Chashma-e-Ma`arfat, the Fountainhead of Scientific Knowledge

Written by Dr. Ijaz A. Rauf

Naeem Malik sāhib wrote an article entitled, “Mirza Ghulām Ahmad’s Scientific Inventions.” This was published on February 12, 2010 in the Daily Pakistan newspaper. We used to hear the phrase that, “half doctor is a danger to life and a half priest is a danger to faith.”

Reading Naeem Malik’s article, we learn that when half a scientist is put together with half a priest, a complete Satan is obtained, which can mislead a number of innocent people on the basis on his primitive knowledge in both scientific and religious fields.

Naeem Malik sāhib has coined some objections to many of the daily observations mentioned in the Promised Messiah’s^as book Chashma-e-Ma`arfat. Naeem Malik sāhib writes that the Holy Qur’ān has recorded about 15 centuries ago that the sun and moon are not stationary objects, but are moving in their respective orbits. However, scientists, based on their scientific knowledge were only able to discover this fact about 800 years after it was revealed in the Holy Qur’ān. By citing this example, Naeem Malik sāhib himself puts forward “Science” as knowledge that is obtained through concerted efforts and through God-given intelligence of human beings by way of Allāh’s decree, while “revelation” is that knowledge which is revealed to man by Allāh Himself, like the Holy Qur’ān. Now if Malik Naeem sāhib would have been born about 700 years ago when the Holy Qur’ān claimed that the sun and the moon were moving in their respective orbits while science claimed that they were stationary, he would have raised the same objections about the Holy Qur’ān as he has raised against the reformer of this age, our beloved Hadrat Masīh Mau`ūd^as.

Naeem Malik’s primitivity of Qur’ānic knowledge becomes very apparent when he raises an objection about Hadrat Masīh Mau`ūd<sup>as’</sup>s writings where he mentions Allāh’s life giving attributes. Naeem Malik sāhib does not even know that the scientific principles under which living worms are generated in dead meat, still water or in rotten milk are mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān in Chapter 3 (Āl-e-`Imrān) verse 28 in the words,

“…And Thou bringest forth the living from the dead and bringest forth the dead from the living….”

Hadrat Masīh Mau`ūd<sup>as</sup> has not mentioned in any of his writings that living life-forms in dead meat, rotten milk or still water are born based on Spontaneous Generation or the Abiogenesis theory. Whenever someone recites the above mentioned Qur’ānic verse in Chapter 3 (Āl-e-`Imrān), he testifies that it is by Allāh’s decree and His created scientific principles that life-forms are generated within dead items. Besides this, throughout the Holy Qur’ān, giving life to a dead land through water is mentioned. Allāh mentions in the Holy Qur’ān:

“And Who sends down water from the sky in proper measure, and We thereby quicken a dead land; — even so will you be raised.” (43:12)

Even if Hadrat Masīh Mau`ūd^as was hinting towards Spontaneous Generation Theory, even then one cannot doubt his truthfulness. As previously mentioned, science is the evolutionary field of knowledge in which new things are being discovered every day. Malik Naeem sāhib reveals his out-dated knowledge here as it has been almost three years since scientists coined the claim that spontaneous generation is possible. In its January 12, 2008 issue of Science News, a magazine that is published by the National Academy of Sciences, Patrick Barry (Barry, 2008) in his article, Life from Scratch: Learning to Make Synthetic Cells, mentions:

“Some scientists including Glass hope to make such a minimal cell by whittling down the genome of an existing bacterium to its barest elements, and then synthesizing that minimal genome. In the lab, scientists can assemble the genomic DNA by piecing together chemicals called nucleotides, which constitute individual letters of the genetic code.”

Then again trying to mock the words of Promised Messiah^as that even in oxidized iron (ferrite), life forms can be created, Malik Naeem reveals his ignorance and cunningness. In fact, this also testifies to the truth of Promised Messiah^as, as something that he said more than a century ago is being proven to be correct by today’s scientists. In the International Journal of Immunology and Pharmacology, eight scientists from Italy (Berlutti F, 2005) have proven that when iron concentrates in the lungs, it can cause many complications because it generates reactive oxygen species. They write:

“Accumulation of catalytic reactive iron heavily contributes to subsequent clinical complications in the lung disorders by the production of reactive oxygen species and increases bacterial growth and virulence. The data reported in this study indicates that low iron concentration (Fe3+ 1 microM) induced free-living forms and motility both in P.aeruginosa and B.cenocepacia, while high iron concentrations (Fe3+ 10 and 100 microM) stimulated aggregation and biofilm formation.”

Raising his finger on the words of Promised Messiah^as that, “…70 to 80 cubits deep down in the earth, life-forms can be seen….” Malik Naeem writes that seventy to eighty cubits meaning 120-130 feet deep under the earth, he [Hadrat Masīh Mau`ūd^as] has revealed the presence of life forms.

