Let us consider, for example, this verse in Surah Al Zumar (39:21)
Did you not see that God came down from heaven and water drag sources within the earth? Then gave rise to crops of different colors to grow.
Such notions seem quite common today, but we must not forget that prevailed not long ago. It was not until the 16 th century, with Bernard Palissy, we got the first coherent picture about the water cycle. Before this, people talked about the theory where the ocean water under the effect of the winds, was taken to the interior of continents. Then back to the oceans through the great gulf, which from the time of Plato, had been called Tartarus. In the seventeenth century still spoke of Aristotle’s theory, which according to this the water was condensed in cool mountain caverns and formed underground lakes that fed springs. We now know that the infiltration of rainfall is responsible. If one compares the facts of modern hydrology with the data obtained in many verses of the Quran in this regard, there is considerably fails to note the degree of agreement between the two.
In geology, a newly discovered fact is the phenomenon of folding, which is the way the mountain ranges. The same is true for the Earth’s crust, which is like a massive shield on which we live, while the deeper layers are liquid and burning, making them uninhabitable for any form of life. It is also known that the stability of the mountains is linked to the phenomenon of folding, since these folds have provided foundations for the reliefs that constitute the mountains.
“We have not made the earth a bed and the mountains as pegs?”
Stakes (awtad) are placed on the ground and those that are used to set a shop are the deep foundations of geological folds.
From here, as in the other topics, the objective observer can not doubt noting the absence of contradiction with modern knowledge.
But more than anything, seemed to emphasize first statements in the Quran which deal with living things, both plant and animal kingdoms, especially in regard to reproduction.
Once again I must emphasize that it is only in modern times when science progressed we now have a clearer understanding of these verses. There are other verses that are easier to understand, but they mask a more significant biological meaning. This is the case of Surah Al Anbiya, part of which has already been cited:
“Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined, then separated and took every living thing of water? Then not believe?” (21:30)
This is an affirmation of a modern idea that the origin of life is water.
The progress of botany at the time of Muhammad had not advanced much in any country, for it was established as a rule that plants have both male and female parts. However, we can read in Surah Taha (20:53)
“(God is the One who) fell from the sky and water that plants produced pairs, each separated 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 Sura Al Ra * d (13:3) we read:
“Of all fruits (God) placed (on earth) two of a pair.
“Reflections on reproduction in the animal kingdom were linked to those on human reproduction. We will examine in the present.
In the field of physiology, there is a verse which, to me, appears extremely significant: one thousand years before the discovery of blood circulation, and a generally thirteen centuries before it was known what was happening in the gut to ensure The bodies were fed by the process of digestive absorption, a verse in the Qur’an described the source of milk constituents, in accordance with these notions.
To understand this verse, we must know the chemical reactions that occur in the intestine and, hence, what substances extracted from food pass into the blood vessels through a complex system, sometimes by the liver, depending on their chemical nature . Transports blood to all organs of the body, among which are the milk-producing mammary glands.
Without going into too much detail, let’s just say that basically come from the pockets of certain substances from the intestines into the vessels of the intestinal walls, and transport of these substances in the circulatory system.
This concept must be fully appreciated if we understand this verse in the Quran Al Nahl (16:66).
“Indeed, in cattle is a lesson for you. We give to drink of what is inside their bodies, coming from a conjunction between the cavities of the intestines and blood, a milk pure and pleasant for those who drink “
