The Quran,The Hadith
And Modern Science
by Maurice Bucaille

The Qur'an does not constitute the sole source of doctrine and legislation in Islam. During
Muhammad's life and after his death, complementary information of a legislative nature was indeed
sought in the study of the words and deeds of the Prophet.

Although writing was used in the transmission of hadith from the very beginning, a lot of this came
also from the oral tradition. Those who undertook to assemble them in collections made the kind of
enquiries which are always very taxing before recording accounts of past events. They nevertheless
had a great regard for accuracy in their arduous task of collecting information. This is illustrated by
the fact that for all of the Prophet's sayings, the most venerable collections always bear the names of
those responsible for the account, going right back to the person who first collected the information
from members of Muhammad's family or his companions.

A very large number of collections of the Prophet's words and deeds thus appeared under the title of
Hadiths. The exact meaning of the word is 'utterances', but it is also customary to use it to mean the
narration of his deeds.

Some of the collections were made public in the decades following Muhammad's death. Just over
two hundred years were to pass before some of the most important collections appeared. The most
authentic record of the facts is in the collections of Al Bukhari and Muslim, which date from over
two hundred years after Muhammad and which provide a wider trustworthy account. In recent
years, a bilingual Arabic/English edition has been provided by Doctor Muhammed Muhsin Khan, of
the Islamic University of Madina.[102] Al Bukhari's work is generally regarded as the most authentic
after the Qur'an and was translated into French (1903-1914) by Houdas and Marcais under the title
Les Traditions Islamiques (Islamic Traditions). The Hadiths are therefore accessible to those who
do not speak Arabic. One must, however, be wary of certain translations made by Europeans,
including the French translation, because they contain inaccuracies and untruths which are often more
of interpretation than of actual translation. Sometimes, they considerably change the real meaning of
a hadith, to such an extent indeed that they attribute a sense to it which it does not contain.

As regards their origins, some of the hadiths and Gospels have one point in common which is that
neither of them was compiled by an author who was an eyewitness of the events he describes. Nor
were they compiled until some time after the events recorded. The hadiths, like the Gospels, have
not all been accepted as authentic. Only a small number of them receive the quasi-unanimous
approval of specialists in Muslim Tradition so that, except al-Muwatta, Sahih Muslim and Sahih
al-Bukhari, one finds in the same book, hadiths presumed to be authentic side by side with ones
which are either dubious, or should be rejected outright.

In contrast to Canonic Gospels which though questioned by some modern scholars but which have
never been contested by Christian high authorities, even those hadiths that are most worthy to be
considered as authentic have been the subject of criticism. Very early in the history of Islam, masters
in Islamic thought exercised a thorough criticism of the hadiths, although the basic book (The Qur'an)
remained the book of reference and was not to be questioned.

I thought it of interest to delve into the literature of the hadiths to find out how Muhammad is said to
have expressed himself, outside the context of written Revelation, on subjects that were to be
explained by scientific progress in following centuries. Al-though Sahih Muslim is also an authentic
collection, in this study 1 have strictly limited myself to the texts of the hadiths which are generally
considered to be the most authentic, i.e. those of Al Bukhari. I have always tried to bear in mind the
fact that these texts were compiled by men according to data received from a tradition which was
partially oral and that they record certain facts with a greater or lesser degree of accuracy,
depending on the individual errors made by those who transmitted the narrations. These texts are
different from other hadiths which were transmitted by a very large number of people and are
unquestionably authentic.[103]

I have compared the findings made during an examination of the hadiths with those already set out in
the section on the Qur'an and modern science. The results of this comparison speak for themselves.
The difference is in fact quite staggering between the accuracy of the data contained in the Qur'an,
when compared with modern scientific knowledge, and the highly questionable character of certain
statements in the hadiths on subjects whose tenor is essentially scientific. These are the only hadiths
to have been dealt with in this study.

Hadiths which have as their subject the interpretation of certain verses of the Qur'an sometimes lead
to commentaries which are hardly acceptable today.

