The earlier articles in this series began from a reader's own scripture. This one is for the reader who has none: the atheist, the agnostic, the person who left a church or a temple. The Quran was first preached to such people: the Meccans had no book, and it did not open by telling them it was a book. It asked them things they already knew.
Two rules govern what follows. The Quran's: "You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself." (17:36). And the project's: science is an illustration, never a proof. The proof is in the previous article; nothing here depends on it.
Three questions and three options
"Were they created from nothing? Are they the creators? Did they create the heavens and the earth? Indeed, they have no certainty." (52:35–36).
Every account of why there is something rather than nothing falls into one of these three. Either we came from nothing, or we made ourselves, or we were made by the heavens and the earth, which raises the same question about them. The Quran leaves the three doors open and lets the listener notice that two lead nowhere. A modern booklet, "Is There a God?", puts it in a sentence: "Something cannot be the Creator and created at the same time." The verse puts it in a question.
The Quran uses the same method, with a touch of humour, on the gods people do propose: "O people, here is a parable that you must ponder carefully: the idols you set up beside GOD can never create a fly, even if they banded together to do so. Furthermore, if the fly steals anything from them, they cannot recover it; weak is the pursuer and the pursued." (22:73).
What you already admit
The second move is to ask the listener what he already believes, and draw the conclusion from his answer.
"Say, "To whom belongs the earth and everyone on it, if you know?" They will say, "To GOD." Say, "Why then do you not take heed?" Say, "Who is the Lord of the seven universes; the Lord of the great dominion?" They will say, "GOD." Say, "Why then do you not turn righteous?" Say, "In whose hand is all sovereignty over all things, and He is the only one who can provide help, but needs no help, if you know?" They will say, "GOD." Say, "Where did you go wrong?"" (23:84–89).
"If you asked them who created them, they would say, "GOD." Why then did they deviate?" (43:87).
A modern listener may not say "GOD" at once; the Quran observes that the admission comes out under pressure, in a storm at sea: "This is when they implore GOD, sincerely devoting their prayers to Him alone: "If You only save us this time, we will be eternally appreciative."" (10:22). The Quran's word for this is instinct: "Therefore, you shall devote yourself to the religion of strict monotheism. Such is the natural instinct placed into the people by GOD. Such creation of GOD will never change." (30:30).
Why one, and not many
The third move answers the question the first two raise: if a Creator, why one? "If there were in them (the heavens and the earth) other gods beside GOD, there would have been chaos. Glory be to GOD; the Lord with absolute authority. He is high above their claims." (21:22).
The Submitters' essay "God prior to religion," which reasons "without referring to any religious beliefs," restates the verse: with more than one god, "which god came first, which god is more powerful… If God is absolute, by definition, He must be One." The Quran's four-line definition is the test every candidate must pass: "Proclaim, "He is the One and only GOD. "The Absolute GOD. "Never did He beget. Nor was He begotten. "None equals Him."" (112:1–4).
A Greek with no scripture reached the same place twenty-five centuries ago. Xenophanes of Kolophon, in the project's Quran-aligned edition, says: "God is One, the greatest over all beings in heaven and on earth, like mortals neither in form nor in thought." The tradition records that "Looking up into the broad heavens, he said: 'God is One.'" He had the sky, which is where the Quran also sends the listener: "In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for those who possess intelligence." (3:190).
Four grounds, and a beginning
Shaikh Shahidullah Faridi, an English convert, said that belief in GOD stands on four grounds. It is instinctive, as 30:30 says. It is rational: "an effect cannot exist without a cause… the universe itself must be the effect of a cause, a cause which is itself mightier than and outside the universe." It is evidential: our machines are "a poor and crude imitation of what already exists in an infinitely finer form in nature"; above all, the prophets, "spaced throughout history usually at a time of great moral degeneration," brought messages that "not only bear remarkable similarities but are basically identical." And it is intuitional: our sense that some things are truly good points to "the Supreme Purposer." The third ground is the thesis of this series; the earlier articles are its demonstration.
The rational ground has a modern form in the Submitters' essay, offered here as illustration. The universe appears to have had a beginning: stars burn finite fuel, and an infinitely old universe would already have gone cold; the expansion, run backwards, points to a start. If matter and time began, their cause is "a power that is above and independent of the laws of physics," and "before that initial moment of creation nothing existed, not even chance!" The physics there is loosely stated, and physics changes; the Quran's argument does not rest on it. But a listener who accepts that the universe began has walked through the first door in 52:35 and found it shut.
