Notesale: Turn your study into money

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2



THE JOURNEY BEGINS

3

Chapter 1

The Journey Begins
I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like this
...

It talks about all sorts of things that a lot of us spend a lot of time
trying to avoid
...
Death, judgement, hellfire and paradise (or is it all pie in the sky?), the meaning
of life and of course, the big one - is there really a God, or is it all
a delusion? Just the sort of things you’d try your utmost to avoid
thinking about
...
It’s not a long one, but on
the way we are going to encounter some very interesting and probably scary things; things that you might not want to believe even
though they make sense
...
org

www
...
org

There are some of you who will read the whole thing and perhaps
even agree with it, but never get around to doing anything about
it, and that is both really sad and really bad
...
You’ll think a little, or a lot, and then you’ll do
something truly amazing with your life, you’ll accept the inevitable
conclusions of reason, take a deep breath (at least mentally) and
decide to make a commitment that will transform you in wonderful
ways
...

OK, enough of the hype, let’s get down to the nitty gritty
...


4

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

What would you do if a man in a pair of red underpants came knocking on your door saying that he’d come to read the gas meter?
Yes, I am serious, what would you do? Actually, what you would do is
not so important here as compared with what process you would use
and what faculties you would employ to come to a decision about
this man and his claim
...
Even if you told him to “Get lost you weirdo!”, you’d
use reason, logic and common sense to make sense of the man in red
underpants, just as we do for most things that happen in our lives
...
If not, there isn’t much point in going any further
...

Now I know that I can’t actually prove this, and that it really is possible that all we see around us is a dream or an illusion, but how does
that help us? If we think THAT, then we could never make sense of
anything, and even if we did accept that, we’d still use our reason
to try and make sense of it and would still inevitably have to accept
what we see as being real in some sense
...

Now, there are some things we might call ‘universals’ because just
about everybody as far as we know would agree on them
...
For
example, the statement “part of something is less than the whole”
is a universal idea
...
It’s so obvious it doesn’t need explaining
...
Here is another
...
And how about ‘order doesn’t spontaneously arise from
chaos’?
What is there in the totality of human experience that would lead
us to believe that something comes from nothing or that order just
spontaneously arises from chaos?
Well that’s right! Nothing
...
The more complex and
ordered the systems, the more functional the form, the greater the
level of intelligence behind it
...
Universal human experience tells us that when we
find things working according to systems, laws and patterns, something has made those systems, laws and patterns
...
In fact, he might be able to tell us a whole range
of things about those people, their culture and state of technology
from this one piece of pottery
...
Perhaps it is possible this might have happened, but
it’s not likely
...
Your mobile phone is composed
of a few basic elements
...
Plastic comes from oil, and glass and silicon from
sand
...


6

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Now, what if I told you that I was walking along in the desert of
Arabia (where there is lots of oil and sand) and picked up a mobile
phone which I found just lying there
...
And naturally I
pick it up, push the call button
...

Why then, would we accept such an explanation for our universe
and the life within it? Even if we accept evolution as a process, the
idea that life evolved merely as a series of random events is difficult
to accept as a reasonable explanation
...
The earth
rotates on its axis once every twenty-four hours
...
A day or night is say 30 or 40 years long
instead of 24 hours
...
So the
earth’s surface would be both super heated and super cooled
...
Or, if the composition
of the gases in the atmosphere was not exactly the right blend of
oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen , or if there was no ozone to
filter out the harmful effects of the sun’s radiation, it is difficult to
see how life could exist without these optimal conditions
...

This can be observed in what are called the constants of nature,
of which there are quite a few
...
Two of these,
the strong and weak electromagnetic forces, are responsible for the
production of carbon, the element upon which all known life is
based
...
It is very unlikely for three helium
atoms to collide and create carbon under normal circumstances, as
the energies would not match up and the three helium atoms would
come apart before they had time to fuse into carbon
...
The slightest change to either the strong or weak
electromagnetic forces would alter the energy levels, resulting in
greatly reduced production of carbon and an ultimately uninhabitable universe
...
After the Big Bang billions
of years ago, the matter in the universe was randomly distributed
...
As the universe began to expand, gravity
pulled ever so gently on the atoms, gathering them into clumps that
eventually became stars and galaxies
...
If gravity was a bit weaker, the
atoms would have been so widely distributed that they would never
have been gathered into galaxies, stars and planets
...
The strength of gravity has to be just right
for stars to form
...

