In the light of Qur’an, Hadith and Geography
By: Moulana Aneesur Rahman Nadvi
Apart from the prediction of existence of seven continents on earth in the hadiths, as has been explained in detail in the previous discussion, there are many more important statements concerning the seven continents which prove the diversified scientific miracles of the hadiths. Among them is the prediction of discovery of seven continents in the future.
A hadith in this regard has been narrated by Wahab bin Manbah which has been reported by Abu Sheikh bin Hayyan in which besides the prediction of the discovery of seven continents, many other important geographical facts and theories have also been mentioned. This hadith is as follows:
“عن عمران بن عبد الرحمن يقول سمعت وهب بن منبه رحمه اللہ تعالى يقول: إنها سبعة أبحر وسبع أرضين والأرض التى نحن عليها الوسطى والبحر حولها وأرض أخرى حول البحر يخرجون إليها وأرض أخرى حول البحر يخرجون إلى تلك الأرض کذلك حتى تتم سبع أرضين وسبعة أبحر، والأرض کلها على ظهر الحوت واسم الحوت بهموت.”
It is narrated from Imran bin Abdullah that he heard Wahab bin Manbah say: “There are seven seas and seven lands. The land we are on is in the middle and a sea is surrounding it. And there is another land around the sea and people will go towards it, and there is another land around the sea and the people will move towards this land, until the seven lands and seven seas are completed. And the whole earth is on the back of a fish, and the name of the fish is Bahmut.(21)
In the above hadith, a number of facts and theories of Earth’s geography and geology have been mentioned which are of utmost scientific importance and in turn prove the miraculous nature of Holy Qur’an. The important geographical facts and historical predictions mentioned in this hadith are as follows:
- There exist seven seas and seven continents on earth
- Definition of a continent that it is surrounded by sea from all sides
- Our land is situated in the middle of the earth
- Prediction of the discovery of seven continents in the future
- The Earth is situated on the back of a fish
The first and second points in the above five points have already been discussed earlier. Points three and five will be discussed later in this article. Here the fourth point will be discussed, in which the future discovery of seven continents has been predicted.
History of the Discovery of the Continents
As it is pointed out in detail earliers, man was aware of only one-fourth of the earth until the twelfth century AD, which was called the ‘inhabited quarter’ of the world by the geographers. It included the continent of Eurasia (Asia-Europe) and the northern parts of Africa. This can be understood by Al-Idrisi’s world map (see Figure 3). In the times of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), the known portion of the earth to the man was still smaller. This can be understood from the world map of Ptolemy (see Figure 2). At the same time, it should also be borne in mind that man in ancient times was unfamiliar with the concept of continents as it is perceived today. The modern conception of the continents has developed after centuries of research and exploration, as it has been explained earlier.
We will now briefly discuss the history of the discovery of the five continental lands (North America, South America, Australia, Antarctica and Greenland). All these continents have been discovered after the time of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Some of them have been discovered in the recent past. Before shedding light on the discovery of these continents, it should be borne in mind that there is a difference of opinion regarding the actual discovery of these continents. The claims of the Europeans differ with those of Muslim point of view in this regard and are not backed by the modern discoveries and findings. This topic requires a separate article but we will shed some light on it according to the relevance of the topic here.
Discovery of North and South Americas
Europeans claim that the continent of North America was first discovered by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492 AD, and he subsequently, discovered the South American continent in 1498. Recent researches, however, refute these claims by the West. Recently a 15th century world map of a Chinese Muslim explorer and Admiral Zheng He (his real name was Haji Mahmud Shamsuddin) was discovered which shows that this Chinese explorer was familiar with North and South American continents. This map was discovered in 2001. According to Chinese researchers, Zheng He explored Americas in 1421.(22) That is, he had explored the Americas at least 70 years before Columbus. When Zheng He’s world map was discovered, there was uproar in the international media, and the world’s leading newspapers acknowledged that if this map is proved to be correct, then a new history of the world needs to be compiled. Earlier to this, a rare and incomplete world map of the Ottoman Admiral and cartographer Piri Reis (d. 1553 AD) was discovered in 1928, which he had compiled in 1513. It also showed the maps of North and South Americas in detail and with great precision, leading to many new realities for the first time.
