The Quranic Truths of Qayamat and Resurrection
By
Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam
23 December
2022
The
Argument That The Quran Is A Book Of Spirituality And Morality Does Not In Any
Way Make It Less Of A Book Of Mathematical/Logical/Absolute Truths. Allah Has
Precisely Determined Every Moral Code To Produce The Most Optimum Outcome In
Terms Of Our Happiness And Well-Being Considering The Nature Of Man. This Is
The Language Of Mathematics And Logic.
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The
Nature of the Quran
The Quran
makes a claim that it is the word of God without a doubt who is the
all-knowing, all-Hearing and all-wise Creator. What logically follows from it
is that it is a Book of absolute truths.
That is axiomatic. It is therefore only to be expected that as our
knowledge about our material world grows with the pursuit of science, the
absolute truths in the Quran about our material world are empirically proved
correct progressively. Until such time, science lags behind the Quran.
The Quran
claims and it is also expected that being the word of God, it is internally
consistent, and without any discrepancy. The Quran also claims that it is a
Book that makes itself clear without crookedness, amenable to deriving its
single true meaning, unlike poetry which can be interpreted in many ways. The
message is repeated in different ways to prevent misunderstanding any part.
This property makes it possible to treat the Book as a system of logic and
apply the rules of logic to derive its meaning or for drawing logical
inferences.
The Quran
is a Book of:
1. The Deen, religion or
Moral code. These are simply God-given rules which we obey as from God who
knows best what is good for us.
2. The Unseen truths or the
Al-Ghayab truths such as God, Heaven, Hell, Angels etc. These are neither
provable nor unprovable as there is no empirical evidence to go by.
3. The truths about our
material world in the Book. These are subject to proof with empirical evidence.
Proof of
Fallibility
The
disbelievers who disagree that the Quran is a reliable system of logic and of
absolute truths have their task cut out. They need to prove the following:
1. Prove that it has
discrepancies, errors or contradictions
2. Prove any Quranic truth
about our empirical world to be factually incorrect
With over
6000 verses and with numerous verses about our material world, there is enough
opportunity to prove the Quran unreliable and factually incorrect if that is
the case. Failure to do so is confirmation that the Quran is indeed a Book of
absolute truths and a reliable system of logic amenable to applying rules of
logic to derive its single true meaning or to draw logical inferences.
The
Meaning of Faith
In this
respect, the Quran does not differ from any other system of logic such as
mathematics. People who have no knowledge of mathematics, repose faith in it
because it has proved useful even though it is also based on unprovable
axioms/postulates as its foundation. Mathematics, as a system of logic also
collapses if you can prove something and its opposite as true or a truth that
falsifies its axioms. It is the same with the Quran. The believer’s faith in
the Quran is therefore not any different from a belief in mathematics provided
the believer’s faith is confined to the clear indisputable message of the Quran
alone. If it is contrary to the clear message of the Quran, then such a
person’s beliefs are suspect.
The
argument that the Quran is a book of spirituality and morality does not in any
way make it less of a Book of Mathematical/Logical/Absolute truths. Allah has
precisely determined every moral code to produce the most optimum outcome in
terms of our happiness and well-being considering the nature of man. This is
the language of mathematics and logic. The mathematics involved is too complex
and beyond us at least till now and in the foreseeable future and therefore we
take these simply as God-given rules and follow them faithfully. This is the
meaning of faith. We repose faith in what is not yet proved and, in the
Al-Ghayab based on the assurance provided by what has been proved from among
the provable truths and the fact that nothing of the provable has been proved
false.
Belief in
the Quran which measures up to the standards expected from a Book that is the
unaltered word of God is as rational as a belief in Mathematics and Science.
This means that if for any good reason you reject even one verse of the Quran,
you must reject the entire Book because it has failed to measure up to the
standards expected of it. You may as well conclude then that there is no God.
With such a high standard for the Book, the believers are rational believers
and the disbelievers are the morally corrupt and those who find the demands of
religion inconvenient.
On
Spirituality
Spirituality
is a word that we use when we lack explicit knowledge and have only a vague
sense of what is being said, about Allah, the meaning and purpose of life,
Hereafter, Allah’s attributes etc. It is our limitation on explicit knowledge
which makes us “spiritual” but for Allah, everything is explicit knowledge and
there is nothing which is “spiritual”.
Quranic
Truths That Have Become Believable Based On Empirical Evidence
There are
scores of verses on the Resurrection and rewards and punishment in the
Hereafter. This will take place after this creation/universe is destroyed and a
new one is recreated and the dead are raised up on the Day of Judgment. The
most often asked question by the disbelievers was "how when we die and
turn to dust will we be raised again in the Hereafter?”. The Quran answers that
it will be based on information alone. This was beyond the understanding of the
previous people. We now know from science that each individual has a unique genetic
code. This information is both necessary and sufficient for Allah to recreate
us exactly as we were including our unique fingerprints. Science has made the
Quranic truth that we will be resurrected based on information alone
believable.
Read: The Seemingly Unanswerable
Question That Religion Raised
Creation,
Destruction and Recreation
The Quran
has some remarkable verses on the cycle of creation, destruction and recreation
of the Universe.
(51:47) AND
IT IS We who have built the universe with [Our creative] power; and, verily, it
is We who are steadily expanding it.
The
observations of the wavelength of light and radiation reaching the earth led to
the discovery that the Universe is expanding which implied that it was all
squeezed together once before the expansion began or to the Big Bang theory of
creation. The empirical evidence of an expanding universe agrees with what
verse 51:47 is saying.
(21:30) Do
not the Unbelievers see that the heavens (l-samāwāti) and the earth were joined
together (as one unit of creation) before We clove them asunder? We made from
water every living thing. Will they not then believe?