Makes shedding a few kilos seem simple, doesn’t it? It’s strange how
intelligent, educated humans can’t seem to shed a bit of weight in
order to live longer but the universe can seem to organise itself into
the optimal conditions for life through coincidence!

are a result of wilful intelligent design?

And that’s not all! Let’s take a closer look at the universe’s rate of
expansion after the Big Bang
...
If the rate of expansion was slower,
gravity would have overwhelmed the expansion and pulled all the
matter back into a black hole
...


So if common sense and reason point so conclusively towards the
existence of intelligent and wilful design, what other conclusions
can we come to through the use of reason?

Another example of this fine tuning is the density of the universe
...
The precision
of density must have been so great that a change of one part in 1015
(i
...
0
...

Remember our mobile phone in the desert?
Isn’t it much more reasonable to conclude that the universe and life

After all, what are the options?
Could it really have just come from nothing? And if that is the case,
then why not apply that to everything else in life?
Perhaps the man in the red underpants just spontaneously appeared! Could it have created itself ? Well we just don’t attribute to
the collection of stars and galaxies that we call the universe the ability to design and systemise
...

Why is that? Because if it was the same, then all we would have is
more of the same i
...
more creation, and then one might rightly
ask, so what created that? Surely something more intelligent and
wilful, and then of course we would ask the same question about
that
...

Imagine a sniper who has acquired his designated target and radios
through to HQ to get permission to shoot
...
So the
guy higher up seeks permission from the guy even higher up and so
on and so on
...
There has to be a place or person from where
the command is issued, a place where there is no higher up
...
We
can’t have creators creating creators forever, or else, just as the
sniper will never shoot, the creation will never get created
...
It exists
...

So what is the alternative?
The alternative is a first cause
...

So
...

And if the creation is temporary, the Creator should be eternal
...

And if the creation is common, the Creator should be unique
...
How
could there be two or three eternal beings, or two beings unconstrained by space or time?

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

11

This is why it makes so much sense to believe in One Unique Eternal and Self-Sufficient Creator
...

This, of course, makes it difficult to understand much more about
this Creator through reason, and that’s why some people stop right
there
...
We still have so many questions unanswered, so many issues
unresolved
...
The problem here is
that this is in fact an area where reason doesn’t do very well
...
We feel hunger and
need nutrients to sustain us, and all the means to provide those
nutrients are there
...
We also need companionship, love and support and we have
parents and families and live in societies that fulfil those needs
...

In fact, in some ways those deeper questions are even more important than the physical and emotional issues, since they define our
very reason for being
...
So the need to know why we are here and where we are going

As an example, imagine someone took you to a strange building
...
but
you could be wrong
...
well, almost anything
...

But the question here is, how can I trust that person? How can I be
sure that they are telling the truth?
It’s the same with these big questions; the purpose of life, why is
there suffering, is there life after death
...
Reason can’t come to any definitive answers, nor is there any reason to believe that intuition, or just
‘feeling it’ would do any better
...

Of course we still need reason
...
We still

14

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

15

need reason to figure out whom to trust
...
hmmm!)