We have already seen the great significance of one verse (sura 36, verse 36) dealing with the Sun
which "runs its course to a settled place". Here is the interpretation given of it in a hadith: "At sunset,
the sun . . . prostrates itself underneath the Throne, and takes permission to rise again, and it is
permitted and then (a time will come when) it will be about to prostrate itself . . . it will ask
permission to go on its course . . . it will be ordered to return whence it has come and so it will rise in
the West . . ." (Sahih Al Bukhari). The original text (The Book of the Beginning of the Creation, Vol.
IV page 283, part 54, chapter IV, number 421) is obscure and difficult to translate. This passage
nevertheless contains an allegory which implies the notion of a course the Sun runs in relation to the
Earth: science has shown the contrary to be the case. The authenticity of this hadith is doubtful
(Zanni).

Another passage from the same work (The Book of the Beginning of the Creation, vol. IV page
283, part 54, chapter 6, number 430) estimates the initial stages in the development of the embryo
very strangely in time: a forty-day period for the grouping of the elements which are to constitute the
human being, another forty days during which the embryo is represented as 'something which clings',
and a third forty-day period when the embryo is designated by the term 'chewed flesh'. Once the
angels have intervened to define what this individual's future is to be, a soul is breathed into him. This
description of embryonic evolution does not agree with modern data.

Whereas the Qur'an gives absolutely no practical advice on the remedial arts, except for a single
comment (sura 16, verse 69) on the possibility of using honey as a therapeutic aid (without indicating
the illness involved), the hadiths devote a great deal of space to these subjects. A whole section of
Al Bukhari's collection (part 76) is concerned with medicine. In the French translation by Houdas
and Marcais it goes from page 62 to 91 of volume 4, and in Doctor Muhammad Muhsin Khan's
bilingual Arabic/English edition from page 395 to 452, of volume VII. There can be no doubt that
these pages contain some hadiths which are conjectural (Zanni), but they are interesting as a whole
because they provide an outline of the opinions on various medical subjects that it was possible to
hold at the time. One might add to them several hadiths inserted in other parts of Al Bukhari's
collection which have a medical tenor.

This is how we come to find statements in them on the harms caused by the Evil Eye, witchcraft and
the possibility of exorcism; although a certain restriction is imposed on the paid use of the Qur'an for
this purpose. There is a hadith which stresses that certain kinds of date may serve as protection
against the effects of magic, and magic may be used against poisonous snakebites.

We should not be surprised however to find that at a time when there were limited possibilities for
the scientific use of drugs, people were advised to rely on simple practices; natural treatments such
as blood-letting, cupping, and cauterization, head-shaving against lice, the use of camel's milk and
certain seeds such as black cumin, and plants such as indian Qust. It was also recommended to burn
a mat made of palm-tree leaves and put the ash from it into a wound to stop bleeding. In
emergencies, all available means that might genuinely be of use had to be employed. It does not
seem-a priori-to be a very good idea, however, to suggest that people drink camel's urine.

It is difficult today to subscribe to certain explanations of subjects related to various illnesses. Among
them, the following might be mentioned:
--the origins of a fever. there are four statements bearing witness to the fact that "fever is from the
heat of hell" (Al Bukhari, The Book of Medicine, vol. VII, chapter 28, page 416).

--the existence of a remedy for every illness: "No disease God created, but He created its treatment"
(Ibid. chapter 1, page 396). This concept is illustrated by the Hadith of the Fly. "If a fly falls into the
vessel of any of you, let him dip all of it (into the vessel) and then throw it away, for in one of its
wings there is a disease and in the other there is healing (antidote for it). i.e. the treatment for that
disease" (Ibid. chapter 15-16, pages 462-463, also The Book of the Beginning of Creation part 54,
chapters 15 & 16.)

--abortion provoked by the sight of a snake (which can also blind). This is mentioned in The Book
of the Beginning of Creation, Vol. IV(chapter 13 and 14, pages 330 & 334).

