Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD
Abstract
The Holy Qur’an is not a textbook of science, yet it frequently directs our attention to the natural world as evidence of divine truth. One striking feature of the Qur’an is its use of qasam (oaths) in which Allah swears by various natural phenomena – the sun and moon, the stars, the sky, the winds, the mountains, even time itself – to underscore the importance and truth of the message that follows thequran.love. By swearing upon these awe-inspiring creations, the Qur’an presents them as proofs of the All-Knowing God and the authenticity of His revelation. This paper compiles Quranic verses where oaths by nature appear, demonstrating how “the book of scripture and the ‘book of nature’ both emanate from the same Truth”, each validating the other thequran.love. We argue that since the Qur’an itself calls on natural phenomena as witnesses to its message, any well-established scientific fact about those phenomena can – and should – be used to enrich our understanding of the Qur’an. In harmonizing Quranic commentary with empirical science, we celebrate the Qur’an as the Word of God and the universe as His creation, two expressions of one truth.
Introduction
It is often said that “the Qur’an is not a book of science, but a book of signs.” Indeed, the primary purpose of the Qur’an is guidance in spiritual and moral matters, not detailing scientific theories. However, the Qur’an emphatically encourages believers to observe and reflect on the natural world. It contains numerous verses where Allah directs our gaze to the heavens and the earth, asking: “Do they not look at the sky above them – how We built it and adorned it?” or “Will they not then contemplate the camels – how they are created?” (Qur’an 88:17-18). The most vivid demonstration of this integration of nature and revelation is the Qur’an’s use of oaths by natural phenomena. In classical Arabic rhetoric, such oaths grab the listener’s attention and lend weight to the statement that comes next thequran.love. Uniquely, whereas humans (in Islamic teaching) should swear only by God, God Himself may swear by anything in creation – and when He does so in the Qur’an, it signals that the thing sworn upon is a mighty sign pointing to His wisdom and power thequran.love. The entities invoked in Quranic oaths – the sun and moon, the stars and sky, the winds and mountains, the alternation of night and day, etc. – are thus elevated as evidence of Allah’s design in nature and testimony to the truth of the revelation thequran.love.
Crucially, the oath and the message it precedes are intimately connected. The grandeur of the created object sworn by lends emphasis to the truth being affirmed. As Imam Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and other scholars note, Allah’s swearing by majestic creations “bolsters certainty in core tenets” such as the oneness of God (tawḥīd) and the reality of resurrection (ākhirah) thequran.love. In fact, the Qur’an itself highlights these purposes: many oaths serve to emphasize fundamental beliefs, affirm the divine origin of the Qur’an, and direct attention to the certainty of the Day of Judgment thequran.love. For example, Allah begins Surah Ṣāffāt (37:1–4) by swearing “By those [angels] lined up in rows… indeed your God is One,” using the orderly ranks of creation to stress His oneness thequran.love. In Surah Ash-Shams (91:1–10), He swears by the sun, moon, day, night, sky, earth, and soul – seven spectacular created phenomena – before declaring that “successful indeed is the one who purifies the soul” thequran.love. By calling the cosmos and the human self as witnesses, the Qur’an is effectively saying that the entire natural order testifies to the truth of its message thequran.love. In Surah Al-Wāqi‘ah (56:75–77), Allah makes this link explicit: “I swear by the positions of the stars – and indeed, that is a mighty oath if you only knew – that this is indeed a noble Qur’an.” Here the vast precision of the stars in the cosmos is invoked as evidence “underscoring the gravity of what follows (the truth of the Quran)” thequran.love. These examples establish a clear principle: the Qur’an presents the natural world as a living testament to its own veracity and to the wisdom of its Creator thequran.love.
Given this Quranic intertwining of nature and revelation, it follows that studying nature enhances our understanding of the Qur’an. Scientific inquiry – when grounded in reliable, well-established facts – is essentially a systematic exploration of the very signs that the Qur’an urges us to contemplate. Far from being at odds, good science and Quranic faith are complementary: the former investigates how Allah’s creation works, while the latter explains why it is full of purpose. The Qur’an even alludes to the progressive unveiling of natural signs as confirmation of its truth: “We will show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that this [Qur’an] is the truth” quran.com. This promise can be understood to mean that as human knowledge advances (through science and exploration), new aspects of Allah’s signs in the cosmos and within our own biology become evident, continually testifying to the truth of His word. Therefore, engaging with scientific discoveries is not a deviation from Quranic understanding but a fulfillment of it – provided we “prioritize the truth of the Quran and the truth of good science” in tandem, recognizing that Allah is the source of both. In the following sections, we will survey Quranic verses where oaths by natural phenomena occur, examine how these oaths reinforce core Islamic beliefs (tawḥīd, prophecy, and the Hereafter), and illustrate with examples how modern scientific insights can enrich the tafsīr (exegesis) of these verses without distorting their spiritual message.
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Additional reading
To read all our articles on atheism, please click here.
Proving God as the First Cause: Creation Ex Nihilo and the Origin of Everything
Analyzing a Video in Light of the Quran and the Bible: How is God the Creator?
Refuting Bertrand Russell’s “The Universe is Just There, and That’s All”
The Elephant in Atheists’ Rooms: The Laws of Nature: Brute Fact or Mindful Design?
The Glorious Quran and Science 
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