Dr. Maurice Bucaille is an eminent French surgeon, scientist, scholar and
author of ''THE BIBLE, THE QURAN AND SCIENCE'' which contains the result
of his research into the Judeo-Christian Revelation and the Quran. It is
a unique contribution in the field of religion and science.
Being an outstanding Scientist, he was elected to treat the mummy of Merneptah
(Pharaoh) which he did. During his visit to Saudi Arabia he was shown the
verses of the Holy Qur'an in which Allah says that the dead body of the Pharaoh
will be preserved as a "Sign" for posterity. An impartial scientist like
Dr. Bucaille, who (being also a Christian) was converstant with the Biblical
version of Pharaoh's story as being drowned in pursuit of Prophet Moses (pbuh).
He was pleasantly surprised to learn that unknown to the world till only
of late, the Holy Qur'an made definite prediction about the preservation of
the body of that same Pharaoh of Moses time. This led Dr. Bucaille to study
the Holy Qur'an thoroughly after learning the Arabic language. The final
conclusion of his comparative study of Quran and the Bible is that the statements
about scientific phenomena in the Holy Qur'an are perfectly in conformity
with the modern sciences whereas the Biblical narrations on the same subjects
are scientifically entirely unacceptable.
The present booklet, which is a lecture given by Dr. Bucaille on the subject "The
Qur'an and Modern Science" at the Commonwealth Institute London, will provide
guidance towards the eternal of Islam.
ON 9 NOVEMBER 1976 an unusual lecture was given at the French Academy of
Medicine. Its title was 'Physiological and Embryological data in the Qur'an.
I presented my study on the existence in the Qur'an of certain statements
concerning physiology and reproduction. My reason for doing this was that
our knowledge of these disciplines is such, that it is impossible to explain
how a text produced at the time of the Qur'an could have contained ideas
that have only been discovered in modern times.
There is indeed no human work prior to modern times that contains statements
which were equally in advance of the state of knowledge at the time of they
appeared and which might be compared to the Qur'an.
In addition to this, a comparative study of data of a similar kind contained
in the Bible (Old Testament and Gospels) seemed desirable. This is how the
project was formed of a confrontation between modern knowledge and certain
passages in the Holy Scriptures of each monotheistic religion. It resulted
in the publication of a book under the title, The Bible, the Qur'an and Science.
The first French edition appeared in May 1976. (Seglers, Paris). English and
Arabic editions have now been published.
It comes as no surprise to learn that Religion and Science have always been
considered to be twin sisters by Islam and that today at a time when science
has taken such great strides, they still continue to be associated, and
furthermore certain scientific data are used for the better understanding
of the Qur'anic text. What is more, in a century where, for many, scientific
truth has dealt a deathblow to religious belief, it is precisely the discoveries
of science that, in an objective examination of the Islamic Revelation, have
highlighted the supernatural character of certain aspects of the Revelation.
When all is said and done, generally speaking, scientific knowledge would
seem, in spite of what people may say, to be highly conductive to reflection
on the existence of God.
Once we begin to ask ourselves in an unbiased or unprejudiced way about the
metaphysical lessons to be derived from some of today's knowledge, (for example
our knowledge of the infinitely small or the problem of life), we indeed
discover many reasons for thinking along these lines. When we think about
the remarkable organisation presiding over the birth and maintenance of life,
it surely becomes clear that the likelihood of it being the result of chance
gets less and less, as our knowledge and progress in this field expand. Certain
concepts must appear to be increasingly unacceptable; for example, the one
put forward by the French winner of the Nobel prize for Medicine who tried
to get people to admit that living matter was self-created as the result
of fortuitous circumstances under the effect of certain outside influences
using simple chemical elements as their base. From this it is claimed that
living organisms came into being, leading to the remarkable complex called
man. To me, it would seem that the scientific progress made in understanding
the fantastic complexity of higher beings provides strong arguments in favour
of the opposite theory: in other words, the existence of an extraordinarily
methodical organisation presiding over the remarkable arrangement of the
phenomena of life.