--haemorrhages between periods. The Book of Menses (Menstrual Periods) Vol. VI, part 6, pages
490 & 495 contains two hadiths on the cause of haemorrhages between periods (chapters 21 &
28). They refer to two women: in the case of the first, there is a description (undetailed) of the
symptoms, with a statement that the haemorrhage comes from a blood vessel; in the second, the
woman had experienced haemorrhages between periods for seven years, and the same vascular
origin is stated. One might suggest hypotheses as to the real causes of the above, but it is not easy to
see what arguments could have been produced at the time to support this diagnosis. This could
nevertheless have been quite accurate.

--the statement that diseases are not contagious. Al Bukhari's collection of hadiths refers in several
places (chapters 19, 25, 30, 31, 53 and 54, Vol. VII, part 76, of the Book of Medicine) to certain
special cases, e.g. leprosy (page 408), plague (pages 418 & 422), camel's scabies (page 447), and
also provides general statements. The latter are however placed side by side with glaringly
contradictory remarks: it is recommended, for example, not to go to areas where there is plague, and
to stay away from lepers.

Consequently, it is possible to conclude that certain hadiths exist which are scientifically
unacceptable. There is a doubt surrounding their authenticity. The purpose of reference to them lies
solely in the comparison that they occasion with the verses of the Qur'an mentioned above: these do
not contain a single inaccurate statement. This observation clearly has considerable importance.

One must indeed remember that at the Prophet's death, the teachings that were received from this
fell into two groups:
--firstly, a large number of Believers knew the Qur'an by heart because, like the Prophet, they had
recited it many, many times; transcriptions of the text of the Qur'an already existed moreover, which
were made at the time of the Prophet and even before the Hegira[104].

-secondly, the members of his following who were closest to him and the Believers who had
witnessed his words and deeds had remembered them and relied on them for sUPport, in addition to
the Qur'an, when defining a nascent doctrine and legislation.

In the years that were to follow the Prophet's death, texts were to be compiled which recorded the
two groups of teachings he had left. The first gathering of hadiths was performed roughly forty years
after the Hegira, but a first collection of Qur'anic texts had been made beforehand under Caliph Abu
Bakr, and in particular Caliph Uthman, the second of whom published a definitive text during his
Caliphate, i.e. between the twelfth and twenty-fourth years following Muhammad's death.

What must be heavily stressed is the disparity between these two groups of texts, both
from a literary point of view and as regards their contents. It would indeed be unthinkable
to compare the style of the Qur'an with that of the hadiths. What is more, when the
contents of the two texts are compared in the light of modern scientific data, one is struck
by the oppositions between them. I hope I have succeeded in showing what follows:
--on the one hand, statements in the Qur'an which often appear to be commonplace, but
which conceal data that science was later to bring to light.

--on the other hand, certain statements in the hadiths which are shown to be in absolute
agreement with the ideas of their times but which contain opinions that are deemed
scientifically unacceptable today. These occur in an aggregate of statements concerning
Islamic doctrine and legislation, whose authenticity is unquestioningly acknowledged.

Finally, it must be pointed out that Muhammad's own attitude was quitedifferent towards the
Qur'an from what it was towards his personal sayings. The Qur'an was proclaimed by him to be
a divine Revelation. Over a period of twenty years, the Prophet classified its sections with the
greatest of care, as we have seen. The Qur'an represented what had to be written down during his
own lifetime and learned by heart to become part of the liturgy of prayers. The hadiths are said, in
principle, to provide an account of his deeds and personal reflections, but he left it to others to find
an example in them for their own behaviour and to make them public however they liked: he did not
give any instructions.

In view of the fact that only a limited number of hadiths may be considered to express the Prophet's
thoughts with certainty, the others must contain the thoughts of the men of his time, in particular with
regard to the subjects referred to here. When these dubious or inauthentic hadiths are
compared to the text of the Qur'an, we can measure the extent to which they differ. This
comparison highlights (as if there were still any need to) the striking difference between
the writings of this period, which are riddled with scientific inaccurate statements, and the
Qur'an, the Book of Written Revelation, that is free from errors of this kind.[105]