In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Scientific discussion between a Muslim scholar and agiologist:
One of the most famous biologists, who was specialized in the region existing between Africa and Arabia, once met with a Muslim scholar, who asked him: “do you have evidence that the land of Arabs, Arabia, used to be meadows and rivers?” The biologist answered: “This is well known to us. It is something that all specialist scientists know.” The Muslim scholar asked: “What evidence do you have?” The biologist answered: “In Arabia, there are river-sediments that are noticed in several locations. Moreover, a whole village was found buried in the sands of Ar-roub’ Al-Khali (desert region in South Arabia), containing petrified areas.
And when other petrified areas were examined, they turned out to be trunks of big trees.” This confirms that Arabia used to be meadows and rivers. In other words, the dry waterless desert of Ar-roub’ Al-Khali used to be full of orchards and rivers. This has been confirmed by geologists who found fossils providing evidence of this.
Then, the Muslim scholar asked the biologist another question:
“Do you have evidence that Arabia will return to be meadows and rivers?” The biologist answered: “This is also well known to us.” The Muslim scholar asked:
“What evidence do you have?” The biologist answered:
“Glaciers are moving southwards! This caused very cold winters in Europe and America a few years ago. Also, the movement of glaciers southwards will change the Earth’s climate; and with the change of the Earth’s climate rain-lines will change. In other words, there will certainly come a day when Arabia returns, as it used to be, meadows and rivers.” The Muslim scholar said:
“What do you think of someone who confirmed this fact some 1400 years ago?” It is Allah’s Messenger, (PBUH), who said:
“The Hour (of the Last Day) shall not come until wealth has increased so much that a (wealthy) person offers the Zakat (alms) of his wealth but finds none to accept it from him, and until the land of Arabs (Arabia) returns meadows and rivers.”
[Narrated by Muslim (157), and Ahmad (9384) on authority of Abu Hurairah]
Accuracy of the above Prophetic Hadith comes from the Prophet’s use of the word “return”, which means that Arabia used to be meadows and rivers and will return to be as such. This is an authentic true Hadith.
When the foreign biologist heard the above Prophetic Hadith, he was greatly amazed, simply because such a scientific fact has only recently been discovered - not more than ten years ago. So, how could Allah’s Messenger, Muhammad, (PBUH), know such fact, which requires not only a lot of research and study but also hard travel into the depth of the desert, excavation, and specialized study of the Earth’s climate. In this context, Allah, All-Mighty, says,
“Nor does he (Muhammad) speak out of (his own) desire. It is only a Revelation revealed.”
[LIII; 3,4]
Of the Prophet’s eloquence in the above Prophetic Hadith is his use of the word “return”. If he, (PBUH), had said:
“until it becomes”, that would mean that Arabia never used to be meadows or rivers. If he, (PBUH), had said: “used to be”, it would mean that Arabia will not be meadows and rivers in the future. Only the word “return” denotes both the past and the future. Yes, indeed:
“Nor does he (Muhammad) speak out of (his own) desire. It is only a Revelation revealed.”
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of Creations