In many parts of the Book, the Qur'an leads, in simple
terms, to this kind of general reflection. But it also contains infinitely
more precise data which are directly related to facts discovered by modern
science: these are what exercise a magnetic attraction for today's scientists.
For many centuries, man was unable to study them, because he did not possess
sufficient scientific means. It is only today that numerous verses of the
Qur'an dealing with natural phenomena have become fully comprehensible. I
should even go so far as to say that, in the 20th century, with its
compartmentalization of ever-increasing knowledge, it is not always easy
for the average scientist to understand everything he reads in the Qur'an on such
subjects, without having recourse to specialized research. This means that to
understand all such verses of the Qur'an one is today required to have an absolutely
encyclopaedic knowledge, by which I mean, one which embraces very many disciplines.
I use the word 'science' to mean knowledge which has been soundly established.
It does not include the theories which, for a time, help to explain a phenomenon
or a series of phenomena, only to be abandoned later in favour of explanations
which have become more plausible thanks to scientific progress. I basically
only intend to deal with comparisons between statements in the Qur'an and
knowledge which is not likely to be subject to further
discussion. Wherever I introduce scientific facts which are not yet 100%
established. I shall, of course, make this quite clear.
There are also some very rare examples of statements in the Qur'an which
have not, as yet, been confirmed by modern science: I shall refer to these
by pointing out that all the evidence leads scientists to regard them as
being highly probable. An example of this is the statement in the Qur'an
that life is of aquatic origin; and another is that somewhere in the Universe
there are Earths similar to our own.
These scientific considerations should not, however make us forget that the
Qur'an remains a religious book par excellence and that it cannot, of course,
be expected to have a 'scientific' purpose per se. Whenever man is invited
to reflect upon the works of Creation and the numerous natural phenomena
he can observe, the obvious intention, in using such examples, is to stress
Divine Omnipotence. The fact that, in these reflections, we can find allusions
to data connected with scientific knowledge is surely another of God's gifts
whose value must shine out in an age where scientifically based materialistic
atheism seeks to gain control at the expense of the belief in God.
Throughout my research I have constantly tried to remain totally objective.
I believe I have succeeded in approaching the study of the Qur'an with the
same objectivity that a doctor has when he opens a file on a patient:in other
words, by carefully confronting all the symptoms he can find to arrive at
a diagnosis. I must admit that it was certainly not a faith in Islam that
first guided my steps, but simple research for the truth. This is how I see
it today. It was mainly fact which, by the time I had finished my study,
had led me to see in the Qur'an a text revealed to a Prophet.
We shall examine statements in the Qur'an which appear today merely to record
scientific truth, but which men in former times were only able to grasp the
apparent meaning of. How is it possible to imagine that, were there any
subsequent alterations to the texts, these obscure passages scattered throughout
the text of the Qur'an were able to escape human manipulation? The slightest
alternation to the texts would automatically have destroyed the remarkable
coherence which is characteristic of them, and prevented us from establishing
their conformity with modern knowledge. The presence of these statements
spread throughout the Qur'an looks to the impartial observer like an obvious
hallmark of authenticity.
The Qur'an is a preaching which was made known to man in the course of a
Revelation which lasted roughly twenty years. It spanned two periods of equal
length on either side of the Hegira. In view of this, it was natural for
reflections having a scientific aspect to be scattered throughout the Book.
In the case of a study such as the one we have made, we had to regroup them
according to subject, collecting them sura by sura.
How should they be classified? I could not find any indications in the Qur'an
suggesting any particular classification. So I have decided to present them
according to my own personal one.
It would seem to me, that the first subject to be dealt with is the Creation.
Here it is possible to compare the verses referring to this topic with the
general ideas prevalent today on the formation of the Universe. Next, I have
divided up verses under the following general headings: Astronomy, the Earth,
the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms, Man, and Human Reproduction in particular;
the latter is a subject which, in the Qur'an, is allotted a very important
place. To these general headings it is possible to add sub-headings.
