Quranic Inimitability: A Gate from Heaven and the Meaning of Ascension

Lecture presenter:

“And say, ‘Praise to Allah. He will show you His signs, and you will recognize them.’” [Surah An-Naml, 27:93]

Professor Dr. Ali Al-Murr has an extensive record of achievements. He was the first nuclear engineer in Jordan and is considered one of the prominent founders and leaders of the country's nuclear programme.

He was born in Hebron, Palestine, in 1949. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1974, a master's degree in nuclear engineering in Pakistan in 1976, and a doctorate in radiation physics from the Institute of Atomic Energy in Poland in 2002.

He worked as a nuclear and electrical engineer in Libya from 1974 to 1979. In 1980, he joined the Jordanian Ministry of Industry, where he served as head and director of the Nuclear Energy Department in Jordan until 1997. He then worked as a nuclear energy adviser at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources from 1997 to 2008. He also served as director of the Uranium Project at the Natural Resources Authority from 2005 to 2008.

He has made scientific contributions and authored numerous research papers and articles on nuclear energy, its peaceful applications, and uranium. His books include Environmental Radiation and Its Health Effects, Nuclear Hazards After Fukushima, and Nuclear Energy: Its Definition, Importance, and Uses, among other works.

He served as vice president of the Jordanian Association for the Miraculous Nature of the Quran and Sunnah during the previous term and remains an active participant in its activities and events.

Please welcome him. May Allah reward him abundantly.

Dr. Ali Al-Murr

In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad, his family, and all those who follow him.

To begin, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our dear brother, Engineer Abdullah Basyouni, for his kind introduction. I would also like to thank this pioneering association for its work in Islamic outreach and scholarship relating to the Noble Quran. The association truly operates with tremendous energy relative to the financial and human resources available to it. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.

One of the fruits of this work is that it brings us together with such wonderful people. By Allah, being among a group of honourable brothers like these truly brings joy to the heart. When a person spends time with people like them, he feels happiness and exhilaration, and he feels that goodness remains within this nation.

Scholars are beacons of guidance. Wherever a scholar or a learner goes—and by this I mean those engaged in the religious sciences—he is like a lamp that illuminates wherever he travels. Light radiates from every person whose heart contains something of the Noble Quran and whose mind contains determination and perseverance to learn and teach it.

Dear brothers and sisters,

As our brother mentioned, today's lecture concerns the words of Allah, the Exalted:

“And [even] if We opened to them a gate from the heaven and they continued therein to ascend,”

The verse continues:

“They would say, ‘Our eyes have only been dazzled; rather, we are a people affected by magic.’”

[Surah Al-Hijr, 15:14–15]

These verses highlight a particular aspect of inimitability—or, more precisely, they illustrate the two comprehensive meanings of inimitability intended here. This noble passage consists of only a few words, and we will examine it in some detail.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Our problem—or the problem that has led people to oppose this religion ever since the Quran was revealed in Makkah—is that this Quran “guides to that which is most suitable.” [Surah Al-Isra, 17:9]

This is a reality known to both the learned and the unlearned. Indeed, even the most foolish politician in the world today knows that the Quran is a book of guidance and that it guides to what is most upright.

It is goodness, knowledge, and inimitability. Yet they have treated it as a problem that must be eliminated. This is the very essence of obstinacy.

They said, “And engage in vain discourse concerning it.” [Surah Fussilat, 41:26] In other words, they should create noise and confusion around it and distract people from it.

The first thing they encounter when confronted with this Quran is its luminous and scientific nature. It is the speech of the Lord of all worlds. When it speaks about something, it describes it as it truly is. It speaks about the stars and describes them as they are; it speaks about the Earth and describes it as it is; and it speaks about everything and describes it as it is.

Another remarkable feature, dear brothers and sisters, is the extraordinary density of information it contains. However much you read it, you will discover new insights, and you will find it relevant to every age.

“Say, ‘If mankind and the jinn gathered together…’” [Surah Al-Isra, 17:88]

This is the challenge. Because they denied the Quran, they were challenged to produce something comparable to it. Every word in the Quran presents a challenge. You cannot replace one word with another or put one letter in the place of another without affecting its precise arrangement. This is the secret.

“And We have certainly diversified for the people in this Quran from every kind of example, but most of the people refused anything except disbelief.” [Surah Al-Isra, 17:89]

Now listen to the extent of their obstinacy:

“And they said, ‘We will not believe you until you make a spring gush forth for us from the earth.’”

