- Scientific Topics
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- Scientific Topics from Friday Sermons
Hearing is always mentioned before sight:
Dear brother, the Qur’an has always proved to be an everlasting incredible match with the scientific facts, which assure that this Book is from Allah. One of those signs that indicate Allah’s Greatness, and prove that match between the Qur’an and the scientific facts regarding man creation is the following ayah:
“Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, in order to try him: so We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight.”
The words of the Qur’an are accurately put together, and the question here is why does the sense of hearing precede the sense of sight?
Allah says:
“Say: "Think ye, if Allah took away your hearing and your sight”
There are two point here, some scientists said: the sense of hearing is more crucial for human life than the sight because man receives sounds from all directions, right, left, forward, backward, upward and downward. Sound can be received in light as well as in darkness, and in day and night alike. Sound passes through sound proof dividers. In conclusion, we can say that hearing spreads all over the house and even if you are asleep you can hear the sounds coming from the guestroom and wake up to see the source of those sounds, while sight covers only the corners of your bedroom where you are located.
If you are driving your car, you can only see what is in front of your eyes, but if there is something wrong with the engine or the tires you would be able to hear the sound of it, come to a halt and stop your car.
That is what science says about the significance of hearing to human comparing with sight.
Function of sight and hearing:
Dear brother, Allah says:“They will further say: "Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we should not (now) be among the Companions of the Blazing Fire!”
Why did Allah the Great and All-Mighty choose only hearing? Because if someone was deaf, he/she would be certainly mute, and he would be most likely mentally disable, but blind people have proved through history that they can be genius in scientific or literary fields, some of them were distinguished persons. On the other hand, the one who is unable to hear or to talk would be unable to comprehend, Allah says:
“They will further say: "Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we would not (now) be among the Companions of the Blazing Fire!”
However, the creation of the sight is not less delicate that that of hearing. Allah says:
“You can see no fault in the creations of the Most Beneficent.”
Some industrial corporations manufacture merchandise of low quality, like in outlet market’s goods, and sometimes they produce high quality merchandise with high prices, but Allah the All-Mighty creates everything in high quality, and brings it to absolute perfection.
The sense of hearing and the sense of sight differ in their functions. You can hear the truth, and comprehend facts through your sense of hearing, and on the other hand, you, can view aesthetic objects, look at things, and distinguish their shapes, colors and features by using your sense of sight, but as for apprehending their facts you use only your sense of hearing.
The ability of hearing and sight in embryo:
Scientists discovered that at the day twenty second of fertilizing the ovum, the hearing and sight of the embryo are installed.
Despite this scientific fact, the baby can’t see until his third month after birth, and during those first three month, the infant is only affected by light, and is unable to reach out for things when hearing their sounds until his third month. Infants are able to see colors in their forth month after birth. So the ability to hear sounds is formed in the week twenty second of his embryonic life, which means in its sixth month and a half of pregnancy it can hear sounds in the womb, so it can hear its mother’s heart beats, rustling sound of the placenta, and the rumble of bowels, and in one of the experiments they let a crying infant listen to these sounds after birth and surprisingly he stopped crying.
The only ayah that mentions sight before hearing:
Hence, the scholars realized that the hearing’s mentioning before sight in 17 ayat in the Qur’an suggests precedence of creation and importance, expect for one ayah in which Allah says:
“If only thou couldst see when the guilty ones will bend low their heads before their Lord, (saying:) "Our Lord! we have seen and we have heard”
In interpretation of this ayah, we will refer to the scientific fact that transferring image is much more faster than sound, as image travels in light’s speed which is 300,000 Kilometers per second, while sound’s speed is 330 meters per second, that’s why sight is mentioned before hearing in this ayah, as it is a matter of seeing which is faster than sound, while in the other 17 ayat it is a matter of creation. To clarify the idea, we can take thunder as an example. Nan hears the sound of thunder before seeing the lightening. If you watch an artist sculpturing a stone from a long distance, you will see him first dropping the hammer on the stone, then you hear the sound of it, and this fact is mentioned only in one ayah, Allah says:
“If only thou couldst see when the guilty ones will bend low their heads before their Lord, (saying:) "Our Lord! we have seen and we have heard: now then send us back (to the world): we will work righteousness: for we do indeed (now) believe.”