The periods of Zheng He and Piri Reis belong to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. However, the books of Muslim geographers show that Muslims have already got acquainted with an unknown continent (America) since at least the nineteenth century AD. The famous tenth century Muslim historian and geographer Masoodi (956 AD) confirmed the existence of an unknown continent in the Atlantic Ocean based on the statements of some Muslim sailors and named it “the unknown land”. He has clearly shown this “unknown land” in his map of the world beyond the west coast of the African continent (see Figure 7: Al-Masudi’s map of the world). There are many more historical and archeological evidences that suggest that the first to discover the America were Muslims who discovered it at least 600 years before Columbus. This topic has been discussed by the author in detail in another article.
Australian Continent
The West has so far claimed that William Johnson (1606) and Captain Cook (1770) were the first to discover Australia, whereas the new evidences suggest that the Muslims were the first to discover the Australian Continent. The credit in this regard goes to the Chinese Muslim explorer Zheng who discovered it in the early fifteenth century. Zheng He’s two companions arrived in Eastern and Western Australia in 1422, and stayed there for several months, exploring this distant continent in detail. Hence Zheng He had almost completely discovered Australia 350 years before Captain Cook. The continent of Australia has been shown on his world map. Following the discovery of Zheng He’s world map, The Age, a major Australian newspaper, published a detailed article on the history of discovery of Australia with the heading:
“It’s official: Admiral Zheng beat Cook to Australia.”(23)
Zheng He’s map not only shows the whole of the Australian continent, but it also displays New Zealand which consists of two islands. Zheng He’s map also shows many remote islands in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea and Japan, which indicates that he had explored all the terrain and islands in the Far West, as well as Far East.
Antarctica
The first Western explorer to set foot on the continent of Antarctica was Ronald Amundsen of Norway, who explored Antarctica in 1911. But it is astonishing that the continent of Antarctica has not only been shown on the world maps of Zheng He and Piri Reis, but has also been depicted in the right places at the South Pole with great precisions. Even more astonishing is the fact that the continent of Antarctica, which is covered with ice sheets completely and which scientists believe has been covered completely with ice sheets for millions of years, due to which the whole continent of Antarctica is invisible to the naked eyes, this continent has been shown without ice in the maps of Piri Reis and Zheng He, with a greater precise demarcation of the continental boundaries of this continent under the ice, which is both surprising and astonishing for researchers and geographers.
It is clear from the world maps of Piri Reis and Zheng He that these maps can only be produced by a scientifically and technically advanced people. This obviously signifies the advancement of Muslim civilization in science and technology in the middle ages. But for the West, this is indigestible. Therefore, they have tried to downplay this superiority of Muslims in science and technology by resorting to all sorts of absurd interpretations. Some Western researchers, therefore, tried to attribute the source of Piri Reis’ map of Antarctica to an unknown, ancient European civilization of 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, while others do not shy away from attributing it to the aliens, the advanced civilization of another planet, which accidentally fell into the hands of Piri Reis.
These are the bizarre and ridiculous claims of the West, the purpose of which is to cover up the scientific and technological superiority of the Muslims they achieved in their golden age. Obviously, they have no proofs and evidences to support their claims. Hence these interpretations have no scientific validity. Assumption of existence of a scientifically superior civilization 4-6 thousand years ago would be considered reverse evolution for which there is no evidence. Hence, it is like shooting an arrow in the dark. Similarly, attributing the source of these maps to the aliens wouldn’t be considered less than a fairy tale. Modern science has not yet confirmed the existence of any form of alien life, so how can the existence of such an advanced alien civilization be assumed? Hence all these claims of the West are without evidence on the one hand and on the other hand they are considered a kind of paradoxical combination. Therefore, there is no other way in this regard except to acknowledge the superiority of Muslims in science and technology.
