Since the beginning of human life, people have sought to understand nature, their own place in creation, and the purpose of life. Some religions rest on books their followers hold to be divinely inspired; others rest on human experience alone.
The Qur'an is held by Muslims to be entirely of divine origin and to contain guidance for all humankind. If that message is genuinely for all times, it must be relevant to every age — including this one. The booklet asks whether it passes that test, and examines the claim against established scientific findings.
Defining a Miracle First
The book does something most works in this genre skip, and it is the reason it holds up. Before claiming anything as miraculous, it asks what a miracle actually is.
A miracle is something occurring outside the normal course of events for which humankind has no explanation. But that definition demands caution, and the author illustrates why with a case: a man in Mumbai claiming to have remained submerged in a tank of water for three days and nights — a claim that dissolved once reporters asked to examine the base of the tank.
Establishing a proper standard before applying it is what separates a serious argument from wishful reading, and readers should note that the author sets the bar before he starts jumping it.
What Is Examined
Statements in the Qur'an bearing on the natural world — embryology, astronomy, geology, oceanography, the water cycle and the atmosphere — set against what is now established, with attention to what was and was not knowable in seventh-century Arabia.
Who It Is For
Non-Muslims with a scientific training who respond to evidence rather than exhortation. Muslim students who meet these arguments on campus. Da'wah workers. Short, inexpensive and made to be given away.
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