Quran: "Do not the infidels see that the heavens and the earth were both a solid mass, and we cleave them asunder, and by means of water we give life to every living thing? Will they not then believe?" (Al-Anbiyaa'[21]:30)
Bible: "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to it's kind. And God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:20-21).
Muslim claim: Mustafa Mahmud, an Egyptian scientist concluded this to refer to a scientific fact not known by Muhammad. That all living things have water in them. He explains his claim with the evidence; when we examine any living creature and find they contain water. this includes microscopic life, since the word "every living thing" is used. He supports this by other verses; "And Allah has created every animal from water" (Al-Nur[24]:45). Abdullah Yusuf Ali in his commentary on this verse concludes some other things; "About 72% of the surface of our globe is still covered with water, and it has been estimated that if the inequalities of the surface were all leveled, the whole surface would be under water, as the mean elevation of the land sphere level would be 7,000 - 10,000 feet bellow the surface of the ocean. This shows the predominance of water on our globe.
That all life began in the water is also a conclusion to which
our latest knowledge of biological science points.
The evidence: As the reader of the Quranic verses discovers the simplicity of these verses and the play
with words these writers do. One should translate the verses to what they are saying instead of adding
things that are not in the verses. It is obvious that these verses are saying that
God created (made) life
from water. This interpretation is fair. The Quran did not say "And Allah made water to be in all living
things". What it said is "Allah created life from water". The Arabic
"min al-maa" means "from the water"
as it is written in all the translations of the Quran.
Several verses in the Quran supports this creation from water as we can see later. These kind of conclusions are obviously tampering with what Allah was saying. A thing that Muslims always accuse Christians of doing. And we ask: Do you believe that Mr. Ali and Mr. Mahmud were correct in concluding all of this from the above verse?
What can you conclude from Genesis 1:21 above?
Why is the Quran given all the credit when these verses were before the Quran over 2000 years? It is easy to make assumptions from Genesis 1:21 as Muslim scholars do.
It is better to stick to the exact meaning of what the verse is trying to say. We leave it up to the Muslim conscious to conclude which of the above verses provide more scientific truths. Muslims are welcome to feed on the Bible's stronger scientific claims. In The Book of Psalms of David (Al-Zabur), Psalm 24:1-2; "The earth is the Lord's, and all it's fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters."
Every living thing has water"?
Abrahamic Faith