The
Qur'an Challenge You
- Storm On The Sea -
- Storm On The Sea -
Calling
the Qur'an amazing is not something done only by Muslims, who have an
appreciation for the book and who are pleased with it; it has been labeled
amazing by non-Muslims as well. In fact, even people who hate Islam very much
have still called it amazing. One thing which surprises non_muslims who are
examining the book very closely is that the Qur'an does not appear to them to
be what they expected. What they assume is that they have an old book which
came fourteen centuries ago from the Arabian desert; and they expect that the
book should look something like that - an old book from the desert. And then
they find out that it does not resemble what they expected at all.
Additionally, one of the first things that some people assume is that because
it is an old book which comes from the desert, it should talk about the desert.
Well the Qur'an does talk about the desert - some of its imagery describes the
desert; but it also talks about the sea - what it's like to be in a storm on
the sea.
Some
years ago, the story came to us in Toronto about a man who was in the merchant
marine and made his living on the sea. A Muslim gave him a translation of the
Qur'an to read. The merchant marine knew nothing about the history of Islam but
was interested in reading the Qur'an. When he finished reading it, he brought
it back to the Muslim and asked, "This Muhammad was he a sailor ?" He
was impressed at how accurately the Qur'an describes a storm on a sea. When he
was told, "No as a matter of fact, Muhammad lived in the desert,"
that was enough for him. He embraced Islam on the spot. He was so impressed
with the Qur'an's description because he had been in a storm on the sea, and he
knew that whoever had written that description had also been in a storm on the
sea. The description of "a wave, over it a wave, over it clouds" was
not what someone imagining a storm on a sea to be like would have written;
rather, it was written by someone who knew what a storm on the sea was like.
This is one example of how the Qur'an is not tied to a certain place and time.
Certainly, the scientific ideas expressed in it also do not seem to originate from the desert fourteen centuries ago.
By Gary Miller