Posted by Amir on 5/15/2009, 11:32 am, in reply to "Why the Koran doesn't contain "Miracles.""
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"Most of the passages are so ambiguous that they can be interpreted entirely differently from how you interpret them."
Very true.But still we interprete them in the most logical way possible because we know that these verses are from Allah and we do not try to twist their meaning.
Take a look at these verses:
it is He Who is the Lord of Sirius, (Qur'an, 53: 49)
He was two bow-lengths away or even closer. (Qur'an, 53:9)
The only coherent explanation here seems to point out at the orbit of Sirius.Let us assume that someone arrives at another conclusion by different interpretations.U must now agree with me that nethertheless the fact that Sirius' orbit does indeed ressemb;es a bow is very striking.So if we can arrive at that conclusion from these verses with a very logical interpretation ,i don t see what's wrong.
"So far, it seems that none of these "facts" have made any significant contribution to science."
As u may already know the big bang is mentionned in the Quran and that was well before this theory was developed.Most scientists are like u and do not believe in the Quran,so how will they admit that the Quran contains scientific facts when they do not even use it?
Let me point out that the Quran has helped scientists in the field of embrology and geology.When Dr moore publised his findings the Quran made the headlines:"Holy book 1300 years ahead of its time."
"As a partisan Muslim, you have every reason to see “miracles” where other people will see nothing special."
Allah tells us that me must use our logic and intelligence and not blind faith to analyse the Quran.We will find signs for "intelligent people".Whether i am a partisan is irrelevant because this doesn t have an impact on my interpretation.Judging by the current number of converts in the USA only I would say that many people who were initially not partisans of islam have found truth in it.
"It really doesn't matter, since there are also plenty of statements in the Koran which defy science."
YUSUFALI: So they stayed in their Cave three hundred years, and (some) add nine (more)
First we must ask ourselves why did Allah record such an insignificant incident in his scripture and which on top of that seems to defy human logic.If we were to look at it with disbelief we are not going to understand anything.Indeed Allah said that the Quran can bring us to the right but can also mislead us.So in the view of this we have to understand that there is more to it than a simple insignificant incident.
".... We caused them to turn over to the right and to the left..".
At first sigth this appears to be the usual behaviour of sleeping people but in this there is the basis and model for a modern scientific practice in the field of medicine.
Hibernating animals and men in yogi or spiritual trance do not turn about. The Cave companions, by extension, are not expected to have turned about on their own, since their autonomous nervous system controlled by spinal cord was inactivated. It was the Omniscient God who caused them to turn as the verse points out. What is the need for this turning about?
Bedridden patients develop bedsores in a matter of a few weeks because their bodies are pressed against even the softest of beds. So it is arranged that hospital staff turn them over from time to time. Modern hospital beds are equipped with a lateral ridge that keeps gently passing along the bed in order to relieve bed fatigue and break constancy of body pressure. Had God not caused frequent turning over, the sleepers' flesh would not only have developed bedsores but become full of holes, just as rubber tyres do if vehicles are left stationary for months.
There is an identical story in Christianity about the seven sleepers of Ephesus. After Christ his Apostles like Barnabas, and even the self-appointed Apostle Paul along with other followers of Christ did missionary work in present day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, etc. which then belonged to Byzantine Empire. Some youths of the city of Ephesus were among the converts. The youths went into hiding during the rule of a tyrant on whose identity there is a confusion between Decius (also called Decianus) and Nero. They woke up during the reign of Theosodius-II. We can read this account in Edward Gibbon’s monumental “The rise and fall of Roman Empire” and in other western works.
Inspired by Qur’anic account and possibly also by the rabbinical and Christian lore current then, Khaleefa Waathiq (842-846 AD) instituted an expedition to locate the Cave, but unsuccessfully, it appears.
The entrance of the cave however has been located.It is found in Amman(Jordan)
Notwithstanding the inhibitions of Pickthall and others, we see that the sleepers are identified with the Ephesians by Jordanian archaeologists. The youths may well have fled South to Amman from Ephesus, a distance of about 900 kms. as the crow flies. Also there is no reason why Jews should not pose Prophet (Pbuh) a question relating to a Christian lore. For, early converts from paganism to unity of God did not call themselves “Christians”. They considered themselves only as members of Judaism as preached by Jesus.
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