I received an email recently relaying information regarding a study which was conducted by a Dutch psychology Professor in the Netherlands. The gist of his discovery is about:
“the effect of reading the Qur’aan and repeating the word ALLAH both on patients and on normal persons.”
The Saudi daily newspaper who reported this story claims “that the psychologist was quoted to say that Muslims who can read Arabic and who read the Quran regularly could protect themselves from psychological diseases.”
How?
“The psychologist explained how each letter in the word ‘ALLAH’ affects healing of psychological diseases. He pointed out in his research that pronouncing the first letter in the word ‘ALLAH’ which is the letter (A), released from the respiratory system, controls breathing. He added that pronouncing the velar consonant (L) in the Arabic way, with the tongue touching slightly the upper part of the jaw producing a short pause and then repeating the same pause constantly, relaxes the aspiration.
Also, pronouncing the last letter which is the letter (H) makes a contact between the lungs and the heart and in turn this contact controls the heartbeat.”
Ok, now the first thing I would ask myself upon reading this (and I did) is who is this professor, what is his first name and were does he conduct his research? I don’t suffer fools gladly and this is valid information. Do you expect me to believe a man who only goes by the name of “Van der Hoven”? Not until I see some credentials!
As Sheikh Khaled Yassin says “Mathew who? Mark who? Luke who? John who? Four different gospels that were written 48 years apart and none of these men who did not corroborate with each other, none of them wrote their last name? …. If a police man stopped you … and you only had your first name would that be acceptable to him? Could you get a passport with your first name?”
So this leads me to sigh deeply. More propaganda spread by Muslims to convince themselves to the existence and supremacy of Allah. Is the Quran not enough? Are they not aware that the Quran contains facts which were impossible to know at the time it was revealed to the Prophet Mohamed? Do they not see the order of nature and the beauty of Allah’s creation? Is this not enough to prove the wonder of Allah without possibly fabricating Dutch professors and medical studies?
I could be wrong about this. It could all be absolutely “REAL AND VERIFIABLE” as I was assured in capital letters in the email, but if it is, why did a Google search not come up with any more information about this man except for other websites discussing the same issue? I have a friend who is a law professor and when I type her name in Google I have pages of search results with her name and she’s not famous, but she exists. If this study had been published, by now you would have had no end of other professors aiming to disprove these results. This is Islam we’re talking about and we don’t need more reasons for people to convert to Islam now do we.
Don’t people see that accepting these kinds of stories without verifying them and then further propagating them to others who also don’t stop to verify them only causes non muslims (or at least the haters) to further laugh at and ridicule Islam. When unbelievers asked the Prophet Mohamed for his miracles, what did Allah say?
Say: “If the whole of mankind and Jinns were to gather together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support. And We have explained to man, in this Qur’an, every kind of similitude: yet the greater part of men refuse (to receive it) except with ingratitude!
They say: “We shall not believe in thee, until thou cause a spring to gush forth for us from the earth, Or (until) thou have a garden of date trees and vines, and cause rivers to gush forth in their midst, carrying abundant water; Or thou cause the sky to fall in pieces, as thou sayest (will happen), against us; or thou bring Allah and the angels before (us) face to face: Or thou have a house adorned with gold, or thou mount a ladder right into the skies. No, we shall not even believe in thy mounting until thou send down to us a book that we could read.” Say: “Glory to my Lord! Am I aught but a man, – an apostle?” Surah Al Isra: 88-93
The email lost all credibility when I got to this part. Sigh.
‘This is a simple test. If you love Allah and you are not ashamed of all the great things that he has done for you, send this to everyone you know, May Allah help U to succeed…Ameen
I had not read this post when I left my comment about the issue on a previous one. You say it all.
However, I do not think the reason why the Quran is so important is because of the scientific data it contains. To test that: please tell me what sort of information is in the Quran that couldnt have been known then? In fact, I think most of such information was using phenomena well-known at the time to show the greatness of God, not to show that the Prophet was indeed a Prophet. Except Suret Al Kahf (The Cave Surah) which was revealed specifically to give information that was not widespread at the time. In fact, it was revealed because Jewish religious men told the Prophet he has not come with anything new or unknown, so how would we know you really are a Prophet?
This side issue aside, I think the particularity of the Quran is more that:
1- It is a unifier of previous faiths.
2- It is a “modern” book, modernizing religious rhetoric and using a scientific approach: Observation.
3- It simplifies metaphysics to the bare minimum (stories are told for a purpose not as a novel told just to be told, God’s motives are clear, and stories always deal with humans no story is purely metaphysical).
4- It contains wisdom that dealt with issues of the time but revealed in a language suitable for generations to come; focused enough to give a direction, yet flexible enough to embrace interpretations suitable for different times and places so you dont have to revolt on it.
Those people who think they are doing great things by making us look like spammers really need an education.
Thank you for sharing.
I agree with your 4 points about the uniqueness of the Quran. Thanks for laying them out. I especially agree with 3 and 4. Point 4 in particular is something which amazes me in the Quran which is its suitability for all generations and is linked to my point about it containing things which they couldn’t have known back then. It may even contain things which we still don’t understand now, yaani we understand them as they apply to us, but in the future science will make them more clear.
When I was writing about the scientific data it contains, the main thing that came to mind was:
Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create! (23:14)
I knew there were other things like this but didn’t stop to check, so just found this website article which outlines more: http://www.jannah.org/articles/quransci.html
I haven’t checked the link out thoroughly, just a few of the scientists and making sure the translations of verses are not completely way off from the translation I usually follow, but on the face of it, it looks genuine enough.
I’m not against people trying to search and discover more miracles for Islam and further proof of Allah’s greatness, but this needs to be done logically. I don’t say this solely for the benefit of preventing ridicule from non muslims (some will do this until the end of time anyway), but for personal peace of mind. I also think this characteristic of blind belief is dangerous since it leads to misunderstandings and other sorts of “extremisms” which Muslims are accused of today and there is fact in this to a certain extent. Clashes and violence between and against others which is sometimes based on what “one man” said he heard, saw or understood. I guess this could also be another fact linked to the conformity issue.. since if you speak out against this or fail to follow then you face the prospect of being told you’re not Muslim enough ….. or even worse accused of kufr.
[…] January 4, 2009 by zakhak I just received an email which I’m not going to repost here; I’m just going to complain about it! Déjà vu? […]