Religions generally are making quite a special claim
...
So it’s a case of:
‘I’m right and everyone else is wrong!’ Not that this claim is in and
of itself a problem from the point of view of reason
...
Instead of one person claiming
they’ve come to read the gas meter, there are seven!
All is not lost
...
For example, he or she might have some form of identification
...
In the
same way there are some signs we can use to distinguish the true
religion from the false
...
This can be something like: ‘which one
looks like me and is from my race?’ Would you use that to decide
who comes into your house to read the meter? After all, criminals
come in all races and colours, as do gas meter readers
...
No! I thought not
...
For instance, like merely following whatever
your ancestors believed just because it seems familiar, or because
you love them so much or can’t imagine how they could have been
wrong! I’m sure that all of you do some things, if not many things,
differently from your parents
...
And what sort of reasoning would lead one to conclude that the true religion should
make you rich, or that by merely believing in a particular person
or thing you will get eternal life? Of course, one of the favourite
reasons for justifying a choice of religion is that someone started
following this religion, it changed their life and they’re happy! This
actually does make some sense, since there are some good reasons
to believe that this is what the true religion should do, but the problem here is that lots of other people make the same claim about
their different religious experiences
...
It’s part of our nature
...
So again, just claiming your religion is true because it changed your life can’t be on its own a sound
criterion, because then other religions must also be true because

16

THE TEST OF TEACHINGS

they too have changed peoples’ lives
...
If it’s true for one it must
be true for the other also
...
Claims need to be proven
...
D
...

So what tests could we apply?
Chapter 3

The Test of Teachings
The first test, and probably the best and most convincing, soon
leaves us with very few options
...
e One, Eternal, Self-Sufficient, and Transcendent Creator?
It’s not my intention here to criticise and mock various religions,
since all religions teach and encourage a common range of morals
and values
...

Rather, the purpose is just to examine them in the light of this simple and universally understandable criterion
...
Christians might
claim that they have a right to be included in this category, but at
least from the position of normal Christian belief it must join every
other religion in compromising or distorting this concept of the
Unique Creator in one way or another
...

This is the idea that everything is God
...

How can we reasonably understand and justify such a claim? If we
mean by ‘God’, the Creator, then this is saying the creation created
itself, and the creation is the Creator
...
But if it was not there in the first place how could it have created itself?
Also, we don’t ascribe to the universe the ability to order and systemise
...
The universe is
made up of stars and galaxies, and these themselves are in need
of a Creator
...
A country full of starving people is not any
more likely to be able to feed itself than an individual starving person!
Christianity shares a similar problem
...
The problem here is clear
...
One could conceive of the idea of taking the line of a circle and forcing it into the shape of a square,
but of course it then simply stops being a circle
...
This is by definition
an impossibility, and you can never bring a reasoned argument for
an impossibility
...
The
biggest problem is that it contradicts the reasoned arguments for
the existence of the Creator in the first place, since if one created,
finite, needy being could be the Creator, why not another and another and another? How can you rationally defend such a belief
against pantheism, for example?
The response to this is often “Well, God can do anything”
...
It’s also a statement that is fraught with
problems
...
Either: “No, He
can’t”, which contradicts what the Christians previously said about
God being able to do anything, or “Yes, He can if He wanted to
but God never would do anything evil because the nature of God
is good
...
Just as it is not in the nature of the good God
to do evil, also it is not in the nature of the Eternal, Self-Sufficient
Creator to become a temporary and needy creation
...
This also dispenses with most of what Hindus
and pagans believe since they make similar claims about the Cre-

THE TEST OF TEACHINGS

19

ator being incarnated as some created being
...
The problem here is what is meant by saying
“God’s Son”? A human son is human like his mother and father, so
is God’s Son also God? If so, we are back where we started and we
have the same problem as before
...
So did God have sex? Clearly this would contradict everything
we know so far about God being unlike the creation
...
For
example, if someone had a pet fish called Flappy and said: “This is
my son”, no one would take it seriously
...
The two are not alike, and we know the Creator is not
like anything in the universe
...
We are limited, finite, needy beings and so are
fish, whereas the Creator is eternal and self-sufficient
...

However, this term would apply to all creatures, not just humans,
let alone just one human
...
This
leaves Buddhism more like a philosophy than a religion, and this
comes with its own issues, namely that explanations for the purpose of life, the reason for suffering, and the big unknown of the
afterlife are the ideas of a man, not God
...
Everything else
is speculation
...
Sikhism
is similar to Buddhism in the sense that it doesn’t claim to be of

20

THE TEST OF UNIVERSALITY

divine origins, at least not directly
...
That is something many of us might be tempted to do in the face of such choice,
but there is a simple rational problem here
...

