In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Holy Quran is the word of God and the best book ever descended on earth. It could be certainly said that this book is the complete manual for human life; because it includes not only didactic content, but also moral and religious issues and valuable scientific information which will be interpreted decoded by the one great interpreter of Quran, Hujjat Allah ibn al-Hasan al-Mahdi.
Suarh Al-Noor is the 24th surah in is Medinan or Madani. Although there are numerous Ahkam (rules), moral and ethical issues, it is possible to find marvelous and amazing subjects within its verses. According to our infallibles, God has shown his power and one of his miracle in verses 2 t o5.
Here are the first 5 verses of surah Al-Noor:
Surah Al-Noor
In the name of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful.
A Surah Which We have sent down and which We have ordained: in it have We sent down Clear Signs, in order that ye may receive admonition. (1)
The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication― flog each of them with a hundred stripes: let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment. (2)
Let no man guilty of adultery or fornication marry any but a woman similarly guilty, or an Unbeliever nor let any but such a man or an Unbeliever marry such a woman: to the Believers such a thing is forbidden. (3)
And those who launch a charge against chaste women, and produce not four witnesses (to support their allegation) ― flog them with eighty stripes: and reject their evidence ever after: for such men are wicked transgressors. (4)
Unless they repent thereafter and mend (their conduct): for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (5)
At the first glance it is implied that this verse suggests Allah’s rules and boundaries and are about moral and didactic issues, but if explored deeper, they show us a great miracle in natural sciences. Verse 3 from the surah says that:
“Let no man guilty of adultery or fornication marry any but a woman similarly guilty, or an Unbeliever nor let any but such a man or an Unbeliever marry such a woman: to the Believers such a thing is forbidden.”
It seems that this verse is just a moral and ethical rule, but a great miracle could be found within that, especially if we look at the first verse of the surah, this hypothesis would be stronger:
“A Surah Which We have sent down and which We have ordained: in it have We sent down Clear Signs, in order that ye may receive admonition.”
Paying attention to “in it have We sent down Clear Signs” bears in mind that probably in the following verses of this surah, there are marvelous points and miracle by which, one would understand the glory of God. Because this “clear signs” are the signs and proofs that help human beings realize sublime God.
Thus, however strange it might be, reading the following verse of surah Al-Noor leads us toward important matters that if properly understood, will show us the omniscience and omnipotence of God. Interestingly, some of the great interpreters have the same opinion.
For example, Ayatollah Tafsir Nemoone in “Tafsir Nemoone”, Vol. 14, p. 384 explains about the early verses of surah Al-Noor:
“It is possible that by clear signs it means the reasons for assumed rule in this surah.”
In other words, the clear signs of God’s omnipotence in surah Al-Noor are the same reasons brought for the rules, and the underlying these rules are so wise that reflect the knowledge and strength of its creator or the “holy God”.
But what are the philosophies of the mentioned rues in surah Al-Noor that God calls them the “clear signs”? Are these reasons moral and didactic? Or do they relate to other sciences?
Verses 1 to 4 of the surah not only shows God’s wisdom in social, moral and didactic aspects, but also his eternal wisdom in natural sciences. In the mentioned verses, verse 3 of the surah show holy God’s wisdom more than others.
As it is implied, God has prevented the believers to marry Mushriks (pagans) and adulterers and states that Mushriks ans adulterers shall marry each other in the same verse. The moral, social and didactic wisdom in this rule is that God has banned the marriage (which is allowed in itself) between believers and Mushriks and adulterers and in doing this, God has kept the believers away from getting corrupted.
But the same verse contains a highly significant scientific miracle which is illustrated in “epidemiology” science.
Epidemiology is a science which studies the populations within a society, the distribution of diseases in that populations, mortality, birth, agents affecting the diseases, health problems and so on. It is one of the important subsets of medicine.
But what is the relationship between verse 3 from surah Al-Noor with epidemiology?
The marriage of believers to adulterers being illegal, in addition to didactic, moral and ethical influences, prevents the believers’ community getting afflicted by dangerous diseases. Regarding the recent progress in the last 100 years, it is well-known that the reason of many dangerous diseases are viruses or bacteria and other infections that most of them are transmitted through high-risk sexual relationships like out of marriage sex, homosexuality and also injectable drugs. Dangerous diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis D, Gonorrhea, Urethritis from Chlamydia infection, Herpes genital and so on, are transmitted through high-risk sexual relationships and injectable drugs.
