4 Mind-Blowing Scientific Facts Mentioned In The Quran

According to Islamic tradition, the Quran was first revealed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in 609 CE. Over the next two decades, new surahs were dictated to the Prophet ﷺ by the angel Gabriel, who was delivering the words of God.

Despite being revealed in a time and place where scholarship was of little concern, the Quran contains several interesting scientific facts. These scientific facts were not known to the people of the Prophet’s era. A number of them have only been discovered in the past 100 years.

We will present you with the most noteworthy scientific facts discussed in the Quran produced 14 centuries ago. Here are Four scientific facts mentioned in the Quran.

1. Prenatal Development

The Quran’s passages on the stages of prenatal development are masterfully intricate. Furthermore, when read in Arabic, they feature complex wordplay becoming a divine humorist.

Discussing the evolution of the embryo, Quran, 23:12-14 states:

“We created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into an alaqah.”

The first thing we must look at to understand the above passage is the use of the word “alaqah”.

In Arabic, “alaqah” is a homograph with three different meanings. It can refer to a leech, a blood clot, or something that has been suspended. All three are relevant when talking about embryonic development.

In utero, a fetus obtains nutrients and oxygen from the blood of the mother. In this way, it is not unlike a leech, which survives by sucking blood from other creatures. In the early stages of its development, an embryo’s blood does not circulate. This means large amounts of blood remain stationary, rendering the fetus similar to a blood clot. The translation of “alaqah” as something which has been suspended is particularly interesting. When in the womb, an embryo is “suspended” from the uterine wall by the placenta and umbilical cord.

Much of what we now know about human embryonic development is documented in Professor Emeritus Keith L. Moore’s scientific reference book The Developing Human. Moore is an authority in anatomy and embryology and in 1981 he visited Saudi Arabia to lecture on the topic.

When discussing the Quran’s teachings on prenatal development, Moore declared: “It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, because almost all of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later.”

2. Brain Anatomy

Little was known about the human brain in 7th-century Saudi Arabia, which is what makes the Quran’s verses on brain anatomy so fascinating.

In Quran, 96:15-16, you will find verses reading:

“Let him beware! If he does not stop, We will take him by the naseyah, a lying, sinful, naseyah!”

This passage was revealed at a time when Muslims were being mocked and persecuted by more powerful religious sects. When it was delivered to Muhammad, it was intended to advise him on how to deal with one particular non-believer who was making it difficult for Muslims to pray at the Kaaba.

However, it is the surah’s use of the Arabic word “naseyah” that is of primary concern to Islamic scholars today.

In Arabic, “naseyah” essentially translates to “the front of the head”, which makes the above extract curiously pedantic. Why specify an area of the head? Why not just refer to the head as a whole? The answer lies in the Quran’s description of the non-believer’s naseyah as “lying” and “sinful”.

Modern research into the anatomy of the human brain has established the prefrontal area of the cerebrum as the center of motivation, planning, and aggression. In other words, the front of the brain is responsible for our ability to perform evil or sinful acts. It is also responsible for our ability to discern reality from fiction. This means that, if you so choose, your naseyah can indeed be a sinful and lying one.

3. Oceanic Divisions

When two seas come together, it is called a “confluence” or “conflux”. A confluence makes for a fascinating sight. You see when two seas meet, their waters maintain their individual qualities. This includes temperature, density, and, colour. So a photograph of a confluence will show two bodies of water of totally different shades running side by side or into each other head-on.

These oceanic divisions are a relatively recent discovery and were not documented on camera until only recently. It is interesting, then, that the Quran, 55:19-20 contains the following passage:

“He has let free the two seas meeting together. There is a barrier between them. They do not transgress.”

Additionally, an earlier verse, to be found in Quran, 25:53, reads:

“He is the one who has let free the two bodies of flowing water, one sweet and palatable, and the other salty and bitter. And He has made between them a barrier and a forbidding partition.”

While this may seem like a rehashing of what is said in the Quran, 55:19-20, it provides additional information on oceanic divisions. When salt and freshwater streams meet in an estuary, they are prevented from merging by a pycnocline zone. This zone sits between the salt and freshwater streams and has its unique salinity level.

The aforementioned pycnocline zone is imperceptible to the human eye. Scientists have discovered it only recently through a series of complex investigations with high-tech equipment. Believers of the Quran, however, have known about that “forbidding partition” for centuries.

4. Ocean Depths and Internal Waves

Quran, 24:40 features a passage in which God compares the ignorance of the non-believers to the depths of the ocean. According to the verse, a non-believer’s life is bleak and spent in darkness as dark as the deep sea. Discussing the depths of the ocean, He goes on to say:

“It is covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds. Darkness, one above another. If a man stretches out his hand, he 

cannot see it. And he for whom Allah has not appointed light, for him there is no light.”

Today we know that light is scarce 200 meters below the ocean. At such a depth, a diver can expect to see very little and will experience difficulty observing their hand, even with it stretched out in front of them.

Light ceases entirely at a depth of 1000 meters below the ocean. Although some daredevil scuba divers have managed to make it near such a depth, no human has been able to survive going deeper than 1000 meters unaided. Scientists have only been able to verify the lack of light 1000 meters below the ocean using submarines and sophisticated electronic systems. Of course, no such equipment existed during Muhammad’s lifetime.

If we go back to the previously examined extract, we’ll also find an interesting note on internal waves. Referring to the deepest portion of the ocean, the verse tells us “It is covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds”. This would suggest that waves can occur within the ocean, beneath the waves that are visible on its surface (or “under the clouds”).

Contemporary oceanographers have confirmed that internal waves do exist. They occur when the lower layer of an ocean encounters an obstacle. The obstacle in question creates a disturbance in the water’s flow, causing it to oscillate rapidly. Unlike their surface-borne counterparts, internal waves can move across the ocean for hours on end. In some cases, they can reach up to 10 kilometers in length.