The First Cause · The Signs
Why the Quran can only be from God
An illiterate man, a book no poet could imitate, and knowledge that was discovered only 1,000 years later. Judge for yourself where it must come from.
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Part I · The perfect match
Through logic we have arrived at an irrefutable conclusion: there must be an eternal, self-existing, almighty and necessary Creator, who is the first cause behind the universe and all existence.
If we look at all religions, is there one among them whose religious text describes God in this way?
Part I · The perfect match
Well, there is indeed a religious text that stands apart from all other religions and reflects exactly the same properties that we have determined through logical reasoning.
He has never had offspring, nor was He born. And there is none comparable to Him.
[112:3-4]He is the First and the Last, the Most High and Most Near. …
[57:3]English rendering: Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran
Part II · The linguistic miracle
To grasp this distinctive feature, imagine the following: a forty-year-old man who has never played football in his life steps onto a football field for the first time and makes the best players in the world, such as Messi and Ronaldo, look like beginners. Could someone without experience, without having completed a single training session, without ever having played with the ball, become the best player in the world overnight?
Part II · The linguistic miracle
This is, of course, not possible. Then what about this: someone tells you about a man who has never composed a poem, never read a single line of literature and can neither read nor write. One morning this man gets up and suddenly begins to proclaim verses that surpass everything that Shakespeare, Goethe, García Lorca or any master of poetry has ever produced. Do you consider that possible?
Such a miracle would only be possible in a Disney story.
Part II · The linguistic miracle
If that is impossible, then ask yourself the following question: How is it possible that this is exactly what the story of the Quran reflects, which took place over 1,400 years ago on the Arabian Peninsula?
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, however, had no talent for poetry and had never composed any poems. Like most people of that time, he could neither read nor write. Yet after forty years, he suddenly began, overnight, to speak verses that surpassed everything ever composed in the Arabic language.
Part II · The linguistic miracle
In the Quran, God directly challenged the masters of poetry: if they doubted its origin, then they should produce just a single chapter of the same kind. Yet even the most gifted poets failed.
To this day the challenge has remained unbroken. No poet and no linguist has ever been able to replicate the linguistic and literary uniqueness of the Quran.
Challenged 7th centuryUnanswered to this day
Part II · The linguistic miracle
They called the Prophet ﷺ a magician and tried to bribe him with wealth, power and the most beautiful women of Mecca. Everything a swindler could wish for. He was only to abandon the message. Yet he refused without hesitation.
Bearing in mind that the Quran did not come into being in a quiet writing room, but was transmitted orally while the Prophet ﷺ endured war, hunger, persecution and boycott by his own people, the linguistic miracle appears all the more inexplicable by human standards.
Part III · He was no liar
Before his prophethood, the people of Mecca called him al-Amīn — the trustworthy — and entrusted him their goods. Even while its leaders fought him and his followers, they continued to entrust him their wealth. And when he had to flee Mecca to escape being killed, he still made sure that every trust was returned to its owner — including to the very people who wanted to kill him.
Years later, his fiercest enemy Abu Sufyan was questioned before Heraclius, the Emperor of Byzantium: had his people ever accused Muhammad ﷺ of lying? Abu Sufyan — still at war with him — answered: No.
Sahih al-Bukhari 7 ↗Part III · He was no liar
When the Prophet's ﷺ infant son Ibrahim died, a total solar eclipse occurred. The people of Medina believed the sun itself was mourning his son — the perfect opportunity for any false prophet to be raised above human status.
Instead, he gathered the people in the mosque and publicly corrected the rumour: the sun and the moon are among the signs of Allah — they do not eclipse for the death or the life of anyone.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1060 ↗A golden opportunityDeclined
Part IV · The preservation
For more than 1,400 years the Quran has been memorised from generation to generation, in every corner of the world. Today tens of millions of people — most of whom have never met — recite the exact same text, word for word. And manuscripts from the 7th century confirm it: the text has remained unchanged.
Indeed, it is We who sent down the message, and indeed, We will be its guardian.
[15:9]Promised 7th centuryIntact today
Part V · Knowledge no one could have known
To picture this, imagine that in the 7th century a book appeared, at a time when people thought that the Earth was flat and that the stars revolved around it. No one at that time knew that the universe is immeasurably larger than the sun, moon and stars in the sky. Amid the searing heat of the Arabian desert, among nomads who revered poetry and were constantly embroiled in tribal wars, an illiterate man proclaimed this book, without ever having learned to read or write, and without access to modern science.
And yet the Quran describes things that were discovered only over 1,000 years later.
Sign 01 · Cosmology
The Quran speaks of a universe that is expanding (51:47), a discovery that even Einstein ruled out until modern astronomy proved it in 1929. Stephen Hawking even described this as “one of the great intellectual revolutions of the twentieth century.”
Quran 51:47 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 1929
Sign 02 · Cosmology
The Quran speaks of the heaven and the earth once being a single mass that was separated (21:30), as described by the Big Bang theory, which was first published in 1927.