We’ve already applied one test to see if the claim of a religion being
from the Creator is valid or not: Does it agree with the rational basis through which we can understand that there is a single, unique,
eternal and self-sufficient Creator who is distinct and separate from
the Creation? Are there any other criterion that we might apply to
shorten our list of candidates?
Chapter 4

The Test of Universality
Well, perhaps there are a few other tests we could apply to see if
the I
...
is valid or not
...
What is meant by this is that this message from the Creator should be for everybody
...
Of course the
Creator might have very good reasons for choosing a select group
to carry and follow these wise instructions, just as there might be

THE TEST OF UNIVERSALITY

21

good reasons to choose to give the message to one outstanding person rather than speak to everyone individually
...
It seems strange that the Creator, who has provided
for every human the means to fulfil every need, doesn’t provide the
means to fulfil what is psychologically, mentally, and spiritually the
greatest need, which are the answers to the big questions!
This pretty much eliminates Judaism
...
Although quite
a few of us tend to think in some way that our country, race, tribe,
town, or football team is the best (or at least will be some day),
most of us would find it pretty hard to stomach the notion that unless you are born into a certain race or tribe you haven’t got a hope
of getting to the eternal bliss of paradise when you die, and that the
wise guidance of the Creator is only for them and not for you
...

I need us to stop here for a brief interlude
...
Perhaps I
should have warned you that you might actually hate the truth, and
if you’re that kind of person who thinks your life’s alright, and I
have everything I want anyway
...
But then if you’re that sort of person, you probably wouldn’t
really listen anyway
...


22

THE TEST OF UNIVERSALITY

WARNING!
What follows is only for people who are really ready to put prejudice aside, to think a little deeply and follow the most reasonable
conclusion
...
What follows is going to be a bit
of a rough ride when it comes to the sort of decisions and conclusions you need to make
...
Really I’m
not, because it will be well worth the effort
...
In fact, for some it will take a momentous effort
...
If you’ve agreed to use reason and common
sense to come to your conclusions, and if you are ready to take the
most reasonable option and that’s all that matters to you, I reckon
you’ll be fine
...
Some of you reading this might
even agree with everything and then just keep on living the way
you always did
...
I say try because you won’t be
able to, and I speak from experience
...

Others might have suspected it already
...
It will always
be with you
...

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
So back to where we left off
...
Zoroastrianism
and Islam
...
Firstly, Islam claims to be a universal religion for everybody
...
It’s just as much for English speaking
white people as it is for Arabs, Africans or Eskimos
...
A Muslim then is one who
claims to obey and follow the Creator’s guidance
...
The name of this religion is not connected to a particular person or place
...
So, for example, if one lived in
some remote location and never heard that a man called Jesus, who
is also God and God’s son, died for one’s sins, there is no way at all
that one could come to the realisation of this through one’s mind
or through experience
...
Someone would
have to tell you
...
The basic idea of
Islam, that there is a Unique Creator whose guidance we should
follow, is something anyone anywhere could figure out
...


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THE TEST OF CHARACTER

Chapter 5

The Test of Character
There are a few other tests that one could apply
...
If the person claiming to have a message
from the Creator is known and displays truthfulness, sincerity and
honesty, it becomes easy to accept that the person is also telling
the truth about the Message they are receiving from the Creator
...
They think that they are what they claim to be, and
are honest and truthful, but their experiences are a product of some
mental aberration or hallucination
...
Of course a good fraudster
will do everything in his or her power to make you think that they
are sincere and truthful
...
The problem here is
that we can easily end up back where we started
...
It’s not Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus,
Mohammad or Guru Nanak knocking on our door themselves, it’s
people who claim to be representing them and what they said
...
So before we
can examine these characters we need to have some idea about how
we know what they actually said as opposed to what people have
claimed that they said
...
The

THE TEST OF CHARACTER

25

problem with Zoroastrianism is that there is nothing really left of
the actual writings and sayings of Zoroaster
...
The problems with Biblical authenticity are well known
even to honest Christian and Jewish scholars
...
There
is very little controversy over the authenticity of the Quranic text
...
This
is quite remarkable for a text just over 1400 years old
...
Muslims claim
other scriptures have been changed, lost and distorted in various
ways, but the Creator (whose word the Quran is) has promised to
preserve the Quran because it is the last revelation from the Creator for humanity and thus Mohammed is the final messenger
...

