In the previous three articles, no.6, no.7, and no.8; we had a look into four out of the seven criteria of truth of a theory and discussed how Islam as a theory stands up to these four criteria. Specifically, the advanced literature of the Qur-aan was discussed in the previous two articles, the last article ending on the note that I picked up a flaw in the below mentioned Islamic reasoning:
(1.a) The Qur-aan and Islam have many mind-blowing advanced features which are beyond human, i.e., not the brainchild of Muhammad the man, its source is therefore not human, and hence it’s from God!
(1.b) Although an impressive reasoning at first glance; my skeptic agnostic mind could effortlessly identify the flaw in it. I could see the false dichotomy hidden beneath its surface. The false dilemma here is that if something is not from humans, it is from God. This assertion is not necessarily true!
(1.c) Let’s understand with an example why this is so. Sample this:
If I can prove that the cup in my hand is not made of ceramic then it doesn’t automatically imply that it is made of steel since ceramic and steel aren’t the only two options possible; there are more than two alternatives available, for instance, glass, wood, and clay. Thus there is no ‘only two possibilities’ thing here, i.e., no ‘dichotomy’.
Take another example. If you can affirm that the drink in your mug is not tea then it doesn’t automatically imply that it is coffee since there are more than two possible alternatives, not just tea and coffee; other instances being water, coke, soda, fruit juice, kombucha, beer, and many more!
Likewise, if a book is not a human handiwork, it doesn’t necessarily imply it is Divine, as it could also be from a living entity that is neither human nor Divine, that is, any sentient being that is beyond this world but not Divine, in other words, an ‘alien’ entity.
(1.d) The above counterargument thus held me back from returning to Islam for quite some time despite discovering several advanced features in Islam and the Qur-aan, features which couldn’t have been produced by Muhammad the man. I kept contending that the reasoning – If not from humans, then from God – is fallacious. But then I recognized something that put me in awe of Islam!
(1.e) It struck me that this ‘alien proposition’ or contention against the Divine nature of Islam is already incorporated within, and explained away, by the Islamic framework! Islam as a theory has already addressed this contention since it asserts that the Qur-aan, and Islam as a whole, were transmitted to Muhammad by Gabriel/ Jibreel, an angel, effectively an alien, a sentient being that is neither human nor God.
(1.f) Islam as a theory is therefore epistemologically so advanced and robust that it subsumes any possible objections to its framework even before they are raised! This mental exercise thus threw up another discovery to me, of the robust and advanced nature of the theoretical framework of Islam, finally drawing me back to faith on the 11th of February 2021, maa-shaa-Allaah wal hamdu-lil-laah!
Now let’s explore this alien-Gabriel proposition further.
(2.a) Islamic history tells us that Gabriel used to come to Muhammad in the form of an unknown human who didn’t belong to the residents of Makkah or Madinah, whom many companions of Muhammad witnessed during his interactions with Muhammad. A shady personality, thus an ‘alien’ in that sense.
(2.b) But how do we know for sure that the ‘unknown person’ was indeed an angel from God? He could have been someone of this world itself, from a different country, hence unknown to the Arabs! Or an alien indeed but not an angel from God, rather some other type of alien with some unknowable reason(s) for interacting with humanity!
(2.c) Islam as a theory must be able to resolve these questions within its framework, otherwise it would fail to prove itself as a robust and advanced theory on this front!
Let’s analyze one by one, all the possibilities regarding the identity of the unknown person who delivered the Qur-aan to Muhammad.
(2.d) Could he have been someone from any Arabian settlement outside of Makkah or Madinah?
No!
(i) Because any human being capable of producing the Qur-aan would be a genius and would be easily discovered and become widely known to the community. It’s unlikely that such a gem of a person’s identity could have remained hidden for 23 long years!
(ii) Especially after the message of the Qur-aan received acceptance in the whole of Arabia; a thumping success, why would the actual person behind the Qur-aan then not come out and take credit for the book which revolutionized the nation at large?
(iii) The companions of Muhammad who saw that person, why would they not go out in search of him? If they had even the slightest of doubt regarding the Qur-aan’s origin, they would have surely hunted that unknown person out!
(2.e) Could he have been a non-Arab from any country beyond Arabia?
No, again!
(i) As in that case he couldn’t have communicated effectively with Muhammad who knew no other language except Arabic.
(ii) If he were a non-Arab who knew Arabic so well that he could create an entirely new form of Arabic literature and then compose an entire book which beautifully and eloquently deals with the complex issues of human existence, a book so revolutionary that even the Arab experts of literature recognized it to be a novel masterpiece; then such a non-Arab person would have been such a gigantic genius of Arabic literature and human philosophies and sciences that he would have surely become a sensation in the whole wide world! He could not have possibly remained an elusive character for over two decades, never to be seen or heard ever after Muhammad’s demise!
(iii) Especially after the message of the Qur-aan received raving success in Arabia, why would that phenomenal genius not come out and take credit for the book which created ripples across the globe?
(iv) Moreover, a person coming to Muhammad from outside Arabia on a very regular basis seems too far fetched given the absence of fast modes of international travel in the seventh century C.E.
(v) The fact that the same person was never to be seen again after Muhammad’s departure from this world, is also an evidence for the proposition that he was not anyone from Arabia or from any nation outside of it.
(2.f) Therefore we have established that the person who was teaching the Qur-aan to Muhammad was neither an Arab nor a non-Arab, thus we are left with only one option: an alien entity was bringing the Qur-aan to Muhammad.
But was that alien really an angel from God or was it some other type of alien with some objective other than relaying God’s message to humanity?
Let’s uncover this mystery, in the next article!