Then your hearts were hardened after that, they are like stones or harder.
Then your hearts hardened after that, they were like stones, or even harder.
Scientific paradox and scientific miracle in verse
"Then your hearts hardened after that, it is like stones or harder. There are stones from which rivers erupt, and some of them are cracked and water comes out of them, and some of them are falling out of fear of God, and God is not unaware of what you do" (The Cow: 74) A scientific paradox and a graphic miracle, as it was combined between the rhetorical metaphor in comparing the hardness of hearts and the scientific fact accurate in describing the characteristics of rocks and water, which were not known.
1. Rivers burst from rocks
Today we know that many streams and underground eyes originate from within the rocks, as a result of the collection of water in porous aquifers and then flowed strongly through geological cracks, such as the headwaters of the Nile River and some underground rivers in the mountains.
2. Rock cracking and water exit
Geologically, rocks may crack due to pressure, earthquakes or thermal expansion, allowing groundwater to flow out, which is what we today call “rock springs”. The verse accurately described this phenomenon: “And some of them crack out of the water.”
3. Falling Rocks of Fear of God
Here after my knowledge and my soul:
Geology: Rocks collapse or fall due to gravity factors, landslides or volcanoes.
The Face of Scientific Miracle
The 7th-century Qur'an accurately described three geological phenomena that we have only recently discovered, and which are associated with rocks:
1. Exploding rivers from mountains.
2. Cracking rocks and water exit.
3. Rock landing (crash).
These phenomena were not known in detail in the desert environment in which the Qur'an was revealed, and were later discovered by geological science, and this constitutes a miracle here in combining rhetorical metaphor (hardness of hearts) with accurate scientific truth (characteristics of rocks), making the verse a scientific and graphical miracle at the same time.
Psychological Miracles
In addition to the geological miracle, other lights stand out in the verse:
Psychological Miracle:
The Qur'an described "cruelness of the heart" centuries before modern psychology was concerned with "alexithymia" or "sclerosis of attitudes" as a psychological illness. Cruelty is a state of progressive death of positive emotions such as compassion and fear of God, which is more dangerous than any physical illness.
Predictive and Legislative Miracle:
What we are witnessing today of the crimes of the Israelites against children, women, the elderly and the sick, and of displacement and genocide in Gaza and the rest of Palestine, is only a living embodiment of what the Qur’an described centuries ago, when it told their story after they saw the verse of the resurrection of the dead (the story of the cow), and then returned to controversy and disobedience. The verse reveals a miraculous mental dimension, which is the continuation of the same behavior throughout history, and a legislative dimension that does not establish the rule that science and knowledge alone is sufficient.
Miraculous imagery:
The combination of the dynamic geological landscape (explosion, cracking, falling) and the immobility of the human heart creates a very powerful rhetorical image. The rock that descends from the mountain by gravity (God’s year in the universe) is depicted as “subdued” and “grey,” while the heart rises and grows. It is the heart of a “harder” than the inanimate creature.
About the book: Scientific Interpretation and Scientific Miracle in the Holy Quran: Sura Al-Baqarah by Dr. Muhammad Bourbab
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Source: Published on Dr. Mohammed Bourbab's Facebook page on 03-10-2025
https://www.facebook.com/bourbab.m/posts/pfbid03627LGajjoLa2wUDw4FFoW4uUi9yhDDmdRS1uDaxdE5NM9t9rTYAMKyt83D4qZy8Yl