Website: www.aaiil.uk

The Quran and modern science

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 8 May 2026

“In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day, there are surely signs for those who have understanding, those who remember Allah, standing and sitting and (lying) on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth (and say): Our Lord, You have not created this in vain! Glory be to You! Save us from the punishment of the Fire.” — ch. 3, Āl-i ‘Imrān, v. 190–191

اِنَّ فِیۡ خَلۡقِ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضِ وَ اخۡتِلَافِ الَّیۡلِ وَ النَّہَارِ لَاٰیٰتٍ  لِّاُولِی الۡاَلۡبَابِ ﴿۱۹۰﴾ۚ الَّذِیۡنَ یَذۡکُرُوۡنَ اللّٰہَ  قِیٰمًا وَّ قُعُوۡدًا وَّ عَلٰی جُنُوۡبِہِمۡ وَ یَتَفَکَّرُوۡنَ فِیۡ خَلۡقِ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضِ ۚ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقۡتَ ہٰذَا بَاطِلًا ۚ سُبۡحٰنَکَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ ﴿۱۹۱﴾

“And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your tongues and colours. Surely there are signs in this for the learned.” — ch. 30, Al-Rūm, v. 22

وَ مِنۡ اٰیٰتِہٖ خَلۡقُ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضِ وَ اخۡتِلَافُ اَلۡسِنَتِکُمۡ وَ اَلۡوَانِکُمۡ ؕ اِنَّ فِیۡ ذٰلِکَ  لَاٰیٰتٍ  لِّلۡعٰلِمِیۡنَ ﴿۲۲﴾

It is unfortunate that sublime and inspiring teachings of religion are often turned into gimmicks by many of their followers, with which they then try to impress other people. As a result, the teachings lose their real significance, and even become a matter of ridicule among intelligent and thinking persons. I am referring here to the subject of the Quran and modern science, and the many writings and presentations produced by Muslims claiming that various modern scientific discoveries had already been stated in the Quran. The basic truth of the connection between the Quran and knowledge of the world around us is highly compelling and faith-inspiring, but it is overshadowed by superficial and baseless conclusions put forward by enthusiastic Muslims who have got carried away and have applied little thought to the matter.

There is an American astrophysicist, and author of books and presenter of TV programmes on how to communicate science to the public, by the name of Neil DeGrasse Tyson. He produced a book, first published in 2019, entitled Letters from an Astrophysicist. It is a collection of letters he received from members of the public and his replies to their letters. One such letter is from a Muslim who wrote to Dr Tyson saying “that the Quran contains many verses that reference specific discoveries of modern physics”, and he was asking why doesn’t Dr Tyson acknowledge this?

In reply Dr Tyson writes: “…nobody has ever made a successful prediction of previously unknown objects or phenomena based on the contents of any religious texts.” He adds that it is after scientists have made discoveries that devout people “go back into their religious texts in search of passages that hint at what is already known”. He politely asks the enquirer if he can come up with predictions from the Quran that would stimulate research to find out if what the Quran has already stated comes out true in the future. I must say that Dr Tyson has made a fair point, worthy of every Muslim’s attention. Can a Muslim say, at the present time, that the Quran predicts that science will make such and such a discovery in the future, a discovery which today science is unaware of, and which science even rejects today?

If Dr Tyson wasn’t so polite he could also have asked: Why didn’t Muslims themselves make these modern discoveries if they had already read about them in the Quran before they were made? There is actually an answer to this question. Muslims did not make these modern discoveries because after the first half of their history had passed, they gave up following the teachings of the Quran which urged them to acquire knowledge of the world around them. This pursuit of knowledge was then taken up by scientists in Christian Europe. For some of their discoveries these scientists faced opposition and persecution from the Christian clergy and church.

A well-known example is of Galileo, the Italian astronomer and scientist of 400 years ago, who was a Catholic. He made the scientific discovery that the earth is not the centre of the universe, with all objects in the sky going around it, as we see them doing so. He wrote and taught that the earth goes around the sun which is the centre of the solar system. For expressing these views, or at least defending them, the Catholic church put him on trial, alleging that this was a heresy (kufr) because it went against the teachings of the Bible. He was found guilty and ordered to repent from these views. Under duress, he did repent from them, but still he was sentenced to life imprisonment which was reduced to house arrest. His books were banned, including any book he might write in the future. He spent the rest of his life, about nine years, under house arrest. When he died, the ruler of his area wanted to bury him in the main church of the area, but the Christian religious leaders protested that a heretic — in Muslim terminology a kafir — could not be honoured in this way. So he was buried in a small, insignificant place. Almost a hundred years later, Galileo’s supporters had him reburied in the main church after a monument was erected there to honour him.