In this regard the following few published scientific facts reveal the true nature of the enemies of the Promised Messiah^as. These very facts are testifying every day the truthfulness of the claims of Promised Messiah^as and are presented here un-interpreted for the readers.

In a recently published book (Gold, 2001), Gold describes a fascinating experiment he undertook in which a borehole was drilled-out in central Sweden, through crystalline bedrock down to a depth of 5 kilometres. Over 80 barrels of oil were recovered, but also significant quantities of a material called magnetite. Now magnetite is a reduced form of iron oxide (Fe3O4) compared to Fe2O3, the normal mineral form. [Put another way, in Fe3O4, 12 Fe atoms would need 16 oxygen atoms to balance them, whereas in Fe2O3, 12 Fe atoms need 18 O atom counterweights]. Gold advances the theory that bacteria present at depth (The Deep Biosphere) use Fe2O3 to oxidise petroleum as a process from which to extract their energy, thus producing CO2, H2 + Fe3O4. Ingenious!

“Research Finds Life 1000 Feet Beneath Ocean Floor” is the headline of an article published in the “Science Daily” (Jan. 2, 2003). It states:

“A new study has discovered an abundance of microbial life deep beneath the ocean floor in ancient basalt that forms part of the Earth’s crust, in research that once more expands the realm of seemingly hostile or remote environments in which living organisms can apparently thrive.”

Again, the American National Science Foundation testified the existence of life deep down in the earth’s crust on their website:

“Vaporous hot pools far beneath Earth’s surface support microbes conducting the business of life at extreme temperatures and pressures. The microbes, some of which are bacteria, are all called extremophiles, and their potentially far-reaching domain is called the subsurface biosphere.” http://www.nsf.gov/news/frontiers_archive/7-97/7extreme.jsp”

In light of the above citations one can see that animosity and jealousy has blinded Malik Naeem sāhib so much that he does not even realize that his mockery and all his objections are backfiring on the purest of the revealed books, the Holy Qur’ān. Malik Naeem sāhib can congratulate himself for his alliance with the enemies of the Holy Qur’ān, like the Arya Samajists.

Readers must be informed about the convention that became the reason for writing the book, Chashma-e-Ma`arfat. In a convention held in December 1907, the Arya Samajists, boasting their scientific knowledge, alleged that the teachings of the Holy Qur’ān were against the natural and scientific laws. In his book Chashma-e-Ma`arfat, Hadrat Masīh Mau`ūd^as writes:

“… And then the reader of the article also stated that, ‘all the known principles cannot be against the unknown principles.’ This means that all the laws of God are known. However, this must be investigated that this ignorance and lack of knowledge is a common among the Arya nation or is just the understanding of this reader. Many renowned philosophers of the world have testified to the fact that human knowledge in comparison with the knowledge of God, is not even as much as the size of a water droplet that remains on the tip of a needle, after it is dipped in water, compared to the ocean. The truly enlightened say, since the principles of the Almighty are limitless, before seeing the limits of any issue, stating its boundaries is like stating two opposing claims in one sentence. Human knowledge that is subordinate to human intelligence can only rely on the five physical senses or spiritual sense for advancement. These instruments of advancing knowledge are limited in nature. They cannot comprehend something that is infinite in nature. So those laws that we think are known to us, even they may not have been fully understood, as there is a limitless creation of laws of the Almighty, and human beings are just like frogs in a well whose whole world is the well yet thinks it to be an ocean. Human quests continuously reveal new things. Today, hundreds of mysteries have been uncovered through physics and modern biology, which were not known at all before. This proves that those discoveries that were thought to be the laws of nature are not absolute laws of nature today and who knows, those who come later will discover things that will abrogate the laws of nature known today. Hence, human made laws of nature are just like a castle of sand that disperses in the wake of strong winds. Here we have just mentioned about physical laws of nature, however, there are spiritual matters that cannot be comprehended by the known physical laws of nature.”(Chashma-e-Ma`arfat, pg. 100)

Prophets of God never claim to be scientist or inventors, but their followers do find a great portion of these fields of knowledge from their Lord. In fact, Allāh makes them the leaders of scientists. Despite severe animosity, the world testifies to their scientific might. Those who followed the Holy Prophet^sa saw this among the awwalīn (like Ibn Sīna, Ibn Al-Haythām, Al-Razī and many others) and those who followed the Promised Messiah^as among the ākharīn (the latter ones) are seeing this today like Abdus Salam, Zafarullah Khan and many more to come, inshAllāh.

Source: This article was published in July 2011 issue of Ahmadiyya Gazette Canada

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