Quran 21:30 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 1927
Sign 03 · Astronomy
Another mighty revelation of the Quran was that the sun purposefully travels through the universe (36:38). At that time the sun was, for the people of that era, nothing more than a heavenly body that orbited the Earth. Isaac Newton and René Descartes were, in the 17th century, the first to describe theoretically that the sun moves through space.
Quran 36:38 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 17th century
Sign 04 · Atmosphere
The Quran also mentioned the protective function of the sky (21:32), whereas the protective function of our atmosphere was discovered only in the 20th century.
Quran 21:32 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 20th century
Sign 05 · Geology
It compares mountains to pegs that reach deep into the earth (78:7), a geological fact that was discovered only during the “Great Trigonometrical Survey of India” in the 19th century.
Quran 78:7 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 19th century
Sign 06 · Oceanography
It even describes internal ocean waves that travel beneath the surface (24:40), a phenomenon that was demonstrated only in the 20th century.
Quran 24:40 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 20th century
Sign 07 · Neuroscience
Over 1,000 years before the existence of modern brain research, the Quran pointed specifically to the forehead being the place of lying (96:15-16), a region that science today calls the prefrontal cortex.
Quran 96:15-16 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 20th century
Sign 08 · Medicine
It also pointed out that pain depends on the skin (4:56), long before physicians discovered pain receptors, 90% of which are located in the skin.
Quran 4:56 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 20th century
Sign 09 · Biology
It gave the example of the female mosquito and “what is upon it” (2:26), over 1,300 years before the tiny ectoparasite Culicoides (Trithicoides) anophelis was discovered on the backs of mosquitoes with modern microscopes.
Quran 2:26 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 20th century
Sign 10 · Biology
And over 1,400 years ago the Quran describes that the honeybee is female and carries honey in its stomach, details that were completely unknown. Aristotle was mistaken about the sex of bees, and it was not until 1670 that Jan Swammerdam proved that the worker bees are indeed female (16:68-69).
But that is not all. The Quran speaks of several stomachs of the bee. Centuries later, biology confirms that bees possess two, one for digestion and one as a honey store.
Quran 16:68-69 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 1670
Sign 11 · Embryology
The next point is no less incredible. In the 7th century the Quran describes that the human being arises from a “mixed drop” of male and female fluid (76:2) and then names the following stages of development with a precision (23:12-14) that only modern embryology could confirm. At the time — and for centuries afterward — the conceptions of this were fundamentally wrong. Aristotle taught that the male seed shaped the woman's menstrual blood into the embryo. In the 17th century sperm were discovered and thought to be parasites, or people believed in tiny, fully formed humans within the sperm or egg. It was not until 1876 that Oskar Hertwig discovered that life actually begins through the fusion of sperm and egg cell.
Quran 76:2 · 23:12-14 ↗Revealed 7th centuryConfirmed 1876
Sign 12 · Prophecy
In addition to these detailed scientific facts, the Quran made highly improbable prophecies — for example, it foretold that the Romans, after their crushing defeat by the Persians, would defeat the Persians within three to nine years (30:2-4), a prophecy that seemed impossible at the time but later came true.
Quran 30:2-4 ↗ForetoldFulfilled
Sign 13 · Prophecy
The Quran declared early on that Abu Lahab, the Prophet's ﷺ own uncle and one of Islam's fiercest enemies, would die a disbeliever and end in the Fire (111:1-5). To expose the Quran as false, he only had to say — even insincerely — "I believe." One sentence.
He fought Islam for the rest of his life, yet neither he nor his wife ever spoke it. Both died exactly as the Quran foretold.
Quran 111:1-5 ↗ForetoldFulfilled
Sign 14 · Prophecy
In the year the Muslims were turned away from Mecca and prevented from performing the pilgrimage, the Quran promised: "You will surely enter the Sacred Mosque, if Allah wills, in safety, with your heads shaved or hair shortened, fearing nothing."
Imagine putting such a promise in writing while your enemies control the city. The next year, the Muslims performed the pilgrimage in safety — and the year after, Mecca opened its gates to them.
Quran 48:27 ↗Promised 628Fulfilled 629
Sign 15 · Prophecy
In 627, a combined army of 10,000 advanced towards Medina to wipe out the Muslims once and for all. While digging a defensive trench, the companions hit a rock too hard to break, so they sought the help of the Prophet ﷺ. He struck it three times, and with each strike came a flash of light. He said: the keys of ancient Syria are granted to me — Persia is granted to me, I can see the white palace of Madain — the keys of Yemen are granted to me, I can see the gates of Sana'a.
Imagine: surrounded, outnumbered and awaiting destruction — and he promises his followers the palaces of the empires around them. Within decades, all three were in Muslim hands.
Sunan an-Nasa'i 3176 ↗Foretold 627Fulfilled within decades
Sign 16 · Prophecy
"When Khosrau perishes, there will be no Khosrau after him." This was said when Persia was one of the two superpowers of the world. And indeed: with Yazdegerd III the Persian Empire fell, and no Khosrau ever ruled again.