A language in every cell, as a question
For the scientifically minded listener there is one more question, to be put as a question. The Christian writer Perry Marshall notes that "not all patterns are designed, but all designs have patterns," and that the DNA in every living cell has an alphabet, a grammar, meaning and error-correction, and can be copied to other media without loss. "The pattern in DNA is not like a language; it IS a language." His riddle: "Show me a language that does not come from a mind."
The project uses this as a design question and nothing more. It does not deny evolution; Khalifa's footnote to 29:19–20 says that "evolution is a divinely guided process," and the Quran says, "Say, "Roam the earth and find out the origin of life."" (29:20). The riddle is contested, and the reader should test it. What the Quran says is older and simpler: "Read, in the name of your Lord, who created. He created man from an embryo. Read, and your Lord, Most Exalted. Teaches by means of the pen. He teaches man what he never knew." (96:1–5). The Creator is a Teacher; language is His gift. Whether the letters in the cell are a sign of that is a question the reader may keep.
Illustration: what the Bible and the Quran share about creation
A listener who has left Christianity will hear fairness if the Bible and the Quran are shown agreeing.
The first is the six periods of creation. Genesis 1 counts the work in days marked by "evening and morning," and Genesis 2:4 (KJV) uses the same word for the whole of it: "in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens." The Quran counts six as well: "Your Lord is the one GOD, who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then assumed all authority." (7:54). "We have created the heavens and the earth, and everything between them in six days, and no fatigue touched us." (50:38). And it says that its days are not ours: "A day of your Lord is like a thousand of your years." (22:47). When Zakir Naik debated the Christian physician William Campbell, Campbell agreed: "'The day' in the Bible also can have the time of 'a long period'… I believe that it was long periods of time." The one correction the Quran makes is doctrinal, not scientific: where Exodus 31:17 (KJV) says that on the seventh day GOD "rested, and was refreshed," the Quran says "no fatigue touched us." The Quran gives no day-by-day order, so it neither affirms nor corrects the sequence in Genesis.
The Mozi, in the project's Quran-aligned edition, is a third witness from China: "He set in order the sun and the moon, the stars and constellations, to give them light and guide them. He ordained the four seasons… Not even the tip of a hair is not the work of God" (Mozi 27.6).
The second illustration is the water cycle. Campbell quoted Job 36:27–28: "He draws up the drops of water, which distil as rain from the mist… the clouds pour down their moisture," and Amos 5:8: "who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land — the LORD is His name" (the debate transcript does not name his translation). The Quran: "GOD is the One who sends the winds, to stir up clouds, to be spread throughout the sky in accordance with His will. He then piles the clouds up, then you see the rain coming down therefrom." (30:48). "Do you not see that GOD sends down from the sky water, then places it into underground wells, then produces with it plants of various colors" (39:21). "By the sky that returns (the water)." (86:11). Campbell was right that Job has the evaporation step too, so neither book "anticipated" science here; both describe the cycle as a sign of GOD, and so did Xenophanes: "the great sea is the begetter of clouds and winds and rivers." Three witnesses who never met saw the same sign.
The AEV's own list of readings, never as proof
The Authorized English Version carries a short list of verses its translator read in the light of modern knowledge, with headings and footnotes to say so. This series reports them as the AEV's readings, nothing more.
Under the heading "The Big Bang Theory Confirmed," the AEV gives: "Do the unbelievers not realize that the heaven and the earth used to be one solid mass that we exploded into existence? And from water we made all living things. Would they believe?" (21:30). Under "'Expansion of the Universe Theory' Confirmed": "We constructed the sky with our hands, and we will continue to expand it." (51:47). On the early sky: "Then He turned to the sky, when it was still gas, and said to it, and to the earth, "Come into existence, willingly or unwillingly."" (41:11). Under "Earth's Movement: A Scientific Miracle": "When you look at the mountains, you think that they are standing still. But they are moving, like the clouds. Such is the manufacture of GOD, who perfected everything." (27:88). On the earth's shape, the AEV renders "He rolls the night over the day, and rolls the day over the night." (39:5) and "He made the earth egg-shaped." (79:30), and Khalifa's footnote to 39:5 says, "This verse clearly informs us that the earth is round." On the two lights: "He is the One who rendered the sun radiant, and the moon a light" (10:5). On the sexes: "He is the One who created the two kinds, male and female - from a tiny drop of semen." (53:45–46). On thin air, Khalifa's footnote to 6:125, "like one who climbs towards the sky" (6:125), reads: "Centuries after the revelation of the Quran, we learned that the proportion of oxygen diminishes as we climb towards the sky, and we gasp for air."
