درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Verse 88 of Surah al-Naml has likened mountains to moving clouds. Although in the previous centuries, most exegetes considered the movement of mountains as one of the pre-resurrection events, new scientific findings in geology and meteorology have brought new aspects of this similarity to scholars. this study aims to present a new understanding about verse 88 of Surah al-Namal and identify the similarities between the movement of mountains and clouds, according to the reference scientific texts in geology and meteorology. The results showed that the similarity of mountains to clouds, in addition to the direction and speed of movement previously specified, is in the mechanism of motion, layers and constituents. Earlier, many exegetes considered the movement of the mountains to be related to the resurrection and did not see it as compatible with the current conditions of the mountains but today, scientific findings show that the movement of mountains in several aspects is like clouds: 1. Mountain movements are influenced by the movement of earth's twenty plates, in different directions including orbital, meridian, combination of the two and ascending. Clouds also show all four side of movement in the atmosphere. 2. The movement of mountains is slow and at a speed of several millimeters or a few centimeters per year, and the movement of clouds is also slow in the sky. 3. The mountains move on the edge of the plates in an upward motion on the edge of the opposite plate, and this phenomenon can be seen in the front clouds of the warm air mass, i.e. the cold air mass creeps upwards at the front. 4. The mountains continue to evolve even as they move with tectonics forces from below and erosion forces from above. Clouds also evolve from above while moving, by converging currents from below and diverging from above.

Proving the miraculous nature of the Qur’an as one of the methods to believe in the Qur’an as a divine text has always attracted the attention of the researchers of the Qur’an; nevertheless, the published efforts on this subject are facing numerous methodological challenges. This research attempts to introduce a new and original method exempt from the challenges of the present methods by utilizing some of the techniques in mathematical sciences, logic and statistics. This scientific case-based method rates the effective parameters in the recognition of scientific miracle for one case. Accordingly, it will calculate the certainty of each case and proceeds to combine the ratings of various cases of scientific miracle to calculate the degree of certainty of the divine nature of the book based on those results. In combining the ratings, a threshold will be determined based on human belief behavior. An advantage of this method is that it is extra-religious, data driven, quantitative, applicable to all texts, and generalizable to the entire content. 

In theological debates about the creation of human and the theory of evolution, “the theory of creation” means the creation of human at once by the creator of the universe, and “the theory of evolution” means the natural, normal, and gradual creation of human in the evolutionary cycle of life. The question is whether the Qur’an also views human creation as contradictory to his natural and evolutionary genesis. This study shows that the Qur’anic concepts of creation (khalq) and selection (iṣṭifāʾ) based on the contextual analysis of these vocabularies allow for an evolutionary reading of human creation. Creation means the emergence of phenomena in a natural, time-consuming, step-by-step process with the interference of natural laws supported by God’s command. The meaning of the presence of divine command in all stages of creation is the consciousness of all the objects and their components which is effective in the process of creating an organ along with other factors. Also, the concept of selection of Adam suggests that Adam was chosen among his contemporaries as the first modern human being because of his physical and mental superiority, and his creation was not at once, unnatural and unrelated to previous generations. 

One of the phrases that has been considered by most commentators with the approach of empirical science is “the darkness of the three (the three veils of darkness)” in the verse (Q.39:6). They have interpreted this combination as the three darknesses of the abdomen, uterus and amnion-chorion. A view has also been put forward by contemporaries, which considers it as the spaces between the abdomen and uterus, the flesh of the uterus and the amnion, the amnion and the fetus, and has considered such an interpretation as an example of the scientific miracle of the Qur’an. In the meantime, another approach can be taken and based on the descriptive-analytical method and with the focus on the interdisciplinary approach, what is the “darkness of the three” is examined. Accordingly, by relying on the symbol of “complete and dense indifference and shapelessness before creation” for “darkness of the three,” this phrase can be considered as the platform for the formation of protein structures (based on genetic information contained in DNA codes), which are the cornerstone of the structure and biological processes of living organisms (without the production of proteins, no biological processes will be formed and no cells and organs will be made). It should be borne in mind that this interpretive possibility is also compatible with the components of the scientific miracle of the Qur’an.