In answer to the video "43 Scientific Mistakes in the Quran"
Despite the apparent simplicity, again, once one scratches the surfaces of any Quranic passage, a most intricate discourse transpires. I will get to Allah making ships, just before an explanatory introduction to a pervasive concept in the Grand Quran.
The Quranic concept of attributing to Allah the consequence of a man's actions, even for the most insignificant things like the clothes man wears, as will be shown later, is in the same spirit. It reminds man that the laws of the universe are caused then allowed by Him, He is the only Independent Cause
11:56"there is no creature except that He is holding its forelock".Nothing happens, good or bad, unless Allah wills it/allows it, and it is as a clear reminder of this supreme reality that in some instances speaking of human will, Allah's will immidiately follows
81:28-29,76:29-30"Surely this is a reminder, so whoever pleases takes to his Lord a way, And you do not please except that Allah please, surely Allah is Knowing, Wise".This basically is one of the pillars of Quranic teachings, striking a balance between divine will and human effort. The sequence in the verses of sura takwir above make it clear, in the system of causality established, allowed and sustained at each instant by God, and which intricately integrates moral responsibility, humans need to be resolved upon an action, then God either allows or not that intent to be executed. Similarily it states in the HB in
Prov16:9"A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord prepares his step".
The system of causality being dependant upon Allah's will negates the implicit notion that His hands are 5:64"tied up" as some fatalists would taunt the prophet. Nothing passes out of His control, not even man's freewill, and he is judged according to the level of freewill he is granted. Therefore when Allah causes one's heart to turn away and be sealed, it is the same as saying that one has done it to himself, as stated in 41:4-5. They first turn away in such a manner that they become heedless to the Quran. They themselves ackowledge the immunity of their spiritual senses to it. But even then, their choices only happens if Allah wills it, ie allows it
9:127"..Then they turn away: Allah has turned away their hearts because they are a people who do not understand".The same process is echoed by the psalmist in the HB, in the context of the Israelites' straying from the right path, repeatedly rebelling despite receiving Moses' prophetic guidance and witnessing all kinds of miracles
Ps81:13"So I let them go after their heart's fantasies; let them go in their counsels".Again David would invoke God to guide those who willfuly stray from the path, into the evil ways they have themselves chosen
Ps125:5"And those who turn their crooked ways-may the Lord lead them away with the workers of iniquity".It is a fundamental concept with which God interacts with humanity, leading people in the direction that they want to go, enlightening those that seek light, blinding those that seek obscurity
Isa63:17"O Lord why did you makes us err from your ways, and hardenned our hearts from your fear?"Many other verses in the Quran describe the process
6:110"And We will turn their hearts and their sights, even as they did not believe in it the first time, and We will leave them in their inordinacy, blindly wandering on"
61:5"when they turned aside, Allah made their hearts turn aside"
51:9"He is turned away from it who would be turned away".
The Quranic concept of Allah being the indirect cause of all things because of the laws of causality established and allowed by Him is reflected in many instances. In the language of the Quran everything is with God and is sent down to men 15:21. From the rain falling from the clouds 16:65 to even the most insignificant things like the clothes man wears 7:26,16:80-1 that are found in the cattle 16:5 which were themselves sent down 39:6. The same is the case with iron 57:25, the prime symbol used in the Quran to denote God's having endowed mankind with the ability to engineer, convert to his use the natural resources of his natural environement. Allah is thus
57:3"the Apparent and the Hidden".He is the transcendental cause of all that exists and at the same time inherently operating in every phenomenon. That higher reality is beautifuly pictured in the opening verses of sura hadid, the chapter of the iron. It is Allah Who holds the birds up in the air, yet they are themselves expanding and contracting their wings 16:79,24:41,67:19. He is the "splitter" of the seed grain 6:95. He is the One to have multiplied the humans on earth 23:79.
He established, allows and sustains the reproductive system resulting in us multiplying. He makes people laugh or cry because He controls and allows all the processes of causality from birth till death, and beyond 53:43-8. This higher principle present in every aspect of life, of which the God-conscious is always aware of, is mentionned by Ibrahim to his people
26:78-81"Who created me then He has shown me the way, and He who gives me to eat and gives me to drink, and when i am sick, He restores me to health, and He who will cause me to die and give me life".
The laws of the universe, on a micro and macro level, are therefore caused then allowed by Him, He is the only Independent Cause and the Creator. Every automated process we know in this world is designed by many engineers working hard at it. If anyone claims automation can exist without a designer, onus is on him to prove this speculation. Science has no way of knowing if something happened accidentally or there was a planner behind it. Any such claim is as big a superstition as many of the superstitious ideas primitive people used to have. Allah is the Creator of all things in the universe which is why He is consequently 13:16"the One, the Supreme". He is unique and encompassing every thing that exists, and what humans "create" (the verb is used for humans too 29:17) is nothing more than the combination and reshaping of what Allah has already created. That is why He is the best of creators 37:125,23:14.
He is 2:117"badeeu/Innovator and initiator of the heavens and the earth"meaning that in His case, contrary to all creative endeavours, He creates without any blueprint, preexisting inspiration, experience, simply through His word
"and if HE decreed an order done, He only says be and it is".
The possibility to create/al khalq is attributed to others than Allah but can never be possible without Allah's permission 3:49,5:110.
This is illustrated in 43:12 or 55:24. Man is told that Allah "made" the ships on the sea, including the ship built by Noah 54:13, and other similar things man rides 36:42. He is the Creator of all the elements that make the ship, the One in Whose entire power is the accessibility and manageability (dhalul) of the Earth's resources, who made it provide for us and be hospitable for human life. Everything we see around us cannot be an accident 67:15-16. And just as He has created, then put all these means at our disposal, then gave us the ingenuity to make use of them, He finally allows that creativity to expess itself. Then, after that ship is assembled, He allows it to speed and float on the waters He created in the first place 14:32,17:66,22:65,36:41. The Quran sums it up this way
37:96"And Allah has created you and what you make"making Him the actual owner of what we make
55:24"And His are the ships reared aloft in the sea like mountains".The philosophical notion of Allah being the ultimate cause of all things such as the preceding example of Him encompassing all angles allowing the ship to come into existence, including by puting in mankind the intellectual capacity to build and engineer, as well as allowing the ship to properly perform through various natural phenomena, is demonstrated in other cases. He allows one of the most essential natural phenomenon for human advancement to exist, by creating its energy source
56:71-2"Have you considered the fire which you strike? Is it you that produce the trees for it, or are We the producers?".And then, the fire itself keeps on burning by Allah's will 36:80.
In the same vein, He has taught writing to the scribe 2:282, taught all of humanity what it knew not 96:4-5 through their senses of perception as they came out not knowing a thing from the womb 16:78. And when humans domesticate animals such as birds of prey the Quran says
5:4"you teach them of what Allah has taught you".Just as God "makes" for us shelters from the sun by creating in us the knowledge to make such shelters 16:81-3 He could equally make us unable to build any protection from the sun 18:90.
Allah "guides" mankind in the darkness
27:63"of the land and the sea"since He has created the cosmic bodies that help humans navigate and locate themselves in the night 6:97. He is the source of all things and Ultimate Provider,
15:21"And there is not a thing but with Us are the treasures of it, and We do not send it down but in a known measure".
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