The passage continues:

“Or you make a spring gush forth from the earth, or you have a garden of palm trees and grapes and make rivers gush forth within them in force, or you make the heaven fall upon us in fragments as you have claimed, or you bring Allah and the angels before us, or you have a house of gold, or you ascend into the sky. And [even then] we will not believe in your ascension until you bring down to us a book we may read.”

Say, “Exalted is my Lord! Was I ever but a human messenger?” [Surah Al-Isra, 17:90–93]

Then comes the challenge:

“And [even] if We opened to them a gate from the heaven and they continued therein to ascend, they would say, ‘Our eyes have only been dazzled; rather, we are a people affected by magic.’” [Surah Al-Hijr, 15:14–15]

Here, we encounter what the speaker describes as a remarkable correspondence between Quranic expressions and scientific facts discovered in modern times.

The Linguistic Meanings of the Key Expressions

“Fa-ẓallū” (فَظَلُّوا)

This expression comes from the Arabic verb ẓalla, meaning to remain or continue doing something, traditionally associated with daytime. In everyday usage, we sometimes use this expression imprecisely. In the traditional distinction, ẓalla refers to activity during the day, while bāta refers to spending the night or doing something at night.

The speaker argues that the expression indicates sustained activity during daylight, because a journey through space, in his interpretation, should take place during the day so that what lies ahead can be seen.

“Yaʿrujūn” (يَعْرُجُونَ)

The speaker states that the classical Quranic commentaries consistently understood this expression to mean going upward or ascending.

“Sukkirat abṣārunā” (سُكِّرَتْ أَبْصَارُنَا)

This expression is interpreted as referring to eyes being clouded, dazzled, or prevented from seeing. The speaker also connects its underlying meaning with restraint or obstruction.

“Masḥūrūn” (مَسْحُورُونَ)

This means being affected by magic or being under a spell. In the context of the verse, the speaker interprets it as the claim that what the people see is not reality but an illusion or deception.

Reflections Attributed to Sheikh Al-Sha'rawi and Dr. Zaghloul El-Naggar

We now turn to Sheikh Muhammad Metwalli Al-Sha'rawi and Dr. Zaghloul El-Naggar.

The speaker attributes to Sheikh Al-Sha'rawi the explanation that ascension, in its original linguistic sense, involves upward movement along curved rather than straight paths, owing to gravitational forces, pressure differences, and the movement of celestial bodies.

Regarding the expression “Our eyes have only been dazzled,” the speaker explains that daylight is produced by the scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere. When a person moves beyond the atmosphere, this source of scattered light is no longer present in the same way, and the person encounters the deep darkness of outer space despite the presence of the Sun.

Three Main Aspects of Inimitability

First: The Gates of Heaven

According to the speaker, the traditional understanding was that outer space was entirely open. He argues that modern scientific discoveries have shown that space travel is governed by physical laws and that spacecraft must follow carefully defined routes and entry or exit paths, which he refers to as “launch and re-entry corridors.”

He states that if a spacecraft does not follow these routes, it may be deflected or burn up.

Second: The Expression “They Ascend”

The speaker argues that astrophysics has demonstrated that straight-line movement does not occur in the universe and that every object follows a curved or winding path under the influence of gravity.

Third: “Our Eyes Have Only Been Dazzled” and the Darkness of Outer Space

The speaker explains that outside the atmosphere there is no atmospheric scattering of sunlight in the same way as on Earth. Consequently, an astronaut sees the darkness of space, while the Sun appears as an intensely bright source against the dark background.

He suggests that this visual contrast may be experienced as a kind of visual shock, which he relates to the Quranic expression describing eyes as being dazzled or obstructed.

Practical Application: Rockets and Spacecraft

The speaker describes the launch and landing of spacecraft as follows.

During launch, a rocket rises vertically for a few seconds to pass through the denser layers of the atmosphere along a short route. It is then commanded to tilt its nose, beginning a manoeuvre that establishes a suitable trajectory and balances the effects of gravity and atmospheric drag.

During re-entry, the spacecraft must enter the atmosphere at a very precise angle, which the speaker gives as between 5.5 and 7.5 degrees. If the angle is too shallow, he states, the spacecraft may skip off the atmosphere and return to space. If the entry is too steep, the temperature may rise to 7,000 degrees Celsius, causing the spacecraft to burn up completely.

Conclusion

To summarise, the speaker concludes that travel through the heavens involves ascending rather than moving in straight lines; that the heavens are governed by physical laws; and that safe space travel requires carefully defined routes.

He argues that what the Quran stated more than 1,400 years ago corresponds to discoveries being made by scientists today.

And praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds.