The Traces of Age of Information Technology in Quran & Hadith
The Traces of Age of Information Technology in Quran & Hadith
By Sheikh Adnan Ahmed Usmanivisibility
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Published 2018
Islamic Sciences Volume 1 (2018) The Traces of Age of Information…
35
The Traces of Age of Information Technology
in Quran & Hadith
Naimatillah
*
Mr. Sheikh Adnan Ahmed Usmani
**
Abstract
The holy book Quran is revealed by Allah Almighty and it is truly the literal
word of Allah Almighty several evidences on this claim has been provided in
the holy Quran itself with sane reasoning not only this but Allah Almighty has
challenged in the holy Quran all the creations that if anyone claims that this
holy book Quran is not the literal word of Allah Almighty or if someone thinks
that it has been fabricated then why don’t those people try to bring something
like Quran. It has been more than fourteen hundred years that challenge has
remain unbeaten and during all those years nobody has ever come up with such
a perfect book which tells you all about the entire system of the universe and in
fact beyond the system of universe. This challenge by Allah Almighty in the
holy Quran has made everyone helpless, even in the modern age of information
technology where access to any sort of information is just few clicks away. This
actually is the miracle of the Holy prophet (peace be upon him) till end of times
and since the holy prophet (peace be upon him) is the final prophet of Allah
therefore the holy book Quran have all the knowledge of everything from past
present and the future. The holy Quran itself claims that it has all the knowledge
that has been ever existed there this research paper will find the traces of age of
information technology in Quran and Hadith.
Keywords: technology, science, innovation, Islam, development
Introduction
ِ مٍ ة
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1
*
Mr. Naimatillah Research Scholar, University of Karachi, Karachi
**
Mr. Sheikh Adnan Ahmed Usmani Research Scholar, University of Karachi, Karachi
Islamic Sciences Volume 1 (2018) The Traces of Age of Information…
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And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant
[Muhammad (peace be upon him)], then produce a surah the like thereof and
call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. But if you
do not - and you will never be able to - then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men
and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.
2
In the above ayah Allah Almighty has informed that you will never be able to
bring anything like the Quran not even like its smallest ayah, either you try it
alone or you gather the entire world to help you doing this. This challenge was
given by Allah Almighty in the holy Quran almost fourteen and a half hundred
years ago and the history has proven that there is no doubt in its truth. There
has been so many attempts from the nonbelievers in different times throughout
the history but they have always failed to bring anything like the holy Quran.
Now the question rises here that why is it impossible to bring something like
the smallest single ayah of Quran? Even if the entire universe help each other
to do something like this.
The interpreters of the holy Quran have given answer to this question and they
say that there are four reasons for this and those four reasons are known as " جوہ و
عجاز ا" قرآن, the reasons of inimitability or miraculousness of Quran, given as
under:
1. Conciseness is one of those reasons, the statements in the holy Quran are so
compact and meaningful that no other book can match its standard of
conciseness and at the same time "طوالت"protractedness or prolonging of
Quran has been unmatched it has got such a highest level of concinnity “ فصاحت
و بلغت” that no one can ever imitate any ayah. It tells a story one place with
preciseness and then the same story has been discussed in details in another part
of Quran yet there is no contradiction found between them.
2. Despite of being in Arabic language the holy Quran has its special status in
Arabic literature indeed surely the highest standard for Arabic. The
nonbelievers in the time of rise of Islam used to confess this that we have never
heard anything ever in Arabic language.
3. The matters and stories of the previous nations mention in the holy Quran
have been proven right in the human history, for example when occurrence of
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mairaj took place the holy prophet (peace be upon him) was asked about the
Aqsa mosque and those who asked the question were stunned by the answer of
the holy prophet (peace be upon him) because he never to that place before but
told them the entire details of the Aqsa mosque, and there are several other
examples.
4. The holy Quran not only told us about the past but also the future events, for
example the Quran before war between Jews and Christians told that Christians
will win the war in Surah Al rum
3
. And this challenge itself as discussed earlier
is for all times till the occurrence of the day of judgment.
In this article we will be going through the fourth reason which is related to the
future prophecies of Quran about the age of information technology and
inventions invented is this age.
In Arabic language the word “ عجاز ا“ is basically derived from the word “ معجزہ
“ and it is used of any event that occurs through the prophets that is not
explicable by nature or any scientific laws and is therefore attributed to divine
agency.
Now If something like that occurs through the prophets before their
announcement of prophethood then it is called “ رہاص ا” , and when something
like this occurs after the declaration of their prophethood then its called “ معجزہ”
which is called a miracle in English and if anything like that occurs through a
person who is a self-proclaimed false prophethood then it’s called “ استدراج”
and if such thing occurred through magician then it’s called a magic, and if such
thing happened through a sufi, saint or a pious Muslim person then it’s called “
کرامت”.
4
So actually we will be discussing the عجاز اof the holy Quran about future events
precisely the prophecies regarding the age of information technology. Now that
we clearly understand the word عجاز اwe will move to the term information
technology.
It is defined as:
All those technology which are related to information systems and that is an
integrated set of components for collecting, storing, and processing data and
for providing information, knowledge and digital products comes under the
umbrella of information technology
5
.
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Specifically, we have two types of information available right or true and wrong
or false, regarding both there are prophecies of the holy prophet (peace be upon
him). Basically the truth or true information has three types:
1. About beliefs ( داتعتقاا)
2. About practices ( عمالا)
3. About sayings ( اقوال)
The true information regarding beliefs is called “ حق”, the one regarding
practices is called “ صواب”, and the one regarding sayings is called “ صدق”,
similarly false or wrong information has also three basic types:
The wrong or false information regarding beliefs is called “ باطل”
The wrong or false information regarding practices is called “ خطاء”
The wrong or false information regarding sayings is called “ کذب”
6
So all the information shared in through information technology belong to one
of these types.
Maulana Abul Faiz Ahmed bin Muhammad Al-Ghamari Al-Husainni (1971)
has written the facts and figures about the development of inventions and has
tried to find clues of those inventions in Quran and Hadith given as under:
Transportation and machines in the holy Quran
مثله ما يركبون منقنا لهمن وخلك المشحوفلتهم في الا حملنا ذري لهم ان وايه
7
The above ayah enlightens that Allah Almighty has created ships for
transportation and traveling and has also created other things which are used
for traveling on land, now If we see Allah in this ayah has hinted towards
another source of traveling and transportation therefor all the machineries and
technology used for transportation comes under this ayah, the word “ مثلہ”
means that there would a thing that will be big like ships but it will operate on
land. Hazrat Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) interprets
this ayah as:
ك السفن تلمثال اقنا لهم سفنا وخل يرکبونها
8
So Allah is has indicated that there are more things like ships which will be
used for transportation. In another ayah Allah says:
9
شار عطلت واذا الع
The word “ عشار” is used for the female camels which are on the 10
th
month
of their conceiving, so Allah in the above ayah is saying that the female camels
will be abandoned and won’t be used for traveling, because at that time camels
were used for transportation and traveling so the Quran says that there will be
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time that using of camels for transportation will be abandoned and there will be
other things for doing this. Obviously during the revelation of Quran there was
no concept of such inventions nobody could ever thought about modern
inventions but the Quran has told this hundreds of years ago.
In another ayah Allah says:
تعلمونق مالا وزينه ويخل الحمير لتركبوهبغال و والخيل وال
10
In the above ayah Allah has said that horses, mules and donkeys are created by
Allah for you on which you can travel and ride them and after that Allah says
that Allah will create such things in the future which you will use for riding and
you don’t know then yet. This ayah clearly indicates that invention of traveling
technologies that has been invented so many years after the revelation of this
ayah.
Indications about the Inventions in Hadith:
The holy prophet (peace be upon him) said:
يطوی الرضاق ورب السولزمان و يتقارب الساعۃ حتی يتقا ل تقوم ا
11
The Day of Judgment will not occur until the time comes closer and the cities
come closer and the land being folded.
The above hadith indicates that there will be things through which the distance
will be lessened. Today we travel to other continents just in few hours through
airplanes and this has got the cities closer to each other. Once the holy prophet
(peace be upon him) was asked by his companion that what will be the speed
of Dajjal? The holy prophet (peace be upon him) replied that:
دبرته الريحلغيث است كا
12
His speed will be like the rain which is followed by wind.
This hadith is also indicating towards something very speedy which is
definitely an airplane, so maybe Dajjal would use airplanes because the word
rain followed by wind is indicating towards planes.
In another Hadith the holy prophet (peace be upon him) said:
ن فل يجد ربحاجر بين الفقيلتا حتى يبلغ ا
13
(The Day of Judgment will not come) before the traders reach the sky and will
not get its benefits.
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Now this makes it clearer that there will be such technology that would take
people to the skies and people will get its benefits as well, indeed these are
nothing but airplanes as we witness a lot of international business exhibitions
taken place in different part of the world where the businessmen from different
parts of the world gather for few days and get a huge benefit from such events.
Furthermore, there is a ferences of electricity in the Holy Quran, Allah
Almighty says in the holy Quran:
جوم انكدرت واذا الن
14
The word "انکدار"is referred to the weakness of the shine or light of luminosity
of stars. The companions of the holy prophet (peace be upon him) have narrated
about this ayah that this ayah indicates that as the time gets closer to the Day of
Judgment the stars will lose their shine or light. This dullness of the shines of
stars is due to the heavy usage of electricity lights. Similarly, in the ancient
times people used the light of stars to identify the directions to travel but now
electricity lights have taken its place. And an evidences for this is that Allah
has also discussed the light of sun in the Quran but for that light the word “تکوير”
has been used because the electricity makes no effect for the light of sun.
Significance of the Holy Quran
When the entire world was drowned in the darkness of the illiteracy and when
there was no concept of mutual respect and human rights where everyone was
always ready to kill each other on small disputes and had forgotten the real
concept of God and instead of Allah the people started to worshiping the sun,
the moon, the stars and different kinds of idols in fact everyone had made his
own God according to his own will, right on that time Allah due to his immense
amount of mercy on the people sent the holy prophet (peace be upon him) as
the final prophet with the final verdict and code of conduct to the entire
creatures till the occurrence of the Day Of judgment who enlightened the world
with the light of Tauheed and the same Arabs who were at their worst condition
became the leaders of the world. The holy prophet (peace be upon him) during
23 years explained all those things that the mankind needed to know till the Day
of Judgment. And just in 23 years the entire situation was changed, everyone
got aware of the rights of each other, women got her most respected status ever
is human history for the first time and the Arabs abandoned the killing of female
child.
The holy prophet (peace be upon him) explained the ummah about the future
events as well in the form of Quran and hadith as a complete code of life for
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entire world. It has the answer to every question right from the beginning of
world to its end. As a matter of fact, the holy prophet (peace be upon him) not
only explained the future events but also warned about the incidents that would
take place in future and also taught the ways to come up with those situations
and incidents.
It is narrated by Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that the holy
prophet (peace be upon him) said:
فيه نبا ماب ا كتاا بينكم مم وحكمر ما بعدك قبلكم وخب
15
The book of Allah i.e. the holy Quran has all the knowledge of past and future
and the commands regarding what you have amongst you.
Hence we may say that the present past and the future events and inventions are
mentioned in the holy Quran.
Hazrat Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said that:
ب اه في كتا بعير لوجدتي عقال لو ضاع ل
16
Even if I lose my camels rope I can find it in Allah’s book (The holy Quran).
Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said that:
عين بعيرالفاتحه سب من تفسير ا لوقرت لوشئت
17
If I want to write a tafseer of Surah Al Fatiha (a surah in Quran comprising only
7 ayat) I can load 70 camels with its interpretation.
Means that there is so much knowledge in the holy Quran as Allama Iqbal said:
18
قی استہا با را نوا ساز قرآن
The rhythms concealed in the holy Quran are still to come.
Therefore, it is very essential for the researchers to come towards Quran and
hadith because it has been proved throughout the human history that the holy
Quran has all the knowledge regarding past present and future.
As Allah Almighty has said:
کل شیء تبيانا ل و نزل ب
ٰ
الکت نا عليک
19
.
And we have sent down to you the book that has clarification for everything
And this is a miraculous fact of Quran for all times and this strengthens the faith
and trust on Allah and his prophet (peace be upon him).
The holy prophet (peace be upon him) said:
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رجوانلی ،فا اہ اوحاايتہ وحيان الذی اوتنماکايہ البشروامن علٓ مثلہ اعطی ما ء نبی الآ لنبيامن ا ما
لقيامۃيوم اکثرهم تابعا ا اکون
20
Every prophet has been blessed with a miracle which encourages the people to
embrace their preaching and the miracle given to me is what has revealed upon
me (the holy Quran) and I hope that in the Day of Judgment my followers will
be highest in number.
This hadith also tells us that the former prophets when left the world their
miracles remained to their time but the miracle given to the holy prophet (peace
be upon him) will remain till the Day of Judgment and that miracle is the holy
Quran which always be a source of guidance to the right path for those who
seek the right path.
The Age of Info-tech in Hadith
The holy prophet (peace be upon him) said:
انفسكمل تحدثون بهاترونها و لم تكونوا عظاماااموراى ترولساعه حت ل تقوم ا
21
The Day of Judgment will not occur until you don’t see things that had never
been thought and seen.
This hadith clearly indicates towards the modern inventions specially the
inventions taken place in the age of information technology because all these
things were impossible to think and see at that time. Today a person from one
part of the world can contact the other person thousand miles away from him
in just few seconds, sending emails, making business deals, fighting wars
through drones. This was all unthinkable at that time indeed everything related
to computer technology at that time was beyond the imaginations.
Voice Typing, Digital Libraries and Internet in Hadith:
In the book “Ikhtira’at Al Asriah” three ahadith have been discussed, one
narrated by Hazrat Abdullah bin masoud in which the holy prophet (peace be
upon him) has said that one of the indications of closeness of the Day of
Judgment is the emersion of the Qalam. In another hadith narrated by Imam
Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him) the holy prophet (peace be upon him)
has said that:
لتجارہقلم و تكثر ا ويظهر المالفيض العلم و يه حتى يرفع اللساع ل تقوم ا
The Day of Judgment will not occur until the knowledge is finished and the
commodity and trade gets increased and the Qalam gets emerged.
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So these three things among the other indications of closeness of the Day of
Judgment will be witnessed by people. Similarly there is another hadith that
mentions that,
قلمہ ويظهر اللتجارتفشوا امال وعۃ ان يفشوا اللسا من اشراط ا ان
From the conditions of closeness of the Day of Judgment is that the increase in
trade and commodities and emersion of Qalam.
All these three ahadith have enlightened the emersion of the Qalam. The Islamic
scholars have different opinions regarding emersion of Qalam. The old school
of thought are of the view that the emersion of Qalam means that books and
writings and publishing will be increased but the modern school of thought
slightly differs in the opinion they argue that writing and publishing had already
been increased in the age of Banu Abbas so they think that this emersion of
Qalam actually belongs to the modern era. So basically there are two options to
define Qalam one is to take the literal (حقيقی) meaning of Qalam and the other
option is to take that nonliteral (مجازی) meaning of Qalam.
If the literal meaning is taken, then it is simply the invention of a pen which
when was invented long time ago in Egypt known as Qalam Ambos (قلم انبوس).
And if the nonliteral meaning is taken then it means the education system itself
because it is due to madrasas and schools and universities which actually
increased the books and writings as compared to that time.
22
Maulana Yousuf Ludhyanvi says that abundance of Qalam will occur,
23
and
Maulana Shoaibullah Khan has said that the number of authors will increase
and almost everyone would write something like a book of script either being
capable of writing or incapable for example the non-Muslims writing books
about the core concepts of Islam and other such groups known as orientalists
who keep spreading miss concepts and wrong information about Islam and this
writing does not mean the writings of Islamic scholars.
24
What I have preferred is the point of view of old school of thought because the
scholars of the old school of thought have discussed two dimensions of this
Hadith. One is writing and the other is books will increase. So if we see the first
meaning that writing will increase then we will witness that today everyone is
busy in writing something either with a pen or with the modern version of pen
which is typing in computers, laptops or cellphones but still this is not
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something strange and big enough as all the signs of closeness of the Day of
Judgment are always very strange and amazing but another modern way of
typing is “voice typing” which is a very wonderful and amazing development
of modern times. And if someone limits this meaning to the books then it should
be the development of digital libraries and internet which is also a modern
invention that amazes everyone because not thousands but billions and trillions
of books are there 24/7 for the entire world to read in the internet, and this was
really unimaginable and unthinkable at that time when the holy prophet (peace
be upon him) had professed it.
