Maurice Bucaille

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Maurice Bucaille (born 1920) is a French medical doctor and author. He has become a household name in Islamic circles for his analysis of supposed scientific discoveries contained in the Qur'an.

1 Life
2 The Bible, The Qur'an and Science
3 Criticism
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Life

In 1973, Bucaille was appointed family physician to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

In 1976, while still in the service of the king, he published a book entitled The Bible, The Qur'an and Science, which seeks to demonstrate that the Qur'an is perfectly consistent with modern science and the Bible is not.

[edit] The Bible, The Qur'an and Science

In his book, The Bible, The Qur'an and Science^[1], published in 1976, Bucaille aims at proving that the Qur'an has always been in agreement with scientific facts and that the Bible was in contradiction to science. He claims that in Islam, science and religion have always been "twin sisters" (vii). According to Bucaille, there are "monumental" errors of science in the Bible and "not a single error" in the Quran (120), whose descriptions of natural phenomena in it make it compatible with modern science. Bucaille concludes that the Qur'an is the reliable word of God.

Bucaille argues that the Old Testament was distorted because of numerous translations and corrections as it was transmitted orally. He highlights, in his words, "numerous disagreements and repetitions", in the Old Testament (12) and the Gospels (85, 95). In his analysis, Bucaille makes use of many propositions of Biblical criticism, such as the Documentary hypothesis.

In regard to the Qu'ran, Bucaille however follows the Islamic tradition that the Quranic scrolls were collected during Muhammad's lifetime and were deemed accurate by the archangel Gabriel himself (132).

In his opinion, the first of the examples of the consistency of the Quran and science is presented by the creation of the heavens and the earth.

Bucaille's criticism focuses of the Bible on the creation account found in the Genesis, which in his view contains the most glaring inconsistencies between religion and science. He criticizes verses 1:1-2 as stating that the earth was first a gaseous mass and then water was placed on it, 1:20-25 as letting the "beasts of the earth" appear after the birds (26), which he contrasts with the theory of evolution, and 2:4-5 as claiming that "when God created man, there was no vegetation on Earth (it had not yet rained)". (28)

Bucaille also makes use of the case of Galileo, who was condemned by the Catholic church.

Bucaille points out that the Qur'an, unlike the Bible, does not have a specific sequence for the creation of the heavens and earth, and argues that this leaves the the entire process of creation open to interpretation according to the current scientific theories.

Still, Bucaille interprets various Quranic verses to mirror scientific findings:

He interprets the smoke mentioned in Surah 41:11 as referring to the "gaseous state of the matter that made up the early Universe", which according to science was a primary Nebula. (147)
He interprets Surah 36:40 to refer to the moon travelling around the earth in an orbit. He contrasts this with Harlow Shapley's calculation of the distance between the Sun and the center of the galaxy and with his calculation that the sun travels at "roughly 150 miles per second" along its orbit. Boucailles claims that these discoveries, made only in 1917, were already contained in the Quran. (161)
He argues that Surah 51:47 could be translated as "The heaven, We have built it with power. Verily, We are expanding it.", seeing this as confirmation of the Expansion of the universe.
He considers the Water Cycle to be referred to in Surah 23:18 and the following verse. (174)
He also proposes that Surahs 75:37, 86:6, 32:8, 77:20 refers to the existence of the sperm and that Surahs 40:67 and 23:14 refer to its importance in conception. He argues that, based on the interpretation of these verses, the knowledge of Islamic scholars was superior to that of Western embryology, which he alleges until 1651 held that "all life initially comes from an egg". (207)

Bucaille also argues for the supernatural origin of the Qur'an by pointing out examples arguably unknowable to Arabs, such as the discomfort in breathing experienced at high altitudes due to lack of oxygen (183), as referred to in Sura 6:125.

[edit] Criticism

Critics of Bucaille dismiss his work as crude Islamic propaganda. They claim that he uses "stretched or arbitrary" interpretations ^[2] and mistranslations, ^[3] and point to his close relationship with the Saudi royal family. Critics also point out that while Maurice Bucaille claims the quran is perfect, it is doubtful whether or not he actually converted to Islam.^[4]

In his book The Qur'an and the Bible in the light of history and science,, medical doctor William Campbell intents to refute Bucaille's interpretations. [1]