CHAPTER ONE The Quran: The Book of God

the scriptures. It should be borne in mind that modern research has confirmed what the Quran asserts – that women’s memory is weaker than that of men. Russian scientists have gone into this matter in great detail, and their conclusion has been published in book form. A summary, entitled ‘Memorizing Ability’, appeared in the New Delhi edition of the Times of India on January 18, 1985: ‘Men have a greater ability to memorize and process mathematical information than women, but females are better with words,’ says a Soviet scientist. (UPI) ‘Men dominate mathematical subjects due to the peculiarities of their memory,’ Dr. Vladimir Konovalov told the Tass news agency. The Quranic rule, far from evincing any contradiction, proves in fact that the Quran has come from One who has absolute knowledge of the facts of existence. He sees things from every angle, and so is in a position to issue commandments that are in total harmony with nature. External Inconsistency Now we turn to external inconsistency. External inconsistency in a literary work occurs when what it asserts is contradicted by some reality in the outside world. Since man’s speech and writing occur within the sphere of his own knowledge, which is marked by human limitations, what he writes or says fails to conform to the external reality. We produce here a few comparative examples to illustrate this point. Certain ancient Arab tribes sometimes killed their children, in most cases female babies, for fear of being unable to feed a large family. It was in this context that the following verses were revealed: Do not kill your children for fear of want: We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Truly, the killing of them is a great sin. (17:31) Inherent in this pronouncement of the Quran was the claim that the growth in population, whatever its extent and degree, would not create a problem of sustenance for man on the earth; that there would be a constant favourable balance of sustenance and human population; that there would be an adequate provision of sustenance tomorrow just as there is today. Throughout the ages, Muslims have been endorsing this claim as a matter of faith. They have left this matter to God, the great Provider. One thousand years after this claim made by the Quran, the British economist, Robert Malthus (1766–1834) published in 1798 his book, An Essay on the Principle of Population as it Affects the Future