Professor Emeritus Keith L. Moore is one of the world’s
most prominent scientists in the fields of anatomy and embryology and is the
author of the book entitled ‘The Developing Human’, which has been translated
into eight languages. Dr. Keith Moore is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and
Cell Biology at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. There, he was
Associate Dean of Basic Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine and for 8 years was
the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy. In 2007, Professor Moore became the
first recipient of the Henry Gray/Elsevier Distinguished Educator Award, The
American Association of Anatomists’ (AAA) highest award for human anatomy
education. Most recently in 2012, Prof. Moore received the Queen’s Diamond
Jubilee Medal – a commemorative medal to honour significant contributions and
achievements by Canadians.
Professor Moore said,
“....Because
the staging of human embryos is complex, owing to the continuous process of
change during development, it is proposed that a new system of classification
could be developed using the terms mentioned in the Qur’ān and Sunnah.
The proposed system is simple, comprehensive, and conforms with present
embryological knowledge. The intensive studies of the Qur’ān and hadeeth [reliably
transmitted reports of the Prophet Muhammad] in the last four years have
revealed a system for classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was
recorded in the 7th Century C.E. Although Aristotle, the
founder of the science of embryology, realised that chick embryos developed in
stages from his studies of hen’s eggs in the fourth century B.C., he did not
give any details about these stages. As far as it is known from the
history of embryology, little was known about the staging and classification of
human embryos until the twentieth century. For this reason, the
descriptions of the human embryo in the Qur’ān cannot be based on scientific
knowledge in the seventh century. The only reasonable conclusion is: these
descriptions were revealed to Muhammad from God. He could not have known
such details because he was an illiterate man with absolutely no scientific
training.”
Consequently, Professor
Moore was asked the following question: “Does this mean that you believe that
the Qur’ān is the word of God?” He replied: “I find no difficulty in
accepting this.”
Professor Moore consulted a number of
embryologists for their opinions:
“…I was invited to
Saudi Arabia to lecture on embryology at King AbdulAzziz University in Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia… and while I was there, at my suggestion, invited Dr. [T.V.N]
Persaud and Dr. [E. Marshall] Johnson to come to Saudi Arabia. And they [the
Embryology Committee] asked them the same questions, and I purposefully didn’t
tell them my interpretations, I wanted them to give their own. So they did and
their answers were similar to mine…Dr. Johnson is one of the most outstanding
embryologist and teratologist in the United States. We didn’t just pick anyone,
I picked the best. And in Canada, Dr. Persaud at the University of Manitoba,
where I spent twenty years, is also an outstanding embryologist who has three
doctors degrees… so I picked the very best. And then, when I started thinking
about other embryologists around the world, we brought in Dr. [Robert] Edwards
from Cambridge [world-renowned for his early work on in vitro fertilization]…
so we invited him to Saudi Arabia and again he was asked the same questions and
they [the Embryology Committee] got essentially the same answers.… [and] one of
my colleagues in Kyoto, Japan.…he didn’t go to Saudi Arabia, [and] he has been
consulted and so on. So we have consulted embryologists around the world for
their opinions on these statements in the Qur’ān, and it’s clear from what Dr.
Persaud has said and from all of our work in this area that these statements
[in the Qur’ān] are correct.”
Professor Emeritus T. V. N. Persaud is Professor of
Anatomy, Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health and Professor of Obstetrics,
Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada. There, he was the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy
for 16 years. He is well-known in his field. He is the author or
editor of 22 textbooks and has published over 181 scientific papers. In
1991, he received the most distinguished award presented in the field of
anatomy in Canada, the J.C.B. Grant Award from the Canadian Association of
Anatomists. Henry Gray/Elsevier Distinguished Educator Award, American
Association of Anatomists, 2010.
When
he was asked about the scientific miracles in the Qur’ān, he stated the
following:
“The
way it was explained to me is that Muhammad was a very ordinary man. He could
not read, didn’t know [how] to write. In fact, he was an illiterate. And we’re
talking about twelve [actually about fourteen] hundred years ago. You have
someone illiterate making profound pronouncements and statements and that are amazingly
accurate about scientific nature. And I personally can’t see how this could be
a mere chance. There are too many accuracies and like Dr. Moore, I have no
difficulty in my mind that this is a divine inspiration or revelation which led
him to these statements.”
Professor
Persaud has included some Qur’ānic verses and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad in
some of his books.
Dr. E. Marshall Johnson is Professor Emeritus
of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at Thomas Jefferson University,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. There, for 22 years he was Professor of
Anatomy, the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy, and the Director of the
Daniel Baugh Institute. He was also the President of the Teratology Society. He
has authored more than 200 publications. In 1981, during the Seventh Medical
Conference in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Professor Johnson said in the presentation
of his research paper:
“Summary:
The Qur’ān describes not only the development of external form, but emphasises
also the internal stages, the stages inside the embryo, of its creation and
development, emphasising major events recognised by contemporary science.”
Also
he said: “As a scientist, I can only deal with things which I can specifically
see. I can understand embryology and developmental biology. I can understand
the words that are translated to me from the Qur’ān. As I gave the example
before, if I were to transpose myself into that era, knowing what I knew today
and describing things, I could not describe the things which were described.
I
see no evidence for the fact to refute the concept that this individual,
Muhammad, had to be developing this information from some place. So I see
nothing here in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was involved
in what he was able to write.”
Dr. Yoshihide Kozai is Professor Emeritus
at Tokyo University, Hongo, Tokyo, Japan, and was the Director of the National
Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan. He said:
“I
am very much impressed by finding true astronomical facts in [the] Qur’ān, and
for us the modern astronomers have been studying very small pieces of the
universe. We’ve concentrated our efforts for understanding of [a] very small
part.
Because
by using telescopes, we can see only very few parts [of] the sky without thinking
[about the] whole universe. So, by reading [the] Qur’ān and by answering the
questions, I think I can find my future way for investigation of the universe.”
Professor Tejatat Tejasen is the Chairman of the
Department of Anatomy at Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Previously, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the same university.
During the Eighth Saudi Medical Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Professor
Tejasen stood up and said:
“During
the last three years, I became interested in the Qur’ān . . . . From my study
and what I have learned from this conference, I believe that everything that
has been recorded in the Qur’ān fourteen hundred years ago must be the truth, that
can be proved by the scientific means.
Since
the Prophet Muhammad could neither read nor write, Muhammad must be a messenger
who relayed this truth, which was revealed to him as an enlightenment by the
one who is eligible [as the] creator. This creator must be God. Therefore,
I think this is the time to say La ilaha illa Allāh, there is no deity
to worship except God, Muhammadur rasoolu Allāh, Muhammad is Messenger [Prophet]
of Allāh [God]. Lastly, I must congratulate for the excellent and highly
successful arrangement for this conference . . . . I have gained not only from
the scientific point of view and religious point of view but also the great
chance of meeting many well-known scientists and making many new friends among
the participants. The most precious thing of all that I have gained by coming
to this place is La ilaha illa Allāh, Muhammadur rasoolu Allāh, and to
have become a Muslim.”
After
all these examples we have seen about the scientific miracles in the Holy
Qur’ān, let us ask ourselves these questions:
Could it be just a
coincidence that all this recently discovered scientific information from
different fields was mentioned in the Qur’ān, which was revealed fourteen
centuries ago? Could this Qur’ān have been authored by Muhammad or by any other
human being? How could Prophet Muhammad have possibly known all this 1,400
years ago, when scientists have only recently discovered this using advanced
equipment and powerful microscopes which did not exist at that time?
The only answer is that
the Qur’ān is the word of God Almighty.