Furthermore, I thought it useful to make a comparison between Qur'anic and
Biblical narrations from the point of view of modern knowledge. This has
been done in the case of such subjects as the Creation, the Flood and the
Exodus.
Let us first examine the Creation as described in the Qur'an.
An extremely important general idea emerges: its dissimilarity with Biblical
narration. This idea contradicts the parallels which are often, and wrongly,
drawn by Western authors to underline solely the resemblanes between the
two texts.
When talking of the Creation, as of other subjects, there is a strong tendency
in the West to claim that Muhammad only copied the general outlines of the
Bible. It is indeed possible to compare the six days of the Creation as described
in the Bible, plus an extra day of rest on God's sabbath, with this verse
from sura Al-A'raf (7:54):
"Your Lord is Allah Who created the Heavens and the Earth in six days"
We must point out straight away the modern commentators stress the interpretation
of ayyam, one translation of which is 'days', as meaning 'long periods' or
'ages' rather than periods of twenty-four hours.
What to me appears to be of fundamental importance is that, in contrast to
the narration contained in the Bible, the Qur'an does not lay down a sequence
for the Creation of the Earth and Heavens. It refers both to the Heavens
before the Earth and the Earth before the Heavens, when it talks of the Creation
in general, as in this verse of the sura Taha (20:4):
"A revelation from Him Who created the Earth and the Heavens"
In fact, the notion to be derived from the Qur'an is one of a con-comitance
in the celestial and terrestrial evolutions. There are also absolutley
fundamental data concerning the existance of an initial gaseous mass (dukhan)
which is unique and whose elements, although at first fused together (ratq)
subsequently became separated (fatq). This notion is exprssed in the sura
Fussilat (41:11):
"And God turned to Heaven when it was smoke"
And the same is expressed in the sura Al-Anbiya' (21:30):
"Do not the Unbelievers see that the Heavens and the Earth were joined together,
then We clove them asunder?"
The separation process resulted in the formation of mulitiple worlds, a notion
which crops up dozens of times in the Qur'an, once it has formed the first
verse in th sura Al-Fatiha (1:1).
"Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds"
All this is in perfect agreement with modern ideas on the existence of primary
nebula and the process of secondary separation of the elements that had formed
the initial unique mass. This separation resulted in the formation of galaxies
and then, when these divided, of stars from which the planets were to be
born.
Reference is also made in the Qur'an to an intermediary Creation between
the Heavens and the Earth, as in the sura Al-Furqan (25:59).
"God is the One Who created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is between
them"
It would seem that this intermediary Creation corresponds to the modern discovery
of bridges of matter which are present outside organised astronomical systems.
This survey certainly shows us how modern data and statements in the Qur'an
agree on a large number of points. We have come a long way from the Biblical
text with its successive phases that are totally unacceptable; especially
the one placing the Creation of the Earth (on the 3rd day) before that of
the Heavens (on the 4th day), when it is a known fact that our planet comes
from its own star, the Sun. In such circumstances, how can we imagine that
a man who drew his inspiration from the Bible could have been the author
of the Qur'an, and, of his own accord, have corrected the Biblical text to
arrive at a general concept concerning the formation of the Universe, when
this concept was not to be formed until centuries after his death?
Whenever I describe the details the Qur'an contains on certain points of
astronomy to Westerners, it is unusual for someone not to reply that there
is nothing special in this, considering the Arabs made important discoveries
in this field long before the Europeans.
This is, in fact, a singularly mistaken idea resulting from an ignorance
of history. In the first place, science was developed in Arabian countries
at a time that was considerably after the Qur'anic Revelation had occured;
in the second, the scientific knowledge prevalent at the highpoint of Islamic
civilization would not have made it possible for a human being to have written
statements on the Heavens comparable to those in the Qur'an.
Here again, the subject is so wide that I can only provide an outline of it.
Whereas the Bible talks of the Sun and the Moon as two luminaries differing
in size, the Qur'an distinguishes between them by the use of different epithets:
light (nur) for the Moon, torch (siraj) for the Sun. The first is an interbody
which reflects light, the second a celestial formation in a state of permanent
combustion, and a source of light and heat.
The word 'star' (najm) is accompanied by another qualifying word which indicates
that it burns and consumes itself as it pierces through the shadows of the
night: it is the word thakib.
In the Qur'an, the kawkab definitely seems to mean the planets which are
celestial formations that reflect and do not produce light like the Sun.
Today it is known how the celestial organisation is balanced by the position
of stars in a defined orbit and the interplay of gravitational forces related
to their mass and speed of movement, each with its own motion. But isn't
this what the Qur'an describes, in terms which have only become comprehensible
in our own day, when it mentions the foundation of this balance in the sura
Al-Anbiya' (21:33):
"[God is ] the One Who created the night, the day, the Sun and the Moon.
Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion"
The Arabic word which expresses this movement is a verb sabaha (yasbahun
in the text); it carries with it the idea of a motion which comes from any
moving body, be it the movement of one's legs as one runs on the ground,
or the action of swimming in water. In the case of a celestial body, one
is forced to translate it in the original sense, that is, 'to travel with
one's own motion'.
The description of the sequence of day and night would, in itself, be rather
commonplace were it not for the fact that, in the Qur'an, it is expressed
in terms that today are highly significant. This is because it uses the verb
kawwara in the sura Al-Zumar (39:5) to describe the way the night 'winds'
or 'coils' itself about the day and the day about the night, just as, in
the original meaning of the verb, a turban is wound around the head. This
is a totally valid comparison; yet at the same time the Qur'an was revealed,
the astronomical data necessary to draw it were unknown.
The evolution of the Heavens and the notion of a settled place for the Sun
are also described. They are in agreement with highly detailed modern ideas.
The Qur'an also seems to have alluded to the expansion of the Universe.
There is also the conquest of space. This has been undertaken thanks to
remarkable technological progress and has resulted in man's journey to the
Moon. But this surely springs to mind when we read the sura Al-Rahman (55:33).
"O assembly of jinns and men, if you can penetrate regions of the Heavens
and Earth, then penetrate them! You will not penetrate them save with [Our]
Power"
This power comes from the All-mighty, and the subject of the whole sura is
an invitation to recognise God's Beneficence to man.
Let us examine, for example, this verse in the sura Al-Zumar (39:21).
"Hast tho not seen that God sent water down from the sky and led it through
sources into the ground? Then He caused sown fields of different colours
to grow."
Such notions seems quite natural to us today, but we should not forget that
they were not prevalent long ago. It was not until the sixteenth century,
with Bernard Palissy, that we gained the first coherent description of the
water cycle. Prior to this, people talked about the theory whereby the water
of the oceans, under the effect of winds, were thrust towards the interior
of the continents. They then returned to the oceans via the great abyss,
which, since Plato's time, has been called the Tartarus. In the seventeenth
century, a great thinker such as Descartes believed in it, and even in the
nineteenth century there was still talk of Aristotle's theory, according
to which water was condensed in cool mountains caverns and formed underground
lakes that fed springs. Today, we know that it is the infiltration of rainwater
that is responsible for this. If one compares the facts of modern hydrology
with the data to be found in numerous verses of the Qur'an on this subject,
one cannot fail to notice the ramarkable degree of agreement between the
two.
In geology, a fact of recently acquired knowledge is the phenomenon of folding,
which was to form the mountain ranges. The same is true of the Earth's crust,
which is like a solid shell on which we can live, while the deeper layers
are hot and fluid, and thus inhospitable to any form of life. It is also
known that the stability of the mountains is linked to the phenomenon of
folding, for it was the folds that were to provide foundations for the reliefs
that constituted the mountains.
Let us now compare modern ideas with one verse among many in the Qur'an that
deals with this subject. It is taken from the sura Al-Naba' (78:6-7).
"Have We not made the Earth an expanse and the mountains stakes?"
The stakes (awtad), which are driven into the ground like those used to anchor
a tent, are the deep foundations of geological folds.
Here, as in the case of other topics, the objective observer cannot fail
to notice the absence of any contradiction with modern knowledge.
But more than anything else, I was struck, at first, by statements in the
Qur'an dealing with living things, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms,
especially with regard to reproduction.
I must once again stress the fact, that it is only since modern times, that
scientific progress has made the content of many such verses more comprehensible
to us. There are also other verses which are more easily understandable,
but which conceal a biological meaning that is highly significant. This is
the case of the sura Al-Anbiya', a part of which has already been quoted:
"And We got every living thing out of the water. Will they then not
believe"(21:30)
This is an affirmation of the modern idea that the origin of life is aquatic.
Progress in botany at the time of Muhammad was in no country advance enough
for it to be established as a rule that plants have both male and female
parts. Nevertheless, we may read the following in the sura Taha (20:53).
"(God is the One Who) sent water down from the sky and thereby We brought forth
pairs of plants each separate from the other"
Today, we know that fruit comes from plants that have sexual characteristics
(even when it comes from unfertilized flowers, like bananas). In the sura
Al-Ra'd (13:3) we read:
"And fruit of every kind He made in pairs, two and two"
Reflections on reproduction in the animal kingdom were linked to those on
human reproduction. We shall examine them presently.
In the field of physiology, there is one verse which, to me, appears extremely
significant: one thousand years before the discovery of the circulation of
the blood, and roughly thirteen centuries it was known what happened in the
intestine to ensure that organs were nourished by the process of digestive
absorbtion, a verse in the Qur'an describes the source of the constituents
of milk, in conformity with these notions.
To understand this verse, we have to know that chemical reactions occur in
the intestine and that, from there, substances extracted from food pass into
the bloodstream via a complex system, sometimes by way of the liver, depending
on their chemical nature. The blood transports them to all organs of the
body, among which are the milk-producing mammary glands.
Without entering into detail, let us just say that, basically, there is the
arrival of certain substances from the contents of the intestines into the
vessels of the intestinal wall itself, and the transportation of these substances
by the bloodstream.
This concept must be fully appreciated, if we are to understand this verse
in the Qur'an Al-Nahl (16:66).
"Verily, in cattle there is a lesson for you. We give you to drink of what
is inside their bodies, coming from a conjunction between the contents of
the intestines and the blood, a milk pure and pleasant for those who drink
it"
In the Qur'an the subject of human reproduction leads to a multitude of
statements which constitute a challenge to the embryologist seeking a human
explanation to them. It was only after the birth of the basic sciences which
were to contribute to our knowledge of biology, and especially after the
invention of the microscope, that man was able to understand such statements.
It was impossible for a man living in the early seventh century to have expressed
such ideas. There is nothing to indicate that, at this time, men in the Middle
East and Arabia knew anything more about this subject than men living in Europe
or anywhere else. Today, there are many Muslims with a thorough knowledge
of the Qur'an and natural sciences who have clearly recognised the comparisons
to be made between the verses of the Qur'an dealing with reproduction and
human knowledge. I shall always remember the comment of an eighteen year
old Muslim, brought up in Saudi Arabia, replying to a reference to the question
of reproduction as described in the Qur'an. Pointing to it, he said, 'But
this book provides us with all the essential information on the subject.
When I was at school they used the Qur'an to explain to me how children were
born; your books on sex-education are a bit late on the scene!'
It is on this point in particular, that a comparison between the beliefs
current at the time of the Qur'an, that were full of supersitions and myths,
and the contents of the Qur'an and modern data, leaves us amazed at the degree
of concordance between the latter and the absence of any reference in the
Qur'an to the mistaken ideas that were prevalent at the time.
Let us now isolate, from all these verses, precise ideas concerning the
complexity of the fertilizing liquid and the fact that an infinitely small
quantity is required to ensure fertilization, its 'quintessence' - if I may
so translate the Arabic word 'sulala'.