This is what Muslims claim, but aren’t there lots of problems with
Islam?
I mean, how can anyone in the civilized free world, or in fact anywhere, be expected to follow a religion that’s 1400 years old? It
seems to treat women as second class citizens (but in the civilized
free world women are still paid less for the same job, are regularly
portrayed as sex objects, suffer scary amounts of sexual and physical abuse and find it almost impossible to be respected as mothers
and wives, but at least in the civilized world we claim that women
are supposed to be equal)
...
’
And how about all those seemingly barbaric laws with hand chopping for thieves, and death for apostates and adulterers (and how
come it’s always the women that seem to get killed?) and death for
homosexuals, and whipping for drunks, and even crucifixion for
highway robbers!
Isn’t the Quran just like every other religious book; full of contradictions, vague terms and open to many levels of interpretation?
Well, the Quran seems to be unlike any other scripture from at
least one angle, and that is the nearly undisputed fact of its preservation and authenticity
...

Does the fact that the Quran teaches certain things that go against
the customs and norms that we are used to, mean that it is not from
the Creator?
There is in fact no rational reason why any of the aforementioned
issues actually preclude its divine origin
...
I’m not saying this is the
actual case, I’m just proving the point that again this is not a rational reason to reject the claim of the Quran to be from the Creator
...


THE TEST OF CHARACTER

27

The problem with judging any given book or scripture only on its
morals and laws is that morals and laws in general are far from universal
...
Limited polygamy
might seem like an unreasonable restriction in a society that relies
on marriage as a means of social security for women and practices
unlimited polygamy
...
The self
styled ‘civilized free world’ is itself constantly changing its moral
and ethical stance on many things
...
In
fact, the opposite is true
...
Rationally, one should take the position that if one can establish
convincing evidence of a book’s divine origin, then one should accept that the Creator of us knows what is best for us
...
So we should put this issue of the so called incompatibility of
Islam with modern life aside as a red herring (or perhaps as another
man in red underpants!)
Now, this may be time to swallow the bitterest pill of all so far
...
At least we should put our prejudice
aside and try to openly examine the reasoned arguments put forth
in favour of the Quran’s claim to be that guidance
...
Let’s go over them
again
...
e
...
There are lots of verses in
the Quran that expound this idea
...
” [The
Quran; Chapter 112 - The Purity, verses 1-4]
Some people question the use of ‘He’ in the Quran
...
It’s just that in Arabic, the original language
of the Quran, like many other languages, there is only male and
female, no neuter
...
‘He’ just happens to be the
gender term that is used in the Quran, but it does not imply or necessitate that God is a man or male
...
The history of this preservation
is itself worthy of some study, but for brevity I’ll just relate some
comments of various scholars on this matter, for example:
The orientalist Richard Burton writes that the Qur’an we have today is ‘the text which has come down to us in the form in which it
was organized and approved by the Prophet…What we have today
in our hands is the mushaf [text] of Muhammad
...
’ Schwally writes in Geschichte des Qorans that ‘As far as
the various pieces of revelation are concerned, we may be confident that their text has been generally transmitted exactly as it was
found in the Prophet’s legacy’
...

The third reason we should sit up and take notice is because the
message of Islam claims to be a universal one, that is, for everybody
regardless of race or status, and indeed makes clear that the Creator
does not look at a person’s colour, race, tribe, wealth or status, but
rather at a person’s heart, goodness and deeds
...
It can be very difficult to get
one’s head around, since it doesn’t seem to follow any particular order of events, topic or theme
...
In
fact, in order to understand it you are forced to think, and thinking
is what the Quran asks us to do a lot
...
There is only One God,
who is both compassionate and merciful to all His creatures, but especially to those who are humble and believe
...
Life is
a test, and when we die and this universe as we know it ends, there
will be a day when we will be recreated physically and judged and either rewarded with eternal bliss, or punished with eternal torment
...

