PART-II
(b) Creation of Man
Creation of man has been discussed in Qur’an at many places to make us understand that authority and conceit vest with Almighty Allah only and we are no body to show arrogance, ungratefulness and confrontational attitude. At many places in Qur’an Allah laments on the attitude of man who, despite enjoying of being His superior most creature on earth with proportionate body and a balanced look, has become an opponent. In Quran (16:4) Allah scolds us by saying that we have been created out of a simple drop of fluid, and yet we tend to be contenders open, while in 82:6 Allah asks the mankind, what has deceived them about their generous Lord despite having received His unlimited blessings and favors. In chapter 55 while recalling his blessings and favors to mankind Allah has lamented 31 times – ‘Then which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny’? with a purpose to guide us to the right path and save us from going astray.
The doubtless book of Qur’an in a number of verses (23: 12-14; 35: 11; 32: 7-9; 7:189) clearly explains how Adam (AS) was created from clay and later Hava (Eve), his mate, was created to give him company and raise the progeny. Praise be to Allah (SWT) who spelled out the details of embryological events in the womb of mother leading to birth of a baby. These divine statements were revealed upon Prophet Mohammad (SAW) at a time when people knew nothing about nature of sperm, egg, fertilization, attachment of fertilized egg with the wall of uterus, and the development of embryo into fetus.
(c) Water important constituent of life
Allah’s favor to mankind by way of providing of rain/water has been described in many verses (21:30; 2:29; 78:14-15; 39:21; 31:10; 6:99) in Quran. Science has proved that water constitutes more than 70% of cytoplasm in a cell of a living organism, and the same has been described in Quran (21:30), ‘I created every living things out of water’, however, the point to ponder is that Allah has mentioned rain and crop/fruit together meaning that He sends down rain from skies which is essential for the vegetation to grow and for the fruit to develop. Van Helmont (1648), a Belgian scientist, proved experimentally that water plays an important and predominant role in the growth of plant and concluded that vegetation is all water. Allah also makes us to understand water cycle operating on earth. The fresh water that oozes out from the soil in the form of springs is actually the precipitation that it receives from sky as rain. It is an established fact that water table goes down or there is drought if the earth receives little or no precipitation for a long time.
(d) All heavenly bodies move in definite orbits
‘It is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all swim along, each in its rounded course’ (21:33). Praise be to Allah (SWT) who revealed upon his prophet (SAW) 1400 years ago that the heavenly bodies move in definite orbits. Science has postulated as late as in 16th century AD that planets in solar system revolve in definite elliptic orbits. Even, an atom, the basic unit of every element, has definite orbits for its electrons to move around the nucleus.
(e) Creation of mountains
‘Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse; and the mountains as pegs’. ‘And the mountains shall vanish, as if they were a mirage’(78:8-9,20). Mountains have been created to act as pegs for the land masses. Science has proved that due to continental drift leading to collision of land masses, mountains have come into existence. These mountains act as pegs at the point of collision. The Himalayan range, which is one of the youngest mountain ranges on the planet, according to modern theory of plate tectonics, has resulted due to collision between Indian plate and the Eurasian plate and subduction of the former under the later. Everest and other three peaks (Makalu, Cho Oyu, Lhotse) which are more than 8000m amslare believed to be more than 200 km deep.
(f) Diversity in structure of earth
‘And on the earth are many tracts of land (diverse though) neighboring each other’ (13:4). Scientific studies have shown that there are countless regions on earth adjoining one another which are different from one another in color, shape, characteristics, potentialities, productive capacity and mineral resources of their land masses. There is divine wisdom, design and purpose in the diversity of the structure of earth. The ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey &Land Use Planning in its soil map has divided India, which is only 2.5% of the total geographical area of the world, into 07 soil orders ranging from inceptisols (39.74%), entisols (28.08%), alfisols (13.55%), vertisolsor black soils (8.52%), aridisols (4.28%), ultisols (2.51%) to mollisols or hill soils (0.4%) and 60 agro-ecological regions.