The implantation of the egg in the female genital organ is perfectly described
in several verses by the word 'Alaq' which is also the title of the sura
in which it appears:
I do not think there is any reasonable translation of the word 'Alaq' other
than to use its original sense.
The evolution of the embryo inside the maternal uterus is only briefly described,
but the description is accurate, because the simple words referring to it
correspond exactly to fundamental stages in its growth. This is what we read
in a verse from the sura Al-Mu'minun (23:14).
"We fashioned the thing which clings into a chewed lump of flesh and We fashioned
the chewed flesh into bones and We clothed the bones with intact flesh.'
Then We developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the Perfect
Creator"
The term 'chewed flesh' (mudga) corresponds exactly to the appearance of
the embryo at a certain stage in its development.
It is known that the bones develop inside this mass and that they are then
covered with muscle. This is the meaning of the term 'intact flesh' (lahm).
The embryo passes through a stage where some parts are in proportion and
others out of proportion with what is later to become the individual. Maybe
this is the meaning of a verse in the sura Al-Hajj (22:5) which reads as
follows:
"We created you out of dust, then out of sperm, then We fashioned him into
something which clings into a little lump of flesh, partly fromed and partly
unformed"
Next, we have a reference to the appearance of the senses and viscerae in
the sura Al-Sajda (32:9).
"[God] appointed for you the senses of hearing, sight and the viscerae"
Nothing here contradicts today's data and, furthermore, none of the mistaken
ideas of the time has crept into the Qur'an.
We have now come to the last subject: it is the confrontation, with modern
knowledge, of passages in the Qur'an that are also referred to in the Bible.
We have already caught a glimpse of the problem when talking of the Creation.
Earlier I stressed the perfect agreement between modern knowledge and verses
in the Qur'an, and pointed out that the Biblical narration contained statements
that were scientifically unacceptable. This is hardly surprising when we
know that the great narration of the Creation contained in the Bible was
the work of priests living in the sixth century BC, hence the term 'Sacerdotal'
narration. This seems mainly to have been conceived as the theme of a preaching
designed to exhort people to observe the sabbath. The narration was constructed
with a definite end in view, and, as Father de Vaux (a former head of the
Biblical School of Jerusalem) has noted, this end was essentially legalist
in character.
The Bible also contains a much shorter and older narration of the Creation,
the so-called 'Yehvist' version, which approaches the subject from a completely
different angle.
They are both taken from Genesis, the first book of the Pentateuch or Taurah:
Moses is supposed to have been its author, but the text we have today has,
as we know, undergone many changes.
The Sacerdotal narration of Genesis is famous for its whimsical genealogies,
that go back to Adam, and which nobody takes very seriously. Nevertheless,
such Gospel authors as Matthew and Luke have reproduced them, more or less
verbatim, in their genealogies of Jesus. Matthew goes back as far as Abraham,
and Luke to Adam. All these writings are scientifically unacceptable, because
they set a figure on the age of the world and the time man appeared on Earth,
which is most definitely out of keeping with what has today been established
with certainty. The Qur'an, on other hand, is completely free of data of
this kind.
Earlier on, we also noted how perfectly the Qur'an agrees with general, modern
ideas on the formation of the Universe, whereas the Biblical narration stands
in contradiction to them; the allegory of the primordial waters is hardly
tenable, nor is the creation of light on the first day, before the creation
of the stars which produce this light; the existence of an evening and morning
before the creation of the Earth; the creation of the Earth on the third
day before that of the Sun on the fourth; the appearance of beasts of the
Earth on the sixth day after the appearance of the birds of the air on the
fifth day, although the former came first: all these statements are the result
of beliefs prevalent at the time this text was written and do not have any
other meaning.
As for the genealogies contained in the Bible, which form the basis of the
Jewish calendar and assert that today the world is 5738 years old, these
are hardly admissable either. Our solar system may be over 4-1/2 billion years
old, and the appearance on Earth of man, as we know him today, may be estimated
in tens of thousands of years, if not more.