Although some of the mentioned diseases are transmitted from mother to fetus and a number of infections are due to infected injections, tattoos, dialysis, donating blood, and organ transplantation, highly reliable international statistics prove that the top most relevant factors of transmitting diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, herpes genital, and gonorrhea are out of marriage sexual relationships and homosexual relationships. Among these diseases, HIV and hepatitis have turned into global problems and international organizations consider them as fatal agents that kill millions of people annually.
Given these evidences, is it proved that preventing believers to marry pagans and adulterers would keep the believers’ community away from physical diseases and added to the moral and ethical values, benefits the believers physically. In fact, if people could obey verse 3 from surah Al-Noor, the composition of Muslim countries population would be as follows:
As you may see in the figure above, if people obey verse 3 from surah Al-Noor, believers’ population would be healthy and away from diseases after a couple of generations, and their populations raise significantly because of inter-population marriage of believers. In these marriages not only the couples remain healthy, but also their children would be healthy and thanks to this healthy status, they age more and their populations will highly grow. On the other hand, pagans and adulterers who according to Quran are deserved to marry each other, transmit dangerous diseases within themselves. As the result of these marriages is more infection within that populations and considering the fatal aspect of these diseases, we gradually observe that after some generations, the population of the corrupts and adulterers will reduce in the whole society.
This community will be one that gradually the majority of its population are healthy believers and adulterers and pagans are the minority.
However, the figure above may have some exceptions; for example, maybe some believers may get infected accidentally by blood donation, dialysis, and organ transplantation. Also it is possible that some of the believers are tempted by Satan and join those pagans. However, these few exceptions do not significantly change our model, because the main factors for transmitting these diseases are illegal sexual relationship and dangerous behaviors such as injectable drug addiction, and other factors are not significant. On the other hand, if true believers who want to life based on true Islam, then join those corrupts, are not great in number –for example in the last 100 years the number of Muslims who have converted to other religions are far less than the followers of other religions that has joined Islam. So the model reflected in the figure is truly compatible with status quo and scientific principles.
Therefore, if Muslims follow Islam rules, the community’s physical, moral and spiritual happiness and fortune would be met.
On the other hand, if Muslim disobey their Islamic rules, such a demographic model would appear:
As a result of the above model, marriage between Muslims and adulterers leads to physical and spiritual decline, dangerous fatal diseases transmitted by their corrupt wives and husbands, also their children who are born in the marriage are diseases, therefor after a couple of years the community is a mixture of Muslims and corrupts. In fact, the result of marriage between Muslims and corrupts or adulterers would be diseased children; the Muslims who were innocent themselves, will be infected by their wives and husbands through sexual relationship.
The final population of this community would be a mixture after a couple of years that is less in number compared to the previous model (increased mortality as a result of dangerous diseases). Also in this demographic model, several Muslims are infected by their own wives and husbands and the consequent of such a community is a diseased population.
Unfortunately, some Islamic countries disobey verse 3 from surah Al-Noor which brings about negative moral, ethical, physical, spiritual and social consequences and several Muslims will be infected by fatal sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and hepatitis.
Interestingly, in verse 3 from surah Al-Noor, Muslims are not only banned from adultery –which is banned itself- but also getting married to adulterers. This suggests that holy God in addition to moral aspect, considered Muslims physical health.
Our sublime God has given us this advice, despite the fact that all the viruses, microbes and other infections were not discovered 14 centuries ago and even diseases such as HIV and hepatitis did not emerge by the time. Therefore, God’s wisdom in assigning these rules is a miracle in itself. God has suggested health issues in the form of rule long before scientists’ discoveries.
Now you see that verses 1 to 4 of surah Al-Noor have revealed a great scientific fact. Due to the fact that Quran has been descended to an illiterate prophet in the wild land of Arabia, there is no doubt that this holy book is from the omniscient God, because an illiterate person in a society like Arabia in that time, lacking any tools or devices, could not reveal such a significant scientific fact so meticulously.
In fact, verses 1 to 4 from surah Al-Noor are the best document by which pagans and unbelievers could be called for battle and prove the truth of Islam to all the world. We hope that these scientific findings lead today’s ignorant and unwise human beings toward divine values.
At the end we demand our God to bring Sahib Al-Zaman Mahdi back soon to lead human being toward a world in which ethics, science, religion and culture are perfect.
By: Sahib Al-Zaman servant – October 2010
