The challenge of the Qur’an

Literature and poetry have been instruments of human expression and creativity in all cultures. The world also witnessed an age when literature and poetry occupied position of pride, similar to that now enjoyed by science and technology.

Even non-Muslim scholars agree that the Qur’an is Arabic literature par excellence – that it is the best Arabic literature on the face of the earth.

“And if ye in doubt as to what we have revealed from time to time Our servant then produce a surah like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (if there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are true.

“But if ye cannot – and of a surety you cannot – then fear the fire whose fuel is Men and stones – which is prepared for those who reject Faith.”

[Al-Qur’an 2:23-24]

The challenge of the Qur’an is to produce a single surah (chapter) like the surahs it contains. The same challenge is repeated in the Qur’an several times. The challenge to produce a surah, which, in beauty, eloquence, depth and meaning is at least somewhat similar to a Qur’anic surah remains unmet to this day.

A modern rational man, however, would never accept a religious scripture which says, in the best possible poetic language, that the world is flat. This is because we live in an age, where human reason, logic and science are given primary. Not many would accept the Qur’an’s extraordinarily beautiful language, as proof of its Divine origin. Any scripture claiming to be a divine revelation must also be acceptable on the strength of its own reason and logic.

According to the famous physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Albert Einstein, “science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.” Let us therefore study the Qur’an, and Modern sciences are compatible or incompatible?

The Qur’an is not a book of science but a book of ‘signs’, i.e. Aayaats. There are more than six thousand ‘sign’ in the Qur’an of which more than a thousand deal with hard core Science.

We all know that many a time’s science takes a ‘U-turn’. In this book I have considered only established scientific facts and not hypotheses and theories based on mere assumptions and not backed by proof.