It is absolutely essential, therefore, to note that the Qur'an does not contain
any such indications as to date, and that these are specific to the Biblical
text.
There is a second, highly significant, subject of comparison between the
Bible and the Qur'an: this is the Flood. In actual fact, the Biblical narration
is a fusion of two descriptions in which events are related differently.
The Bible speaks of a universal flood and places it roughly 300 years before
Abraham. According to what we know of Abraham, this would imply a universal
cataclysm around the twenty-first or twenty-second century B.C. This would
be untenable in view of historical data.
How can we accept the idea that, in the twenty-first or twenty-second century
BC, all civilization was wiped off the face of the Earth by a universal
cataclysm, when we know that this period corresponds, for example, to the
one preceding the Middle Kingdom in Egypt, at roughly the date of the first
Intermediary period before the eleventh dynasty?
None of the preceding statements is acceptable according to modern knowledge.
From this point of view, we can measure the enormous gap separating the Bible
from the Qur'an.
In contrast to the Bible, the narration contained in the Qur'an deals with
a cataclysm that is limited to Noah's people. They were punished for their
sins, as were other ungodly peoples. The Qur'an does not locate the cataclysm
in time. There are absolutely no historical or archaelogical objections to
the narration in the Qur'an.
A third point of comparison, which is extremely significant, is the story
of Moses, and especially the Exodus from Egypt of the Hebrews enslaved to
the Pharaoh. Here I can only give a highly compressed account of the study
of this subject that appears in my book. I have noted the points where the
Biblical and Qur'anic narrations agree and disagree, and, for some details,
I have found points where the two texts complement each other in a very useful
way. Among the many hypotheses concerning the position occupied by the Exodus
in the history of the Pharaohs, I have concluded that the most likely is
the theory which makes Merneptah, Rameses II's successor, the Pharaoh of
the Exodus. The confrontation of the data contained in the Scriptures with
archaeological evidence speaks strongly in favour of this hypothesis. I am
pleased to to be able to say that the Biblical narration contributes weighty
evidence leading us to situate Moses in the history of the Pharaohs: Moses
was born during the reign of Rameses II. Biblical data ara therefore of
considerable historical value in the story of Moses.
The medical study of the mummy of Merneptah has yielded further useful
information on the possible causes of this Pharaoh's death.
The fact that we today possess the mummy of this Pharaoh, which to be exact,
was discovered in 1898, is one of paramount importance. The Bible records
that it was engulfed in the sea, but does not give any details as to what
subsequently became of the body. The Qur'an, in the sura Yunus (10:92), notes that
the body of the Pharaoh, who was to be damned, would be saved from the waters.
"So this day We shall save your (dead), body that you may be a sign for those
who come after you! And verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our signs"
A medical examination of this mummy, has moreover, shown that the body could
not have stayed in the water for long, because it does not show signs of
deterioration due to prolonged submersion.
Here again, the confrontation of the narration in the Qur'an with the data
provided by modern knowledge does not give rise to the slightest objection
from a scientific point of view.
The Old Testament constitutes a collection of literary works produced in
the course of roughly nine centuries and which has undergone many alternations.
The part played by man in the actual composition of texts of the Bible is
quite considerable.
The Qur'anic Revelation has a history which is radically different. From
the moment it was first communicated to man, it was learnt by heart and written
down during Muhammad's own lifetime. It is thanks to this that the Qur'an
does not pose any problem of authenticity.
A totally objective examination of it, in the light of modern knowledge,
leads us to recognise the agreement between the two, as has already been
noted on repeated occasions. It makes us deem it quite unthinkable for a
man of Muhammad's time to have been the author of such statements, on account
of the state of knowledge in his day. Such considerations are part of what
gives the Qur'anic Revelation its unique place, and forces the impartial
scientist to admit his inability to provide an explanation which calls solely
upon materialistic reasoning.
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"So this day We shall save your (dead), body that you may be a sign for those
who come after you! And verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our signs"