The same hadith promised that their treasures would be spent in the cause of Allah — which is exactly what happened under Umar.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3618 ↗Foretold 7th centuryFulfilled 651
Sign 17 · Prophecy
During his migration from Mecca, with a bounty on his head, the Prophet ﷺ was caught up by the bounty hunter Suraqa ibn Malik. What did he say to the man who came for his head? "How will it be with you when you wear the two bracelets of Chosroes?" — the emperor of Persia.
Around fifteen years later, the treasures of Persia lay before Umar. He called for Suraqa and placed the bracelets of Chosroes on his wrists.
Read the account ↗Foretold 622Fulfilled under Umar
Sign 18 · Prophecy
One day the Prophet ﷺ climbed mount Uhud with Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman, and the mountain shook beneath them. He said: "Be still, Uhud — upon you are none but a Prophet, a truthful one and two martyrs."
Abu Bakr, the truthful one, died a natural death. Umar and Uthman were both assassinated. Could a human know which of his companions would die peacefully — and which would be murdered?
Sahih al-Bukhari 3675 ↗ForetoldFulfilled 644 & 656
Sign 19 · Prophecy
In his final illness, the Prophet ﷺ whispered to his daughter Fatima that he would die from this illness — and she wept. Then he whispered to her that she would be the first of his family to follow him — and she laughed.
Fatima was a young woman, yet she died only six months later, before anyone else of his family — exactly as the Prophet ﷺ had told her.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3623-3624 ↗Foretold 632Fulfilled six months later
Sign 20 · Prophecy
About his little grandson al-Hasan, the Prophet ﷺ said: "This son of mine is a sayyid, and perhaps Allah will reconcile two great groups of Muslims through him."
Decades later, when two huge Muslim armies faced each other, al-Hasan gave up his claim to power and made peace with Muawiya, ending a civil war. The year 661 entered history as the "Year of Unity".
Sahih al-Bukhari 2704 ↗ForetoldFulfilled 661
Sign 21 · Prophecy
The Prophet ﷺ told Umm Haram that she would be among the first of his community to ride the sea in the cause of Allah. Keep in mind: these were desert Arabs — they had no fleet and no navy.
Years later she sailed with the first Muslim naval expedition to Cyprus, and died there — exactly as foretold.
Sahih al-Bukhari 2799 ↗ForetoldFulfilled ~649
Sign 22 · Prophecy
"You will surely conquer Constantinople. How excellent is its commander, and how excellent is its army."
For 800 years, army after army failed before the strongest walls in the world — until 1453, when Mehmed II took the city. Which human could promise his followers a victory 800 years ahead?
Musnad Ahmad 18957 ↗Foretold 7th centuryFulfilled 1453
Sign 23 · Prophecy
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ foretold that "the barefoot, naked shepherds of camels" would one day compete in constructing the tallest buildings.
Today the world's tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, stands in Dubai — and Saudi Arabia is building the Jeddah Tower to surpass it. A competition for the sky, on the very peninsula where those shepherds herded their camels.
Sahih Muslim 8a ↗Foretold 7th centuryFulfilled today
Sign 24 · Lost history
Besides prophecies, the Quran also revealed lost knowledge — for example, that Pharaoh commanded one of his ministers by the name of “Haman” to build him a tower so that he might reach God (28:38). Now, no written document from the 7th century could contain a hitherto unknown hieroglyphic name, since the meaning of the hieroglyphs had at that time fallen completely into oblivion. It was not until the 19th century that hieroglyphic writing was deciphered. The surgeon and historian Dr. Maurice Bucaille researched this and discovered the name on an Egyptian stone tablet in Vienna, as well as the fact that Haman held the title of “overseer of the stone-quarry workers.” Whether it is the same Haman remains open, but the name existed, and the man was responsible for construction. How could an illiterate man in the 7th century know such a detail, if not through divine revelation?
Quran 28:38 ↗Revealed 7th centuryDeciphered 19th century
Sign 25 · Lost history
Likewise, the Quran distinguishes precisely between “Pharaohs” and “kings.” For centuries it was assumed that all Egyptian rulers were Pharaohs. Only the deciphering of the hieroglyphs showed that the title “Pharaoh” was used only in a later era. How, then, could a human being in the 7th century know the difference? Even in the Bible it is erroneously mentioned that Abraham, Joseph and Moses (peace and blessings be upon them) had dealings with Pharaohs.
Revealed 7th centuryDeciphered 19th century
All this knowledge in a single, orally transmitted masterpiece, without even a single error or contradiction. Statements that were confirmed more than 1,000 years later through microscopes, telescopes and modern research.
Even today, with supercomputers and the most advanced technology, it would be impossible to write a book that simultaneously creates a unique literary form, contains lost historical secrets, flawlessly predicts improbable future events, and describes scientific facts that would only be discovered centuries later.
The conclusion
Who other than God could have revealed to a human being in the 7th century — in a society without scientific medicine, without books, without a laboratory, without microscopes or telescopes and without scientific research — an oral message containing medical, cosmological and historical details that were only confirmed centuries later through modern science, and whose linguistic beauty no poet has been able to imitate to this day?