Nobody
could see that the heavens and the earth were joined together or brought
together before they were cloven asunder. Scientists believed in a steady-state
universe until a century ago. This verse is addressed to the present-day
disbelievers who can now see that the Quran speaks the truth and that it is not
an outdated 7th-century book as they seem to think. It is they who are asked to
see the proof that the Quran is eternal in its relevance and contains absolute
truths and not mere theories or speculation.
Another
Version of Creation in the Quran
The
creation of the Universe which includes the earth takes only two days (41:9 and
12). Making the earth fit for sustaining life takes another four days (41:10)
or a total of six days. Verse 41:11
again speaks about bringing together everything before cleaving them asunder.
The big bang speaks of the starting position as a singularity before which
nothing existed and an expansion from a size less than an atom. It differs from
the Quran in a material way and the difference has been discussed in my
article:
The Big Bang Theory and the Quran
Science,
however, is well on the way to converging with what the Quran says.
(41:9) Say:
Is it that ye deny Him Who created the earth in two Days? And do ye join equals
with Him? He is the Lord of (all) the Worlds.
(10) He
set on the (earth), mountains standing firm, high above it, and bestowed
blessings on the earth, and measure therein all things to give them nourishment
in due proportion, in four Days, in accordance with (the needs of) those who
seek (Sustenance).
(11) Moreover
He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke: He said to
it and to the earth: "Come ye together, willingly or unwillingly."
They said: "We do come (together), in willing obedience."
(12) So
He completed them as seven firmaments in two Days, and He assigned to each
heaven its duty and command. And We adorned the lower heaven with lights, and
(provided it) with guard. Such is the Decree of (Him) the Exalted in Might,
Full of Knowledge.
The day
here is not our 24-hour day but a cosmic day which the Quran describes in one
context as our thousand years and in another context as our 50 thousand years.
In different contexts, a cosmic day is defined differently. The concept of
relativity of time is there bang in your face. In the context of the creation
of the Universe, the cosmic day is not defined. This is because the number is
very large for which there was no name in the vocabulary of the 7th century
Arabs. The word million was coined only in the 14th century and billion in the
16th century. The cosmic day of creation we now know from science, is of the
order of 1.72 billion years.
Further
four days for bestowing blessings on the earth, and measure therein all
things to give them nourishment in due proportion, in accordance with (the
needs of) those who seek (Sustenance) equal 6.87 billion years as per our
present state of knowledge from science. The relative proportion of time taken
to create the Universe and twice that to make the earth support life that the
verse speaks of is remarkable. We know now from science that everything that is
needed to support life such as Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, water, the other
elements, the soil, the Sun etc. needed time to make and it is only the earth
that has these things in the required measure to sustain life. This also confirms what the Quran says that
the rest of the Heavens serve the earth its required needs in the right
measure.
Verses
about the End and Recreating a New Universe
(21:104) The
Day that We roll up the heavens (l-samāa) like a scroll rolled up for books
(completed),- even as We produced the first creation, so shall We create a new
one: a promise We have undertaken: truly shall We fulfil it.
(39:67) No
just estimate have they made of Allah, such as is due to Him: On the Day of
Judgment the whole of the earth will be but His handful and the heavens
(wal-samāwātu) will be rolled up in His
right hand: Glory to Him! High is He above the Partners they attribute to
Him!
The four
verses 21:30, 41:11, 21:104 and 39:67 taken together, support, reinforce and
clarify each other which leaves no room for any doubt about what they mean. How
do the Heavens and the Earth become a single Unit (21:30)? By coming together when Allah commanded them
to do so (41:11). What will happen when the world is brought to an end? On the
command of Allah, it will roll up and fit into Allah’s hand which is
allegorical for saying it will be compressed to a very small size (21:104 and
39:67). This is before recreating the Universe (21:104). The process at the
recreation is identical to the process at creation; the verses clarify and
reinforce each other.
Science is
also converging to the view that the creation, destruction and a new creation
may be a cyclical process.
Although
brief, the verses remarkably cover the entire gamut of creation, destruction
and recreation which also tells us what may have been before this creation and
also that the next creation is a certainty.
Recent developments in science have made belief in Qayamat (end of the
Universe), the creation of a new Universe believable based on empirical
evidence and scientific theories. The possibility of resurrection based on
information alone is a proven scientific truth.
Answering
the Disbelievers
So, does
the Quran contain the Big Bang theory of creation? Wrong question. The Quran is
not a Book of scientific theories which are subject to revision. It is a Book
of absolute truths. We should never look for science in the Quran but for the
Quran in science because the Quran is Al-Furqan or the Book of absolute truths
and not science. The creation event described in the Quran was true even when
the scientists held the steady state view of the universe - that it is neither
created nor destroyed but always was and will continue to be as it is. Having
said that, the current scientific thinking is converging to the absolute truth
in the Quran on this subject
The
disbelievers bent on disparaging the Quran point out similar beliefs in
folklore and other scriptures about the creation event to insinuate that the
Quran is a collection of folklore and beliefs of other people. The Quran is the
word of Allah and according to the Quran, there is nothing that Allah has now
revealed in the Quran that He has not revealed before to the previous prophets.
Some of the revelations have survived as Books and some as oral traditions.
What Allah has revealed about the Creation event was also revealed to the
previous prophets. If you, therefore, find something in the Quran but not
elsewhere, then that should raise eyebrows and not finding something similar
elsewhere. What is beyond doubt is that the Quran having been preserved exactly
as revealed is free from the errors found in the previous versions and every
other version is full of glaring flaws.
Acknowledgement
This
article is based on discussions on my previous articles and draws on
constructive comments by Unknown and Chamlija Saheban.
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A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering
graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having
served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over
three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal
contributions to its interpretation.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/quranic-truths-qayamat-resurrection/d/128691
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