Provision of Information Through Text Messages in Hadith:
The holy prophet (peace be upon him) said that:
لحتیبيع فيقول الرجلبيع القلم،ويہ،ويظهراللتجارتفشوامال ويکثر،وعۃ ان يفشواللسا من اشراط ا ان
ی فلنامرتاجربن است
25
.
If we see the last portion of this hadith it discusses that the Day of Judgment
will not occur until a man does not say to another man that I will not make a
trade deal with you until I take the consent or opinion of that man who of that
tribe.
Now this style of words indicate that when you say that man it means that you
are pointing towards someone which doesn’t look something like to be
professed as the signs of end of times, so either the person of the other tribe
would reside far away from the first person which means despite being far away
and the long distance people will be able to communicate in very less time or
both people will have different languages but despite of having different
languages they would be able to communicate.
Both these things were not possible at that time because trading a commodity
needs the decision at that particular moment and taking the opinion of someone
who lives far away from the trade point at the time of deal or communicate in
other language that is not known to you were impossible but in the modern time
through internet as we witness in everyday life that business deals take place so
often through WhatsApp, text messages, skype and other such types of
communication tools and there are proper official consultation groups in
WhatsApp for trading by the experts of particular commodities who guide and
charge their clients for their consultancy services and also the amazing google
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translator which has made every language easier to understand and
communicate. ( اعلموا)
Manual & Electronic Publications:
In a hadith e Qudsi the holy prophet (peace be upon him) has said that Allah
Almighty has says:
ت ذلک بهمذافعللکبيرفا والمراة والعبد والحروالصغيروارجلمہ الزمان حتی يعلخرالٓ علم فی ا ابث ال
اخذتهم بحقی عليهم
I will spread the knowledge in the final era so that everyone including men and
women, elders and kids, the masters and the slaves will have the knowledge
and then (after giving them the knowledge) I will hold them (those who despite
having the knowledge would not believe Allah) accountable regarding myself.
Now if we see in the modern age the provision of knowledge has two basic
ways which were not there at that time when it was professed of prescientific
age. One through publishing through printing media and the other through
electronic media and internet. Unquantifiable amount of knowledge is being
provided from these media and those who are unable to read and write also gain
the knowledge through listing radios and watching televisions.
Mentioning the Misuses of Information Technology:
و ان الدم يسفكى الكذبطي علمال يع بغير حقه و ال
26
Unjust blood will be shed and money will be spent to spread false information.
In the age of info-tech when we study and observe we easily to the conclusion
that there is a lot of false and wrong information being spread in all types of
media and a huge amount of investment has been involved in this provision of
false information. For example, that advertisement that we see often shows us
the qualities that are not actually present in the product being advertised
similarly the TV serials and the movies as it is not unknown to anyone that there
are movies which earn billions of dollars, the bitter part is that everybody knows
that it is all false fake and untrue but still they spend and invest in it.
Unfortunately, this the sad reality of the modern age that nobody wants to invest
for truth and the false and untruth has got more value in this age where almost
everyone knows the truth and information technology has a huge role in
provision of such knowledge.
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Conclusion
All the Muslims believe that the holy Quran is free from any sort of falsehood
and mistakes and no other book can be claimed for this attribute and quality
Allah Almighty has said that, if this (Quran) would have been from someone
else, it would have been full of contradictions. Since Allah Almighty is the
creator of everything hence has the perfect word that is Quran. In this research
article I have tried to bring ahadith and ayaat of the holy Quran in account to
prove the marvel (عجازا) of Islam regarding the age of information technology.
The fact is that there is no information of knowledge that have remained
untouched by Islam, it has discussed each and everything from the beginning
of this entire system of life till the occurrence of the Day of Judgment and the
facts occurring after establishment of the Day of Judgment.
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