strongly forbids any kind of sectarianism
in Islam. In electing leaders to run the affairs of the state Islam believes in
undiluted democracy. Can one Islamic country be named which is practicing
democracy in its true sense now ? The answer is no. Do
the governments of these countries derive their strength for survival from
their own respective peoples, or from sources of power from across the national
frontier ? We all know the answer. In many ways the
Muslims are undergoing sufferings due to their leaders’ non-adherence to the
teachings given in the Qur’an.
I fully agree with Mr. Rahman when he calls
upon the conscious Muslims not to waste their valuable time in debating with
Mr. Avijit and the like. Rather Muslim scholars and
leaders should try to find out the ways and the means in the light of the
Qur’anic teachings so that the Umma can be united to
face the enemies of Islam. That is the only way for the Muslims to come out of
the present impasse.
Finally coming back to Mr. Avijit I would like
to state that he is not an atheist, though he claims to be so. I had the
opportunity to work for four years in communist country where atheism is the
state religion (if you call it so). I did not find the government or the people
there so antagonistic to Islam as Mr. Avijit sounds
to be. For him it is tactically inconvenient to criticize Islam while claiming himself to be a Hindu. In the garb of an atheist he can enjoy
more freedom to criticize the Qur’an to prove that it is not the Words of
Allah, it is a man made book full of mistakes and controversies. He has only
one motive, as set by his masters, in doing so. For all true Muslims the Qur’an
is the only source of strength. Ninety percent of the people of