(g) Biogeochemical cycling
‘You (O’ Allah) bring forth the living out of dead and you bring the dead out of the living’ (3:27). ‘A sign for them is the earth that is dead: We do give it life, and produce grain there from, of which you do eat’ (36:33). Earth per se is dead with all its minerals and organic matter. After receiving showers it turns viable and becomes fit for the growth of different types of plants. During summers when it is green all around, it is the earth that looks live. When a seed, which apparently seems to be dead, germinates into a seedling within the soil, a living is brought out of dead. When the same plant grows, it sheds its leaves in every autumn, thereby adding litter to the soil. In conducting tissues of plants some cells are dead while other cells associated with them are live. In animals also dead tissues grow out of living.
(h) Intoxicants, gambling and other forbidden acts
Intoxicants (psychoactive substances), gambling and adultery etc., which are forbidden in Islam, through explicit Quranic directions (2:219; 5:90; 17:32), have been proved harmful, without any doubt, to the mankind and listed as potent drivers of crime across world. Both these abominations, which are very common now and have emerged as new and most difficult challenges of 21st century, shatter the families socially as well as economically. Over 3 million annual deaths occur globally due to alcohol and drug abuse (WHO Report 2024). Lottery and gambling have become lucrative business enterprises. This menace is becoming an alarming debt-trap and a deathtrap across world. The number of internet users worldwide who are involved in online gambling is expected to cross 280 million mark by 2029 (Statista, 2024). In India only, the number of such users has proliferated to around 13 million which is expected to grow by 8.5% a year until 2027 (Diplomat, 2024).
(h) Water bodies not mixing but remain separated by an unseen barrier
Science has proved that water bodies with different water densities remain as separate entities till concentration gradient becomes zero. The same has been stated in Quran (25:53; 55:19-20) 1400years ago when the concept of density was not known to mankind and people were unable to travel across earth to see such phenomena. Syed Abul Ala Madudi in ‘Tafheem-ul-Qur’an’ while explaining the first verse has referred to a 16th century book ‘Mirat-ul-Mamalik’ by a Turkish Admiral Syedi Ali Rais, wherein the author has mentioned a place in Persian Gulf where springs of sweet and potable water exist under the saline waters of the sea. The author, as an admiral, used to get drinking water for his fleet from the same springs. The same springs, as the author says, were initially used as source of drinking water, by American companies engaged in extraction of oil in Saudi Arabia. Such a separation of fresh and saline waters by an invisible barrier is commonly seen near the mouth of a river, where it discharges its contents into the sea. In Gulf of Alaska, two oceans meet but do not mix (TOI, March 26, 2015), due to difference in salinity/density between the two types of waters; one that comes from glacier, which is cool and clear with low salt content, and the other that comes from the second ocean having a high salt concentration.
(i) Healing property in Honey
‘There comes forth from their bellies a drink varied in colors, wherein there is
Healing for men’(6:69). Honey contains a wide variety of sugars, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants; therefore, it has been described as a source of healing in the Quran. It has been known to possess antimicrobial property as well as wound healing activity besides used in the treatment of eye diseases, bronchial asthma, throat infections etc. Its composition and colour is dependent upon the type of flower that supplies the nectar. Russian soldiers in the World War I used it to treat their wounds and curb infection.
(j) Eco-friendly description of paradise
Jannat (Paradise or the Garden) is the final and the permanent abode of the righteous after resurrection, a place promised to them by the Allah as a reward of their good deeds and sufferings for the cause of Allah during lifetime. The word Jannah has appeared in Quran more than 140 times and its broad description is sketched in Quran (2:25, 4:57, 9:72, 18:31, 38:51, 37:42-46, 47:15, 56:12-22, 76:13-20),be it flowing streams of pure and unstaling water, milk, honey, and wine – free of intoxication and headache, or fruits of every kind, meat of flying birds, springs, dense shrubbery, deepening shade, beautiful mansions adorned with gold furniture, silver utensils, mild weather, and above all companionship of pure and chaste spouses, points towards an eco-friendly destination of highest order, perpetuating all the tests of tranquility and sustainability. No pollution, no ailment, no sufferings, no conflicts, no crime, and no ageing are the hallmarks of Jannah.
(Concluded…)
(The Author is Principal (Rtd.) J&K Higher Education Department. Email: [email protected])
