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We shall examine the five main points on which the Qur’an gives information about the Creation.
The six periods of the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth covered, according to the Qur’an, the formation of the celestial bodies and the Earth, and the development of the latter until (with its ‘sustenance’) it became inhabitable by man. In the case of the Earth, the events described in the Qur’an happened over four periods. One could perhaps see in them the four geological periods described by modern science, with man’s appearance, as we already know, taking place in the quaternary era. This is purely a hypothesis since nobody has an answer to this question.
It must be noted however, that the formation of the heavenly bodies and the Earth, as explained in verses 9 to 12, Surah 41 required two phases. If we take the Sun and its sub-product the Earth as an example (the only one Accessible to us), science informs us that their formation occurred by a process of condensation of the primary nebula and then their separation. This is exactly what the Qur’an expresses very clearly when it refers to the processes that produced a fusion and subsequent separation starting from a celestial ‘smoke’. Hence there is complete correspondence between the facts of the Qur’an and the facts of science.
Science showed the interlocking of the two stages in the formation of a star (like the Sun) and its satellite (like the Earth). This interconnection is surely very evident in the text of the Qur’an examined.
Science showed at an early stage of the Universe of the ‘smoke’ referred to in the Qur’an, meaning the predominantly gaseous state of the material that composes it, obviously corresponds to the concept of the primary nebula put forward by modern science.
The plurality of the heavens, expressed in the Qur’an by the number 7 is confirmed by modern science due to the observations experts in astrophysics have made on galactic systems and their very large number. On the other hand the plurality of earths that are similar to ours (from certain points of view at least) is an idea that arises in the text of the Qur’an but has not yet been demonstrated to be true by science; all the same, specialists consider this to be quite feasible.
The existence of an intermediate creation between “the Heavens’ and ‘the Earth’ expressed in the Qur’an may be compared to the discovery of those bridges of material present outside organized astronomic systems.
Although no all the questions raised by the descriptions in the Qur’an have been completely confirmed by scientific data, there is in any case absolutely no opposition between the data in the Qur’an on the Creation and modern knowledge on the formation of the Universe. This fact is worth stressing for the Qur’anic revelation, whereas it is very obvious indeed that the present-day text of the Old Testament provides data on the same events that are unacceptable from a scientific point of view.
It is hardly surprising, since the description of the Creation in the Sacerdotal version of the Bible was written by priests at the time of the deportation to Babylon who had the legalist intentions already described and therefore compiled a description that fitted their theological views.
The existence of such an enormous difference between the Biblical description and the data in the Qur’an concerning the Creation is worth underlining once again on account of the totally unfounded.
How could a man living fourteen hundred years ago have made corrections to the existing description to such an extent that he eliminated scientifically inaccurate material and, on his own initiative, made statements that science has been able tot verify only in the present day? This hypothesis is completely untenable. The description of the Creation given in the Qur’an is quite different form the one in the Bible.
Answers to certain objections
Indisputably, resemblances do exist between narration dealing with other subjects, particularly religious history, in the Bible and in the Qur’an. It is moreover interesting to note from this point of view how nobody holds against Jesus the fact that he takes up the same sort of facts and Biblical teachings. This does not, of course, stop people in the West form accusing Muhammad of referring to such facts in his teaching with the suggestion that he is an imposter because he presents them as a Revelation.
As for the proof that Muhammad reproduced in the Qur’an what he had been told or dictated by the rabbis, it has no more substance than the statement that a Christian monk gave him a sound religious education. One would do well to re-read what R. Blachere in his book, The Problem of Muhammad (Le probleme de Mahomet), has to say about this ‘fable’.
A hint of a resemblance is also advanced between other statements in the Qur’an and beliefs that go back a very long way, probably much further in time than the Bible.
More generally speaking, the traces of certain cosmogonic myths have been sought in the Holy Scriptures; for example the belief held by the Polynesians in the existence of primeval waters that were covered in darkness until they separated when light appeared; thus Heaven and Earth were formed. This myth is compared to the description of the Creation in the Bible, where there is undoubtedly a resemblance. It would however be superficial to then accuse the Bible of having copied this from the cosmogonic myth.
It is just as superficial to see the Qur’anic concept of the division of the primeval material constituting the Universe at its initial stage – concept held by modern science – as one that comes from various cosmogonic myths in one form or another that expresses something resembling it.
It is worth analysing these mythical beliefs and descriptions more closely. Often an initial idea appears among them which is reasonable in itself, and is in some cases borne out by what we today know (or think we know) to be true, except that fantastic descriptions are attached to it in the myth. This is the case of the fairly widespread concept of the Heavens and the Earth originally being united then subsequently separate.
When, as in Japan, the image of the egg plus an expression of chaos is attached to the above with the idea of a seed inside the egg (as for all eggs), the imaginative addition makes the concept lose all semblance of seriousness.
In other countries, the idea of plant is associated with it; the plant grows and in so doing raises up the sky and separates the Heavens from the Earth. Here again, the imaginative quality of the added detail lends the myth its very distinctive character. Nevertheless a common characteristic remains, i.e. the notion of a single mass at the beginning of the evolutionary process leading to the formation of the Universe which then divided to form the various ‘worlds’ that we know today.
The reason these cosmogonic myths are mentioned here is to underline the way they have been embroidered by man’s imagination and to show the basic difference between them and the statements in the Qur’an on the same subject. The latter are free from any of the whimsical details accompanying such beliefs; on the contrary, they are distinguished by the sober quality of the words in which they are made and their agreement with scientific data.
Such statements in the Qur’an concerning the Creation, which appeared nearly fourteen centuries ago, obviously do not lend themselves to a human explanation.
Form: The Bible, the Qur’an and Science
By: Maurice Bucaille
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