Greenland
Similarly, the maps of Zheng He and Piri Reis are considered the first maps to show Greenland. The age of European exploration began after the fifteenth century. Therefore, experts believe that any maps of Greenland that have been compiled before that period are only copies of Zheng He’s maps.(24)
Motives behind Distortion of the History of the Discovery of Continents
In a nutshell, the West has spared no effort to distort the true history of the discovery of the continents. It was just coincidence that the world maps of Piri Reis and Zheng He were discovered in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, thanks to which the world came to know about the true history of the discovery of the continents, otherwise these secrets would have been buried forever. It is possible that in the future more facts of this sort may come to the light and such secrets will be revealed to the world which the West has hidden from the eyes of the world, knowingly or unknowingly.
Navigation and exploration in the West began after the fifteenth century. Columbus (1506), Magellan (1521) and Captain Cook (1779), who are considered to be the pioneers of exploration and discovery of new continents in the West, their time comes much later than the actual discovery of these continents. Therefore, giving them the credit for the discovery of these continents would be considered worst kind of intellectual theft.
The West not only has deliberately distorted the history of the discovery of these continents, but they have been instrumental in wiping out the already inhabited people of these continents, cleansing them of their existence and resettling European races in these continents. They left no stone unturned in achieving the objective of what could be termed as ‘ethnic cleansing of continents’. Tens of millions of ancient inhabitants of these continents were wiped out by deliberately spreading various diseases and epidemics by the Europeans. This is an extremely tragic and heartbreaking story of human history that will embarrass humanity. This was probably done by the West to show to the world that they are the ones who really discovered these continents and were among the first to settle there. But the true history has slowly begun to unravel, and the world is slowly coming to terms with the realities. This is not the time to go into its details. The writer has discussed this subject in detail in a separate article.
Predictions of Hadith about the Discovery of Continents
This is a brief analysis of Western claims and Muslim perspective on the discovery of continents that is emerging in the light of modern research. The summary of the above discussion regarding the discovery of continents has been given in the following Table 3.
After this brief overview of the history of the discovery of the continents, now we will come to the main topic, i.e., the prediction of the future discovery of the continents in hadiths, which includes the prediction of the existence of seven continents on earth as well as their discovery in future by the humans. In the light of this brief overview of the history of the discovery of the continents, it is very easy to understand the predictions of the hadiths in this regard.
It is evident here that in spite of differences of opinion between Muslims and the West regarding the discovery of continents, both seem to agree that the discovery of the five continents (North America, South America, Australia, Antarctica and Greenland), except Eurasia and Africa, took place much later than the times of Prophet Mohammed PBUH (first half of the seventh century AD). Therefore, this series of discoveries of continents continued from the ninth century AD to the fifteenth century from the Muslim point of view, while from the Western point of view, the discovery of these continents continued from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century AD. In this way, these new geographical researches have proved the authenticity and veracity of the Hadith.
It is also worth mentioning here that although man was familiar with the continents of Eurasia and Africa during the Prophet’s time, but he was not aware of the concept of the continent which was established much later. Therefore, the scientific marvel of the hadiths is hidden both in the number of continents as well as in the concept of continents.
A comparative study of hadiths and modern research also reveals an important point here that Muslims were inspired to travel around the world and explore new worlds through the teachings of the Qur’an and hadith. In a very short period of time after the advent of Islam, they explored all the lands, oceans, deserts and forest of the planet Earth from north to south and from east to west and a new era of adventure and exploration began in human history. Therefore, today there is a need to rediscover these lost pages of human history and to present its true history before the world.
(to be Cont.)
References:
21- Al Azma, Abu al-Sheikh, Vol. 4, P. 1411-12.
22- New York Times, 16 Jan 2006.
23- The Age, Australia, 25 Nov, 2002.
24- 1421: The Year China Discovered America, Gavin Menzies, Bantham Books, London, 2003.