Is there anything else that might help us accept the claim of the
Quran to be from the Creator of the heavens and earth? Well, the
Quran itself gives a sort of falsification test
...
Certainly one would expect the Creator of all
things to be familiar with the basic workings of the natural world
and universe, and with events in human history
...

And there is another remarkable quality about the Quran, and that
is that it still stands today as by far the most outstanding piece
of literature in the Arabic language
...
The shortest
chapter of the Quran was a mere three verses! At a time when poets
were the ‘pop stars’ of Arabia, Mohammed showed no poetic ability, either prior to or after the revelation of the Quran
...
Many of the most skilled poets
and orators of that time admitted that these were not the words
of Mohammed, or even a human
...
For them it was the most convincing proof of its divine origin
...
The question
remains as to how someone with no known poetic gifts was able to
produce a piece of literature that until today stands supreme in the
whole of the Arabic language at a time when the greatest pieces of
Arabic poetry were being produced
...
He had no access to the means of acquiring such

THE TEST OF CHARACTER

31

knowledge
...
Some Christian polemicists even went as far as to claim that Mohammed himself was in
fact a heretical Christian bishop that had fled to Arabia, and others
claimed that he had learned from some dissident monk! However,
despite the rich history and available literature of Mohammed’s life,
no one can seem to be able to identify this character and how he
managed to stay hidden for the duration of the twenty-three years
the Prophet preached
...
He does not display the psychological profile
of a con artist at all
...
This leaves us
still with the unexplained mystery of the amazing information and
breadth of knowledge contained in the Quran
...

If you think you are a Prophet and really believe you are receiving
information from God, when someone comes to ask you a difficult
question as often happened to Mohammed, you don’t go off running to your nearest priest or rabbi to find out what the answer is
going to be
...

The most reasonable conclusion that explains the phenomenon of
both the amazing level of information in the Quran and the clear
sincerity and truthfulness of Mohammed is that he was what he
claimed to be, the Messenger of God
...
The
Prophet Mohammed’s sincerity, truthfulness and principled behaviour is explained by him actually being what he claimed to be and
having certainty that he was receiving a divine message
...
I’m just going to select a choice few things that I find
particularly fascinating and personally convincing
...
Lots of Christians have tried to accuse Mohammed of attempting to copy and use the Bible, and this
is pretty silly for a number of reasons
...
Now there are a lot of
the same people mentioned in the Quran that are in the Bible, and
this is because they are, mostly, Prophets and Messengers of God
...
It’s not strange that Abraham is mentioned, since the Arabs considered him their patriarch via his son
Ishmael
...
However, what might seem
strange and a challenge to explain is just how much there is about
Moses in the Quran
...

There are two fascinating little but telling details taken from these
stories in the Quran
...
The Bible calls both Pharaoh
...
The ruler
of Egypt under Moses was a native Egyptian who had supplanted
the Hykos and who began to oppress the tribe of Israel
...
The
knowledge of reading hieroglyphs had been lost hundreds of years
previously, and was not known again until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone 1000 years later
...

The Quran relates the story of how Moses goes to Pharaoh and invites him to believe in
...

Pharaoh starts to question Moses about this unseen God above the
heavens
...
So he
arrogantly says to one of his people:
Pharaoh said: “O Haman! Build me a lofty palace, that I may attain
the ways and means- The ways and means of (reaching) the heavens,
and that I may mount up to the god of Moses: But as far as I am
concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!” [The Quran; Chapter 40 - The
Forgiver, verses 36-37]
Much has been made of the mention of this Haman, claiming that
Mohammed copied stories from the Bible and got it all mixed up
...
However, there are no independent historical records that
show that such a character ever existed in Persia
...

