Sheikh Al Nursi Bediuzzaman, the great Turkish sage (born as a Kurd but Turkish by nationality), known for struggling with his pen against the materialistic and atheist philosophies penetrating the young minds of Turks in the early 20th century mentions in his work Risali Nur Collection, the following verse: (Al Quran 6:59) "Not a thing, fresh or withered, wet or dry, but it is in a Manifest Book" – He says “according to one interpretation, the Manifest Book is the Quran. This verse states that everything is found in it. However, we must realize that things are found at different levels, seeds, summaries, signs, explicitly or implicitly, allusively, vaguely or suggestively. For example, progress in science and industry has resulted in air planes, electricity, motorized transportation, radio, telecommunications and so on. As the Quran addresses humanity at all times, it does not ignore these developments.”[1]
The Sheikh further states that “Prophets were sent to humans as leaders of spiritual and moral progress, He also endowed them with certain wonders and miracles and made them masters and forerunners of humanity’s material progress. By relating their spiritual and moral perfections, the Quran encourages us to imitate and benefit from them. By relating their miracles, it encourages us to achieve something similar through science. It may even be said that, like moral and spiritual attainments, material attainments and wonders were first given to humanity as gifts through Prophetic miracles such as Prophet Nuh (alaihi salaam) was the first to build ships, thus the ship was a prophet's miracle.” Sheikh Al Nursi teaches that by relating these prophetic achievements or miracles the Quran shows the ultimate goal of scientific and technological developments, their final aim, which is always guidance and instruction i.e. to guide us morally and ethically on how to make use of these technological achievements. He gives the following examples from the Quran for this narrative:
(Al Quran 34:12) "AND TO Solomon (We made subservient] the wind: its morning course [covered the distance of] a month's journey, and its evening course, a month's journey." – By mentioning this verse Allah ï·» is teaching humans the possibility to travel through the air that will cut a month’s journey in to hours, something that has become possible through airplane technology, despite how superstitious these verses may have sound before the invention of such technology. While revealing the human potential to travel in such manner, the main lesson to derive from this incident is that Allah ï·» blessed Prophet Suleiman (alaihi salaam) with such knowledge and abilities due to his high spiritual and moral standing, and that he was grateful servant.
(Al Quran 2:60) "And [remember] when Moses prayed for water for his people and We replied, "Strike the rock with your staff!" - whereupon twelve springs gushed forth from it, so that all the people knew where to drink. [And Moses said:] "Eat and drink the sustenance provided by God, and do not act wickedly on earth by spreading corruption." – This taught humanity that simple tools can unlock the hidden treasures of Allah ï·» beneath the earth, even something very simple but the most important thing that sustains life is water, can be found under earth’s surface, something that scientists have now discovered to obtain with modern technology. However, by revealing this secret of nature, the Quran warns the powerful against using the water as a tool to dominate lesser people, something very common in our times.
(Al Quran 3:49) "I heal him who was born blind, and the leper, and I raise the dead by God’s leave" – The Quran advises humans to follow Isa (Jesus), son of Mary (alaihis alaam) morality and through his life incidents also implies possibility of current breakthrough in medical sciences that gave humanity the hope of possibility to be healed from severe illnesses. By advising humans on possibility of finding cures for illnesses it advises them never to forget that their achievements were as a result of Allah’s help. Always be grateful and not be ungrateful by assigning their accomplishments, solely to their own efforts, or worst exploiting this knowledge for personal benefits such as hoarding wealth, quite commonly done by pharmaceutical industry in our age.
(Al Quran 34:10) "We made iron supple for him; (Al Quran 34:10) We gave him (David) wisdom and sound judgment in speech and decision; (Al Quran 34:12) and We caused the fount of copper to gush forth with him (Suleiman)" – The extracting of minerals such as metals from rocks through mining which became the basis for industrialization and industries. While teaching these future facts about how iron, copper and similar metals can be extracted for building and development, it reminds especially the political leaders, how honest, Godfearing, wise leadership of Suleiman (alaihi salaam) & Dawud (alaihi salaam) used it to serve Allah ï·» and His creation and did not commit injustice through their material power.
Hence all this conforms to the primary purpose of the Quran that it is a book of guidance. It alludes in many verses to the scientific age and modern world we’re experiencing today and it very well does to a lot more still hidden or what lies in the future. But its primary emphasis is not the revelation of the age and its discoveries as per se, it is to morally guide the progress in that age. Instead of simply employing the scientific yard stick to measure the Quran i.e. finding "scientific miracles" in the Quran quite commonly done by modern Muslims, we should also employ the Quran as a yardstick to confirm the modern world and its progress, while emphasizing on utmost necessity for this progress to be guided by universal principles of morals and ethics as per Quran guidance. This is how a Quran-Centric world view can be achieved.
References:
[1] The Risale-i-Nur Collection, The Words - The Reconstruction of Islamic Belief and Thought - Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Twentieth Word pg. 259
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