Nassir H. Sabah
“Does God exist?” is a question that has been asked an untold number of times over the years. On the one hand, a vehement denial was the answer. On the other hand, were affirmative answers based on blind faith or on theological, philosophical, or other indirect arguments. What will be presented here is a direct, objective argument based on the following reasoning:
- The Quran cannot possibly be of human origin; it must be of superhuman origin.
- The Quran could have been revealed by God – the creator of the universe and the guide and sustainer of everything in it – or by extra-terrestrial aliens, or by some other unknown, superhuman agency.
- The Quran states that it was revealed by God, and there have been no rebuttals, counterclaims, or contrary evidence since the Quran was revealed more than 1400 years ago.
- The Quran was therefore revealed by God, who must exist.
The critical postulate in this argument is the superhuman origin of the Quran. For non-Muslims, the Quran is to be regarded as a stand-alone text that should be judged on its own merits with an open mind and without prejudice or bias. In earlier times, the objective evidence for the superhuman origin of the Quran was based mainly on its unquestionable literary and linguistic inimitability, which has withstood the test of time.
Logically, this inimitability of the Quran is not an airtight argument, because, although it has held until the present, it cannot be ruled out in the future. Nevertheless, there is another aspect of this linguistic and literary miraculousness that is often overlooked. There can be no doubt that human literary masterpieces underwent revisions and alterations before they were put in their final form. Yet, the verses of the literary masterpiece that is the Quran were revealed in their final form when first uttered by the Prophet, not to be edited or reviewed later in any way, with their superb quality and freedom of error maintained over a period of 23 years.
An intriguing form of the miraculousness of the Quran is its melodious aspect, as explained in the article “The Melody of the Quran” under Insights/Supplements/Miraculous Verses on this website. But for many, the truly miraculous nature of the Quran is exemplified by its references to a wide range of physical phenomena discovered or explained only in modern times and by its numerical miraculousness.
In the 1950s, some Quranic scholars began to interpret verses of the Quran in terms of current scientific knowledge as proof of its divine origin. Maurice Bucaille, a renowned French physician, published in 1976 his book La Bible, le Coran et la Science. In the section entitled “The Quran and Modern Science”, Bucaille states, in English translation:
“The ideas in this study are developed from a purely scientific point of view. They lead to the conclusion that it is inconceivable for a human being living in the seventh century A.D. to have made statements in the Quran on a great variety of subjects that do not belong to his period and for them to be in keeping with what was to be known only centuries later. For me, there can be no human explanation to the Quran.”
Since then, the movement to interpret the relevant Quranic verses in terms of current scientific knowledge has gained considerable momentum.
In the early 1980s, the original, authentic, and hence the only officially recognized Arabic Quranic text over almost the whole world, was digitized and subjected to search programs. An intricate web of numerical relations was discovered, only the tip of which has been uncovered so far, involving letters, verses, and chapters of the Quran, and which could not possibly be all coincidental or of human origin. These numerical relations do not depend on any linguistic or philosophical interpretations, just simple arithmetic, and consistent rules of counting Arabic letters and words.
It’s these two aspects that convince people like me that the Quran cannot possibly be of human origin. The first one, the aspect related to physical phenomena, can be divided into two categories: (i) unequivocal references, and (ii) uncanny, cryptic references that describe, amazingly befittingly, a wide range of physical phenomena discovered or explained only in modern times.
Examples of the first type are given in the article “Explicit Miraculous Verses”, under Insights/Supplements/Miraculous Verses on this website. Examples of the second type of references to physical phenomena are references to pulsars, black holes, expanding universe, cosmic web, recycling of the Earth’s crust, seamounts, their beautiful ecosystems and their earthquake dampening effects, roots of mountains, motion of the Earth, milk production, and many more. Details of these can be found in the book, Spiritually Rekindled: The Quest for Serenity and Self-Fulfillment, and under Insights/Supplements/Miraculous Verses on this website.
Examples of numerical miraculousness can be found in the book, Spiritually Rekindled: The Quest for Serenity and Self-Fulfillment, and under Insights/Supplements/Numerical Miraculousness on this website.
One last amazing set of verses relates to Abu Lahab, a paternal uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, who, together with his wife, were such fierce opponents of Islam from the very beginning that a special, short chapter of the Quran was revealed condemning them and assigning them to Hell in the Hereafter. But many early fierce opponents of Islam later converted and became very pious and prominent Muslims. Had Abu Lahab converted out of his own free will to become a pious Muslim – and there was a lapse of ten years between the revelation of the condemning chapter and his death – he would have caused a glaring contradiction in the Quran, for how could a pious Muslim suffer in Hell? No mortal could have been absolutely certain that Abu Lahab would never convert and therefore cause this contradiction. Only an omniscient God could have been certain.
In the light of such evidence, how can the existence of God be denied?!