Some of these readings are reasonable, some contested. None is proof, and the AEV does not rest on them: Khalifa's footnote to 21:30 ties the point not to the physics but to the code. Even Zakir Naik, in the debate, said: "I am not trying to prove the Qur'an to be the word of God, with the help of science… we should not go overboard."
What the Quran promises is not a list of facts but a direction of travel: "We will show them our proofs in the horizons, and within themselves, until they realize that this is the truth. Is your Lord not sufficient as a witness of all things?" (41:53).
What to show first
Do not begin with science, and do not begin with the Quran as a book. Begin with the three options of 52:35–36 in the listener's own words, then the beginning of the universe and the absolute-therefore-one argument, and, if the listener is scientifically minded, Marshall's riddle put as a question. Only then read 52:35–36 and 23:84–89 and say: this is how the Quran argued with people who had no scripture, fourteen centuries ago. Offer the six periods and the water cycle as what the Bible and the Quran share; read the AEV's list last and briefly, each item introduced as "the AEV reads this verse as." Then hand over to the previous article's proof.
Where the evidence is strong, and where it is not
Strong: the Quran's own questions and arguments (52:35–36, 23:84–89, 43:87, 21:22, 112, 41:53), which are plain text and ask nothing of science. Strong as common ground: the six periods and the water cycle, which both scriptures state and both debaters affirmed; weak, and not used, as claims that either book anticipated science.
Moderate, used with its reading stated: Faridi's four grounds, classical reasoning rather than scripture (his line that saints and mystics corroborate the prophets is left out as Sufi, not Quranic). The Submitters' beginning-of-the-universe argument, sound in outline, loose in its physics, with dated figures. Marshall's riddle, serious but contested, used only as a design question and never against evolution, which the AEV accepts as GOD's method. Of the AEV's list, 21:30, 51:47, 41:11, 27:88, 53:45–46 and 6:125 are reasonable readings of the Arabic, offered as readings.
Weak as science, presented only as the AEV's renderings: the round or egg-shaped earth from 39:5 and 79:30, since night rolling over day does not establish shape and the etymology of "egg-shaped" is contested; and the moon as "reflected" light, which the Arabic of 10:5 and 25:61 does not say.
Deliberately not used: the long list of "scientific miracles" in popular presentations, among them fingerprints, pain receptors, deep-sea waves, the barrier between two seas, mountains as pegs, the female bee, and embryology as proof. They are post-hoc readings, several known to Greek science before Islam, some resting on Hadith, several contradicted by the AEV's own glosses. Also not used: Naik's probability-of-guesses calculation, whose denominators are invented; expert testimonials from sponsored conferences; and every anti-evolution argument.
Were they created from nothing? The reader who has answered that honestly is ready for the proof the Quran says it carries in itself, set out in the previous article, The Bible's own testimony — and the Quran's answer: "Over it is nineteen." (74:30).
Sources
- The Final Testament: Quran, Authorized English Version, Rashad Khalifa — 3:190, 7:54, 10:5, 10:22, 17:36, 21:22, 21:30, 22:47, 22:73, 23:84–89, 27:88, 29:20, 30:30, 30:48, 39:5, 39:21, 41:11, 41:53, 43:87, 50:38, 51:47, 52:35–36, 53:45–46, 74:30, 79:30, 86:11, 96:1–5, 112:1–4; the AEV's headings at 21:30, 51:47 and 27:88; Khalifa's footnotes to 6:125, 21:30, 29:19–20 and 39:5.
- The Bible, King James Version: Genesis 1; Genesis 2:4; Exodus 31:17. Job 36:27–28 and Amos 5:8 as quoted by William Campbell in debate with Zakir Naik (translation not named in the transcript).
- The Sayings of Xenophanes of Kolophon, fragments 1 and 11 and the sayings; The Mozi 27.6 — Quran-aligned editions, Theory of Everything project.
- Shaikh Shahidullah Faridi, "Belief in God"; "Is There a God?" (both in the collection The True Religion); "God prior to religion," chapters 1–3 (Submitters); Perry Marshall, The Atheist's Riddle.
- Theory of Everything project, master document One Message, Many Witnesses, Strand 10, ledger rows 10.1–10.6, 10.8–10.10, 10.12, 10.14–10.17, with 10.11, 10.13 and 10.18 named as not used; Methodology Document rules R5, R7, R15, R16, R19–R23.
- Popular presentations consulted: Zakir Naik (IRF), Is the Qur'an God's Word? and the Naik–Campbell debate The Qur'an and the Bible in the Light of Science; Gary Miller, The Amazing Qur'an.