GLORIOUS QURAN: A MIRACLE OF PURITY AND DIVINITY (3)

Published in The Guardian Newspaper of August 6, 2015



Scientists describe labour, which ends with delivery, as comprised of 4 stages: (1) Stage of dilatation of cervix and contraction of uterus muscle. (2) Stage of delivering of the foetus. (3) Stage of placenta emergence and the formation of blood clot behind the placenta. (4) Stage of uterus contraction. This is to alleviate the bleeding after delivery process, and continues for about two hours. So, Almighty Allah designs these stages from Eve (Hawau) through Hannah (Hannat) and Mary (Mariam), mother of Jesus (AS) till date and not through “placing curse on Eve” as recorded in the Glorious Quran.

After delivery and cutting of umbilical cord which the foetus has depended upon for acquiring food from the mother during pregnancy, the baby starts another stage in a new station of life. In this stage, Almighty Allah, the Supreme Being, ordained another unique food for the baby. He asserts “And the mothers should suckle their children for two whole years for him who desires to make complete the time of suckling; and their maintenance and their clothing must be– borne by the father according to usage; no soul shall have imposed upon it a duty but to the extent of its capacity; neither shall a mother be made to suffer harm on account of her child, nor a father on account of his child, and a similar duty (devolves) on the (father’s) heir, but if both desire weaning by mutual consent and counsel, there is no blame on them, and if you wish to engage a wet-nurse for your children, there is no blame on you so long as you pay what you promised for according to usage; and be careful of (your duty to) Allah and know that Allah sees what you do” (Q2:233).

So, Almighty Allah through the Glorious Quran enjoins “two years” for breastfeeding (without compulsion from the mother and those with medical difficulties) as the best form of weaning and the financial responsibility should be borne “by the father” based on capability. The parents (of the new born baby) are enjoined to seek counsel from experienced ones and health officers and if the mother is medically not fit to breastfeed, she can employ medically certified woman to do so.

More importantly, scientists discovered recently that the child’s complete nutrition is from her mother’s breast milk, as it is not completed unless the mother suckled her child for two complete years! Again, World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, after which “infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues up to two years of age or beyond ” as reported in WHO (2003) Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, Geneva. Yet, a new medical conference came with a conclusion that the ideal period of sucking is two years, because in this age the child is in urgent need of immunity elements to develop immunity systems which are only found in mother’s milk.

One would not but ask: why did it take the turn of millennium before WHO, Academy of Pediatrics, US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality among others to align their scientific reasoning with what Almighty Allah has revealed to Prophet Muhammed (through Angel Gabriel) in 14 hundred centuries ago? Why is it that since 1400 years ago, Quran has not be revised, reviewed, re-edited or re-modified? In answering these questions, it is universally acknowledged backed with historical facts and scientific reasoning, that the Glorious Quran is a revealed book from the Almighty Allah through Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) unto mankind over a period of 23 years.

While contributing to the debate on the originality of the Quran, the New Catholic Encyclopedia has a very interesting subject under Qur’an. In an article under this subject, the Catholic Church states that “Over the centuries, many theories have been offered as to the origin of the Qur’an… Today, no sensible man accepts any of these theories!!” Again, Encyclopedia of Religions and Ethics (volume 10, page 549) stated: “There are in the public libraries of Europe many Qur’anic manuscripts of high antiquity, the oldest dating probably from the second Islamic century, but apart from some anomalies of spelling due to rudimentary character of the early Arabic orthography, no real variant can be detected in them….”

Surprisingly, one of the oldest texts of the Qur’an in the world, on parchment that was possibly made within the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), has been found in the collection of the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham according to BBC Online of July 22, 2015. The two well-preserved leaves of parchment, closely written in an elegant script, have been radiocarbon-dated to between AD568 and AD645, a result regarded by the scientists who tested it at University of Oxford as near certain – 95.4% accurate.

David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam, and the Nadir Dinshaw professor of interreligious relations at the university, called the discovery “one of the most surprising secrets of the university’s collections”. He said it supported the view that the version of the Qur’an in use today had hardly changed from the earliest recorded version, and the Muslim belief that the text represented an exact record of the revelations delivered to the Prophet.

The parchment and the beautiful early Arabic script closely resemble other fragments in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris from the earliest mosque in Egypt, founded in AD642. These assertions testify to the message of the Glorious Quran that “Surely, We have revealed the Reminder (Quran) and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption)” (Q15:9). No wonder Rev. Bosworth Smith concluded in his book - Mohammed and Mohammedanism - published in London, that “Al-Quran as a miracle of purity of style, of wisdom and of truth, it is the one miracle claimed by Mohammed, his standing miracle; he called it, and a miracle indeed it is!”

· Concluded.

· Engr. Dauda Ayanda (MNSE), wrote from Ibadan.