I have mentioned the suffering of Galileo to illustrate that those who made modern scientific discoveries had to undertake hard work and toil, lasting years, and face opposition and even persecution from their own communities. They went through all these difficulties and travails because they believed they had discovered the truth, and it was precious and valuable. How many Muslims are there, at the present day, who would be prepared to face opposition and persecution, ostracism and expulsion, from their own community for the sake of what they believed to be the truth?

The trial of Galileo has similarity to what Ahmadis having been facing in Pakistan under the law for about the last fifty years. They are summoned to courts which dare not go against the religious leaders, and they are forced to deny holding certain religious beliefs, or even deny defending the holding of such beliefs, and to repent from them. They too can face imprisonment. Even if they declare that they have retracted their beliefs, no one really accepts that they have done so. Those Muslim political and religious leaders who are inflicting these injustices should look at the example of Galileo. Yes, he repented from his views, but who does the world agree with now: with Galileo or the religious establishment under which he lived?

Turning back to the subject of this khutba, I would say that, instead of looking for specific discoveries being mentioned in the Quran, let us look first at the principles that the Quran teaches. The first of these principles is that humans must acquire knowledge of the world around them, and if they do then this will benefit them. Is this not a prophecy which has been fulfilled because all nations now recognise this principle and act on it? The first passage I recited begins as follows:

“In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day, there are surely signs for those who have understanding.”

Those people who use their mental faculty of understanding will see “signs” when they consider how the heavens and the earth have been created, and how opposite things, like night and day, alternate. The words here for “those who have (or possess) understanding” are ūlu-l-albāb. The word lubb (whose plural is albāb) means “mind, intellect, reason and understanding”, but of a very strong and powerful kind. According to the well-known Arabic dictionary of the Quran by Imam Raghib, lubb signifies the pure and unadulterated faculty of reason which is free from any doubt, fault or emotion. It is written that this is a special kind of ‘aql (‘aql being the ordinary word for “reason”, “sense” and your power of “understanding”). So ūlu-l-albāb means people who think very deeply and have very powerful and analytic minds, more than ordinary ‘aql.

The word lubb also means the core and crux of something, what is inside it and defines that thing. Urdu speakers will be familiar with the term lubb-o-lubāb, which means the essential summary and gist of something. The human intellect, power of reasoning, looking at things and drawing conclusions, is called lubb of a human being because it is the core and crux of what a human is, and it identifies a human as a human. But I may add that ūlu-l-albāb could also indicate people who reach the very heart and crux of the matter when they analyse something. They have penetrating minds which can dig down to find the root cause of whatever they are analysing.

After mentioning the creation of the heavens and the earth, this verse refers to the alternation of the day and night, their contrast (ikhtilāf, in the original Arabic), as also providing signs for the deeply-thinking people. Life on earth is dependent on the system of night following day, and day following night. In nature around us, certain processes take place at night which prepare the world for the day. There are many other examples of two opposite things which are inseparable from one another and which jointly keep this world going, such as positive and negative electrical charges.

The second verse I recited uses the term ‛ālimīn (“the learned”), instead of ūlu-l-albāb (“those who have understanding”), and it says that there are signs for “the learned” in “the creation of the heavens and the earth”, as also stated in the first verse. But in addition it says there are signs in “the diversity of your tongues and colours”. Again the same word ikhtilāf is used here to mean diversity or contrast, as in the first verse to mean the alternation of the day and the night. This plainly informs us that we must study, at a scholarly level, the origin and development of human languages and racial differences in the world. The clear implication is that we will benefit as a result. In the modern age, with movements of populations, everyone sees a vast diversity of languages and colours everyday, all around them. Even a hundred years ago, or even less than that, no one experienced such a wide range of diversity so commonly all around them.

So I pose the question: Is this not a prophecy in the Quran, that a time will come when people will see the utmost diversity of languages and colours around them and they will have no option but to study it, learn from it? Differences of language and colour have long been the source of disharmony and even violence between humans. The Quran says it should be a source of knowledge, not discord.

Let us pray that may Allah enable Muslims to strive to acquire knowledge and to honour all those humans in history who have benefitted the world by discovering new knowledge, ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk