It is a historical fact that whenever the West wants to downplay any virtue or attribute of Islam or Muslims, it misnames it or terms it as a derived one. This attitude of the West is prominently visible in the writings of orientalists. One such example of this is the usage of the term Bucailleism by them which they use as a substitute to the science of scientific marvels of Qur’an.

The science of scientific marvels of Qur’an is a major branch of knowledge, which forms one of the five basic branches of Qur’anic sciences. Shah Waliullah Dehlavi (d. 1762) has named it as “Ilm al Tazkir bi Aala illah” (Science of reminder through God’s bounties). Through this branch of knowledge one gets acquaintance with God’s actions and attributes. This branch of knowledge is being confirmed today by modern science. Therefore, through the application of Qur’an and modern science, a plethora of evidences are being provided today on God’s actions and attributes and the veracity of Holy Qur’an is being proved. The Holy Qur’an has predicted the emergence of this branch of knowledge in the future in the following verse.

We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness? (Qur’an: 41:53)

It is clearly stated in this Qur’anic verse that in the future, God will show the signs to human beings in this universe and in themselves which will establish the evidences that the Qur’an is word of the God Almighty. Therefore, the number of Qur’anic verses which invites to ponder on the universe and upon the mechanism of human body are estimated to be far more than the number of verses related to worship. According to Imam Ghazi (1058-1111 CE), there are more than 750 verses in the Quran that invite man to ponder on nature and natural phenomena, while according to some other scholars, this number exceeds one thousand.

The fact is that today the scope of scientific marvels of Qur’an has expanded extensively parallel with the broadening of scope of scientific researches, which is in complete harmony with the prediction of Prophet Mohammed PBUH about this aspect of Holy Qur’an: “It’s (Holy Qur’an’s) wonders will not expire.” Hence, today a complete new library of information has come into existence on scientific marvels of Holy Qur’an, and this is still continuing and will continue to pile up till the Day of Judgment.

The West, particularly the orientalists, in order to lessen the significance of this branch of knowledge, term it as ‘Bucailleism’, naming it after the famous Western scholar and convert to Islam Maurice Bucaille, as if this is not one of the basic sciences of the Holy Qur’an, rather a crude idea of a person.

Dr. Maurice Bucaille (1920-1998) was a French medical doctor and surgeon. He was born in a French Catholic family. After completing his medical degree from France University, he served as a chief physician in the same university. He was appointed family physician of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Despite being a physician, his knowledge about various religions and its scriptures was deep and profound. His life happened to change completely when the mummy of Pharaoh was brought to Egypt in 1981 for chemical analysis. He was the head of the team which was in charge of performing this job. After analyzing Pharaoh’s body, he concluded that the remains of the salt stuck on the body of Pharaoh was shining evidence that he had drowned and that his body was retrieved from the sea swiftly after he drowned. Bucaille’s conclusions were against Jewish and Christian beliefs, according to which Pharaoh had died his natural death. When Bucaille was told that Muslims believe that Pharaoh did drown, he got surprised. But Bucaille puzzled over a question: How did this body — to the exclusion of other mummified bodies of other ancient Egyptians — remain that intact although it was recovered from the sea?” He was further told that Qur’an narrates a story that says he drowned and that his body remained intact even after he drowned and Qur’an also prophesized that Almighty Allah has promised to preserve his body and make it a sign for his successors until the day of judgment. On hearing this Dr. Bucaille got stunned. In his excitement, he stood before the attendants and loudly said, “I have converted to Islam and believed in this Qur’an.” In this way, one of the major historical prophecies and scientific marvels of Holy Qur’an was destined by the Almighty Allah to be accomplished at the hands of Dr. Maurice Bucaille.

Later, Maurice Bucaille spent 10 years conducting studies as to how far the recently scientific facts match that mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, trying to reassure himself that the Qur’an has never contradicted with any single scientific fact. He later came up with a magnificent book on the Holy Qur’an with the title of the book reading, “The Bible, The Qur’an and Science, The Holy Scriptures Examined In The Light Of Modern Knowledge,” in which he proved that there exists innumerable scientific errors in Bible, while the Holy Qur’an is completely compatible with modern science, and there exists no contradiction between Quran and the modern science.

This book jolted the entire Western states. It became very popular in both East and the West and was translated into all major languages of the world. It attracted the masses as well as the literate. At the same time, this book also fell prey to religious bias and narrow-mindedness on behalf of orientalists and people of the like. They labeled this objective and pure scientific approach of research as Bucailleism as if relating Holy Quran with modern science or scientific interpretation of Holy Qur’an is a forbidden thing, and that if it is an invention of Dr. Maurice Bucaille himself.

The usage of the term Bucailleism for this branch of knowledge is inappropriate both literally and historically. Literally because this science, in addition to constituting one of the five basic sciences of Holy Qur’an, also provides evidences for the veracity of the whole of Qur’an. As a result this branch of knowledge has acquired the status of mother of all sciences in our era. One of the best examples in this regard is the scientific proof of incidence of death of Pharaoh itself, which proved veracity of Qur’anic concept of history which was accomplished by Dr. Maurice Bucaille. It is obvious that the drowning of Pharaoh in the sea is no longer a part of Islamic belief, but it has become a scientific fact now. This example alone is deterrent enough for the West. But, instead of recognizing the veracity of the Holy Qur’an as done by Dr. Bucaille, the West has turned against Dr. Bucaille and the Qur’an itself, as if the Holy Qur’an has touched their raw nerve.

It is obvious that denial of this branch of knowledge is not merely a denial of the Holy Qur’an but denial of modern science too. Hence, terming this science as Bucailleism is similar to making fun of both Qur’an and science. If they don’t bow to the modern science, then what will be acceptable to them?

Historically too it is unfair to term this science as Bucailleism, because Maurice Bucaille was not the first person who contemplated and worked on this topic. Rather this subject was already in existence well before Bucaille, and numerous personalities have already made rich contributions by the time on this topic. The publications of Furqania Academy bear witness to this, which had already been published in 1970s in Indian sub-continent and Arab countries and had become popular. Here, it must be acknowledged that after the publication of Dr. Maurice

Bucaille’s book this subject gained more popularity and recognition in the Western World.

The summary is that labeling the subject matter of scientific marvels of Qur’an as Bucailleism can only be described as a misconception and prejudice. It is regrettable that a section of our educated class who thinks following the West binding on them in every matter of life too is following the suit. By doing so, they are making the job of orientalists easy knowingly and unknowingly. Some of them are scholars who have either benefitted from the West or occupying higher positions in Western universities and institutions. Some of the names are as follows: Syed Hussain Nasr (b. 1933), Ziauddinuddin Sardar (b. 1951), Pervez Amir Ali Hoodbhoy (b. 1950). We will present an analysis of their views in this regard in the coming issues.