We do however, contrary to the mocking claims of many Christian
polemicists, have a Haman, located in Ancient Egypt that seems to
fit the bill perfectly
...
Maurice Bucaille was one of the first people to study the name
Haman from an Egyptological view point
...
e
...
Bucaille
narrates an interesting discussion he had with a prominent French
Egyptologist:
“In the book Reflections on the Qur’an (Réflexions sur le Coran),
I have related the result of such a consultation that dates back to
a dozen years ago and led me to question a specialist who, in addition, knew the classical Arabic language well
...

I showed him the word ‘Haman’ that I had copied exactly how it
is written in the Qur’an, and told him that it had been extracted
from a sentence of a document dating back to the 7th century AD,
the sentence being related to somebody connected with Egyptian
history
...


AMAZING LEVEL OF INFORMATION

35

In order to confirm his deduction about the name, he advised me to
consult the Dictionary of Personal Names of the New Kingdom by
Ranke, where I might find the name written in hieroglyphs, as he
had written before me, and the transliteration in German
...

When I came again to the expert with a photocopy of the page
of the Dictionary concerning ‘Haman’ and showed him one of the
pages of the Qur’an where he could read the name, he was speechless
...
Several years later, when I
was able to read the profession written in hieroglyphs on the stela,
I observed that the determinative joined to the name had emphasised the importance of the intimate relationship to the Pharaoh
...

Just think about the world 1400 years ago and the level of knowledge that existed, or perhaps we should say the level of ignorance
that was prevalent, especially in regards to the natural world
...
Legends and myths also

36

AMAZING LEVEL OF INFORMATION

abounded
...
Yes, there are miracles and wonders worked by the Creator
to increase the faith of the faithful and confound the obstinate, but
otherwise descriptions of the world and universe seem remarkably
modern
...
Even if Mohammed had managed to pick up the
best ideas of the time and leave out these legends, it still does not
account for the remarkable consistency of the Quran with modern
science
...

“Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were
joined together (as one unit of creation), before We clove them
asunder, and We made from water every living thing
...
Then how about this:
“And it is We who have constructed the heaven with might, and
verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it
...
In other words, the universe is expanding
...


AMAZING LEVEL OF INFORMATION

37

Science is a very fickle fellow
...
Still, there are some things that seem to
have been observed so often and so much that it becomes some
sort of ‘fact’
...

The idea that we go through stages of foetal development is really
quite new
...
For example, one of the
dominant theories that was prevalent in the eighteenth century was
the pre-formation theory
...
There were even claims of observations
of this through the primitive microscopes available at the time
...
It was not
until the late nineteenth century that what we know today began
to be clearly articulated
...
Then We placed
him as (a drop of) fluid in a place of rest firmly fixed
...
Then
We fashioned that leech-like thing that clings into a chewed-like
lump
...
Then We developed out of it another
creature
...
” [The Quran; Chapter 22 - The Pilgrimage, verse 5]

38

AMAZING LEVEL OF INFORMATION

Keith Moore, Professor and Chairman, Department of Anatomy,
University of Toronto, Canada, and author of ‘The Developing Human’, considered to be one of the world’s leading embryologists,
said concerning these statements in the Qur’an and authenticated
hadeeth: “Until the 19th Century, nothing was known about classifying the stages of human development
...
During the 20th century, numerals were
used to describe 23 stages of embryonic development
...
In recent years, the
study of the Qur’an has revealed another basis for the classification
of the stages of the developing embryo which is based on easily understood actions and changes in shape
...
It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammed from God because almost
all of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later
...
”
Marshall Jonson, Professor and Chairman, Department of Anatomy, Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute, Thomas Jefferson
University, Philadelphia, U
...
A
...
I can understand embryology and
developmental biology; I can understand the words that are translated to me from the Qur’an
...
I see no evidence to refute
the concept that this individual Muhammed had to be developing
this information from some place, so I see nothing in conflict with
the concept that Divine Intervention was involved on what he was
able to say
...
So the most suitable
word to describe mountains on the basis of this information is the
word ‘peg’, since most of a properly set peg is hidden under the surface of the ground
...

Mountains also play an important role in stabilizing the crust of the
earth since they hinder the shaking of the earth
...
” [The Quran; Chapter 16 - The Bees, verse 15]
Likewise, the modern theory of plate tectonics holds that mountains work as stabilizers for the earth
...

The Quran is not meant to be a book of science, but a book of
signs
...
It would seem that accepting this would be the most sensible thing for a rational, sincere

40

TEACHINGS OF THE BOOK

person to do
...
God is One and
Alone, who has no partners and no rivals, and we should pray to and
worship only the Creator
...
The Quran teaches that
all of God’s Prophets and Messengers to the humans have been human
...
This makes sense
...
That is why there is suffering and
joy, health and illness, wealth and poverty, good and evil, night and
day, darkness and light
...
How can we really appreciate what is good without evil, and how often is it that we only appreciate good health
when we are sick? The test is to make known the reality of our
selves
...
We
should use our intelligence to understand and follow that guidance
...
In fact, this understanding
of our limitations and recognition of God’s greatness is the essence
of what Islam is about
...

The reason for our existence, the primary purpose of our complex
minds, and the gift of reason is to understand and to try to do everything in a way that is pleasing to the Creator
...
In order
to help us live most effectively and be constant in this, the Creator
has made it an essential component of this way of living to establish
regular acts of worship in our lives
...
Rather, we have been created with that need
...

This is why the most important action that a Muslim (one who
follows Islam) has to do is to pray in a special way at special times
throughout the day and night
...
Establishing this regular ritual prayer with sincerity and
understanding is the key to changing ourselves
...

Another essential component is giving charity to help those who
are less fortunate and needy
...

Of course living this life takes discipline, self control and patience,
and this is the reason why fasting has always been a component of
religious life, and this is also the case with Islam
...
It is also important to try to keep away

42

TEACHINGS OF THE BOOK

from evil in speech and actions, since that is the essence of what
fasting is supposed to lead to
...

Respecting one’s parents and being kind to them, especially in old
age, being good to one’s neighbour, and encouraging good and discouraging evil are essential virtues
...

Life is short and soon, very soon we will all die, but death is not the
end
...
Every atom’s weight of good and evil, we will know
about
...
It is a choice they made
...

Those who were good and lived a life of obedience to God will
live forever in complete joy and bliss in paradise
...
What a beautiful abode!
That, really, is what the Creator is inviting us to; His paradise
...
In fact, the Creator tells us that we will not be
left just saying we believe without being tested
...

Knowing this and following it brings true peace to the heart
...
A peace that is not merely the
absence of war, but a peace that is deeper and more profound
...

We have neared the end of our journey and the destination is in
view
...

Yes, it may seem a bit strange and the things you need to do are
probably not those you are quite used to
...
Yes! Just go ahead and try asking
the Creator of all things, and ask Him alone, not through anyone or

44

THE JOURNEY’S END

anything, just direct to the Creator, and do it sincerely from your
heart to guide and help you to do the right thing
...

Simply say: “I am a witness that there really is no god except the
One God and that Mohammed is the Messenger of God (technically that is what makes you Muslim) or in Arabic “Ash shadu an laa
il laaha il Allah wa ashadu anna Mohammadan rasul lu lah!”

THE JOURNEY’S END

45

FURTHER READING
Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an, OUP Oxford, 2008
...

http://www
...
com/research/embryology-in-the-quran/
retrieved 17 June 2012, 18:36
...
To learn how to do this, or for any other help
contact “Muslim Now” (www
...
org)
...

May the peace and blessing of God be with you always
...
org

www
...
org

Who is The Man in the Red Underpants?
What does he want and why are his pants red
and not pink? Did he really get his red
underpants from Agent Provocateur and what
does he want anyway?
None of these questions are dealt with in this
book! Rather this book asks you to think
about how you would deal with the man in the
red underpants
...
If you believe in unbelievable
things without proof, then put this book
down now, and if you think that you're a
thinker, think again!
The man in the Red Underpants will make
sure your life is never the same again
...
org

www
...
org



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