THE AGE OF SCIENCE & RELIGION—PART I

him the chain of miracles also stopped. Now the prophetic call has to be given by dayees (those who call people towards God), who are not prophets, but who have to perform the prophetic role. No prophet will come in future. The reason is that the message of the prophets—the divine religion is fully preserved in its original form, there having been no possibility for any change or interpolation. Both the language and text of the religion brought by the last Prophet is preserved. It is in the same language as that in which the revelations were made to him. Then what is the substitute for miracles? The veracity of dawah that was proved through miracles is currently served by natural facts discovered by modern science. Science replaces the miracles of ancient times as evidence to prove the veracity of religion. Both these ways of giving evidence in support of religion are stated in the Quran. We sent Our messenger with evidence. (57: 25) God gave His prophets miracles so that they might prove the veracity of their message. As for the second period of history, the Quran alludes to the matter of supporting evidence in the future tense. “We shall show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves, until it becomes clear to them that this is the truth.” (41: 53) The Prophet of Islam came to the world in the first quarter of the seventh century. Modern science came a thousand years after his advent. It did not emerge by chance. It was a direct result of the revolution initiated by the Prophet of Islam aimed at ending polytheism (shirk). After this a new process started in human history, the culmination of which is modern Science. Polytheism is the worship of more than one god. In ancient times, man had made the phenomenon of nature an object of worship. It became a mental block in the process of research and investigation of nature, for the simple reason that if you hold something as a subject of veneration, you cannot treat it as a subject of scientific investigation. Common to miracles and arguments based on scientific evidence is that they both provide arguments for religious belief at the level of inference.